A Polymer element for flexible GIF playback • Hacker News Board

Re: A Polymer element for flexible GIF playback

#61

Post by glax » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 12:34 PM UTC

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #44

swanson wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://gfycat.com/ has been gaining popularity on reddit lately. Links allow you to pick gif or html5 video. Example: http://gfycat.com/GlisteningBruisedClingfish

No no no no no ;_; I made this website, use it instead: https://mediacru.sh It also does HTML5 GIFs and has a fallback for phones and such. BUT it's also open source, much higher quality, more featureful, and supports more than just GIFs. Even though MediaCrush and gfycat started around the same time and MediaCrush is much better, I can't seem to get people to use it more. I guess our users are less evangelical.

From a real user who uses gfycat all the time

Your site requires some nits & bits of polishing here and there. Make it more fancy.It looks like any other github project. The page of gfycat is very minimalistic,only fetch url and upload file no fancy drag an drop or documentation or api stuff. Talk to some 4chan & reddit users for some pointers ,they will gladly(I have done my part ;)) Sorry for the harsh word.Nothing but suggestions.

Re: A Polymer element for flexible GIF playback

#62

Post by glax » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 12:36 PM UTC

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #44

swanson wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://gfycat.com/ has been gaining popularity on reddit lately. Links allow you to pick gif or html5 video. Example: http://gfycat.com/GlisteningBruisedClingfish

No no no no no ;_; I made this website, use it instead: https://mediacru.sh It also does HTML5 GIFs and has a fallback for phones and such. BUT it's also open source, much higher quality, more featureful, and supports more than just GIFs. Even though MediaCrush and gfycat started around the same time and MediaCrush is much better, I can't seem to get people to use it more. I guess our users are less evangelical.

Ohh and i forgot /fetch like feature just like in gyfcat can be nice addition. http://gfycat.com/fetch/https://mediacru.sh/static/demo.gif

Re: A Polymer element for flexible GIF playback

#63

Post by yvoschaap2 » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 2:13 PM UTC

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #2

Alternatively, ditch GIFs entirely and use bandwidth-friendly and feature-friendly HTML5 video.

Don't forget an important reason gifs are rampant; they aren't chased by take-downs of copyright holders, while video snippets are much more exposed...

Re: A Polymer element for flexible GIF playback

#64

Post by teach » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 2:16 PM UTC

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #44

swanson wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://gfycat.com/ has been gaining popularity on reddit lately. Links allow you to pick gif or html5 video. Example: http://gfycat.com/GlisteningBruisedClingfish

No no no no no ;_; I made this website, use it instead: https://mediacru.sh It also does HTML5 GIFs and has a fallback for phones and such. BUT it's also open source, much higher quality, more featureful, and supports more than just GIFs. Even though MediaCrush and gfycat started around the same time and MediaCrush is much better, I can't seem to get people to use it more. I guess our users are less evangelical.

I've been rooting for MediaCrush from the beginning, but there are two things I prefer about gfycat:

1) Their scrubber handle is REALLY slick and easy to use.

2) I never have to worry that gfycat will make noise if I blindly open a link in a new tab.

If you could give me a cookie so that mediacrush links will ALWAYS start muted for ME, no matter what the author or URL say, I'd be much happier.

And something neither one of you get right (I think):

If I open five animated GIFs each in their own tab, the images don't start playing until I switch to that tab. So once I make a given tab active, I get to see the animation starting from the beginning. Both gfycat and MediaCrush start playing the animation right away, so when I eventually make that tab active, I have to rewind to see from the start. (Or, in your case, click play if autoplay is off. Which isn't as bad but still less convenient than "play on focus" that I get with animated GIFs.)

Anyway, my $0.02. I care about quality and open source, but the average Redditor/4chan'r cares not about such things.

Re: A Polymer element for flexible GIF playback

#65

Post by binaryjohn » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 2:17 PM UTC

joeblau wrote: post #40

Can anyone point me to a good desktop tool for creating Animated GIFs. I've used LICEcap but the "quality" isn't as good as other methods I've tried that involve more work.

GifCam is my tool of choice. http://blog.bahraniapps.com/?page_id=21

Re: A Polymer element for flexible GIF playback

#66

Post by teach » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 2:20 PM UTC

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #46

bobsgame wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need a flashier, more colorful logo and a bright red BETA tag and a cute name and silly slogan and a login link and a moving number counter on the front page. gfycat looks alive, yours looks static and cold. mediacru.sh is hard to type and not as memorable of a name. Average internet user won't care about "open source" or features they don't know are missing. Other than that, great work. You can do it.

Suggestions on a better name? Ours was suggested by a user, we're no good at naming things. Also, we had a beta tag for a while, but then we removed it because our product was feature-complete. Lying about "bandwidth saved" doesn't sit well with me.

MediaCrush is a great name, IMO. But mediacru.sh is gross.

For the record, I disagree with the BETA tag and the "bandwidth saved" thing. The real issue is that it's easier to upload to gfycat.

Re: A Polymer element for flexible GIF playback

#67

Post by user24 » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 2:50 PM UTC

I would have loved this when I was running gifexplode.com (now owned by a spammer).

Re: A Polymer element for flexible GIF playback

#68

Post by Sir_Cmpwn » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 2:51 PM UTC

teach wrote: post #64

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No no no no no ;_; I made this website, use it instead: https://mediacru.sh It also does HTML5 GIFs and has a fallback for phones and such. BUT it's also open source, much higher quality, more featureful, and supports more than just GIFs. Even though MediaCrush and gfycat started around the same time and MediaCrush is much better, I can't seem to get people to use it more. I guess our users are less evangelical.

I've been rooting for MediaCrush from the beginning, but there are two things I prefer about gfycat: 1) Their scrubber handle is REALLY slick and easy to use. 2) I never have to worry that gfycat will make noise if I blindly open a link in a new tab. If you could give me a cookie so that mediacrush links will ALWAYS start muted for ME, no matter what the author or URL say, I'd be much happier. And something neither o…

Thanks for the feedback. I'll put some thought into playing autoplayed videos only after the tab gets focus.

https://github.com/MediaCrush/MediaCrush/issues/543

Re: A Polymer element for flexible GIF playback

#69

Post by Sir_Cmpwn » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 2:53 PM UTC

glax wrote: post #62

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No no no no no ;_; I made this website, use it instead: https://mediacru.sh It also does HTML5 GIFs and has a fallback for phones and such. BUT it's also open source, much higher quality, more featureful, and supports more than just GIFs. Even though MediaCrush and gfycat started around the same time and MediaCrush is much better, I can't seem to get people to use it more. I guess our users are less evangelical.

Ohh and i forgot /fetch like feature just like in gyfcat can be nice addition. http://gfycat.com/fetch/https://mediacru.sh/static/demo.gif

You can paste a URL from your clipboard into the home page of MediaCrush, providing a similar functionality. This also allows you to make albums of a bunch of URLs.

Re: A Polymer element for flexible GIF playback

#70

Post by sp332 » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 3:32 PM UTC

nmeofthestate wrote: post #60

ivanca wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know mobile devices have audio controls right? And many android devices have a separated audio control for the browser/content and for the critical stuff (ringtones/notifications)

I would disable any auto-playing audio technology on my Android phone; accessing the media volume control is such a huge pain in the arse - multiple taps and drags to rummage into the Settings and get to it. NB: the hardware controls only set the ringtone volume, unless you're too late and the phone is already playing media†. †hopefully - sometimes the hardware volume buttons still don't control media volume even whe…

When you click the volume control, it brings up your ringer volume. At the right-hand side of the volume control is a settings button. That button will bring up all your volumes in a little floating bubble, so you can always change any volume in one click + 2 taps, and no "rummaging".