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1113 points Bluestein | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0.748s | source
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lairv ◴[] No.41278203[source]
I use it to inspect video frames by frames, particularly being able to go back one frame. VLC doesn't support it, this thread about the feature is hilarious https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=120627
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j1elo ◴[] No.41278719[source]
Wow those answers are indeed funny. I agree that as an OSS dev/maintainer, it's easy to fall on the vice of over-generalization and crusade for the perfect solution, and it feels that's exactly what happened there.

> this feature is algorithmically impossible

> You're just looking at one specific video, not the general problem.

> is not generally possible.

As a fellow multimedia dev, man, who cares? Sometimes we forget that software ought to be useful, not hypothetical ideals of truth. Just implement the feature for those codecs that support it and which probably are in the 98% percentile of what users actually use, regardless of the damned "general case".

Or accept and announce shamelessly that you don't have either the knowledge or the development resources to tackle such a complex feature. But excuses about not being possible for absolutely every possible codec in a completely generic way is just denying that the world is just a chaotic and dirty place where things are not ideal nor perfect. Just give your users a real-world solution (or rejection).

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1. Dalewyn ◴[] No.41281134[source]
>Sometimes we forget that software ought to be useful, not hypothetical ideals of truth.

I've long since come to the understanding that if I want software that are useful, I must go and pay for it. Commercial software exist to make money, and to make money they must be useful.

If I want software that are hypothetical ideals of truth, I go and shitpost at the nearest neckbeard communion. Free-beer software exist to satisfy a man's desire to display his voluminous beard, everything else is tertiary.

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2. fragmede ◴[] No.41281218[source]
> I've long since come to the understanding that if I want software that are useful, I must go and pay for it. Commercial software exist to make money, and to make money they must be useful.

Even if it were free, wouldn't you want to do something nice (like give them money) for the person(s) who made the useful thing for you?

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3. usr1106 ◴[] No.41281293[source]
This might be true in some application areas, but certainly not generally.

Where is that commercial kernel that works over a wide spectrum of architectures and system sizes?

Where is that commercial compiler that works on many architectures?

Where is that commercial packet capture software that people a paying for to get work done?

Where is that commercial emulator that can run your operating system on a very different machine in countless combinations.

The list could go on and on...

4. lupusreal ◴[] No.41281589[source]
What commercial video player do you use which is better than both mpv and VLC?
5. account42 ◴[] No.41289825[source]
It's the opposite in my experience. Commercial software only cares at most about what is useful to the average user while anything for power users is written off as too expensive to maintain. And these days even if you pay you are often not the main customer since your data and attention is sold to someone else anyway, in which case what is useful to you matters even less.