Opened 4 years ago

Closed 4 years ago

Last modified 4 years ago

#8482 closed enhancement (invalid)

Please clarify user expertise requirements

Reported by: mario66 Owned by:
Priority: normal Component: website
Version: unspecified Keywords:
Cc: Blocked By:
Blocking: Reproduced by developer: no
Analyzed by developer: no

Description

On your website, you claim that "Converting video and audio has never been so easy." > https://ffmpeg.org/

And you give an example how to use your software:
"$ ffmpeg -i input.mp4 output.avi"

However, real experts on that topic disagree. They think this simple command is not sufficient to convert a video as this will destroy color space and lead to poor video quality. > https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/7037#comment:65

I asked: "Should every user of ffmpeg do a 'Bachelor of Color Management'?" > https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/7037#comment:66

And the answer was "Yes." and even " I fear it requires more..." and they furthermore said "functionality and user friendliness seemed to dislike each other..."

Then I ask you to change your website and tell the truth. Please change text to:
"ffmpeg is a library for audio or video experts who know every aspect of their topic and are well aware of all the options that need to be tuned for the desired output."
or similar...

Change History (4)

comment:1 by Carl Eugen Hoyos, 4 years ago

Priority: importantnormal
Resolution: invalid
Status: newclosed

Feel free to send a patch made with git format-patch to the development mailing list.

in reply to:  description ; comment:2 by gdgsdg123, 4 years ago

Replying to mario66:

"Converting video and audio has never been so easy."

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 output.avi

Not an entirely false claim...

It does work, doesn't it? (slovenly though...)



Replying to mario66:

...this simple command is not sufficient to convert a video as this will destroy color space and lead to poor video quality. > https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/7037#comment:65

What if I didn't tell you about this?..

mario66:

Replying to gdgsdg123:

With this command I suspect you'd already messed with the colorspace (color management data) quite a lot...

Thanks, I never thought about this.

Anyway from your command parameter choosing I can see that you don't care much about quality... that's why many broken things become "worksforme".

I regularly do ABX tests and find that my converted videos do not suffer from any quality loss.

...In fact you don't need such level of quality nor are you willing to afford the price.




Replying to mario66:

"ffmpeg is a library for audio or video experts who know every aspect of their topic and are well aware of all the options that need to be tuned for the desired output."

Truth hurts... but that's the reality.

Technical barriers are omnipresent, even on things that are designed with the mind of being free and open...


...It's also what makes the average Joe average: if the average Joe started to behave above average, he's no longer the average Joe.

in reply to:  2 ; comment:3 by mario66, 4 years ago

Replying to gdgsdg123:

I regularly do ABX tests and find that my converted videos do not suffer from any quality loss.

...In fact you don't need such level of quality nor are you willing to afford the price.

BUT, what if the videos just work "by accident", like my TV coincidentally assumes the correct color space by default?
And what if I buy a new TV that does not assume the correct color space?
This is a scary thought indeed.

...It's also what makes the average Joe average: if the average Joe started to behave above average, he's no longer the average Joe.

I always think that mankind should improve the average. Think about medieval times. The average was low life expectation, hard work, low living standards. Things improved a lot for the average Joe.
My dream would be that there is a software so smart that it will just transcode the video in the correct way, without the risk of loosing color space information. Then preserving color spaces will be the new average. I think this is a great goal to aim for.

But until now, as this is not the case at the moment, people should be fully aware of this. There should be like a red warning sign. "Caution: This software will destroy color space of transcoded videos unless you are a studied expert on the topic who knows exactly how to arrange all the numerous command line options in such a way that this not happens."
This is the truth. Why not tell everyone about this?

Of course I see that you try to improve things. Once this has been solved, we can indeed bring back the old text where it said "Converting video and audio has never been so easy." and then it will be actually true. :-)

in reply to:  3 comment:4 by gdgsdg123, 4 years ago

Replying to mario66:

BUT, what if the videos just work "by accident", like my TV coincidentally assumes the correct color space by default?

"worksforme".


Replying to mario66:

And what if I buy a new TV that does not assume the correct color space?

gdgsdg123:

Blame the TV manufacturer...

...Or yourself in this case.


Replying to mario66:

This is a scary thought indeed.

There are a lot more scary things...



Replying to mario66:

...so smart that it will just transcode the video in the correct way...

Asking for "anything" while expecting "something specific"?.. It quite resembles the concept.



Replying to mario66:

"Caution: This software will destroy color space of transcoded videos unless you are a studied expert on the topic who knows exactly how to arrange all the numerous command line options in such a way that this not happens."
This is the truth. Why not tell everyone about this?

"You tend to screw up seriously if you had no idea what the heck you were doing." Isn't it common sense?..



Replying to mario66:

Once this has been solved...

There are things that no valid solution exist for them...

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