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    Main » Discussion » Delivering internet media is still a giant clusterfuck.
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    Posted on 22-07-01, 07:17
    Post: #40 of 62
    Since: 01-29-22

    Last post: 627 days
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    Seriously, I thought everything was in place a few years ago:

    - Serve JPEGs for photographs, GIFs for animations, PNGs for things that require transparency or for graphics
    - Serve MP4/H.264 video and provide a means of easily downloading the file in another format if otherwise not possible
    - Serve OGG for audio.

    Suddenly, it seems like we're in Format Hell once again... 4chan and some Linux users seem to really like WebM/VP9, everyone else in the fucking world uses MP4/AVC.

    (There's some history behind this too: it relates to the removal of a codec specification from the HTML5 standard back in 2007, mostly because Apple cried about digital restrictions management.)

    Of course, it's Apple's fault for being wankers and not supporting open formats, mostly to try to frustrate non-iTunes users (or those attempting to migrate from it): in a pretty sad state of affairs, the FLAC standard is under a BSD licence and Apple could so easily implement it but they don't because they changed two things in it to support DRM and called it ALAC. (Don't get me fucking started on how obtuse they were about OGG/OGV).

    Personally, I'd like to see more things effectively tell Apple users to shove their I-Devices up their arse to the point that people begin to switch to Android by ignoring any and all demands that the company make and pay international bodies like the EU to turn a blind eye towards; though, the most recent bunch of bullshit has come from Google suddenly pushing the loosely-related-to-WebM-but-not-quite-the-same-thing out of the blue, despite it existing for ten years already and coming out around the same time, and virtually having no real reason to exist when everyone knew exactly WHAT to use a JPEG and a PNG and a GIF and an SVG for... yes, I'm talking about WebP.

    Seriously, as if WebM wasn't pointless enough, we now also have to deal with WebP everywhere. I noticed this format's existence around 2016 when trying to save some avatars in Discord and just assumed it was something related to Electron, but alas, Google has suddenly decided they will start lobbying everyone and now trying to save anything will fucking save it in WebP format. And no, renaming the thing does not work, at least on some formats. But seriously, what's the point? La-dele-de, something-something alpha channel, compression, bollocks... You had ten years to push this shit on people and you do it now just to piss people off when they try to save an image. Feels more like some kind of patent avoidance more than anything else (or because four letter+ file extensions are all the rage these days).
    Posted on 22-07-01, 08:15
    Custom title here

    Post: #1088 of 1150
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 6 days
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    The appropriate time to use GIF has long been "never", but people refuse to let go of the sins of the past.

    The same refusal to let go of those sins is what killed MNG, as it was starting to see uptake when Mozilla ripped out all support in favor of an ugly hack that attempted to recreate all the flaws of animated GIFs in PNG (while describing these flaws as features).


    That said, I think Google's biggest mistake here is that their primary target is actually JPEG. JPEG is one of those formats that was weirdly ahead of its time, and you need to bring a LOT to the table to dethrone it(ask JPEG2000).

    Taking swings at GIF is a lot easier, though "just serve a video file and advertise it as a GIF so the user gets an auto-looping animation with no controls" is the worst solution.

    --- In UTF-16, where available. ---
    Posted on 22-07-01, 11:37
    Dinosaur

    Post: #1136 of 1282
    Since: 10-30-18

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    It's time to ban animated GIFs.

    At least I can block WebMs and other actual video formats on my browser. Can't do that with multi-megabyte "GIF videos" posted by memesters that don't give a fuck on people on garbage-tier/metered connections.

    Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™
    Posted on 22-07-01, 16:10

    Post: #407 of 449
    Since: 10-29-18

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    Posted by
    It's time to ban animated GIFs.


    My current setup: Super Famicom ("2/1/3" SNS-CPU-1CHIP-02) → SCART → OSSC → StarTech USB3HDCAP → AmaRecTV 3.10
    Posted on 22-07-01, 20:54
    Dinosaur

    Post: #1137 of 1282
    Since: 10-30-18

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    Posted by creaothceann
    Posted by
    It's time to ban animated GIFs.


    Touché.

    But in my defense, members of the jury, it's only two measly frames! LESS THAN ONE KILOBYTE!

    ...one kilobyte that my friendly telco will nicely bill rounded up to the next megabyte.

    Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™
    Posted on 22-07-02, 01:59 (revision 2)
    Post: #43 of 62
    Since: 01-29-22

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    That, and it's a sprite graphic so it isn't completely buggered by compression.

    Nevertheless, the hypocrisy is somewhat amusing.

    Oh, and if WebP doesn't support camera metadata the way a JPEG does then it's fucking pointless it existing... as for 'lossy compression with an alpha channel', I can't even begin to imagine the shitshow that's going to ensue. It just intrigues me how it's taken Google ten years to push for it, probably some weird patent shit or whatever.

    As for WebM/VPx, I just don't get why MP4/AVC isn't used everywhere considering that well, VPx is a resource hog that uses up so much CPU on even a good system.

    (Other than of course, Stallmanists and those who can't be arsed to pay the royalties for using the codecs in a commercial environment, the latter of which matters almost nowhere to ordinary people. Then again, one positive thing about WebM is that it fucks over anyone using an Apple device, so maybe there's some genuine merit in using WebM exclusively.)
    Posted on 22-07-06, 12:32 (revision 3)
    Post: #53 of 62
    Since: 01-29-22

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    So, the latest.

    OpenSUSE doesn't ship with libx264 and I couldn't get it to appear in the list of packages, despite it being on their website and my config having non-'GNU-approved' stuff in it. Shame, because it's actually a really solid distro otherwise. (I'd rather not compile from source on a Celery N2840, and I tried to get the x264 libraries to work using a third party repo, and it wouldn't have it.)

    The shit part about all this? YouTube is a cunt and for some reason doesn't encode everything in WEBM as a fallback. It seems to pick and choose with a seemingly random basis. That, and for some reason, RetroArch recording configuration not only seems to be allergic to using 'libtheora' (I know I know, it's old codec), but crashes because the fallback is libx264.

    So I guess this isn't even an issue with web video alone at this stage...
    Posted on 22-07-06, 15:53
    Dinosaur

    Post: #1144 of 1282
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 4 days
    Last view: 1 day
    Use Debian™

    Most distros intentionally avoid patent-encumbered codecs, even today - this was one of the many reasons I ended leaving Fedora (having to use potentially distro-breaking 3rd-party distros just to watch a video is a big no-no to me nowadays). I guess OpenSUSE follows the same legalese BS, but thankfully sanity prevailed on other distros - the MPEG cartel despite being overpowered, can't sue every single Linux user in existence (that would be very bad PR), and in the case of Debian, patented BS like H.264 is supported by the stock repos since Wheezy (2013!)

    Compiling from source is always an option - but I've been there, and would rather not go back, ever.

    Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™
    Posted on 22-07-07, 17:47
    Post: #54 of 62
    Since: 01-29-22

    Last post: 627 days
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    The thing is the H.264 licence specifically states it's fine in a non-commercial environment... that's what makes the situation even more dumb to me :P

    I'll probably be switching to a Win8.0/Debian Stable dual-boot or something. I still need a recentish version of Windows, and 7's battery management is not a patch on 8's, so I'd rather use that.
    Posted on 22-07-07, 22:48
    Dinosaur

    Post: #1146 of 1282
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 4 days
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    I live in a country which has never recognized software patents, so fuck the MPEG cartel :P

    But then, every cellphone I've owned since 2007, and at least 3 of my GPUs shipped with hardware H.264 decoders, so I've paid more than enough to the MPEG-LA mafia in their pile of bullshit (seriously: I get that video codecs are hard to develop and get them right, but don't let frickin' lawyers who have yet to learn how to turn on a computer to be the gatekeepers to any kind of tech!)

    Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™
    Posted on 22-07-08, 16:33
    Post: #58 of 62
    Since: 01-29-22

    Last post: 627 days
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    Oh, interesting. What would you personally recommend for delivery of video/uploading content in to a video platform, then?

    On a somewhat related note, I wish I knew of a YouTube alternative that wasn't y'know, geared towards political activists or whatever... I've heard things about BitChute suspending accounts of people who aren't within the popular opinion over there, which kind of defeats the point of a politically neutral platform, unfortunately (particularly as I don't even intend to upload anything political or shoehorn politics in in any way, I just don't want random outside crap somehow influencing a ban).

    I remember VidLii, aka drama central that was dominated by a bunch of retro-tech obsessed far-left zoomers who now all have about 3,000-60,000 followers on Twitter and a ton of Discord orbiters. I'm somewhat glad I was alienated from everyone who typically gained respect either side of the political two-tone that the internet is these days.
    Posted on 22-07-09, 00:21
    Dinosaur

    Post: #1150 of 1282
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 4 days
    Last view: 1 day
    I don't watch videos online these days (save for some very rare exceptions, and for those I just use youtube-dl as I believe that videos do NOT belong to web browsers, but to actual media player applications), so I can't really recommend any site, aside of a generic "if it does DRM, stay away" warning.

    I wish I could go back to the era of just selfhosting our shit, but people would come with "muh discoverability" crap, which is basically "I can't watch TV if the algorithm doesn't tell me what to watch because I'm dumb/lazy" - we had search engines back in 1997, and people were discovering places by then without herculean efforts!

    Also, fuck social media too. Internet was a MUCH better place before Facebook and friends arrived to ruin everything :/

    Yes, I'm old enough to have spent roughly two thirds of my life online, get off my lawn, blah blah blah...

    Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™
    Posted on 22-07-09, 05:26
    Post: #60 of 62
    Since: 01-29-22

    Last post: 627 days
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    I'd selfhost if I had a web server capable of delivering big files consistently for sure, because people are indeed lazy. Obviously providing a means of downloading the video for offline purposes instead of trying to obscure it. (Determined people will find a way around anything, all they're doing is putting obstacles in front because mobile users are brainless.)
    Posted on 22-07-10, 08:15
    Post: #419 of 426
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 261 days
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    Posted by CaptainJistuce
    Taking swings at GIF is a lot easier, though "just serve a video file and advertise it as a GIF so the user gets an auto-looping animation with no controls" is the worst solution.

    Often you can force the browsers native video player UI to appear, making it better than GIF since you can now pause on any frame you want!

    AMD Ryzen 3700X | MSI Gamer Geforce 1070Ti 8GB | 16GB 3600MHz DDR4 RAM | ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero (WiFi) Motherboard | Windows 10 x64
    Posted on 22-07-10, 08:46
    Custom title here

    Post: #1099 of 1150
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 6 days
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    Posted by Nicholas Steel
    Posted by CaptainJistuce
    Taking swings at GIF is a lot easier, though "just serve a video file and advertise it as a GIF so the user gets an auto-looping animation with no controls" is the worst solution.

    Often you can force the browsers native video player UI to appear, making it better than GIF since you can now pause on any frame you want!

    "You can probably trick the browser into treating a video file like a video instead of a still image"

    Computers were a mistake.

    --- In UTF-16, where available. ---
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