[linux-audio-dev] Lionstracs / Linux Audio at Musikmesse report

[Paul Davis]

>> on the right side of the page, scroll down to VIDEO OF MUSIKMESSE,
>> you will find 4 videos
>> (under Linux you can play them with xine or mplayer if you have the  
>> win32 codecs installed)
>
>... Do I even need to say it?

no, but you could explain the precise steps you would take to avoid
the win32 codecs without spending most of a day on the problem :) for
bonus marks, cover all likely eventualities :))

i've spent a considerable time in the last couple of months becoming
uncomfortably familiar with the state of computer video, and if
someone gave me a video in some win32 codec format, i would probably
leave that way at this point in time. the handling and
inter-operability of video codecs is absolutely and pathetically
miserable. its not a linux problem, or even a microsoft problem. the
industry has dropped the ball big time on this, and users are left to
pick up the pieces, of which there are many small, sharp and ugly
examples.

if you've had luck with transcode, or ffmpeg or avifile, believe me,
it was just luck. and don't even mention the subtle difference between
dvgrab and dvgrab -dv2. the former produces a file that almost nothing
can use, the latter can be handled by some applications, though not
all (and certainly not many win apps) and on and on it goes.

--p