[HN Gopher] The team that powers VLC
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       The team that powers VLC
        
       Author : feross
       Score  : 55 points
       Date   : 2021-12-04 19:07 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (increment.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (increment.com)
        
       | johnvaluk wrote:
       | After several false starts, I finally figured out how to
       | configure the DLNA server in my router to serve files from USB-
       | attached storage to the smart TVs on my LAN. Then I installed the
       | VLC app on my iPhone and it discovered the DLNA server
       | immediately as a UPnP File Server in the Network tab. It works
       | pretty well, except it doesn't show the cover art for music
       | files. The MacOS app also discovers the server, but the interface
       | is completely different. Overall, I'm impressed, though I did
       | have to do some online searching to figure out how to do some
       | basic things like random play (you have to start playing a song
       | to access the shuffle icon).
        
         | boiler_up800 wrote:
         | Any particular links that were helpful for this?
        
       | btheshoe wrote:
       | VLC is by far the best media player in existence, and I'm
       | extremely thankful for the team behind it. Gives me hope that
       | this whole Foss thing is actually very good for the world.
        
       | kdjfjf7d7 wrote:
       | I always wonder why people go gaga googoo over VLC, when there's
       | Media Player Classic with K-lite which does a lot of the same
       | things better.
       | 
       | I remember watching 1080p blurry rips in MPC without any problems
       | in 2008 while VLC would spend 1 year doing some sort of buffering
       | upon opening then struggling to play the video correctly.
        
         | boomboomsubban wrote:
         | VLC works on other operating systems for a start.
        
         | zppln wrote:
         | Well, I've personally always wondered why people advocate MPC.
         | During like 15+ years of use I can't recall having a single
         | issue with VLC. And that's from consuming basically everything
         | from the VCD era and onwards. In my experience VLC has been as
         | close to flawless software as one can get.
        
         | kingcharles wrote:
         | Can you tell me why MPC + K-Lite is better?
         | 
         | I've been gone from the Internet for 8 years. Before I left I
         | used VLC for everything. When I just got a laptop I was
         | convinced to install PotPlayer as "being better". Having been
         | gone for such a long time I assumed there was a tectonic shift
         | in the media player space. Perhaps I was wrong?
        
           | datenarsch wrote:
           | MPC-HC is just as good as VLC and maybe a little less
           | cluttered. It's Windows only of course, but if that isn't a
           | limiting factor, then it's a very good alternative to VLC in
           | my opinion.
        
             | tasty_freeze wrote:
             | From the home page:
             | 
             | "MPC-HC is not under development since 2017. Please switch
             | to something else."
        
           | agumonkey wrote:
           | I never like vlc approach. It did everything but there was
           | always 7 fingercuts in the process. Or it was slower, less
           | ergonomic. MPC, MPV were more my daily drivers.
        
           | Cyph0n wrote:
           | VLC is an excellent media player. It is actively developed
           | and runs on many platforms.
        
         | jjulius wrote:
         | You're arguing that MPC is better than VLC because of an issue
         | you encountered 13 - almost 14 - years ago?
        
       | miohtama wrote:
       | > "There are some [silly] features in VLC--some filters that
       | everyone finds weird and asks [us], 'Why do you have that?' The
       | answer is someone sent a good patch, so there was no reason to
       | refuse it," says Kempf.
        
         | er4hn wrote:
         | Fun for VLC, a series of sharp edges for openssl
        
           | twic wrote:
           | > While anyone can submit new ideas, whether they're accepted
           | or not largely depends on the quality of the code, rather
           | than the utility of the feature. "We have a very difficult
           | process," Kempf admits. "People don't understand why we do
           | that. But the reason is we need good code, because I'm the
           | one that's going to maintain it. If I don't understand it
           | now, this is going to be a problem."
           | 
           | That's the difference to OpenSSL!
        
       | wjakob wrote:
       | There is also IINA that somehow seems more snappy/better-
       | integrated on macOS.
        
       | grokx wrote:
       | A funny story (among many other) related to the traffic cone
       | chosen as the VLC icon.
       | 
       | When some student was spotted consuming most of the bandwidth by
       | downloading 'Linux distros' on P2P networks, such traffic cone
       | would be placed in front of his room door, to designate the
       | culprit. It might be one of the reason of the VLC icon choice.
       | 
       | Told by my brother in law, who was president of the VIA[0]
       | student association of the Ecole Centrale de Paris.
       | 
       | [0]: https://viarezo.fr/en/a_propos
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | blululu wrote:
         | The story I heard is that the association has a collection of
         | traffic cones that were stolen under the influence of alcohol
         | [0].
         | 
         | [0]: http://nanocrew.net/2005/06/23/vlc-cone/
        
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       (page generated 2021-12-04 23:00 UTC)