4 ms·

> It is my belief that a Javascript (later WebAssembly) port of VLC, the VideoLan Player, will fundamentally change our relationship to a mass of materials and

> It is my belief that a Javascript (later WebAssembly) port of VLC, the VideoLan Player, will fundamentally change our relationship to a mass of materials and files out there, ones which are played, viewed, or accessed. Just like we had a lot of software locked away in static formats that required extensive steps to even view or understand, so too do we have formats beyond the “usual” that are also frozen into a multi-step process. Making these instantaneously function in the browser, all browsers, would be a revolution. Something like VLC.js is anything but "[a] [s]imple [r]equest" :) The web experiences some kind of rot anyway. As long as you can still access and play stuff you really want in at least one way (VLC), is the instantaneous part such a win? It's a technical solution to a problem most people don't face. Are people really facing that many multi-media files that can't be played? Two bigger issues that come to mind: 1) stuff hosted on closed, proprietary sites that then close down 2) how to find stuff (especially with esoteric or unusual content). So IMO, VLC.js probably wouldn't "fundamentally change our relationship to a mass of materials and files out there". I agree there is a delivery issue, but again I think it's findability and hosting - hence why youtube/soundcloud/spotify/netflix is a thing.

lelandbatey 10y ago
It's true, I've experienced this first hand as I've tried to build my own simple "Netflix" which hosts my media collection and makes it available to all my devices. And as it turns out the intersection of maximum usability vs compatibility is a simple Apache open directory of files. The only issues I've faced with this setup is one of codec availability and bitrate: Sometimes, I'll be in a situation where I only have a high-quality, high bitrate copy of some media on my server, and I'll be trying to access it over a low bandwidth connection. If I'm stuck in one place for a while, I can re-encode the media on the server, but I'm unable to begin streaming to my device until the new lower bitrate copy is finished encoding on the server side. Other times, I'll be in a situation where I want to access a file, but I need it in a different codec, so again I'll have to re-encode it on the server and download once that's finished. What would be amazing, and would solve both problems (I'm not sure this is possible) is some kind of real time, http-based transcoding proxy. So you give it a link to a media file somewhere on the web, and it returns an http link which is streamed and transcoded in real time and served back to the client, all over http (so existing http media streaming clients can use this as a drop in replacement). If such a thing existed (or exists) I'll donate $100 right now.
- christoph 10y ago
  Check out Plex - https://www.plex.tv/ https://www.plex.tv/ I run it on an Nvidia Shield, it will transcode multiple streams on that and handles pretty much everything I've thrown at it so far.
  - lelandbatey 10y ago
    I've used Plex before, and while it is fancy and has a nice user experience for it's use cases, I've found it somewhat limited. It is fundamentally locked into itself. You need to either have a device which can run the web client, or a Plex app for the platform. And that works fine if you're doing this just for yourself (I've run a Plex server in the past). But sharing media is painful (or at least, more painful than simply sending a link to someone), and the overhead of compatibility was always annoying. Additionally, if you don't like the way the Plex app works on your device, tough, that's the only UI there is. However, there are a tremendous number of apps and applications with UIs galore that all support HTTP streaming. Now, the last time I fully investigated Plex was about a year ago, but since then I've used friends instances and it always seemed lackluster, or at least not as straightforward as bare-bones HTTP streaming.
    - cormacrelf 10y ago
      On the other end of the flexibility + compatibility scale, if all you need is to watch The Wire on your iPhone/iPad/Apple TV v4 on the couch instead of at your computer, I've been using Infuse. Just turn on SMB on your computer and fave a few directories, then stream away. It'll even pull in metadata, cover art, descriptions and sort shows into seasons. https://firecore.com/infuse https://firecore.com/infuse (Arguably, Infuse is very compatible with whatever your video source is, but it only runs on iOS.)
    - pomfpomfpomf3 10y ago
      Sharing media: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201105738-Create-a-New-Share https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201105738-Create-a... Alternative client/UI: check out PleXBMC, you can use any theme you like. That said, plex media player will provide a superior experience as it's using mpv.

lelandbatey 10y ago

It's true, I've experienced this first hand as I've tried to build my own simple "Netflix" which hosts my media collection and makes it available to all my devices. And as it turns out the intersection of maximum usability vs compatibility is a simple Apache open directory of files. The only issues I've faced with this setup is one of codec availability and bitrate: Sometimes, I'll be in a situation where I only have a high-quality, high bitrate copy of some media on my server, and I'll be trying to access it over a low bandwidth connection. If I'm stuck in one place for a while, I can re-encode the media on the server, but I'm unable to begin streaming to my device until the new lower bitrate copy is finished encoding on the server side. Other times, I'll be in a situation where I want to access a file, but I need it in a different codec, so again I'll have to re-encode it on the server and download once that's finished. What would be amazing, and would solve both problems (I'm not sure this is possible) is some kind of real time, http-based transcoding proxy. So you give it a link to a media file somewhere on the web, and it returns an http link which is streamed and transcoded in real time and served back to the client, all over http (so existing http media streaming clients can use this as a drop in replacement). If such a thing existed (or exists) I'll donate $100 right now.

christoph 10y ago
Check out Plex - https://www.plex.tv/ https://www.plex.tv/ I run it on an Nvidia Shield, it will transcode multiple streams on that and handles pretty much everything I've thrown at it so far.
- lelandbatey 10y ago
  I've used Plex before, and while it is fancy and has a nice user experience for it's use cases, I've found it somewhat limited. It is fundamentally locked into itself. You need to either have a device which can run the web client, or a Plex app for the platform. And that works fine if you're doing this just for yourself (I've run a Plex server in the past). But sharing media is painful (or at least, more painful than simply sending a link to someone), and the overhead of compatibility was always annoying. Additionally, if you don't like the way the Plex app works on your device, tough, that's the only UI there is. However, there are a tremendous number of apps and applications with UIs galore that all support HTTP streaming. Now, the last time I fully investigated Plex was about a year ago, but since then I've used friends instances and it always seemed lackluster, or at least not as straightforward as bare-bones HTTP streaming.
  - cormacrelf 10y ago
    On the other end of the flexibility + compatibility scale, if all you need is to watch The Wire on your iPhone/iPad/Apple TV v4 on the couch instead of at your computer, I've been using Infuse. Just turn on SMB on your computer and fave a few directories, then stream away. It'll even pull in metadata, cover art, descriptions and sort shows into seasons. https://firecore.com/infuse https://firecore.com/infuse (Arguably, Infuse is very compatible with whatever your video source is, but it only runs on iOS.)
  - pomfpomfpomf3 10y ago
    Sharing media: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201105738-Create-a-New-Share https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201105738-Create-a... Alternative client/UI: check out PleXBMC, you can use any theme you like. That said, plex media player will provide a superior experience as it's using mpv.