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You must live a very different life than I do. Video has so very many problems... - search doesn't even deserve to be called 'search'. I search on a well-known

• pmoriarty 6y ago
  "video sucks" Completely and strongly disagree. You seem to focus on educational videos, and just regarding that I consider youtube one of the greatest educational tools in all of history. I've learned so much through watching youtube videos, much faster than I would have learned it by reading about it. This is especially the case with learning things that have a visual component, like learning GUI apps, painting techniques, etc. There's no substitute to watching a master painter work, for example, and you've got dozens if not hundreds of them on youtube. Regarding information density, I've found "a picture is worth a thousand words". It might not correspond to kolomogorov complexity or the sort of information that compsci people are used to, but just like looking at a painting (which is arguably equivalent to a single frame of film/video) can convey and enormous amount of information that even a book can not equal, the amount of such information conveyed by moving pictures can be almost infinitely greater than print. Of course, the amount of information will differ from video to video and book to book, but it does not to justice to say that for video "information density is terrible", unless you're talking about something like a video of someone reading something (though I find even there, I can listen to speech at a much higher rate than I can read, and usually listen to videos at 2x or 3x speed, so can consume way higher amounts of verbal information through audio or video than I can through books). If you step outside the realm of educational videos, your argument becomes even less tenable. The "information density" of a music video, for example, is terrible? Compared to what? There literally is no equivalent. Or how about a film, or watching someone sing on camera? Outside of educational videos, talking about information density in these contexts seems to be missing the point of such videos entirely.
  • basch 6y ago
    But if I am looking for a specific thing, I want to be able to skip. I want a transcript first world, where I can skim, ctrl+f, click, and THEN the video plays. It's fine if you want to watch a whole video, but the amount of "Hey there campers, dont forget to subscribe" almost outweighs actual content. I find the idle banter and chatter on podcasts equally distracting. Scrubbing through a video to find what you are looking for is infinitely more annoying than scrolling down a page of screenshot with captions. I, like your parent, if I run into a video, will press back and try and find an article first, and then use the video as a last resort. For some process type things, like you describe, things I'm less familiar with, like a mechanic working on a car, a video might be easier. I do very much like the rev interface for transcript/video. https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/shared/MHjYIxnUkQQJMJ605Wjoq9PFre6W9dAjsY7xB9UOupqCxAtuYBHrCMdN4i_ROQyEOVxVhRz-u4a8jZGizZIL6s7Apeo?loadFrom=PastedDeeplink&ts=496.01 https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/shared/MHjYIxnUkQQJMJ6...
    • brokenmachine 6y ago
      What would be cool is crowd-sourced chapters for the videos. Anyone can create a chapter marker, and people can downvote/flag those chapter markers if they're irrelevant. Then you would have chapters so you could avoid the waffley "please like/subscribe" begging and longwinded intros that don't get to the main part of the video. Youtube would still be able to embed their ads whenever they want.
    • whywhywhywhy 6y ago
      >but the amount of "Hey there campers, dont forget to subscribe" almost outweighs actual content. The "Hey guys, blahblahblah" is insufferable but you quickly learn hammering L about 4 times gets you to the real meat of the video.
  • _jal 6y ago
    > You seem to focus on educational videos I was replying to the parent, who was focusing on learning. > If you step outside the realm of educational videos I was only talking about educational use. Entertainment, of course, is different, also explaining why most schools don't hold class in night clubs. I notice you devote almost all your attention to the density question, but that's hardly the worst problem I listed - pacing, discovery and reference are all far worse problems. But to focus on density, > the amount of such information conveyed by moving pictures can be almost infinitely greater than print. Ah yes, I aced many exams thanks to the almost infinite amounts of knowledge I picked up watching slow sweeps of dancing corporate logos and stock footage of the Grand Canyon. This is semantics. In a learning context, the illusion of "infinite information" your brain creates in response to a pretty picture is at best a comfort for the student, more typically a distraction only there in the first place because people expect it out of video.
• whywhywhywhy 6y ago
  > You must live a very different life than I do. Video has so very many problems... I'm more on the side of design/art than programming so maybe its more of a thing in my industry but basically anything you can think of a video exists, "How to remove green leaks from greenscreen footage" "How to render great metal material in 3D software" etc But now I even use it in the rest of my life, if I'm going to cook something I check 2 or 3 videos on the recipe before I make it looking for tips. Sure I could have used a cookbook but that would mean I'd have to own multiple cookbooks to get the same information for the dish that I get from 2-3 videos and also I'd need to have planned ahead not just watch the videos then go to the supermarket. I completely get the things you're saying about the format and I used to feel the same, but honestly the amount of content has overruled my previous feelings.