4 ms·

Very excited for this, but a waste of energy if everyone is needing to process their video in real time.

by c16 2y ago

_flux 2y ago
What is the alternative? The results could be cached, but it's probably unlikely that they would need to be used again later, as I imagine most videos are watched only once. Another option would be to upload the generated subtitles to some service or p2p, but I believe that would also problem (e.g. privacy, who runs the service, firewalls for p2p, etc).
- CaptainFever 2y ago
  OpenSubtitles as a cache, maybe? (With their collaboration, of course.)
  - _flux 2y ago
    It seems like some kind of review process would need to be included to reduce abuse possibilities. But yes, that would be quite nice, if there are enough people who don't mind uploading the file names of the media they play (or some other unique media identifier?) along with the subtitles to that service—and with user credentials? It would certainly need to be opt-in, which makes one wonder if it would be much effective at all.
- a3w 2y ago
  VLC has a "check my media online" feature, next to "check for updates to VLC on startup" already. Could they offer subtitle downloads? Previously, that was used for mp3 album covers or something?
- rvnx 2y ago
  It can actually send to Google the information on what you are playing: https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/f908ef4981c93a8b76805ade15246981002affc9/share/lua/meta/art/01_googleimage.lua https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/f908ef4981c93a8b76805ad... and to their own servers: https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/f908ef4981c93a8b76805ade15246981002affc9/share/lua/meta/art/00_musicbrainz.lua https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/f908ef4981c93a8b76805ad... should could fetch subtitles as the same time ? edit: cf, what "a3w" says too.
  - _flux 2y ago
    Downloading is still much easier to handle than uploading.
- scarface_74 2y ago
  Tangentially related: funny enough, this site was just submitted yesterday to HN - https://exampl.page/ https://exampl.page/ You can navigate to $foo.exampl.page and it will generate a website on the fly with text and graphics using AI. It will then save and cache the page. It’s admittedly a useless but cool little demo.
- magic_smoke_ee 2y ago
  Authoritatively-correct subtitles rather than distributed generation and/or publication by anyone and everyone, including AI. I don't know how many times I've seen subtitles that appear to be based on a script or were half-assed, and don't match the dialogue as spoken at all.
- c16 2y ago
  This is exactly the answer imo. We have subtitle files, which is in effect a cache. Process once, read many times. So while I'm excited this feature is now available, having high quality subtitles cached in one place and generated by AI is the answer imo.
huijzer 2y ago
Why are we still talking about this? Computers are INCREDIBLY efficient and still become orders of magnitude more efficient. Computation is really negligible in the grand scheme of things. In the 80s some people also said that our whole world energy would go to computations in the future. And look today. It’s less than 1%. We do orders of magnitude more computations, but the computers have become orders of magnitude more efficient too. As another way to look at this, where does this questioning of energy use end? Should I turn off my laptop when I go to the supermarket? When I go to the toilet? Should I turn off my lights when I go to the toilet? My point is, we do a lot of inefficient things and there is certainly something to being more efficient. But asking “is it efficient” immediately when something new is presented is completely backwards if you ask me. It focusses our attention on new things even though many old things are WAY more inefficient.
- magic_smoke_ee 2y ago
  > Computers are INCREDIBLY efficient and still become orders of magnitude more efficient. That's what a software engineer would say who views resources as unlimited and free.
  - baal80spam 2y ago
    Do you not pay for the energy you use?
    - magic_smoke_ee 2y ago
      > don't cross-examine https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
      - jodrellblank 2y ago
        > That's what a software engineer would say who views resources as unlimited and free. from the same guidelines: don't be snarky; don't post thoughtless insubstantive comments; reply to the argument instead of calling names; don't sneer; respond to the strongest interpretation - assume good faith; eschew flamebait; don't trample curiosity.

Very excited for this, but a waste of energy if everyone is needing to process their video in real time.

by c16 2y ago

Very excited for this, but a waste of energy if everyone is needing to process their video in real time.

What is the alternative? The results could be cached, but it's probably unlikely that they would need to be used again later, as I imagine most videos are watched only once. Another option would be to upload the generated subtitles to some service or p2p, but I believe that would also problem (e.g. privacy, who runs the service, firewalls for p2p, etc).

CaptainFever 2y ago
OpenSubtitles as a cache, maybe? (With their collaboration, of course.)
- _flux 2y ago
  It seems like some kind of review process would need to be included to reduce abuse possibilities. But yes, that would be quite nice, if there are enough people who don't mind uploading the file names of the media they play (or some other unique media identifier?) along with the subtitles to that service—and with user credentials? It would certainly need to be opt-in, which makes one wonder if it would be much effective at all.
a3w 2y ago
VLC has a "check my media online" feature, next to "check for updates to VLC on startup" already. Could they offer subtitle downloads? Previously, that was used for mp3 album covers or something?
rvnx 2y ago
It can actually send to Google the information on what you are playing: https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/f908ef4981c93a8b76805ade15246981002affc9/share/lua/meta/art/01_googleimage.lua https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/f908ef4981c93a8b76805ad... and to their own servers: https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/f908ef4981c93a8b76805ade15246981002affc9/share/lua/meta/art/00_musicbrainz.lua https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/f908ef4981c93a8b76805ad... should could fetch subtitles as the same time ? edit: cf, what "a3w" says too.
- _flux 2y ago
  Downloading is still much easier to handle than uploading.
scarface_74 2y ago
Tangentially related: funny enough, this site was just submitted yesterday to HN - https://exampl.page/ https://exampl.page/ You can navigate to $foo.exampl.page and it will generate a website on the fly with text and graphics using AI. It will then save and cache the page. It’s admittedly a useless but cool little demo.
magic_smoke_ee 2y ago
Authoritatively-correct subtitles rather than distributed generation and/or publication by anyone and everyone, including AI. I don't know how many times I've seen subtitles that appear to be based on a script or were half-assed, and don't match the dialogue as spoken at all.
c16 2y ago
This is exactly the answer imo. We have subtitle files, which is in effect a cache. Process once, read many times. So while I'm excited this feature is now available, having high quality subtitles cached in one place and generated by AI is the answer imo.

huijzer 2y ago

Why are we still talking about this? Computers are INCREDIBLY efficient and still become orders of magnitude more efficient. Computation is really negligible in the grand scheme of things. In the 80s some people also said that our whole world energy would go to computations in the future. And look today. It’s less than 1%. We do orders of magnitude more computations, but the computers have become orders of magnitude more efficient too. As another way to look at this, where does this questioning of energy use end? Should I turn off my laptop when I go to the supermarket? When I go to the toilet? Should I turn off my lights when I go to the toilet? My point is, we do a lot of inefficient things and there is certainly something to being more efficient. But asking “is it efficient” immediately when something new is presented is completely backwards if you ask me. It focusses our attention on new things even though many old things are WAY more inefficient.

magic_smoke_ee 2y ago
> Computers are INCREDIBLY efficient and still become orders of magnitude more efficient. That's what a software engineer would say who views resources as unlimited and free.
- baal80spam 2y ago
  Do you not pay for the energy you use?
  - magic_smoke_ee 2y ago
    > don't cross-examine https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - jodrellblank 2y ago
      > That's what a software engineer would say who views resources as unlimited and free. from the same guidelines: don't be snarky; don't post thoughtless insubstantive comments; reply to the argument instead of calling names; don't sneer; respond to the strongest interpretation - assume good faith; eschew flamebait; don't trample curiosity.