> but when billions of dollars have been spent so I can ask the computer to write me an ffmpeg invocation That was an unnecessary spend then. You should ask yo

> but when billions of dollars have been spent so I can ask the computer to write me an ffmpeg invocation That was an unnecessary spend then. You should ask yourself why ffmpeg still exists if if it's that hard to use. There's a plethora of simpler tools that exists for simple uses (handbrake, XLD,...). The truth is that if you want versality, there's no better than ffmpeg and it's core usage is relatively simple. It's an input | filter | output pipeline, with various options to fine tune each one. If you don't have the domain knowledge, it will be hard, just like a layman inside a plane cockpit. But if you do, everything makes sense. Same with a lot of other software. There are bad design out there, but if something persists with no other incentive than its users, you should probably ask why first.