Re: [PLUG] Perl Talk Video

[John Kirk <dystan@pac.net>]

Brian,

On Thu, Jan 03, 2008 at 12:15:26AM -0500, Brian Vagnoni wrote:
> So what format would people like to see the PLUG Central presentation video in?
> The default is .wmv; I already hear people cringing.  I have to convert it...

  First, I have to say I dunno much about video tech, and what's available, but:

  wmv, avi, and mpeg are ones I know how to handle easily.  I like the players
I've used for mpeg best, for giving me some modicum of control over my watching.
Show-stopping issues revolve mostly around codecs -- a deeper level I know not
enough about, to resolve issues.  i.e. once in a while I'll come across someone's
video file named with an .mpg suffix that I can't seem to view.  Maybe 85% of the
time I can't view a file with .wmv suffix.  I don't see .avi files frequently
enough to comment, but seem to remember I usually can view them.

  For a single file, I have no idea how to query it for what codec it depends
upon.  Also, I don't know easily how to inventory codecs the software I have
installed can handle.  I don't even know enough about how codecs are named or
otherwise identified -- e.g. whether two codec names extracted from some sources
or other refer really to the same codec.

  I'm mostly using default installs of Debian and Ubuntu, but intermittently
install additional packages I run across in hopes of expanding my coverage of
video file formats and codecs, and to improve the control I get over viewing.
I think I've used plaympeg, mplayer, vlc and two or three others.  All in all,
plaympeg has become the one I most use (for mpeg).  I always try vlc for .wmv
but frequently it doesn't work for the file I'm trying to view.  Also, I don't
know how to get much control over viewing with vlc.

  I dunno whether any of this rambling is helpful, but I sure appreciate what
you're doing -- and feel it'd be a great resource to build a video archive of
PLUG presentations, along with documentation that'd help get folks up to speed
in accessing and viewing them.

          regards,   -- John Kirk
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