No, seriously, I'm asking: Why is it so fucking impossible to get a video file to someone?
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No, seriously, I'm asking: Why is it so fucking impossible to get a video file to someone?
As far as I know, MP4 is as close to universal as it gets & should work for almost everyone on almost any platform/app.
But about 4 out of 5 times it just... doesn't.
No playback at all.
Video, no sound.
Sound, no video.
In browser, or app.
On Mac, or Win.
In the futuristic Year of our Lord 20-fucking-26.
- but do tell me all about how advanced the #tech world is...
@jwcph I must confess, I'm very intrigued to know what's going on there!
In-app playback (e.g: WhatsApp) is very picky about what container + codec you're using, browsers tend to be less so, and native apps (e.g: VLC) generally "just work" ... at least in my experience.
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No, seriously, I'm asking: Why is it so fucking impossible to get a video file to someone?
As far as I know, MP4 is as close to universal as it gets & should work for almost everyone on almost any platform/app.
But about 4 out of 5 times it just... doesn't.
No playback at all.
Video, no sound.
Sound, no video.
In browser, or app.
On Mac, or Win.
In the futuristic Year of our Lord 20-fucking-26.
- but do tell me all about how advanced the #tech world is...
@jwcph Feels like a "Discord" issue, it's pretty standard for other services to automatically convert videos. Say, I don't recall ever having video issues on Mastodon or Telegram! But Discord is PITA.
I might be wrong on some parts because I have no clue if Masto or Telegram convert videos, I'm just assuming...
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@jwcph Feels like a "Discord" issue, it's pretty standard for other services to automatically convert videos. Say, I don't recall ever having video issues on Mastodon or Telegram! But Discord is PITA.
I might be wrong on some parts because I have no clue if Masto or Telegram convert videos, I'm just assuming...
@jwcph That said, I feel you. This sucks.
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No, seriously, I'm asking: Why is it so fucking impossible to get a video file to someone?
As far as I know, MP4 is as close to universal as it gets & should work for almost everyone on almost any platform/app.
But about 4 out of 5 times it just... doesn't.
No playback at all.
Video, no sound.
Sound, no video.
In browser, or app.
On Mac, or Win.
In the futuristic Year of our Lord 20-fucking-26.
- but do tell me all about how advanced the #tech world is...
@jwcph MP4 is just a container, it depends on how the audio and video has been encoded. I would've thought the "default" for mp4 is H264 for video and AAC for audio.
EDIT: Let's just force install VLC on everyone's machine!
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@jwcph MP4 is just a container, it depends on how the audio and video has been encoded. I would've thought the "default" for mp4 is H264 for video and AAC for audio.
EDIT: Let's just force install VLC on everyone's machine!
@UKFilmNerd @jwcph
This... MP4 is not really a "format". It makes no sense since it could be MP4 with AV1 video codec or whatever which would break many places since the hardware doesn't know what to do with it. -
@UKFilmNerd @jwcph
This... MP4 is not really a "format". It makes no sense since it could be MP4 with AV1 video codec or whatever which would break many places since the hardware doesn't know what to do with it.@jalict @UKFilmNerd Not wrong, but also not relevant - no user should have to give a single fuck about these distinctions, any more than they should need to worry about the molecular composition of the tires on their cars.
It should just work, because that's what it's for, and we've had literally more than a generation of "computers for everybody" to make it happen.
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@jwcph Feels like a "Discord" issue, it's pretty standard for other services to automatically convert videos. Say, I don't recall ever having video issues on Mastodon or Telegram! But Discord is PITA.
I might be wrong on some parts because I have no clue if Masto or Telegram convert videos, I'm just assuming...
@samerion Oh, this is far more basic - we're not talking services, we're talking "this person has a video & that other person needs to see it" & they both have a computer & email.
Getting the video from one to the other should be as trivial as wiping your nose - or indeed as sending an email, which even grandmothers have known how to do for decades.
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No, seriously, I'm asking: Why is it so fucking impossible to get a video file to someone?
As far as I know, MP4 is as close to universal as it gets & should work for almost everyone on almost any platform/app.
But about 4 out of 5 times it just... doesn't.
No playback at all.
Video, no sound.
Sound, no video.
In browser, or app.
On Mac, or Win.
In the futuristic Year of our Lord 20-fucking-26.
- but do tell me all about how advanced the #tech world is...
BTW at least one instance of this involved VLC also not doing the trick...
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@jalict @UKFilmNerd Not wrong, but also not relevant - no user should have to give a single fuck about these distinctions, any more than they should need to worry about the molecular composition of the tires on their cars.
It should just work, because that's what it's for, and we've had literally more than a generation of "computers for everybody" to make it happen.
@jwcph Thank you. Just last week I was screaming because Apple has removed every protocol that would allow networking of different generations of their own machines. Even behind a firewall where the insecurity of protocols like FTP doesn’t matter.
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@samerion Oh, this is far more basic - we're not talking services, we're talking "this person has a video & that other person needs to see it" & they both have a computer & email.
Getting the video from one to the other should be as trivial as wiping your nose - or indeed as sending an email, which even grandmothers have known how to do for decades.
@samerion Oh, by the way, it's almost as difficult internally... like, we have all our assets on a shared remote volume & we're on a professionally managed Sharepoint / Microsoft infrastructure - but it's easier to walk to somebody's desk with your laptop in hand to show them a video (even if they're in another building on campus), than somehow relaying the file location to them...
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@jalict @UKFilmNerd Not wrong, but also not relevant - no user should have to give a single fuck about these distinctions, any more than they should need to worry about the molecular composition of the tires on their cars.
It should just work, because that's what it's for, and we've had literally more than a generation of "computers for everybody" to make it happen.
@jwcph @UKFilmNerd We both choose English because we want to communicate with each other.
You have the same issue on computers. Pick the correct language (format) on your machine before you expect another machine to understand it.
But yes, there is way too many languages, grammatic, dialects to interpret here.
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@samerion Oh, by the way, it's almost as difficult internally... like, we have all our assets on a shared remote volume & we're on a professionally managed Sharepoint / Microsoft infrastructure - but it's easier to walk to somebody's desk with your laptop in hand to show them a video (even if they're in another building on campus), than somehow relaying the file location to them...
@jwcph Yeah. All the proprietary codecs make this very difficult. Firefox supports HEVC on Linux only as of very recent, for example, and that was one of the most annoying things about video playback. But are all my issues gone? Hell nah.
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@jwcph @UKFilmNerd We both choose English because we want to communicate with each other.
You have the same issue on computers. Pick the correct language (format) on your machine before you expect another machine to understand it.
But yes, there is way too many languages, grammatic, dialects to interpret here.
@jwcph @UKFilmNerd My point is.. This problem exist outside of software.
When I go down to the local market I expect I can pay with my credit card.. But unfortunately they only take cash.
If I go talk with my colleague we both can talk English with each other even though we were raised with different native languages.
But ask yourself; can we have a universal language? Maybe... But what about people who can not see, or hear, or feel? What language could we all use?
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No, seriously, I'm asking: Why is it so fucking impossible to get a video file to someone?
As far as I know, MP4 is as close to universal as it gets & should work for almost everyone on almost any platform/app.
But about 4 out of 5 times it just... doesn't.
No playback at all.
Video, no sound.
Sound, no video.
In browser, or app.
On Mac, or Win.
In the futuristic Year of our Lord 20-fucking-26.
- but do tell me all about how advanced the #tech world is...
@jwcph
My first thought is that a lot depends on the user's device, and the user's technical knowledge.
1) What is their default MP4 player? Do they have one set?
2) Do they know to save it to their device first, or are they clicking/tapping the link and treating it like streaming media?
3) If they're treating it like streaming media, are they playing the file in a location with good reliable bandwidth?
4) If they're playing it in-app, does the in-app media player support files of that size, or just little meme-sized video shorts?
You get the idea. Multiple symptoms probably indicate multiple causes. -
@jwcph
My first thought is that a lot depends on the user's device, and the user's technical knowledge.
1) What is their default MP4 player? Do they have one set?
2) Do they know to save it to their device first, or are they clicking/tapping the link and treating it like streaming media?
3) If they're treating it like streaming media, are they playing the file in a location with good reliable bandwidth?
4) If they're playing it in-app, does the in-app media player support files of that size, or just little meme-sized video shorts?
You get the idea. Multiple symptoms probably indicate multiple causes.@fifonetworks But that's just my point: None of that should matter.
I don't have to understand how a heat pump works to use a refrigerator. I don't have to know metallurgy to use a frying pan. I don't have to know how to find fresh ground water to use a faucet.
If I start asking people - who may be customers, or professional collaborators, or just regular joes - those questions, things get worse, not better. I know this because *that's exactly what we have to do now & it doesn't fucking work!*
