• Wispy2891@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Somehow I’m unable to let VLC play any kind of video on my Arch (actually cachyos) laptop. Whatever the format it says codec is missing even if I installed everything (mpv, totem and others can play them).

    (I tried to install vlc-git from aur but then gave up when after 30 minutes was still compiling, I don’t have enough patience to wait all that time every time I run yay)

    I’m forced to run the flatpak version of VLC for some reason, the only way to make it work

        • nshibj@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          I know, but what about when I have several subtitle files? Different languages, or maybe several subtitle files I downloaded and want to check which one matches my video? mpv has zero flexibility.

          With VLC I can just “Subtitle / Add subtitle track” or add the language code after the filename (video.en.srt, video.fr.srt, video.spa.srt), with mpv: just one file at a time: rename, launch, retry.

    • tetris11@feddit.uk
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      7 hours ago

      I don’t know what it is about mpv that makes it my favourite. Gstreamer is performative enough. FFplay is also pretty clean. Cvlc is fine.

      I think I just like that it has sensible controls, and ultimately gets out of the way

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    VLC sucks ass when you want to do any type of live transcoding or remuxing without setting up a video stream. Especially with multichannel audio:

    This has been an issue ever since feature added, the maximum bitrate you can set is 512 kb/s on every codec, despite codecs that support more.

    The bug thread for this was basically “stop complaining about our shit UI and use the CLI”

    Much prefer Kodi for this purpose, and an ffmpeg based player for lightweight stuff.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      My experience with VLC in Linux is subpar. In Windows it was always a good tool to have. Granted for me it was just, does this shit have working codecs, phew, it plays

  • Taldan@lemmy.world
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    24 hours ago

    I did a CTF once where one of the challenges was forensics on a video file. It had the header ripped off, the entension removed, and was split into chunks that had to be ripped out of a pcap and reassmebled

    VLC just played the mangled chunks as-is. It was an unintended cheat code for the challenge

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      10 hours ago

      I had it once play a video recorded on an old Motorola razr circa 2004. It was this super obscure file format, that basically only this one phone used, and was never used on any other phone.

      VLC didn’t care, played it right out of the box without any problems.

      It supports an obscure single use, 2004 video format. If aliens come to earth, VLC will be able to play their files too.

  • polle@feddit.org
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    11 hours ago

    Only on windows (or mac?), but not on linux. Which was a unexpected realisation.

    • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Yeah, this was a surprise to me as well. Although, its the only video player I can get to play Blu-ray discs. I can even play 4K discs to a certain extent (my processor and video card just aren’t up to that particular task).

    • GeekFTW@lemmy.zip
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      16 hours ago

      Which is what I did. Had an old 2nd gen Nexus 7 from 2013 which I used as an occasional media player. Finally died back in January, had VLC running on it until its last day!

      • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org
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        10 hours ago

        I have a 2013 phone running Android 13. Sony Xperia Z, found in e-waste in 2023 in great condition (except for dust in the camera). I used it a lot and even replaced the battery, although that didn’t make much difference, it just kept overheating and discharging like crazy on modern websites. The notification LED broke in a peculiar way (likely shorted driving transistor, burning it out within hours) and so did the vibrator. Recently, I dropped it and the back shattered but I still carry it every day, although now it’s a secondary phone (can’t get some apps running on my primary one although both are degoogled). It has a 32-bit processor, noisy camera and no fingerprint reader, but a 5" 1080p LCD, MHL (HDMI over microUSB), NFC and headphone jack. And a mediocre FM transmitter that can be enabled with custom drivers for the Qualcomm chip. It was covered in Janus Cycle’s video on monoliths.

  • Hackworth@piefed.ca
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    1 day ago

    I get the sense that VLC doesn’t really care if something is a valid video file, it’s just gonna start playing and see what happens.

    • catshit_dogfart@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I’m pretty sure it can still do that. Like if you can trick it into playing something that isn’t even video, it’ll shit out whatever it can interpret as video. Which of course will be garbled nonsense, but it did exactly what you asked.

      • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org
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        11 hours ago

        My camera shat out an MP4 without a moov atom and VLC nor anything else could play it :( Not even when inserted in the middle of a valid file of the same format.

        Yes, ffplay can interpret it as rawvideo when asked but so can it /dev/random

          • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org
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            10 hours ago

            MP4 is decent at this, it’s the camera’s fault for writing critical information at the end and not retrying on SD write errors. A bad couple of frames is still preferrable to losing up to 20 minutes (yes, that’s the split size, and it loses 5 seconds in between).

      • Derpenheim@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        I wish every program was this way. Fuck off with your file format restrictions, I know what Im doing

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Which of course will be garbled nonsense, but it did exactly what you asked.

        Is it possible that someone took a copy of hitlers book, shoved it into VLC, took the video it spit out, and somehow we got a president from that process? Garbled nonsense. Highly racist. But it did what you asked!

        Wait…does this explain Mark Zuckerberg? They put a piece of cellery, mixed with dog shit, and out comes Mark Zuckerberg who’s almost a real boy?

    • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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      1 day ago

      I recall a few AVIs from the long ago that VLC would throw an error on, something about a format error, and it gave the option to try converting it or try playing as-is. Attempting to convert took forever, and playback was mostly fine, though IIRC you couldn’t scrub through the file.

      • zurohki@aussie.zone
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        1 day ago

        IIRC that’s AVI files that aren’t indexed properly. VLC could either build its own index for the file or it could just start playing the file one frame at a time and hope for the best.

      • Harvey656@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Yeah it absolutely can fix broken avi files! Was a lifesaver back in high-school for me, during that era, avi was every camcorder format (at least that I had).

        I always stored it on this 128gb external drive and I swear that drive was cursed, always corrupted my files. Vlc was an easy way to fix them for class.

    • SorryQuick@lemmy.ca
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      22 hours ago

      But really isn’t that just libavcodec behaving like that? VLC itself doesn’t actually read your video file, it just takes what FFMPEG gives it and blindly trusts it.

  • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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    1 day ago

    Long ago; a non-tech friend saying to another non-tech friend. “you should try it on VLC; it’ll play a slice of cucumber” when referring to some obscure video file they had.