[MPlayer-dev-eng] what happened to the blu-ray support

[Dâniel Fraga]

On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 21:26:00 +0200
Benjamin Zores <ben at geexbox.org> wrote:

> Just for you to know, you won't get much friends here ...

	I'm just saying what is stucked in my throat for years. You
shouldn't be surprised. It's hard for me to wait and wait and wait
forever. It's like being tortured.

	A comparison: it's like what Adobe does on users. I've being
waiting for a binary 64 bit flash client for years, using the repugnant
nspluginwrapper. Then Adobe launched an alpha version. Better than
nothing. It's the classical example when the developer (in this case
"Adobe" doesn't care what the users think...). Of course the flash
client is free, but Adobe must release a 64 bit client. Users demand it.

> Wrong.
> 
> It depends on users actually.
> MPlayer still is the fastest command-line based players for UNIX I'd
> say but from a user perspective, it's way to geeky.
> What are "top" players to you ? Probably VLC mostly because of its
> really strong user base.
> If you listen to professionals, they'd say GStreamer, but only for
> wrong reasons: the capability to use binary bloat.

	In fact I hate VLC and GStreamer. I only have gstreamer
installed because some software needs it. And VLC never worked even
with m2ts files... Of course VLC has its own strong points, but I
don't like it.

> The biggest issue is it's underlying architecture which prevents many
> new addition or doesn't motivate new contributor to join.

	Ok.

> Cause you do have any clue ?

	I know what users need. I know what would make MPlayer attracts
attention and even, who knows, sponsorship. It's what the other players
can't do.

> So I now have a roadmap. Is it enough ? No way, we still need to find
> a way to have this inside.
> 
> You seem to consider Open Source developers as a low-cost slave manpower.

	Wrong. But I think that if you're commited to a open source
project, you are commited to critics and user requests. Otherwise, it's
much better to develop something alone, closed source.

	Of course you have the right to disagree, but you must agree
that what I personally am demanding is reasonable and acceptable, since
you want that too. Problem is: how long will it take?

> People aren't paid to work on it and only do this to fill a need for them.

	I disagree. The fact you are not paid to do it doesn't allow
you to do a low-quality work or a slow development. You do because you
like it. If you don't like it, it would be better to not do anything at
all.

> You want specific features ? Pay for them.
> MPlayer doesn't please you ? So what ? Who forces you to use it anyhow ?

	I use MPlayer because when compared to Xine for example, it's
much better and complete. What make me nervous is the lack of specific
features Xine has... this for me is unacceptable.

> I don't know any OSS player that plays BD right now so this argument
> is pointless.

	THAT's the exact point I want to discuss: the fact that no OSS
player can play blu-ray right now is the *main reason* to hurry up and
make MPlayer be the first OSS player to do that! This would be a
historical achievement and would attract attention back to MPlayer.
This would turn MPlayer again on a killer app!

> Hopefully for us, you've enlighted us on the way to go.

	No, I didn't enlighted nobody. I am just being as sincere as
possible and requesting a feature that not only me, but a hundred,
maybe thousands of users are waiting for many years.

> PS: btw, most of MPlayer developers actually are/were/used to be major
> contributors to FFmpeg.
> So these "lazy developers" that don't understand user needs just made
> all the hard work that
> each and every player now uses instead of focusing on their own project.
> How selfish this is ...

	Ok. FFMpeg is great, thank you, but it can't also play a
blu-ray. From the user perspective, it doesn't mind if the software is
a programming masterpiece if it doesn't fulfill user's need.

	But ok Benjamin, I'm not here to fight with anyone. You have
your arguments, I have mine, others have theirs. In the end of the day
I would be happy if I could at least read the damn PGS subtitles. Just
that! I'm not even asking right now for menus, playlists (off course it
would be welcome too).

	Ps: ok, Reimar posted a patch, I'll look at it now.

-- 
Linux 2.6.34: Sheep on Meth