Comments on: Mac Software http://rant.aprotim.com/2010/01/25/mac-software/ Better living through sophistry... Fri, 14 May 2010 10:20:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: George Austin http://rant.aprotim.com/2010/01/25/mac-software/comment-page-1/#comment-5177 George Austin Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:49:45 +0000 http://rant.aprotim.com/?p=50#comment-5177 Wow - I had no idea MPlayer was shady. Could you give me a link? Should I recommend xine ports instead? Other than major problems with soft subtitles in Matroska files, VLC just <a href="http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1313870.html" rel="nofollow">drops</a> <a href="http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=549206" rel="nofollow">frames</a> (though there <a href="http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=65662" rel="nofollow">are</a> a few <a href="http://woikr.com/mac/fix-vlc-skipping-problem-on-your-mac/" rel="nofollow">workarounds</a> maybe), especially with HD video. And (as far as I know) VLC doesn't do GPU-accelerated HD playback (not that it matters for the discussion at hand - GPU acceleration <a href="http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=52752" rel="nofollow">isn't happening for non-Apple applications anytime soon</a>. I guess that last point is more a reason why I recommend <a href="http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/DXVASupport.html" rel="nofollow">MPC-HC</a> to Windows users.). Wow – I had no idea MPlayer was shady. Could you give me a link? Should I recommend xine ports instead?

Other than major problems with soft subtitles in Matroska files, VLC just drops frames (though there are a few workarounds maybe), especially with HD video. And (as far as I know) VLC doesn’t do GPU-accelerated HD playback (not that it matters for the discussion at hand – GPU acceleration isn’t happening for non-Apple applications anytime soon. I guess that last point is more a reason why I recommend MPC-HC to Windows users.).

]]> By: aprotim http://rant.aprotim.com/2010/01/25/mac-software/comment-page-1/#comment-5173 aprotim Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:56:25 +0000 http://rant.aprotim.com/?p=50#comment-5173 George, why "wave people off" of VLC? I used to be an mplayer user exclusively, but those guys do some truly shady things with let's call it 'borrowing" other people's code (proprietary, open source, it doesn't matter - they flatly ignore licensing provisions and are generally asses when people call tham on it). Also, I haven't use Mplayer OS X Extended, but I used a different OS X port, and I felt like the UI was very hacked-on. These days I use mplayer almost exclusively for basic video editing (extracting audio, etc.) George, why “wave people off” of VLC? I used to be an mplayer user exclusively, but those guys do some truly shady things with let’s call it ‘borrowing” other people’s code (proprietary, open source, it doesn’t matter – they flatly ignore licensing provisions and are generally asses when people call tham on it). Also, I haven’t use Mplayer OS X Extended, but I used a different OS X port, and I felt like the UI was very hacked-on. These days I use mplayer almost exclusively for basic video editing (extracting audio, etc.)

]]> By: aprotim http://rant.aprotim.com/2010/01/25/mac-software/comment-page-1/#comment-5172 aprotim Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:40:23 +0000 http://rant.aprotim.com/?p=50#comment-5172 Bill - they actually have keyword search, but it' not managed through the bookmarks like in FF - in perferences, click "manage search engines". I used to extensively use FF keywords, and I actually like Chrome's better, since there's an obvious way to actually do a search starting with a keyword (e.g. search google for "imdb pro" rather than do an imdb search for "pro"). Bill – they actually have keyword search, but it’ not managed through the bookmarks like in FF – in perferences, click “manage search engines”. I used to extensively use FF keywords, and I actually like Chrome’s better, since there’s an obvious way to actually do a search starting with a keyword (e.g. search google for “imdb pro” rather than do an imdb search for “pro”).

]]> By: Bill http://rant.aprotim.com/2010/01/25/mac-software/comment-page-1/#comment-5171 Bill Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:26:22 +0000 http://rant.aprotim.com/?p=50#comment-5171 Good list. FYI, the dev version of Chrome on OS X now supports extensions. They also finally added a (basic) bookmark manager. Now all I need is keyword support & I'll switch from FF. Good list. FYI, the dev version of Chrome on OS X now supports extensions. They also finally added a (basic) bookmark manager. Now all I need is keyword support & I’ll switch from FF.

]]> By: George Austin http://rant.aprotim.com/2010/01/25/mac-software/comment-page-1/#comment-5168 George Austin Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:33:33 +0000 http://rant.aprotim.com/?p=50#comment-5168 Great list! I've been waving people off of VLC lately and toward <a href="http://mplayerosx.sttz.ch/" rel="nofollow">MPlayer OSX Extended</a> or <a href="http://code.google.com/p/movist/" rel="nofollow">Movist</a> on the Mac, and toward Media Player Classic Home Cinema or MPlayer on Windows. Great list! I’ve been waving people off of VLC lately and toward MPlayer OSX Extended or Movist on the Mac, and toward Media Player Classic Home Cinema or MPlayer on Windows.

]]> By: Alpha http://rant.aprotim.com/2010/01/25/mac-software/comment-page-1/#comment-5167 Alpha Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:32:15 +0000 http://rant.aprotim.com/?p=50#comment-5167 I've recently been preferring NicePlayer (http://code.google.com/p/niceplayer/) to VLC recently on OS X... I’ve recently been preferring NicePlayer (http://code.google.com/p/niceplayer/) to VLC recently on OS X…

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