[Desktop12.04-Topic] Video playback?

[Zygmunt Krynicki]

W dniu 08.10.2011 17:29, Frank pisze:
> On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 11:59 PM, Shane Fagan
> <shanepatrickfagan at ubuntu.com <mailto:shanepatrickfagan at ubuntu.com>> wrote:
>
>     Hey Didier,
>
>      > People trying to use video have the same critics that when
>      > they don't look the audio support: slow to start, confusing
>     interface and so
>      > on.
>
>     Well there is a bit of an interesting give and take here and it should
>     be talked about. The people who complain about a player being slow to
>     load are not the people that are really in the target any more its
>     people who want more features but dont care if it takes 2-20 seconds
>     to open.
>
>
> For me, I cannot agree at all, all features should be in plugins and by
> default applications should offer absolutely minimum features so that
> they load as quickly as possible. Then, as users wish to do something,
> the plugin can be loaded on demand - the currently situation is that all
> plugins are loaded automatically but this takes additional time.

I disagree unless you can demonstrate that users are familiar with 
plugins, enjoy turning them on and off and in general are happy with 
this concept.

I know how "good" plugins are from a developer's point of view but don't 
confuse software architecture with user interface design and usability.

In my opinion the application is not important, the important part is 
common component library: a common playback component so that the user 
feels in control and familiar with the interface (regardless of using 
banshee in library or in ad-hoc mode), common codec support (so that 
there are no files which only open in one mode and force the user to 
hunt for 3rd party player that discards all integration benefits) and 
eventually common media library APIs so that 3rd party applications may 
integrate with your music, movies and photos (as evidenced by the surge 
of apps that do this on iOS with great success).

Thanks
ZK