[MPlayer-dev-eng] [SURVEY] change mencoder's default ofilename extension?

[The Wanderer]

RC wrote:

> On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 14:21:15 -0500 The Wanderer
> <inverseparadox at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
>> I'll note, first, that I would never support automatic extension
>> based on container in any case *except* when no output filename was
>> specified.
> 
> Seems pretty wasteful, to add complex code for automatic extension
> naming to mplayer, and all only to be used in one rare situation, and
> yet still not entirely solving the problem...

Wasteful... in the "general bloatedness" sense, maybe, but I'm not too
sure otherwise. I suppose it's just that I would rather do it Right, if
that's remotely practical and can be done without impeding other
functionality, if it's going to be done at all; I've bogged down a few
programs of my own trying to write code to robustly handle all possible
bad input as a result of that viewpoint.

(I'm not sure of how complex it would have to be, either... the basic
structure is quite simple, provided that the relevant variables - the
value passed to -o (if any), the value passed to -of (if any), and the
value passed to -lavfopts format (if any) are all available in the same
place where Reynaldo is adding his code.)


Even apart from all of that, how does it not entirely solve the problem?
The "raw*" bit, or the ambiguity about what extension some containers
should have, or something else? I don't think either of those is really
enough to qualify it as an "incomplete solution", since nothing else
I've seen proposed handles them any better...

The raw* formats don't seem to *have* any valid extensions, in which
case it is certainly not correct to give them an extension which is used
by an existing format. If anyone can come up with a good way to handle
this, I'd be glad to hear it.

As I've said multiple times, while it may not be entirely *correct* to
choose the one particular extension for any given container format, it
is certainly less incorrect than to either choose an extension which
does not match the format or leave the file with no extension at all.

>> -of raw* I'll admit that I'm not sure how to handle; perhaps
>> specifically use no extension, or ".rawvideo" or the like?
> 
> Why not just do that for all file-formats, and not require mencoder
> to guess?  The "-dump*" options just output to "stream.dump"...  Why
> not make mencoder output to "video.out" or some other equally
> unasuming extension?  Far simpler than trying to guess for one rare
> situation.

My first answer would probably be "Because we *can* make a better guess
for those other formats", as we can't for rawvideo and rawaudio.
Simplicity is not always an overriding goal.

This would be a potential solution, yes, and IIRC it was proposed
earlier in the thread, but IMO it's less preferable than the 'require -o
in all cases' solution.

(As to the rarity - I would never have thought to bring the subject up
on my own, but since the rest of y'all *were* here discussing it,
apparently it's common enough to warrant some attention in any case.)

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.