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Comment by CyberDildonics | Hacker News Reader

ffmpeg is a lot more than just a wrapper on libraries. It can do a lot of filtering and rewiring of audio channels, video channels and subtitles.

Handbrake doesn't do any of that. You can't even drag a bunch of audio files on to handbrake because handbrake doesn't do audio, while ffmpeg is great for encoding audio.

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What I'm saying is that ffmpeg is the libraries. When you use the ffmpeg CLI to filter and rewrite audio, the ffmpeg command is just decoding it using a decoder in libavcodec, filtering using a filter from libavfilter, and encoding again using an encoder from libavcodec. The ffmpeg CLI is "just" an interface for the libraries.

The fact that Handbrake doesn't expose the same features as the ffmpeg CLI tool is frankly irrelevant.

The fact that Handbrake doesn't expose the same features as the ffmpeg CLI tool is frankly irrelevant.

It's not just relevant, it's the whole thing. They asked for an ffmpeg GUI and someone recommended a GUI that doesn't use ffmpeg and doesn't do what ffmpeg can do. ffmpeg can not only rewire channels, it can stream video, capture video from the screen, capture video from a tv tuner, overlay text etc.

Also the libraries you listed are part of the ffmpeg project. They come from ffmpeg.

https://ffmpeg.org/about.html

Also they asked for a GUI to ffmpeg, not necessarily a GUI to the command line tool.

Handbrake does use ffmpeg. My whole point is that the libraries are ffmpeg, so I don't understand why you're saying it back to me.

Gah. I give up.

Handbrake isn't a GUI for all of ffmpeg, it does a very limited set of what ffmpeg can do.

Never argued otherwise. Specifically, the thing I'm saying is wrong is:

> someone recommended a GUI that doesn't use ffmpeg

Handbrake uses ffmpeg.

But I recognize your username. I don't remember from where but I remember reading or having a conversation with you which went nowhere. I think I'm done.

Using ffmpeg for one thing doesn't mean a GUI is a GUI for all of ffmpeg.

You said it's not using ffmpeg.

It's using ffmpeg.

That's the problem.

The problem is that ffmpeg does a lot more than handbrake exposes, that's all anyone is trying to say.

Listen to me.

The thing I have a problem with, specifically, is your statement that Handbrake doesn't use ffmpeg. That statement is incorrect.

I have no problem with the statement "Handbrake doesn't make a good ffmpeg GUI, because it only exposes a small part of what ffmpeg can do". That part is totally 100% fine.

I have a problem with the statement "Handbrake doesn't use ffmpeg", which you claimed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39943516.

And I have a problem with the response "ffmpeg is a lot more than just a wrapper around the libraries" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39941964), given the fact that ffmpeg project is the libraries and that the ffmpeg CLI tool is just an interface to them. "ffmpeg is more than a wrapper around the libraries" is strictly speaking true (because ffmpeg is both the libraries themselves and the "wrapper" ffmpeg command line tool), but it doesn't make sense as a response in context.

Do you understand? Or do I need to break it down further?

A wrapper would be some sort of straight pass through and ffmpeg does more than that. That's how you can create big commands that rewire channels, use audio from a different source, subtitles from a specific language, filter, overlay text then stream it all out. That's not trivial, but I don't know why you're getting upset over it.

Do you agree that handbrake uses ffmpeg

Yeah I meant to say it doesn't use all of ffmpeg of course.

Okay, good. So we agree.

ffmpeg is not a trivial wrapper and handbrake uses very little of ffmpeg.

to be fair, I have never seen a GUI that could do everything its complex command-line equivalent could do, that wasn't, in the end, just simpler and easier to use the command-line in the first place. so when people ask for "a GUI", I think a lot more information is needed about what it should be able to do.

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