On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:14:32 +0200, Derek McTavish Mounce
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Interesting thoughts, Richard. While I do think that Cinelerra could use
a deal of refactoring and general cleaning up, I very much agree that a
completely new base is not necessary. A lot of work has been put into
what's already here, and it would be a shame to lose it.
I think you are writing from a user's perspective. From the user's
perspective, Cinelerra is "almost there". I agree. In terms of features,
Cinelerra is near-complete. Or so it seems, at least.
But software is never truly finished. Once the user is well aquainted
with the software the urge for more sets in. Awkward corners in the
workflow is discovered. Neat features in competing products get mentioned.
The software has to take up suggestions and respond to complaints in a
timely manner, or the user base will become increasingly annoyed.
Did I just write "the software has to..."? Wasn't there a word missing?
Yes, there must be a 'developer' there. Someone with the time, skills and
_desire_ to do it. What makes hacking on Cinelerra desireable?
It has to be
* Easy
* Fun
* Rewarding
Pick any two!
For a gargantuan program like Cinelerra, where many parts have high
performance and timing demands, "Easy" leaves only small subsets of
the TODO list.
Studying Christian Thäter's laments about Cinelerra on IRC and in his
wiki,
I became rather pessimistic about the "Fun" and "Rewarding". Those who can
take on the important work that isn't easy will not put up with annoyances.
To them it is quite natural to conclude "I can't be bothered maintaining
this",
"I can do better myself" or both.
If you are going to question a _developer's_ rationale for rewriting the
progam from scratch, you have to get a feel on how developing Cinelerra is.
Your three suggestions --particularly 1 and 2- are absolutely precise; a
quality deinterlacer and a decent color grading solution are the primary
lackings in open source video software.
I am more concerned about the lack of Free Software that handles
interlacing natively. Deinterlacing is lossy. An NLE that deals
with TV material (not just cinematic stuff) ought to be able to
preserve interlacing throughout the workflow, no matter how many
effects or transformations you throw in. Enabling Cinelerra to
do that would require pretty deep changes.
Interlacing is not going away soon. HDTV has 1080i, like it or
not. And 50Hz interlaced _is_ more fluid than 25Hz progressive.
I know indy film makers tend to lust for the "film like" judder
of 24 or 25 fps. I don't. We're not doing the users a favour
by forcing them to deinterlace. They may not have the camera
operator skills to make 25p look good. But they can still have
footage and stories worth watching.
--
Herman Robak
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