[Novalug] Bryan vs Richard, apparently, and way off-topic -- was: Video converter (to DVD with menus) -- was: Video converter

[Richard Ertel]

see responses in-line:

On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 14:30, Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith at ieee.org> wrote:
> Did you try "DVD Menu" in your Freshmeat.NET search?  ;)

i probably did, months ago when i was searching for the solution,
along with google and ubuntuforums searches. at what point have i
searched enough that i can say "my search turned up no solutions"?

> It's common for community software solutions to process in one GUI
> window and coalesce the results in another GUI window, with optional
> batch, intermediate editing, etc...  Sometimes they are in the same
> GUI program.  Sometimes you use 2-3 programs running at once to
> do different things.  "Do one thing and do it well" rings a bell.

agree. much software works like this. not the solution i am looking
for. desired solution = easy, either through one gui with
drag-and-drop, or multiple cli with scripting ability.

> Actually, OS doesn't matter here at all.  I can do the same under Windows
> with community-developed software.  Many people use one program to
> rip, then another to encode, in Windows as well.  Others like the titling one
> program does, while it's encoding is not as good.
>
> I.e., I've had a DV device myself for over seven (7) years and have
> been editing, producing, etc... under Linux.  And a dozen (12) years
> before that, I had a Marvell G200 and IOMega Buz to convert to MJPEG
> and I have been editing in Linux for ten (10) years.
>
> I don't like the command line interface (CLI) and I want a GUI.  Which is
> why I hit Freshmeat, try a few things out and like what I like and don't like
> what I don't.  Again, I'm lazy, so I use GUIs myself.  ;)
>
> If I would find a Windows application I prefer, I just use that Windows
> application.  Again, *0* guilt here.  I will _never_ guilt people on choice,
> preference, etc... only when they say there isn't an option.

your statement here doesn't match up with the fact that you are
imposing guilt upon me, while i have no personal guilt upon myself. i
feel *0* guilt because of the fact that i use and have paid for a
windows program that "just works and works great". i don't feel guilty
because i wish that i could do the same thing (easy conversion of
multiple video files to dvd with menus) in linux.

i say that "i have not found an option" which is true. so why did you guilt me?

> BTW, I did preface it with "Tongue-in-cheek."  What you call "condescending"
> manner, I call, "hey, we're about community-developed software here, so let's
> try things out," type joke and humor.  If you want to take offense, then that's on
> yourself, not how I presented it.  People forget about FreshMeat, which also has
> Windows, MacOS X, etc... software as well as Linux, because it's heavily focused
> on community-developed software.

i could say some pretty awful things to you, but preface it with "hey
i'm a nice guy" but that doesn't release me of the responsibility of
what i say. if you want to be nice and offer up nice, helpful advice,
then my advice to you is to just do that, and leave the
"tongue-in-cheek" condescension at home.

> The key here is to actually _try_ applications and workflow to see how they work.
> Just assuming there are no options, combinations, etc... doesn't do much for the
> community developed model.  Searching, playing, tinkering, etc... with the actual
> options is how you find if things work for you or not.

you never asked which applications and workflows i've already tried,
you jumped straight to an assumption that, because i didn't find a
solution, that i have concluded that there isn't one. i've simply
moved my search from high priority to low. other parts of my life are
more important than moving dvd authoring from windows to linux.

> Otherwise, as I also prefaced with "Tongue-in-cheek," I can go to Best Buy and
> ask the local Geek Squad kid what works well.  They'll typically give me something
> that does work very well, and tell me about it as they walk me to the checkout.

no disagreement there.

> Simple reality between community and commercial software.  ;)
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Richard Ertel <richard.ertel at gmail.com>
> To: novalug at calypso2.tux.org
> Sent: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 2:16:58 PM
> Subject: Re: [Novalug] Video converter (to DVD with menus) -- was: Video converter
>
> Lo'n behold what? a list of 7 applications, only one of which claims
> to do what the OP asked for, and none of which claim to do dvd menus?
> and that one is 4 years old, and therefore (i assume) no longer
> maintained?
>
> the easy answer for Roy is going to be Jason's response. the answer to
> my search isn't so simple, and simply saying that it's not difficult
> to find solutions, while offering up a list of non-solutions, doesn't
> help.
>
> if anyone knows of any linux applications that can make dvd menus long
> side ffmpeg converting videos, as command line programs that can be
> scripted, and can share the information in a not condescending manner,
> i'd appreciate the advice.
>
> nobody knows everything, so we're all ignorant of SOMETHING sometimes.
> let's just help each other out.
>