Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] Video?

["William Jon McCann" <mccann jhu edu>]

Hey,

On 4/16/07, Christophe Fergeau <teuf gnome org> wrote:
> Le lundi 16 avril 2007 à 00:18 +0100, Alex Jones a écrit :
> > I don't see why music videos should be second rate
> > citizens in Rhythmbox!
>
> Because Rhythmbox is a music player?

I certainly understand this point of view and it is important not to
lose focus when designing a product or service.  However, I don't
think that you can really say that Rhythmbox ever was a strictly a
music player.  It has supported many different sources: internet
radio, podcasts, CD/DVDs, portable devices, etc.  As well as different
types: Music, Audiobook, Spoken word, Class lectures, Talk radio, etc.

While it is true that all of these things can be classified as audio,
I think it is important to consider the role we are trying to fill as
one that isn't clearly defined in terms of audio or video.

So instead of some existential debate over whether we are audio or
audio/video we should try to focus on the specific use case and
interface and whether of not video is compatible with our design and
vision.

To first order, I think that if a source or type that we currently
support contains a video or visual element that doesn't require an
incompatible interface it should be supported.  For example, there is
almost no difference between use of a visualizer and the video
component of a music video.  The visualizer is really just our
computer generated music video.

On the other hand, I think DVD and flash movies are out of our scope
because they really require a more complex interface that supports
interactivity - Totem does this.

Here is a problem that doesn't have a good solution today...  buy all
the South Park DVDs and load them onto a computer as individual
episodes.  I want to be able to tag, rate, search, playlist, etc these
episodes.  Nautilus + Totem just doesn't work here.  Using Rhythmbox
would be just natural even it just uses Totem to do the dirty work.

Also, I think that rhythmbox is in a better position to handle the
future where files are only downloaded to the local device on demand.

Jon