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[VDD 2023] Technical Discussions summary

RGB Mask

  • the idea is to replace masks with "non masked" formats
  • 8bit masks are removed, remains <8bit RGB masks
  • still remains the little endian/big endian question, for 15b and 16b
  • no risk to use RGBA when we used RGB before

We agree to remove RGB masks.

For AVI, treat it a little endian.

OpenGL

  • Will have to fix the execution context on best effort (solution not ideal right now). Move opengl rendering to dedicated threads, already agreed on MR.
  • Android already using OpenGL for subtitle with/without MediaCodec direct rendering (so, faster, but:)
  • Scaling subtitles to be merged: https://code.videolan.org/alexandre-janniaux/vlc/-/commits/spu-rework/1/ waiting for Subtitles in Black bars to be merged first, see next:

Subtitles in Black Bars

  • one of the key problem is to determine which old SPU generator is supposed to be placed in video referential or display referential
  • the codec should define the default referential to be used.
  • it should be set per spu region.
  • other issue: we still have to agree on how to tell the vout to refresh a "bigger" part of it than before. update_format does not seem to be ok.
  • we will not manage steam output for now.

New Apple vout AvSampleDisplayBufferLayerScreenVideoStuffRendering

  • Implemented, working and faster with CVPX and subtitles
  • PIP to be added
  • No subtitles in PIP, or maybe using a CIFilter to blend them (need to be tested)

Qt6

  • Qt6 remove ANGLE dependency (that's great), composition is far better, etc.
  • but requires C++17 for QT compilation
    • We think it's fine to switch to c++17 for the Qt module
    • gcc9 and clang5 required for Qt
  • It will be a pain to support QT6 and QT5 at the same time (especially for QML)
  • QT6 Tests on Windows7 seems ok, so it should be ok to switch for all windows versions. More tests needed ?
  • We may need to support both since Linux distribs will stay to Qt5 for some time (at least for now).

Side bar / New design

  • retex of beta testers: people get confused at the top two bars
  • this is more complicated to have consistent UX for classic/legacy and modern modes
  • Playlist view too far from VLC 3.0 view

Proposition: put top menu on the left (which will mimic the old VLC3 playlist view)

Issues:

  • is the side bar can be "icon mode" only (thin view), or is it hidden completely when collapsed ?

    • a large majority of the audience is for tabs and collapse (minimal icon) view

  • this looks like a lot like windows media player

  • where to we put the VLC logo ? Other proposition: on the home view, at the top of it, add: branding + quick actions, then "recent" row after that.

  • is the menubar shown by default ? UI features that should be added for 4.0:

  • open a video in a separate window

  • overlay mode VS bottom controls

  • in simple preferences. a lot will be removed

RTP Split

  • there should be no namespace issue, so symbol conflicts should not happen
  • redefine-syms to modify on Android

Icy

  • basically no issue anymore, but we have to develop new code based on the http module to handle ICY specificities.

Click to pause

  • if there is an UI, the UI catches the click event and send it to video window
  • if none, the vout catches the click event and send it to the video window
  • maybe we should not care about gestures

What is VLM ?

  • VLM was broken in 4.0 with all the changes in both player and stream output
  • We still have to maintain because a lot of users still uses it
  • @asenat has started to look at it, and fix the regressions
  • there is still some work to be done, but for the "common" cases, this should be fine.

mDNS

  • exposing web interface through mDNS ?
  • this implies a lot of security issues, and with the capabilities of the current web interface, this could be a no-go.
  • QRCode for sharing secrets is cool, but only for a non-browser client scenario
  • self-signed certificates is the same (ok for app to app, but not browser to app).
  • we could have two different HTTP interfaces, one only for browser control (with limited capabilities), and one with higher privileges in https/self-signed/additional authentication, designed for app clients (or users who will accept https one way or another).

Meson status

  • gettext: is the last "big" topic to include in meson because VLC tree has some weird specificities.
  • this will need to make some changes in meson, and this is not simple
  • after that, apart from a small amount of uncommon modules.

4.0 Milestone (unaddressed)

LibVLC 4.0 new API (unaddressed)

Master Clock input (unaddressed)

Edited by Thomas Guillem
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