virtual package "video-player"?

[Jonas Smedegaard]

Quoting IOhannes m zmölnig (Debian/GNU) (2017-11-13 19:59:28)
> While looking into [881326], i realized that there is no single
> (virtual) package to install a desktop video player.
> 
> i'd like to suggest the introduction of such a package that should be
> provided by any general purpose standalone desktop video player that is
> capable of playing "any" video format (e.g. the thing that your average
> desktop user can install and which will play their video collection).
> 
> here's a quick list of potential packages that should provide it:
>  - bangarang - Multimedia player with a lightweight interface for KDE
>  - dragonplayer - simple video player
>  - gmerlin - multiformat media player
>  - gst123 - GStreamer based command line media player
>  - kaffeine - versatile media player for KDE
>  - mplayer - movie player for Unix-like systems
>  - mpv - video player based on MPlayer/mplayer2
>  - parole - media player based on GStreamer framework
>  - totem - Simple media player for the GNOME desktop based on GStreamer
>  - vlc - multimedia player and streamer
>  - gxine - the xine video player, GTK+/Gnome user interface
>  - xine-console - the xine video player, user interface
>  - xine-ui - the xine video player, user interface
> 
> the list was assembled via a quick "apt-cache search", rather than
> consulting multimedia-tasks.
> 
> i'm mostly using vlc these days, so i don't know much about the quality
> of most players in the list; so there might be some false positives;
> also, it's not unlikely that i forgot your favourite player.
> the list excludes specialized players (ser-player, aview) and expert
> systems (xjadeo, melt) on purpose. for now, it also excludes various GUI
> frontends to media-players like mplayer (assuming that having mplayer
> installed is enough to play a file - either via cmdline or by
> file-association)
> 
> a good name might be "video-player" or "desktop-video-player" (i'd
> favour the first).
> 
> 
> what do you think?
> if we can come to a consensus, i'd propose this on debian-devel.

To address bug#881326, fallback dependencies should be limited to tools 
not exploding in your face in a non-GUI environment, and tools using 
same syntax to play media.

Simplest approach to address issues like bug#881326 generally would 
probably be to extend package sensible-utils with a "sensible-player", 
knowledgeable about the possible players in Debian fitting the critera.

/etc/alternatives could be used (in addition to or instead of 
sensible-utils helper) to provide local sysadmin freedom to prioritize 
among multiple installed players.

A virtual package would not help resolve runtime decision on what tool 
to invoke, but tools either known by sensible-utils helper or 
registering themselves with a coordinated /etc/alternatives name could 
additionally declare themselves as providing that common name - either 
is-intended-for-GUI-use or should-survive-console-use..

mpv is usable for both, but seems xine-console is sensible only for the 
latter (but I don't know, just judge from reading its description)..

> oh, and while being there i was also thinking about a virtual package 
> "music-player" (for playing your music collection of OGG, MP3, FLAC, 
> WAV,... files). (i don't have a special need for that right now; it 
> just occured to me to be useful).

Makes sense - but possibly there is no need for distinction but we can 
introduce only too new helpers: sensible-gui-player and 
sensible-console-player.


 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
 * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

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