On Wednesday 06 January 2021 08:05:25 Michael via tde-users wrote: > On Wednesday 06 January 2021 02:59:33 am William Morder via tde-users wrote: > > On Tuesday 05 January 2021 23:58:20 deloptes via tde-users wrote: > > > William Morder via tde-users wrote: > > > > Eventually, though, even if you stay off the Internet, the media > > > > players your unsupported Stretch and/or Wheezy systems will stop > > > > playing some formats, because they keep changing things. And like I > > > > said, > > > > Buster/Beowulf will be supported for years to come. So -- when things > > > > in your life get more bearable -- consider upgrading your system. > > > > > > I must disagree - no one is changing the standards. At least I am not > > > aware of things changing in already released formats. What may not work > > > are new formats where you may not have the new codec. > > > > Hmmm, well, I remember it happening in the past, back when I was still > > running KDE3, and resisted upgrading. However, that was many years ago, > > so my memory is a little fuzzy. > > Bill is right. For whatever reason updates to software players using > codecs do sometimes 'break' the ability to play existing (older) files. > I've experienced this multiple times (100s probably) since the '90s (and my > mother has lost some family videos to this phenomenon). > > I've experience all of these situations: > > - Software no longer includes the older codec and you can hunt down and > re-install the codec manually and it will play again. > - Software no longer includes the older codec and you can hunt down and > re-install the codec manually and it still will NOT play. > - Software claims to have the codec, but, while newer created files will > play correctly, older created files will NOT play. > > Add in a bunch of situations to the above of mangled playing of older files > (think old VHS playbacks). > > Bit rot is probably responsible for some of it, but I’ve experienced cases > (saved one of mom’s holiday videos) where copying the file to an ‘old’ > machine (was literally stuck in a closet and hadn’t been updated in 5+ > years) allowed the file to play ‘fine’ and was also able to convert the > file to another format which then played correctly on the ‘new’ machine. > > My rule of thumb is to convert any codec using file that I care about into > 3 different formats for archiving. > > HTH, > Michael Overnight, it suddenly occurred to me: when I downloaded mp4 videos from YouTube, I remembered that they were all pixelated and impossible to watch. My other mp4s, from other sources, played just fine. So I hung onto the videos, but couldn't watch them. Then when I upgraded (when moving from the 'buntus to Debian, then later to Devuan), I discovered that suddenly all those unwatchable YouTube mp4s played just fine again. And it didn't matter what player I used, because it was the fact that I used an older distro that was causing the problem. Bill ____________________________________________________ tde-users mailing list -- users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe send an email to users-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Web mail archive available at https://mail.trinitydesktop.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
