Yes, ChatGPT's greatest strength for me is as a man parser. This is especially helpful for tools that do a bajillion things like ffmpeg. Just finding the relevant parts of the manual can take a prohibitively long time.
When writing my filtergraphs, I've found the following three "tricks" to be immensely helpful
Use an actual editor. Fish shell has a keybind that opens the current prompt in your $EDITOR, and saving+quitting returns to the editor. Makes multi line ffmpeg filters trivial. Doubly so if your editor has something like TabNine completions
If that's not enough, write the filter in a dedicated file, and use either editor automation or something like entr to run ffmpeg's graph2dot command and then graphviz to get a visualization of said graph. Helps ferret out bugs
Build up more complex graphs using either ffplay or mpv. You can add filters at runtime to mpv via the repl (press ~) and the vf add command
6 Comments
DieterParker@feddit.de · 10 pts · 3y
75$/year subscribtion model for a graphical user interface.. In contrast Total Commander for life costs 39€ + tax.
ryannathans@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 3y
Expensive UI lol
paraphrand@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 3y
I find asking ChatGPT works for lots of ffmpeg uses. Maybe mine are simple when compared to other contexts though…
GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 3y
Yes, ChatGPT's greatest strength for me is as a
manparser. This is especially helpful for tools that do a bajillion things like ffmpeg. Just finding the relevant parts of the manual can take a prohibitively long time.pixelscience@lemm.ee · 0 pts · 3y
But part of the fun of FFmpeg is spending two days trying to figure out how to get it to do what you are trying to do.
Paradox@lemdro.id · 2 pts · 3y
When writing my filtergraphs, I've found the following three "tricks" to be immensely helpful
$EDITOR, and saving+quitting returns to the editor. Makes multi line ffmpeg filters trivial. Doubly so if your editor has something like TabNine completionsvf addcommand