[MPlayer-DOCS] CVS: main/DOCS/xml/en faq.xml,1.82,1.83

[The Wanderer]

Guillaume Poirier CVS wrote:

> +<qandaentry>
> +<question><para>
> +Since 1.0pre7, DivX encoded by <application>MPlayer</application>
> +cannot be watched on third party players because it sets 'FMP4' as a
> +FourCC.

I'm not completely satisfied with the phrasing of this last part, but
it's better than the way it was in the pre-commit patch, and it's not
really intolerable - which is good, because I've got no idea how to
improve it anyway.

> +</para></question>
> +
> +<answer><para>
> +<systemitem class="library">libavcodec</systemitem>, the native MPEG-4
> +encoding library usually shipped with <application>MEncoder</application>

Missing comma after "MEncoder", to close the "description" block
(explaining what libavcodec is) which was opened by the preceding comma.

> +used to set the 'DIVX' FourCC (which is an AVI tag to identify the
> +software used to encode and the intended software to use for decoding)

I might prefer to say "set the FourCC to 'DIVX' when encoding MPEG-4
videos (the FourCC is an AVI tag to" et cetera. For strict accuracy it
would be necessary to indicate that the FourCC is intended to identify
the software in question for the *video*, not the audio, since AVIs can
include both - but that may be more unwieldy than it's worth, here.

> +when encoding MPEG-4 videos, which lead to make many people think that

This looks like the combined remnant of about three different ways of
phrasing the same thing, only one of which I can tease out at the
moment. I'd suggest "which led many people to think that".

Also, WRT the following lines, I'm seeing what I believe is a run-on
sentence (I'm not sure it fits the strict definition, but it's
definitely wrong, and I don't have a better name for it). The simplest
fix would be to break the sentence after "MPEG-4 videos" and replace the
following "which" with "this".

> +<systemitem class="library">libavcodec</systemitem> was a DivX encoding
> +library, when in fact it is just another MPEG-4 encoding library whose
> +MPEG-4 support is much better than DivX's.

I'm not sure I'm happy about "when" here, but I'm not being able to pin
down the nature of my objection in any terms I can't easily refute on my
own, so...

Are you sure you want to say "just another MPEG-4 encoding library",
with the implication that it's merely one more in a faceless crowd?
Given that we all seem to think that it's the best around, perhaps even
the greatest thing since sliced bread, it might be more appropriate to
say something like "a completely different MPEG-4 encoding library"
instead. (This comes down to nothing more than a propaganda issue, but
sometimes those can be important too.)

> +Therefore, the new default FourCC used by
> +<systemitem class="library">libavcodec</systemitem> is 'FMP4', but you
> +may override this behavior using <application>MEncoder</application>'s
> +<option>-ffourcc</option>.

Either "MEncoder's -ffourcc option" or "the MEncoder option -ffourcc".

> +You may also change the FourCC of existing files like this:

Is the "like this" intended to be somewhat parallel to "like so", i.e. a
lead-in to a demonstration, or is it intended to mean "in this same
way"? The latter seems more likely from context, but the former is the
meaning I'd take away from the phrasing as it stands (although the
current phrasing is somewhat awkward to produce that meaning).

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

A government exists to serve its citizens, not to control them.