6 Jan
2021
6 Jan
'21
4:05 p.m.
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:
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
William Morder via tde-users wrote:
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. 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.