How to Write a Video Player in Less Than 1000 Lines
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderHow to write a video player in 2 lines: #! /bin/sh vlc "$1" In all seriousness though, if you are using libraries to implement almost all of the complex functionality, then the "less than 1000 lines" comment is not very relevant.
This tutorial is very outdated, eg. `AVPicture`, which is used throughout, is completely deprecated and removed from the library, so you will simply encounter linker errors trying to follow this tutorial and will have to replace every `avpicture` call made in the tutorial. Also, `avcodec_decode_video2` is deprecated and you have to use `avcodec_send_packet` and `avcodec_receive_frame`. The FFmpeg libraries are possibly the worst thing I have ever worked with in my life. I have never been more afraid to use a…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 230
- Total comments
- 80
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-03-05 | How to Write a Video Player in Less Than 1000 Lines | akandiah | 1 | 0 |
| 2016-03-06 | How to Write a Video Player in Less Than 1000 LinesFirst breakout · Best thread | striking | 127 | 60 |
| 2022-10-30 | An ffmpeg and SDL Tutorial (2015)Latest 20+ point return | swyx | 102 | 20 |