[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] fixes and optimization for ff_find_start_code()

[Matthias Dahl]

Hi.

The following patch fixes bugs in ff_find_start_code() and
optimizes it.

 (1) In certain cases, ff_find_start_code() could report false
     positives, depending on the contents of start_code when the
     the function gets called. 

     Cause: The for-loop operates on start_code without clearing
            it. It simply shiftes the contents and checks if a
            start code has been found- thus, shifting the old
            contents.

            Example: start_code = 0x00000001 at call time
            The second for-loop iteration will always return
            a false positive.

     Looking through the ffmpeg code, this is not always taken into
     account. Sometimes ff_find_start_code() gets called repeatedly
     with old contents which could trigger a false positive randomly.

 (2) ff_find_start_code() always changes start_code without providing
     a way to know if this is old contents, a found start_code or some
     random data.

This patch fixes (1) and (2) and greatly simplifies the function
along the way. The new behaviour won't cause any regressions and has
been tested extensively:

 (1) start_code is still always modified
 
 (2) start_code contains either a valid start code or 0xFFFFFFFF
     which can be used to shortcut certain evaluations (subject for
     a different patch though)

The simplified version seems to be easier optimizable for gcc 4.3.x
as with -O3 and some artificial benchmarks I made, the new version
is approx. 33% faster in all cases. A oprofile in mythtv revealed
also a speed up.

Hope this patch is okay. If there are any questions or remarks, please let me 
know. Thanks for taking a look...

Best regards,
matthias.
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