[Libav-user] packet flag AV_PKT_FLAG_KEY

[Hendrik Leppkes]

On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Don Moir <donmoir at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Carl Eugen Hoyos" <cehoyos at ag.or.at>
> To: <libav-user at ffmpeg.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 6:12 PM
>
> Subject: Re: [Libav-user] packet flag AV_PKT_FLAG_KEY
>
>
>> Don Moir <donmoir at ...> writes:
>>
>>> Not sure what AV_PKT_FLAG_KEY is supposed to mean.
>>> The assumption to me early on is it represented a key
>>> frame but not necessarily.
>>
>>
>> Apart from the fact that I simply don't understand the
>> second sentence:
>
>
> Hard to understand is right and still tring to understand.
>
>
>> What is missing here imo is what is unclear in your opinion
>> about the documentation (or for which input stream the
>> documentation does not match the behaviour).
>> Note that valid H.264 streams do not necessarily contain
>> keyframes and therefore do not necessarily contain packets
>> with this flag set.
>>
>> Carl Eugen
>
>
> Yes I understand about H.264. The confusion is when there are known key
> frame index_entries and these do represent at least a start point for a key
> frame. Now seems AV_PKT_FLAG_KEY should dovetail with those entries but it
> does not.
>
> If you look around some you find confusion about the usage of
> AV_PKT_FLAG_KEY. If this is used internally for some special case, then IMO
> another flag should have been used. The intent of the flag is just not
> documented well. Ideally I think it should mark the start of a key frame and
> at least dovetail with index_entries but I am sure it goes deeper than that.


The index usually comes directly from the source file. Its not
generated by avformat. (avformat has some limited index generation
functionality, but only for content you already read from the file, so
its kinda worthless)
The key flag comes either from the file as well, or its filled by the
codec parser. In the first case, its up to the file if it matches to
an index entry, in the second, there is no guarantee whatsoever.

If i take MKV as an example, index entries correspond to the Cue
elements in the file. While the position pointed to by a Cue should
start with a keyframe, there is no rule whatsoever that every keyframe
also needs to have a Cue element.

In short, as with many things in avformat, it just gives you the data
as it was stored in the file. If that doesn't match your expectations,
blame the file.