[MEncoder-users] Seek Frame on Mencoder ???

[astereobaldo]

Hi,
I have a problem. I would like to encode a video, but I'd like it to be encoded separately (e.g. in a 3-minute video, I'd like it to be possible to encode first the 0 seconds to 60 seconds bit, then the 1 to 2 minutes bit, then the last 2-3min bit).

But I'm having problems to split it time-based. If I make it encode starting at 1:20 for 1 minute, the end of this encoding isn't necessarily exactly the beginning of the encoding that starts at 2:20. I supppose thet problem here is that Mplayer/Mencoder (I think) uses the information given by the AVI file to know where to start, but uses its own way to compute the time passed.

I believe my best choice here would be using a frames-based splitting, but I couldn't find anything to go directly to a given frame (like there already is based on time (ss) and on bytes (sb)) in the functions given by Mplayer/Mencoder. =/

Can anybody over there at the other side of the screen help me with that? Is there a function like "seek a frame" or "go to frame" that I just didn't see? Or does anyone have an alternate idea for me?

Thanks a lot in advance for any help given. =]

P.S.: Talking at the IRC channel yesterday I thought about an other option (though not perfect for my need): given a time, find out which frame is it in. Is there a way to do it and output it to standard out? Thanks again.