[MPlayer-dev-eng] [PATCH] dvb fix

[Arpi]

Hi,

> My theory is that mpeg multiplexing of dvb-t berlin, together with the
> demultiplexing and syncing strategy of mplayer might be the problem.  If
> I find out more and/or can reproduce the thing, I'll write again...
> 
> BTW very good argument against this being a hardware problem is, that
> CPU and kernel load is ok and, more important, that everything works ok
> if I use -nosound or -cache.

there is a 'design issue' with mplayer (and most other players i know):
it sync to audio (or wall clock), instead of stream clock.

so if your clock reference (soundcard timer in case of mplayer) isn't in
100.00000% sync with your stream source's sync (dvb broadcaster) then you'll
either overflow the input buffer (so after a while you get the 'too many
packets' thingie), or underflow it (so it will play faster than data comes,
resulting a-v desync (it cant play audio slower, but it can play video
slower).

this problem was once discussed, afair started by Ross about the live.com
streaming support.

btw, if the clocks are near in sync, then overflow won't occur in near time
(maybe after several hours of run) and underflow can be compensated out by
-cache's prebuffering. so, i think it's small underflow in your case.

the best solution would be to sync playback to the stream clock.
the problem is that there is no such thing as 'stream clock', at least with
mpeg es/ps streams. maybe it is with mpeg-ts ?
also, if you do know the exact bitrate of your incoming stream, you could
count bytes and use that as clock reference.
another idea is reading the stream in blocking mode (via -cache), and try to
keep the cached data size (averaged/smoothed!) near constant.
if it gets lower, then speed up playback a bit, if it gets bigger,
then slow down playback a bit.
if you're lucky & clever, and can avoid waveing (the usual side-effect of
speed feedback) then it could work well.

we really need to implement sth like this in g2, to support realtime
(wallclock-synced rate at the server) streams/broarcasts correctly.


A'rpi / Astral & ESP-team

--
Developer of MPlayer G2, the Movie Framework for all - http://www.MPlayerHQ.hu