[MPlayer-users] suggestions for stopping mplayer and restarting where stopped

[The Wanderer]

Jerry Geis wrote:

> HI,
> 
> I am wanting to gracefully stop mplayer, then restart it at whatever
> position is stopped at.
> This can be for a dvd or jome mpeg clip.
> 
> I have tried the -ss option and it does not seem to be the answer..
> I have inquired about seeking to a byte position and that doesnt seem
> to be the answer..
> 
> How do I do it?

Hack MPlayer to be able to seek to the first keyframe no later than the
desired position, then decode but not display all frames between there
and the desired position, then start displaying from the position it has
now reached. This is actually fairly simple, I believe, if you're just
talking about video (IIRC I did it once - albeit with flaws), but the
audio sync gets screwed up severely.

While you're at it, devise an algorithm - probably involving brute-force
inspection of all frames along the way - for determining what frame in
an MPEG file (and DVDs are considered MPEG files in this respect)
corresponds to a given time offset. When you've done that, please
announce it to the world (especially if it does *not* involve brute
force), because no such thing appears to have been invented to date.


All dryness aside: unfortunately, the capability you want requires the
ability to do two things which MPlayer cannot do. Many, many people
(myself included) would very much like to be able to do those things,
but the problems appear to be intractable.

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.