[MPlayer-users] repeat a-b

[wolfgang_a_h at gmx.at]

Hi all,
I found the following in the list when googling for a similar problem:
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[MPlayer-users] how to enable repeat a-b function?
Giacomo Comes comes at naic.edu 
Mon Nov 13 15:58:01 CET 2006 

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On Mon, Nov 13, 2006 at 08:16:46AM -0200, Leonardo B. Oliveira wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I'd like to know if it is possible to enable the function
> "repeat a-b"  (to repeat the period bwt a and b) in mplayer . In
> my opinion, mplayer is the best player, but it lacks this
> helpful feature. Any help will be much appreciated.
> 

-ss start -endpos end -loop 0 -fixed-vo

Giacomo
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Nope, does not work that way for me for rm (real media) files. 
If I do it that way (e.g. -ss 00:47:00 -endpos 00:47:10 -loop 0 -fixed-vo) mplayer just spits out "starting playback" repeatedly, without showing the 10 secs I'd like to repeat (empty output window).

I tried following the example in the man page:
(...)
When used in conjunction with -ss option, -endpos time will shift forward by seconds specified with -ss.
EXAMPLE:
(...)
     -ss 10 -endpos 56
         Stop at 1 minute 6 seconds.
(...)
it does not work either - mplayer immediately ends playback with "Exiting... (End of file)" (shortly opening the playback window).

The -ss option alone works flawlessly.

It seems to work with other formats, though. But still the behaviour is not very desirable, because there is quite a large pause at the beginning of each loop (presumably the search time).
What I would need is a seamless repitition of a configurable portion of the media file and an option to specify how often to do it (perhaps something like "-repeat 00:00:10-00:00:15x4" or the like), perhaps with caching of the snippet to make it work seamlessly. 

If this would work just during normal playback it would be perfect, e.g. play the first 30 secs, then repeat the next 10 secs four times, play again for 15 secs, repeat the next 5 once and then continue till the end:  
mplayer -repeat 00:00:30-00:00:40x4,00:00:55-00:01:00 mediafile

The option format is of course debatable ;o) "x0" could e.g. mean "repeat forever" etc.