[MPlayer-users] Incomplete file behaviour

[Reimar Döffinger]

On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 09:06:00PM +0200, belcampo wrote:
> Reimar Döffinger wrote:
> > On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 03:38:15PM +0200, belcampo wrote:
> >> If the contents of a 1000 sec h264 file would be on a distributed 
> >> filesystem, on say a 1000 computers, and 1 would not be available, so 25 
> >> frames would be missing, how would mplayer react on this, hang, or skip 
> >> 1 sec and play the rest of the file ?
> > 
> > Sorry, this is too little information to even _guess_. What do you
> > consider a "h264 file"? H.264 Annex B / ES or H.264 in MPEG-TS, or in
> > MPEG-PS or in MOV/MP4?
> MOV/MP4

Since MOV/MP4 _needs_ and index, one missing piece (at beginning or end)
can mean that the file is impossible to play, no matter which player you
use.

> >   does it wait for the missing computer to become available
> > again,
> No, one can write to the remaining computers

Well, writing behaviour is obviously irrelevant here.

> >   does it just return zeros, random data, or create and I/O error?
> create I/O error

MPlayer will stop playing if it encounters an I/O error. This could be
changed (by changing stream/stream_file.c the fill_buffer function to
e.g. return a buffer filled with all 0 when the read fails), though the
problem is that an I/O error is too little information, how do you know
which is the next part of the file that is available? Is the next byte
available? Or is the whole next 1GB unavailable?
In addition as long as you are using mov/mp4 it's questionable if there
is any point in doing such a change.