[MPlayer-users] Mplayer svn problem with FLAC in mkv and Pulse

[Rashkae]

I've finally been able to nail down a problem I've been having with 
several video files that seem to point to a problem with Mplayer 
decoding/synching FLAC audio. (using mplayer-export-2010-09-01)

All the affected files are HD x264 encoded video in an mkv container. 
When I try to play the files (usually using smplayer front end), there 
can be several seconds at the start where the video stutters (and often 
freezes).  I also notice that the seconds count jumps backswards a few 
times in the smplayer progress status.

In previous versions of Ubuntu, I wouldn't see this effect if Pulse 
Audio was uninstalled.

If I extract the audio track, (ex: mkvextract tracks some_file.mkv 
2:audio.flac)  and play that with mplayer, the audio plays without 
hesitation, but the mplayer console output shows the seconds meter 
starting from a negative position (-1 or -2 seconds) and often jumping 
backwards for a few seconds after reaching 0 secs. If I convert the 
audio to something more sensible, like vorbis (either using mplayer -ao 
pcm on the audio file, or ffmpeg -i audio.flac -o - | oggenc -q 6 - -o 
audio.ogg) and remux into the video, mplayer is able to play the file 
without any of these problems.