[FFmpeg-devel] Libavcodec consulting

[compn]

On Thu, 3 Mar 2016 12:11:25 +0000
Jonathan Girven <jonathan.girven at trickbook.com> wrote:

> Hi all,

Hi , i'm not a consultant , but i maybe can help clarify a thing.

> The requirements are:
> 
> - The file is hosted on a remote http server.
> 
> - The original file is in mp4 format.
>
> - The code cannot read in the entire remote video file to get a
> segment at the end of the file.

the mp4 format can either have an index at the start of the file or
at the end of the file. you cannot read (easily) an mp4 file without its
index.

http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=MP4

http servers can be made to support "request range" and thus allow
seeking to the start or end of the mp4 file. existing mp4 files can be
edited to have the index at the start or end.

otherwise, mp4 cannot be streamed. by anyone, in any situation (well,
without serious hacks). the current way mp4 is "streamed" is to
split up mp4 files into a thousand smaller mp4 files and sent to a
player using a playlist.

mp4 cannot be streamed. it sucks.
changing the http server would be easier than changing mp4 indexing.
or using an intermediate format would be easier (mkv perhaps).

hope this helps

-compn