[FFmpeg-devel] Libavcodec consulting

[Jonathan Girven]

On Thu, Mar 3, 2016 at 11:28 PM, compn <tempn at mi.rr.com> wrote:
> 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).

Thanks for that clarification. Unfortunately the http server is a third
party camera that broadcasts a WiFi hotspot. Therefore we don't really
have control over the underlying server. However, what I do know is
that the ffmpeg command I quoted previously seems to be able to
grab a chunk of a video anywhere in the file without downloading the
whole thing. So I assume libav must also be capable.

Cheers,
Jon.