[MPlayer-cvslog] CVS: main/DOCS/tech mpcf.txt,1.69,1.70

[D Richard Felker III]

On Wed, Mar 09, 2005 at 08:38:37PM +0100, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
> Hi
> 
> On Wednesday 09 March 2005 18:57, Ivan Kalvachev wrote:
> [...]
> > On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 12:08:32 -0500
> >
> > D Richard Felker III <dalias at aerifal.cx> wrote:
> > > Index should definitely not be specified as being at the beginning of
> > > the file! This destroys the ability to do linear writes, and playing a
> > > video over streaming ftp or http is stupid anyway. These protocols are
> > > not designed for streaming video. Instead use something where
> > > requesting the index and seeking can be made reasonably fast. Or
> > > better yet a protocol where you just tell the server the timestamp you
> > > want to seek to, and it uses the index to start streaming the right
> > > data to you!
> >
> > Well, It is stupid but it is the easiest way. And It is something
> > I don't have control on. So I must live with it.
> >
> > I don't see why to don't allow having index in beginning. Yes it does
> > mean that I will have to reprocess (copy) the file once it have been
> > created or leave some space on purpose, with hope index will fit on it.
> > (20k is reasonable waste)
> >
> > I do think that it should be possible to be done it if linear reading is
> > needed..
> 
> what do u want to use a index for if u are limited to sequential/linear reads? 
> seeking would be impossible per definition

i agree. if seeking is infeasible over the link to begin with then you
don't need an index. if restarting the ftp/http transfer on every seek
is acceptable, it's not that much more work to restart it one extra
time to read the index. you could wait to read the index until the
first seek attempt rather than doing it at initial connect if you
really want..

> > Unnecessarily limiting standard won't bring anything good.
> 
> yes, but dont forget the implementation complexity, if the index can be 
> anywhere then finding it becomes complicated, if its guranteed to be at the 
> end or nowhere its easy

my thoughts exactly.

rich