[MPlayer-dev-eng] MPCF Draft/Discussion (MPlayer ContainerFormat)

[michael c]

Hi,

I must say, I think I agree with Fabien that the file format should not 
close the door on advanced features. The only thing that should be kept in 
mind is that those features should not make everything over-complicated.

I propose that there could be another stream type (named "generic" or 
something), in which additional features could then be implemented. Then, if 
some programs don't support these features, these streams could simply be 
ignored; the programs don't even need to know anything about their format.
There could be, for example, a menu stream (fourcc "MENU" or so), which 
contains a menu in whatever format you might come up with. Or a chapter 
stream (fourcc "CHAP"?) which contains the chapter info. Those streams would 
only have one packet, of course. If cou come up with a better format for 
those, you could simply pick a different fourcc, so everything's open for 
everyhting, without simple programs having to know about these advanced 
things. They just implement what they need/want.
Even the index could be well off as one of those generic streams. Just put 
the index into one packet; the header tells you where it is, you can put it 
wherever you want, and you can repeat it as often as you want.

I guess I'm not a pro when it comes to file formats, but this sounds like 
the easiest and most extensible way?

mike


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