[MPlayer-users] frame selection/editing/stop-encoding

[D Richard Felker III]

On Wed, Sep 18, 2002 at 06:53:26PM +0200, Arpi wrote:
> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> Hi,
> 
> > But AFAIK this seek is in seconds. In order to get accuracy I have
> > to specify the start and endpos in FRAMES.
> > I also do not know how I can seek in frames forward and especially
> > backward.
> > (I know this is not easy but for editing it is essential)
> > 
> > I need an exact cut.
> 
> you can't (and won't be able to) do this with mplayer/mencoder.
> these are NOT video editing tools!
> 
> get broadcast2000 (cinerella now?) or mainconcept's actor...
> 
> i wonder why do people want to do everything with mplayer/mencoder.
> there is a limited functionality, it won't do just everything.
> even if it could be implemented, we won't, as it is not a goal.

They want to do it with mplayer/mencoder because all the other tools
suck. They break a/v sync, require re-encoding, or only support dumb
formats like mpeg1/2, mjpeg, or raw yuv. IMO, all of this stuff can
and should be done with mencoder, and it wouldn't actually require
that much in the way of changes. When I get some time, I'm going to
work on adding a smarter -ovc copy mode to mencoder, which (for
supported codecs) can start the copying at any time (not just
keyframes) by decoding up from the previous keyframe, then generating
an I frame to stick in the output stream before copying starts.

Combining this with edit lists, it would be very easy to crop out junk
from movies, e.g. commercials, intro and end credits, stupid release
group splashes that look about as lame as a .nfo file, and so on --
*without* having to do any reencoding except for the new I frames.
This is much better than the junk like bc2000 that generates broken
files and won't compile on any computer except the author's, and all
the broken windows-ware that destroys a/v sync when trying to
framecopy.

Rich