[MPlayer-users] Re: mencode + mplay = timeshifting

[David Kuehling]

> so ideally, i'd like to setup a tivo-like operation, where i can pause
> and fastforward live tv.

> this seems as easy as running mencoder and mplayer at the same time.

> this doesn't work, however, as mplayer can't seem to handle the fact
> that it's playfile grows as it's being played.

> is there any way to circumvent this problem? a switch perhaps, that
> tells mplayer to recheck the length of the file once it reaches the
> end?  or a streaming mode?

The problem is not mplayers fault.  It is just the flawed design of the
AVI format.  AVIs are no real video streams, instead they use an index
at the end of the file to address positions in the video.  Mplayer only
generates that index, when the recording is finished.  Until then you
won't be able to seek your movie.  If you use `-forceidx' mplayer will
generate an index for the file as it starts up.  Thus you won't be able
to seek to locations written after mplayer startet.

An alternative is to use `-of mpeg' which makes mencoder write an Mpeg
_stream_ which is perfectly seekable.  But the problem with -of mpeg
currently is that it does not seem to be able to handle any audio :-(
I'm using 0.90rc5, maybe that's better with newer releases but I doubt
it.

The best solution might be to add `-of ogg/ogm' support directly to
mencoder.  Don't know why it hasn't already been done.  Maybe problems
with the mencoder design...?

I also want to use Mplayer for timeshift recording and am very
disappointed that it doesn't work yet :-(

David
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