[MPlayer-users] Re: Getting info from mplayer for semi-automatic encoding script

[Chris Phillips]

> > > mplayer -identify dvd://3, I get (snipping everything before the ID_*
> > > fields)
> > 
> > I've noticed mplayer gives the wrong length too. I use lsdvd:
> > http://sourceforge.net/projects/acidrip/ .

> I have seen this, but ideally I'd like to use mplayer for everything,
> since i'd want it to work for any kind of input that mencoder supports. 
> But I guess the idea is no-good if mplayer gives the wrong length ;)

hey that's MY app! and i was just about to suggest it! I don't think that 
the title length could actually be wrong... it's a preset parameter of the 
dvd structure - no calculation required. hehe, i suck with libdvdread but 
i got that one nailed.

I wrote lsdvd to show the contents of a dvd after i already tried messing 
with mplayer but couldn't find enough useful information in it's output. 
the -identify option is useful but 

1) does not provide a comprehensive enough output in a constantly parsable 
fashion (more of an annoyance then a problem though)

2) only works on a per track basis, which is naturally an arbitrary 
constraint. libdvdred / mpdvdkit will load the entire track, or rather an 
entire ifo block in one go which means it's basically just as easy to 
print the entire contents as it is for a single track.

personally i'd love to be able to abandon lsdvd altogether, but couldn't 
think about it until such a time that mplayer could replace it (and thus 
remove yet another few dependencies for my http://acidrip.sf.net program 
- new version 0.9 out last week.. go try!). 

Some front ends like quickrip and gmencoder DO use mplayer directly like 
this but suffer tremendously as they provide no useful chapter length 
information and take an absolute age to load, due to the essentially 
redundant rereading of the dvd for every single track on the disc. with a 
disc with over 30 tracks that's a seriously painful experience.

cheers

chris
xxxx

btw. you took your time putting that O'Reilly article up, i found it 
months ago! mind you, i doubt mplayer developers get bored and type 
"mplayer" into google to kill time...