[MPlayer-users] option -ss seek position not seeking past 8 minutes

[The Wanderer]

Jerry Geis wrote:

> The Wanderer wrote:
> 
>> Jerry Geis wrote:
>> 
>>> I am playing a DVD movie. I am wanting to seek into the movie
>>> with -ss 00:10:00 and mplayer exits. Why can I not seek 10
>>> minuites into the movie?
>> 
>> This is very likely because MPEG seeking is inaccurate; it is
>> probably seeking to the place which it thinks will be ten minutes
>> in, and then finding out that the place which it has reached is
>> past the end of the movie,and so exiting.

>>> my full command is "mplayer -ss 00:10:00 dvd://1"
>>> 
>>> if I seek one minute that works -ss 00:01:00
>> 
>> And how far into the movie does it leave you? Very likely it is not
>> in fact one minute; it is probably rather more.
> 
> You are correct. seeking into the movie 9 min (which works) is WAY
> further than 9 minutes.
> 
> How can I use this option to start playing at a certain "time" index
> into the movie? Is there another way?

Please don't top-post. I've corrected the quoting here, but it's tedious
to do that by hand.

The only way I know of to start playback at a particular time index in
an MPEG video (which includes all fully compliant DVDs) is to experiment
with the -ss option and see what value gets you to the time you want.
There is no way to do that automatically.

There is probably not another way to approach the problem,
unfortunately. Everyone would like for MPlayer to be able to seek
accurately in MPEG files, but no one has been able to come up with a
satisfactory algorithm for doing so.

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.