I have always been bugged out by this, why is it most players seek slow in avi files (MPC, zoomplayer etc) and yet other players like mplayer/kmp can seek with virtually no delay.
Is there something that i can do about it, change avi splitter or decoder or so?
Seeking in .avi files slower than mplayer/kmplayer
Started by mhe, Jun 27 2006 08:53 PM
3 replies to this topic
#2
bLight
-
- Admin
-
- 9499 posts
Lead Developer
Posted 28 June 2006 - 04:21 PM
Some players "cheat".
This is a bit technical...
Video files has "key" frames (sometimes known as I-Frame), these are positions in the video you can seek to (due to how compression works). Some players (or decoders) will not seek to the exact position you clicked, but rather to the key frame. This is near-instant.
The better decoders/players will seek to the key frame, then decode all the frames till they reach the exact seek position and only then show an image. This is slower and depends on how the file was encoded and the speed of the decoder as to how fast the seeks are.
Also, if you're not using customized media mode, it's possible that 3rd party filters are sneaking into the decoding and slowing it down.
This is a bit technical...
Video files has "key" frames (sometimes known as I-Frame), these are positions in the video you can seek to (due to how compression works). Some players (or decoders) will not seek to the exact position you clicked, but rather to the key frame. This is near-instant.
The better decoders/players will seek to the key frame, then decode all the frames till they reach the exact seek position and only then show an image. This is slower and depends on how the file was encoded and the speed of the decoder as to how fast the seeks are.
Also, if you're not using customized media mode, it's possible that 3rd party filters are sneaking into the decoding and slowing it down.
#3
mhe
-
- Members
-
- 15 posts
Greenhorn
Posted 28 June 2006 - 09:09 PM
I see, but then again why not incorporate this kind of inaccurate seek, im sure most people just want to skip a few seconds/minutes or whatever and dont really care if it is slightly inaccurate.
Ive tried to use different decoders they seem to make very little difference. What avi splitter you use seem to matter though ive come to the conclusion that gabest's avi splitter vs windows built in vs haali's media splitter there is a slight difference, gabest is the slowest and windows built in is the fastest.
However none can compare to mplayer that seeks avi's like they were mpg.
What decoder i use (ffdshow, xvid) dont really matter its all slow.
Ive tried to use different decoders they seem to make very little difference. What avi splitter you use seem to matter though ive come to the conclusion that gabest's avi splitter vs windows built in vs haali's media splitter there is a slight difference, gabest is the slowest and windows built in is the fastest.
However none can compare to mplayer that seeks avi's like they were mpg.
What decoder i use (ffdshow, xvid) dont really matter its all slow.
#4
bLight
-
- Admin
-
- 9499 posts
Lead Developer
Posted 03 July 2006 - 09:34 PM
The interface seeking to keyframes is broken or possibly never implemented by microsoft, so there's no good way to get it going.
Unlike mplayer/vlc, ZP is based on directshow, which means that there's a sort of disconnect between the player and the components doing the reading/decoding. This is useful as it allows ZP to support any future format without any code change and also gives it the ability to swap/change decoders at will.
Unlike mplayer/vlc, ZP is based on directshow, which means that there's a sort of disconnect between the player and the components doing the reading/decoding. This is useful as it allows ZP to support any future format without any code change and also gives it the ability to swap/change decoders at will.
