Problem with FF through some movies

[Deej]

Hi,
I realize this isn't GK's fault, but I have no idea where to seek
help. Some of the DVD's I encode (to divx using xvid) are giving me
a problem when I try to fast-forward through them. Fast-forwarding
works for some of the movie (the amount varies, from a few minutes
to almost the entire movie), but not all of it. The movie plays just
fine. If I let it play past the furthest point it will FF to, and
then hit FF, it skips back to that point. Anyone have any ideas (or
can someone tell me which forum this actually belongs in)? BTW, I'm
using GK 0.28.5 and the application I'm using to view the movies is
mplayer (on linux).
...thnx,
...dave

[manono]

Hi-

I know nothing about mplayer or linux (jggimi-can you help here?), but my suggestion is to take one of the problem movies and play it on a different Windows Computer. If the fast forwarding works well on that one, then it's something peculiar to either mplayer or linux (which is what I would suspect, having never experienced the problem). But maybe there are some Linux users arond here that can help. In fact, you might ask in the Linux Forum. If no one here solves it for you in the next day or so, I'll move this thread over there.

[jggimi]

I don't do any FFing, in Linux or Windows. And I do most playback in Windows (for TV-out) anyway.

I suspect this "feature" of the player might be keyframe related.

And now I'm going to ask; which release of mplayer? Packaged in the distribution? Self-compiled? Which options were enabled?

And I'll also shift this to the Linux forum.

[Deej]

Hi,

Originally posted by jggimi
And now I'm going to ask; which release of mplayer? Packaged in the distribution? Self-compiled? Which options were enabled?

Self-compiled from CVS as of 06-13-2003 with the following commands:

# ./configure --disable-ossaudio; make; make install

I'll try grabbing and rpm of the latest release to see if it works.

...thnx,
...dave

[TactX]

First of all, I'd always use a release instead of CVS to build mplayer (although I doubt that this is the problem...). Use CVS only if you want to test a new feature.

If you have playback problems with a movie, always try the "-idx" or "-forceidx" switch. Maybe this will help. Maybe not :(

[ultimatebilly]

./configure --disable-ossaudio

Maybe it's somehow related to that? As far as I know the timing of movie-playback is always oriented on the audio-playback speed...
I have the problem that when I watch movies in a playlist, the first one is just fine, and the other ones are slightly out of sync...
I'm sure this is due to my crappy soundcard and its buggy drivers...
But since you are able to FF to some frames, it may be very well related to the index...
I also never tried to FF, I always use the "up (1 min)" "right (10 secs)" or "page up (chapter or some amount I don't know if there are no chapters)" keys depending on how far I want to jump...
But I will try to FF this evening, and tell you if it works for me...

[Deej]

Hi,
I tried installing the mplayer-0.90.1 from the website -- same
problem (and I didn't have audio -- which is why I built it from
CVS :-). I also tried the "-forceidx", which now allows the FF
to work (when I say fastforward, I mean the "Page Up" key :-)
through the entire movie. But, after using PageUp, the video is
"messed up" for a little while. :-( Help?
...dave

ps I'm leaving for a weekend getaway, so I may not respond until
next Monday. :-)

pps I just tried copying the movie back to the PC and I had no
trouble using WMP to skip around the movie, so I believe it's
probably a bug in mplayer. :-( I also downloaded the latest
CVS (as of 7-30-03) and it has the same problem.

[TactX]

Originally posted by Deej
I tried installing the mplayer-0.90.1 from the website -- same
problem (and I didn't have audio -- which is why I built it from
CVS :-)
Could you explain why your audio only works with CVS?

And why do you configure with "--disable-ossaudio"?

Maybe the problem is related to your sound issues...

[Deej]

Hi,
I'm not sure why my audio only works with with the disable ossaudio
switch. I was trying to get AC3 output to work and someone on the
mplayer mailing list said I'd have to get the CVS version and compile
it without ossaudio -- sure enough it worked for me. I believe that
standard stereo worked with the rpm version in the past, but I'm using the AC3 output from my SBLive now.
...dave

[ultimatebilly]

Sorry, I forgot to test FF at home, but as you mean the PageUp-key, I don't have to, this works for me...

But, after using PageUp, the video is
"messed up" for a little while. :-( Help?

There is nothing you can do about that...
The jumping in MPlayer is timebased, so it is quite unlikely that it will jump to a keyframe...
I don't know if you're familiar with the concept of keyframes, if not, here a short explanation...
To save space, only the first frame of a scene is stored completely, all other frames consist of the data from the keyframe, only parts that change are replaced... This way you can save a lot of space...
So, if there is no scene change, or no keyframe that was forced by the encoder, then you will have to wait for one...
That's the way it has to be...
Maybe (probably) it's possible to jump only to keyframes with MPlayer, but I don't know how...