Skipping over buffer = crash! (1 Viewer)

[glenn 1990]

Hi,

When skipping over the buffered part of a video (youtube for example),
mp crashes or freezes for a while (depending on codec).

Wouldn't it be better to prevent skipping over the buffer, so we don't have to kill mediaportal anymore.

 

[mcrob83]

AW: Skipping over buffer = crash!

That's right. Especially "Onlinevideos" runs extremly unstable, when playing a little bit around to play over the buffer. Maybe a thing someone could look at. Would be great!

 

[FrankDrebin]

+1

At the same time I would like to thank Mr. offbyone for providing this über-cool plugin, without which I cannot survive in this world

 

[DieBagger]

First of all, we (offbyone and other supporters of onlinevideos) are very much aware of this problem and want to have this fixed as badly as you do. Unfortunately this is a very complicated issue and requires us to basically write a core component from scratch (the http source filter).

So why does this happen in the first place/why is it so complicated to fix?
Currently all we get from the source filter is the percentage of data that has already been loaded. This is for many reasons not equal to the percentage of the video length. Now when the user skips to a part inside the video that hasn't been loaded, the video player will wait until this part of the video has been loaded (the mediaportal gui will freeze). Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about this. We could prevent the user from skipping into unloaded parts of the video, but since "loaded size" is not the same as "loaded length", this would be an ugly workaround.

What we are trying to do about this
We are currently working on our own source filter that will allow us to seek to positions of the video that has not yet been loaded. This is done by sending special http requests to the server that contain the requested start position. Implementing such a DirectShow filter isn't easy and requires C++ developers. If anyone is interested in helping with this task, please contact offbyone via pm or join the #mp-onlinevideos irc channel.

I hope this gave you a brief overview of the current situation regarding this problem.

 

[offbyone]

In addition: sometimes we don't know the length at all, because the server simply does not set the correct header or there is enough metadata inside the file - so we use a very rough estimate (which might be totally wrong - for safety it is very big). In those cases we also need a filter that can handle unknown filesizes. Please always don'T forget: you are watching a stream from the web, not a local file, that is a totally different thing.

 

[msj33]

Yes, this is a VERY annoying "bug" in Onlinevideos in general.

Nice to hear that you already are aware of this, and have attention on the issue.

Thx.

 

[glenn 1990]

Added a dll which prevents skipping over the buffer, just some workaround, but better than nothing.
It's working fine with youtube, that's the only site I use.

 

[DieBagger]

Added a dll which prevents skipping over the buffer, just some workaround, but better than nothing.
It's working fine with youtube, that's the only site I use.

Can you please add the patch as well?

 

[glenn 1990]

Here are the patch, and a newer/better .dll.

"loaded size" is not the same as "loaded length", this would be an ugly workaround

Do you have any idea how much the difference is (is it a few % or a lot more).

I know it's a ugly woraround, but it's better than nothing.