VLC Record editing feature in SMPlayer availability

[aeneas]

Is there a way in SMPlayer to Edit out and store into a separate target file
segments of a source file, as the VLC Record feature does ?
//Windows 7 64//i7-2620M//

[rvm]

Maybe but it's not easy. The latest version includes an option to "capture" the stream but it only works if the source is a MPEG stream.

(2015-10-23)
* New action to start/stop capturing the playback stream.
The captured stream will be saved to the folder specified in
the smplayer.ini option capture_directory with the name
capture_NNNN.dump.
It only works correctly with mpeg. With other formats the
dumped stream won't play back.

[aeneas]

The formats necessary for SMPlayer-Record feature are the HD PVR .m2ts format,
Windows Media Center .wtv,
and whatever format ATSC is stored in by devices like Hauppauge, SiliconDust, etc.
VLC-Record works under most circumstances except .wtv, which it converts
into .avi -- which is a format not convertible by key video converter utilities.
The key advantage of SMPlayer over VLC is that it understands WMC file
.wtv closed captions.
However, it is not possible to Record-Edit to a separate file a 20-seconds
touchdown, goal, blooper etc with SMPlayer, allowing the massive containing
4 hour 24 GByte source file to be deleted, which is a big feature-loss.

[rvm]

I'm afraid the limitation of formats supported for capturing comes from mplayer/mpv, so I can't do anything about it.

Maybe you can use mencoder, since it supports the same formats than mplayer.

[aeneas]

Do these 2 projects share software source code ?
Why not look at what VLC does in this area and implement this Record-Edit-on-playback functionality ?
I am also optimistic that the problems VLC-Record converting Audio/Video files .wtv to .avi
will not occur since the Smplayer ability to display Microsoft Windows Media Center (WMC)
.wtv Closed Captions text indicates that this project knows more than VLC about .wtv format.

I have not looked at the VLC implementation, but I assume that they simply create a new file,
copy the header first maybe 256 bytes into it identifying the type of data from the source file
to the target file, then start copying from the first I-Frame it encounters
as it plays back the data it reads from the current position in the source file.
This should be straightforward for the Smplayer project team to implement.
The idea is not to perform any video or audio conversion at all.

[rvm]

Yes, mplayer and mpv are related. mpv is a fork of mplayer.

I think the problem with the capturing function in mplayer/mpv is that it dumps the raw stream without writing the header. At least that is what I guessed from the mpv manual.

I've just remembered that there's another player, based on SMPlayer, called ROSA Media Player which a video cutting feature, maybe it can be useful to you. However I never tried that player so I really don't know...

http://www.rosalab.com/blogs/rosa-media ... ross-platf

[aeneas]

All the way from Russia ?
I did not see the executable on that site.
If these modifications have been made successfully by them to their copy of your code base,
why has the SMPlayer development team not yet integrated those modifications
into the flagship project code ?
The ability to edit out and keep a clip from a huge file is an important feature
(as opposed to items that are promoted but do not represent genuine needs in the usership).
Are you saying that VLC is based on MPV ?

[rvm]

No. MPV is based on MPlayer. MPlayer and VLC are independent projects.

[aeneas]

After trying the Smplayer program with ATSC .WTV Windows Media Center-generated files
over the past few days,
I have noticed that it does not sync the video with audio correctly in some recordings.
Often the video arrives maybe 1-2 seconds after the audio.
This should be top priority to fix.

Another issue is that it should be selectable by the user how many seconds forward
and backward the 2 jog buttons next to the progress bar produce
when the mouse is clicked.
The keyboard versions of these buttons are not relevant here.