cue times of movies played with VLC

[rjs400]

has anyone noticed that if you cue up a precise hour:minute:second of a film in VLC, this cue time is off (by up to 30 seconds) when you cue up the movie in something other than VLC?

here specifically is what I've discovered: it doesn't matter if you're cueing up a DVD or a video_ts folder, if you're on a MAC or a PC, using the full version of VLC or the portable version. For all these combinations, your cue times are going to be the same, and reliable, across the board. BUT---

they WON'T match up to cue times to the same exact moments in a film if you watch it in the DVD Player app on the Mac, or any physical DVD player. For a DVD or video_ts folder on a mac, in DVD Player app, and for a physical DVD player, all the cue times are the same, AND THEY ARE NOT THE SAME AS THE SET OF CUE TIMES if you're using VLC.

I teach film, and must have exact (and universally accurate) cue times when I teach in the classroom. Does anyone know why VLC times are different, and if there's a way to correct this? And if not, does anyone know of another app that 1) works on Macs, 2) works as a portable version on PCs, 3) plays DVDs, 4) plays video_ts files, 5) plays mp4s, and 6) lets you cue to an exact hour:minute: second?

thanks.

[rogerdpack]

what about smplayer? same or different? (I think I've noticed the same thing...VLC's timings seem to go a bit faster than actual reality...)

(for followers, mplayer either plays with the right timing, though its timing "resets" [bug: http://nextsprocket.com/tasks/fix-mplay ... ter-resets ] or it plays it at 29.97 fps instead of 30, so is pretty close).

[rogerdpack]

Seems to be confirmed. It seems that every other DVD player "except" VLC uses timings that more approach reality, whereas VLC's (at least for one DVD) start very fast, then near the end use about two seconds to move one. Anybody know much about this?

[rogerdpack]

Anybody have any comment on why the time stamps seem slightly off with VLC, here? (mplayer has the right timestamps, I believe)
That would be great help.
Thanks!
-r

[rogerdpack]

http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/4
appears to be the cause. Wow that must be one of VLC's oldest tickets!
For anybody interested, I'm offering a $300 bounty to fix this, even if just in VLC. Actually make that $400, since VLC is more commonly used. It should have "DVD accurate" timestamps I suppose.
Cheers!
http://nextsprocket.com/tasks/fix-mplay ... ter-resets

Cheers!
-r

[rogerdpack]

appears that mplayer can do this right for its OSD/seeking (http://betterlogic.com/roger/2011/01/mp ... mment-5065 last comment) though I'm not sure if it can seek by absolute position or not (though the code is there for sure)

[rjs40]

Dear Roger,

Thanks so much for replying. I originally posted that message, and forgot about it. I still have the same problem. Do you know if VLC has fixed this problem? Or if there's a better program?

Thanks,
Rob

[rogerdpack]

vlc hasn't incorporated it yet. Nor mplayer. XBMC possibly soon.
this mplayer has it incorporated: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mplayer-edl/
and I have an old build of VLC around somewhere if you'd like it, that has it incorporated.

[rjs40]

Dear Roger,

Thanks for your help with this, including being the only other person ever to confirm that this is a problem. I hope they fix it sometime. All the best, and thanks again—Rob

[rogerdpack]

See also https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 8&start=20 and http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/4