The VideoLAN Forums

I have performed several tests using vlm and control commands.

1) it seems that command pause works, I mean it stops the streaming, but how can we restart the stream where it was paused? not from the beginning.

The workaround that I have found the moment is to send stop command, and then play and seek x, where x is the number of seconds, but only with ts-mpeg2video-mp2a files:

2) it seems that seek works only with ts input streams, am I right? I have tried to stream a file using an mpeg file and a ts file (with the same media streams: mpeg2video and mp2 for audio). The mpeg and the ts files are played correctly on my terminal. The seek command works for the ts file, but not for the mpeg file.

I suppose that ts contains a sort of "timestamps" which ease the slicing of the video, and thus allows the seek command, but I'm not sure.

3) actually, I said that the seek commands works, but when I use "control vod_id seek 26" for example, it goes further than the 26th second of the movie.

I'm using the http interface with telnet-like commands.
In one of the documentation file, I found this:

> seek to <val>:
?command=seek&val=<val>
Allowed values are of the form:
[+ or -][<int><H or h>:][<int><M or m or '>:][<int><nothing or S or s or ">] or [+ or -]<int>%
(value between [ ] are optional, value between < > are mandatory)
examples:
1000 -> seek to the 1000th second
+1H:2M -> seek 1 hour and 2 minutes forward
-10% -> seek 10% back

I know it applies to http interface, but not to vlm_cmd.xml, but I thought that seconds could be used also in telnet command. Is it only possible to seek using percentage in telnet commands? The main documentation mentions only percents...

Control Commands

• play : Stat a broadcast media. The media begins to launch the first item of the input list, then launches the next one and so on. (like a play list)
• pause : Put the broadcast media in paused status.
• stop : Stop the broadcast media.
• seek (percentage) : Seek in the current playing item of the input list.

Any clue is welcome,

Thank you,

yohann

I'm also testing trick play from VLM. And found also some differences between the local seek and the seek for the stream out.

Locally, VLC media player can seek perfectly amonst others (I just test those container that VLC can produce and can handle more than one track of video):
* mp4 (with and without hint tracks)
* ogg (ogm)

But when playing those same files with the VLM interface and streaming them out by RTP, the seek of the mp4 files without hint track was imposible to do.

That was something normal, as the mp4 container needs to be hinted to be streamed. What was a surprise was that the VLC media player can seek (playing locally) in mp4 files that wasn't hinted.

So if any developper or guru can tell us the reason of that difference?

I think this capability of seeking in unhinted mp4 files, could be nicwe to have it also for the streaming part of the VLC media player.