The VideoLAN Forums

When I open a recording in VLC Windows Client (v0.8.4.release) the client tells me that this recording is 16 minutes and 38 seconds (16:38). If I open the same recording with the activeX component, it says (after some fiddeling to get the length) that the recording is 998 seconds, which also should be 16:38. But, now, if I open the recording in Windows Mediaplayer, BSPlayer, DivX Player or Winamp5 they all tell me that the recording is 30 minutes which is the correct length of the recording.

Is there a confirmed bug in VLC regarding this?

Bump

Really, am I the only one who experience this? Can someone, anyone, please either confirm or deny this

could you be a bit more specific, what type of files is it, AVI, MP4, OGM, MKV, etc... what does it contains DIVX, MPEG, etc...

BTW, The activex plugin, as is the player, only returns the correct media length only if it is being played; the limitation should be fixed in the next major release of VLC

The files are MPEG2. VideoInspector says the video codec is "MPEG 2" and audio codec is MPEG 1 layer 2, VLC says the codec is mpegv/mpega. The files has been recorded with GBRecord.exe using the "Low quality" profile. The recording source is Hauppauge PVR500.

I could provide you with a sample but the smallest I got is 22Mb...

(I found out about the activex plugin, currently I'm playing the file and continously asking for length until I get it. I know it's dirty but its the only way to do it...)

bump.

If you would like to see an example you could download one from vvv.observer.no/morten/lowQuality.mpg (yes, the single v's are correct)

You are experiencing this issues:
https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/216

VLC dislaying the wrong length is something I also get sometimes, I think this is something to do with how the files are encoded.

I usually manage to fix the problem by wizzing it through the "stream to file" option in the wizzard (file menu) - you don't need to transcode it, just select a different muxer (aka container, like AVI or MPEG PS). Sometimes using the same muxer also works. This "fix" is really just rescans and copies the file, hopefully with more VLC-friendly time information.

VLC people - if i remember this has happened to me in .avi format, and possibly also ts?

Thanks for the information about this being a registered bug. Unfortunlately I cannot use your suggested workaround as I record almost 24/7 and really can't rescan all the files. VLC's habit of reading the wrong length is not related to one or two files, but is consistent to all my recordings. It doesn't seem to handle my MPEG2 streams very well.