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In version VLC 0.8.6d, I am able to search through .wmv files (wma2 audio, wmv3 video).
In 0.9.x and 1.0.x, it plays file ok, but when i try to move inside file, it crashes.
Files play and search fine in WMP different versions.
Here are versions of VLC i tried:

0.9.4-git, 0.9.6-git-20081029-0203 (on XP and Vista)
1.0.0-git-20081003-0008 (on XP only, on Vista it does not play file at all)

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: vlc.exe
Application Version: 0.9.6.99
Application Timestamp: 4907b7c2
Fault Module Name: libasf_plugin.dll
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4907bbee
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 000017c0
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: fd00
Additional Information 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
Additional Information 3: fd00
Additional Information 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

Same with all WMV files you have? Or just with the specific one?

It happens with all files I have.

How do you move inside those files (slider, hotkeys)?

I click with mouse on slider bar to go directly to another part of the wmv file.

I can't get VLC 0.9.4 to crash on WMV slider movement. Is there some file you tell me, that shows this symptom?

I have a lot of sample files I can upload anywhere you say.
One clarification:
version 0.8.x works on both XP and Vista
version 1.0.x crashes on both XP and Vista
version 0.9.4 crashes on Vista, on XP it closes file, and when I play it again it starts from beginning (so it does not realy crash, but still search does not work)

You can use for example megaupload or rapidshare for file upload.

I uploaded broken_search.wmv (with short txt decription file) into ftp://streams.videolan.org/incoming.
Size should be 56114844.
Please, let me know if you see it there.

I don't have access to those files. But I am sure someone checks them out.

Hello there,

same problem here...vlc crashes every time i move in .wmv files.
I use the CTRL+"RIGHTARROWKEY" and SHIFT +"RIGHTARROWKEY" shortcut for seeeking.

When i seek forward by using shortcut only one time and wait for the destination frame is rendered and the video keeps on playing...everything is fine. --> no crash

But pressing multiple times (i.e. 5x ) vlc crashes. The crash is highly reproduceable and occurs in EVERY .wmv file i tried (>100)

Seeking with mouse clicks on the progress bar works well for me...
Tested on Vista 32bit Business Edition (full updated)
Intel Core 2 Duo 6750

Thanks, I can repeat this using hotkeys.
EDIT:
http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/2272

Fixed in 1.1.0

Still broken (1.1.5) but not the same way.

Seek to about 20 seconds in on a .wmv file will end up at about 14 seconds. If you use the "ctrl+t" jump this is all you see. If you use the drag bar you may see the time display in the lower right show :20 before updating to show :14 instead.

.mp4, .mov will jump to the proper location and stay there, but .wmv jumps and shifts a few seconds.

Did you try with VLC 1.2.0 nightlies? And have you tried asfbin for those files?

not using the nightlies. I will see if they help. What is asfbin?

The Windows nightly from here http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/win ... 0823-0203/
calls itself 1.1.2-git. It behaves as I described before.

The one from here http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/win ... 0823-1412/
is not successfully opening any video files (.wmv, .mpg, .mp4 tried so far)

Yes, the .asf file produced by asfbin from my .wmv file exhibits the same symptom in 1.1.5

The file produced by "ffmpeg -i myclip.wmv -target ntsc-dvd -y transcoded.mpg" does _not_ exhibit the symptom. The jump problem is in .wmv (and apparently in .asf) files.

Even if the asfbin worked, it would not be a solution for us. All our new packages are using .mp4, which works ... but we would like to continue to play our old packages, which are .wmv. Having our customers run a conversion tool for their old packages would ... not be pretty.

We are using the embedded vlc player object in Firefox. Don't get me wrong, this is also a problem in the standalone vlc player itself ... but that is not our ultimate target environment. It's just easier to play with for testing purposes.

I have seen this problem in multiple different .wmv files. I have not seen it in .mov, .mp4 or .mpg. Apparently it also exists in .asf.

Have you tried it yourself?

Any further thoughts?

WMV/ASF seeking in VLC isn't perfect, and specially non-standard files cause issues. That is why I suggested asfbin.

As I noted, asfbin did not seem to change anything. So ... assuming that the files are _standard_ (and avoiding the complications of the non-standard ones) why would seek be so inaccurate in wmv/asf and not in the other formats? Is there something inherant in the wmv format that would cause this?

Issues are in wmv/asf demuxer.
http://git.videolan.org/?p=vlc.git;a=bl ... /asf/asf.c

What/where specifically are the issues?
Do you think this is fixable?

(sorry for not responding sooner, I was out of town...)

What/where specifically are the issues?

Most likely in the index handling and seeking parts.

Do you think this is fixable?

Yes, it is just source code that need fixes (not the WMV/ASF format).

Not having a background in a/v muxers, I do not know if I would even be able to spot what would be wrong there. Is anybody that has a chance to do so likely to take this on? Do I need to find your bug tracker and submit an issue there?