The VideoLAN Forums

Hello Everyone,

I am trying to play a segment of a movie (ideally in an online setting, i.e. through a web server but even locally on a PC would do). I want to specify a starting point and an ending point for the segment either in terms of a byte offset from the start of the file or using a timecode e.g. seconds/milliseconds or frames. I would then play only that segment of the file between the starting point and the ending point.

Will VLC enable me to specify a set of parameters to the flash player so that only that particular segment of a movie file is played?

Having this facility would enable me to have only one file which would be accessed in many different ways, thus cutting down on clutter etc. Starting and ending points could even be set dynamically.

Andrew

You have A to B button in Windows/Linux version.

Thank you Jean-Baptiste. I am running the Windows version of VLC but cannot find the A to B button that you mention. Obviously I cannot see where it is. Maybe you could give me some indication so I can find it quickly.

I should also add that ideally, I would like to assign point A and point B dynamically, so I imagine I would have to work through the VLC API. Does the API have the necessary functions built in? And also can VLC work efficiently with very large files such as a 3GB movie??? I am sorry to ask so much.

I know I need to read the documentation fully but I am under a lot of pressure to produce a quick application.

merci d'avance
Andrew/André

0.9.4: tools, advanced control.

Thank you very much. I will look. I appreciate your responses. - Andrew

Hello again

I have found the A to B button. Now, that raises two more questions:

(a) The A to B button creates a repeating loop which plays the same segment over and over again. Is there a way of getting it to play A to B only once?

(b) Is there a way of setting point A and point B from a file or as a parameter to VLC or through an API? Ideally, I would like to identify point A and point B in a URL. So far I have not been able to find any of these possible solutions in the documentation.

Thank you very much
Andrew

a) No
b) You can control time with libvlc, so do it yourself, as we do it in the interface.