The VideoLAN Forums

Hi VLC developers,

a feature request from a user (me) who records DVB with VDR on Linux and sometimes likes watching while recording via samba from a Windows machine.

You could try reading beyond the filesize (as of open time) and thereby allow continuous playing of data that has been written after the file has been opened.

Currently VLC opens the file and plays it to the point which has already been recorded when it opens it. For stuff that has been recorded in the meantime, you have to repress play and cue to the proper time.

Thanks anyway for the very handy program. One of the top 5 I install on new machines... Peter

There aren't any trivial solutions to situations like this.
Most P2P programs create whole file before downloading (filling it with zeroes) which is good way.
Live recording is harder. When to check if file changed and how often?
Do you just release old file handle and open new for little longer file and how often(do you play current file and then check filesize or check during playback)?
What about software which limits files to 2GB or other size (new files after certain amount of data)?

VLC does recheck the file size regularly and should not stop at the end of the file as of the start of playback. If it does it is not a lacking feature but a bug. Please report vlc version, and os.