[vlc-devel] How to create a multi view application using VLC

[Andreas Benzler]

Hi all out there

We would like to create a multi view application where we can view 
multiple videos and synchronize them. So what we want to do is to start 
with a first video, then take a second one and search in both videos for 
a common signal ( a sound or whatever) stop them at this position and 
then synchronize them. By synchronizing them I mean storing the relative 
positions of the videos that you can do a playback of all videos 
simultaneously in a synchronized way. This is needed to do debriefings 
after psychological experiments where a subject or a scene was 
simultaneously recorded by multiple video cameras which are not 
synchronized during recording.

First, does anyone of you know that something has been done before with VLC?

To start my question:

After having a short look at VLC I think there are two ways of solving 
my problem. The first one is to run multiple VLC instances and control 
them by plugin that has to be written. The advantage would be that we do 
not need to recompile the whole VLC tree with all libs and that stuff. 
The drawback would be that we would need some communication between the 
multiple instances of the control plugins and a main control 
application. We do have a CORBA system running here so this would be 
possible.

The second option would be to make a brand new application and embeds 
multiple VLC video windows. The advantage would be that there is no need 
for an inter process communication. The drawback is that we have to 
recompile the whole VLC tree. Or do I get something wrong at this point?

I hope you guys out there can get me a hint in which direction I should 
start digging.


Regards

Andreas