[vlc-devel] Getting the size of a video

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

	Hello,

Le mercredi 30 novembre 2011 15:58:52 yann LE HIR, vous avez écrit :
> libvlc_media_get_tracks_info() works fine on files but sometimes gives
> bad data with streams (TS streams with mpeg2 video in that case).
> However, X11 video_output module get the good size when creating the
> window.

Sure. The video output gets the picture format so that it can setup picture 
buffers correctly.

> My software embed a vlc_media_player in a GTK Window (with
> set_xwindow()). And I would like to resize the widget that displays
> VLC when I load a file.

Such a design is intrinsically broken. Some media can have multiple video 
tracks of different resolutions, simultaneously or consecutively.

Even if you ignore those corner cases, there will be picture resize glitches.

If you want the to set windows dimensions according to the native video 
resolution, you need to create a dedicated window provider plug-in. Only then 
you can get the correct dimension all the time, and create/resize the window 
before the pipeline starts displaying pictures.

> The video_output module used in that case is xvideo, that
> automatically resize the vlc window to the size of the xwindow given
> and replace the size values in the config of the video output thread.

The X11 plugins (XVideo, GLX, X11 and GL/EGL) all request a window of the 
correct size. They don't actually resize the window. That is the 
responsibility of the window provider.

> I managed to make it work, but I had to modify the way the xvideo
> module works, and to hack around in libvlc_video_get_size() to access
> the private part of video output thread.

You cannot do that. Besides breaking the encapsulation principle, this patch 
violates the threading model surrounding the video output thread. In other 
words, sooner or later, it will crash the process or return corrupt values.

-- 
Rémi Denis-Courmont
http://www.remlab.net/
http://fi.linkedin.com/in/remidenis