[vlc-devel] [PATCH v1 1/3] decoder: Always show forced pictures, even during preroll

[Michael Tänzer]

When b_force is set on a picture it is shown until a new picture gets
decoded which apparently is used at the end of an MPEG2 stream and the
stats module to keep the picture displayed even if no more blocks
arrive. Since the OggSpots codec is a variable frame rate codec it also
needs to display the picture until it decodes a new block, possibly
skipping some cycles of the base frame rate. So it uses
picture_t.b_force to achieve that.

During pre-roll blocks are decoded but not displayed because for fixed
frame rate codecs the first picture after the preroll will be the one we
want to see. If however there was a b_force picture during pre-roll and
no new pictures since, that forced picture would also not be displayed
at seek time. This behaviour differs from the behaviour from a normal
play through where, at the same position in time, the picture would
still be displayed.

That issue probably doesn't cause any major problems for the existing
codecs that use b_force, but for a variable frame rate codec like
OggSpots it would mean there will be no picture after seeking for quite
some time, because it is very likely that there will be no block at the
exact time we skipped to. So somehow the last decoded block from the
pre-roll needs to be displayed when the pre-roll ends, but there is no
block in the data stream to trigger the decoding. So I decided to fix
that issue in the pre-roll code rather than introducing a new mechanism
like a hook to trigger the codec when the seek time is reached to allow
it to display the last picture. As most codecs don't use b_force at all
and the ones that do would either not be influenced by that change as
they only use it at the stream end (MPEG2) or might even have the same
issue (stats), the change would not have a negative impact on existing
codecs.


On 07.03.2016 14:30, Jean-Baptiste Kempf wrote:
> I'm really un-ease with that patch.
> If we are in pre-roll, why should we display anything?
> 
> On 03 Mar, Michael Tänzer wrote :
>> If a picture has b_force set it is expected to be shown until the next
>> image is decoded. If we are in the preroll and don't show forced pictures
>> there might not be a picture when the preroll is finished.
>> ---
>>  src/input/decoder.c | 2 +-
>>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/src/input/decoder.c b/src/input/decoder.c
>> index a1d7414..b66c885 100644
>> --- a/src/input/decoder.c
>> +++ b/src/input/decoder.c
>> @@ -835,7 +835,7 @@ static int DecoderPlayVideo( decoder_t *p_dec, picture_t *p_picture,
>>      bool prerolled;
>>  
>>      vlc_mutex_lock( &p_owner->lock );
>> -    if( p_owner->i_preroll_end > p_picture->date )
>> +    if( !p_picture->b_force && p_owner->i_preroll_end > p_picture->date )
>>      {
>>          vlc_mutex_unlock( &p_owner->lock );
>>          picture_Release( p_picture );
>> -- 
>> 2.5.0

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