Simulating DVD Chapter Markers on the MVP

[Jeff]

I have been thinking about ways to bring DVD chapter file functionality over to DVD files converted to MPEG format. Two ideas have come to mind so far. One is to turn the chapter markers into a comskip file. This would let you navigate forward through chapters (although it is two button presses to do so, which is a bit awkward) but it would not let you navigate backwards nor would it provide feedback as to what chapter you are on unless there is a function to display text on the OSD from a plug-in while a video is playing, which I'm not sure about. You would also not be able to jump to any chapter but would have to go through them sequentially.

The other idea I had was to add funcitonality to a plug-in to read a chapter file and to let the user select where they want to go in the video much like a standard DVD menu screen. To do this I would need a method to start playing a video from a particular time index (or frame index). I know that resume play can do this so the function must be there, but I don't see a public method to do this. And I would need to override the resume playback feature so that the user isn't probted if they want to resume when they select a new chapter start point. It would also be nice to be able to trap the menu key and have the video stop playing and pass control back to the plug-in in a way that would let the plug-in know that the user pressed menu rather than stop so that the plug-in could display the scene menu.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[sub]

Quote[/b] ]The other idea I had was to add funcitonality to a plug-in to read a chapter file and to let the user select where they want to go in the video much like a standard DVD menu screen. To do this I would need a method to start playing a video from a particular time index (or frame index). I know that resume play can do this so the function must be there, but I don't see a public method to do this.  And I would need to override the resume playback feature so that the user isn't probted if they want to resume when they select a new chapter start point.  It would also be nice to be able to trap the menu key and have the video stop playing and pass control back to the plug-in in a way that would let the plug-in know that the user pressed menu rather than stop so that the plug-in could display the scene menu.

Yuck, sounds a bit ugly to me.

The comskip file approach sounds better to me. You can go either backwards or forwards to the next skip/chapter point with the existing comskip functionality.

[Jeff]

How do you go backwards with the current comskip function? Also, is there a minimum length that a segment must be; can I specify a single frame for the lengthof the skip point?

I was actually leaning towards the second method by the way since it would let you navigate with feedback and provide randowm access to chapters.

Jeff