[Matroska-devel] Re: Timestamp precision in matroska files

[Moritz Bunkus]

Heya,

whatever we do, we probably need a new block layout if we want to
improve accuracy because the 16bit sint is not very large. There are two
proposals how to do that, imho:

- use 32bit sint,
- use an EBML sint.

The former has the advantage of being easy on the parser. Alex proposed
to have a flag that says '16bit or 32bit' which would keep the overhead
under control - 32bits would only be used if the relative timecode
excessed those 15 bits. 

The latter has the advantage of not being fixed at all. If - for some
obscure reason - someone uses a timecode scale of 1 (ns precision) then
a 32bit relative timecode only covers approx. 2 seconds in either
direction ;)

Anyway, we should use a new EBML ID for such a block although
libmatroska should somehow make KaxBlock work with it, too (no, i
definitely do NOT want a second class for that!).

As to if players REALLY need sample accurate seeking I can't say much,
I'm not a player developper.

Mosu

-- 
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