[theora] Indexing Ogg files for faster seeking

[Chris Pearce]

On 24/09/09 05:49, Conrad Parker wrote:
> OTOH, one thing I'm worried about is the cost of adding the index to
> the beginning of a long file, which then requires rewriting the entire
> file.
>    
If you can't bear that cost for your server side seeking solution, you 
could store the index in a separate file, and use that to speed up your 
client side seeking. And/or you could splice the index into the 
bitstream when you serve it.

The index really needs to be in the Ogg header packets at the start of 
the media for it to be useful for web video.

We discussed on #theora about indexing at encode time. You can reserve 
space for n indexed keyframes in the headers packets, and once you're 
done encoding you can choose n keyframes to put into the index. If you 
know the duration of the media in advance, you can guess how many 
keyframes you'll have and allocate space accordingly. My indexer 
currently only indexes keyframes which are more than 500ms after the 
previously indexed keyframe anyway.

> Could you transfer your spec to the Xiph wiki? we also need to discuss
> implementation for Dirac etc.
>    

Any content type for which seeking to and playing from a target time 
requires you to decode forwards from a pre-determinable Ogg page can be 
indexed.


All the best,
Chris P.