Edit decision list

Edit Decision List (EDL) support.

• The edit decision list (EDL) system allows you to automatically skip or mute sections of videos during playback, based on a movie specific EDL configuration file. This can for example be used for commercial skipping.

Scenemarkers (Chapter file) support.

• Jump from scene to scene, like with DVD chapters.

Features

• Support for EDLs/Scenemarkers in the following formats:
  • EDL (Edit Decision List) .edl format with added type '2' for scenemarkers
  • ComSkip .txt format (with framerate information)
  • VideoReDo version 2 .vprj format
  • SnapStream Beyond TV Smart Chapters (a.k.a. smartskip) .chapters.xml format.

• Automatically adjusts seeking so cutpoints are skipped.

• EDL/Scenemarker usage information in video information.

Usage

To use a specific format with a video file, put it in the same folder as the video file. The EDL/Scenemarker file and video file must have the same name.
For example:

Video File:  The Matrix.avi

EDL:         The Matrix.edl
Comskip:     The Matrix.txt
VideoReDo:   The Matrix.vprj
SnapStream:  The Matrix.chapters.xml

When multiple formats are available, XBMC will read them in the following order, until a valid file is read: VideoReDo, EDL, Comskip, SnapStream.

EDL format with scenemarkers extension

An Edit Decision List or EDL allows you to automatically skip or mute sections of videos during playback, based on a movie specific EDL configuration file. The EDL can for example be used to to skip commecials or intros. XBMC adds a third option to use scenemarkers. Scenemarkers can be used to quickly jump to a scene, similar to DVD chapters.

The current EDL file format is: [begin second] [end second] [action]

Where the seconds are floating-point numbers and the action is either 0 for skip, 1 for mute and 2 for a scene marker. Example:

5.3   7.1    0
15    16.7   1
420   422    0
1     255.3  2
2     720.1  2

This will skip from second 5.3 to second 7.1 of the video, then mute at 15 seconds, unmute at 16.7 seconds and skip from second 420 to second 422 of the video. These actions will be performed when the playback timer reaches the times given in the file. The scenemarkers '1' and '2' can be used to directly jump to second 255.3 and 720.1 in the video. The first number is the scene number (not used yet), the second the seek value in seconds, the third is the 'scene marker' type indicator. The scenemarker data is not passed to mplayer, but is only used as internal data format.

SceneMarker seeking

To assign a button for next/previous scenemarker, use the NextScene/PreviousScene codes in keymap.xml. For example to assing the |< and >| buttons on the xbox remote in full screen video:

<FullscreenVideo>
    <remote>
      <skipplus>NextScene</skipplus>
      <skipminus>PreviousScene</skipminus>

EDL information display

Pressing the Black button (Title on the remote) will show the some information regarding the currently playing video stream, such as codecs, framerate and so on. The following edl info is available:

• 'edl:n:b:e:s is available in the video status screen, with the following meaning:
  • n: no edl/scenemarkers
  • b: edl and scenemarkers
  • s: scenemarkers
  • e: edl

Not implemented

• Compensation for cutpoint when movie length is unknown and percentage seeking is used.
• Visual cutpoints/scenemarkers on video progress bar.
• EDL support for the DVD player core.

Possible issues

• Only supports the MPlayer core.
• The readers now stop reading at the first format error, and invalidates the EDL.
• Should one be able to go to a scenemarker inside a cutpoint? For now, you can.
• MPlayer sometimes seems to ignore search parameters, see Bug-report #1803075.

Possible future expansions

• Read other scene marker formats, like DVD authoring formats, so DVD-Rips can have the original Scene markers.
• Read other EDL/chapter file formats
• Support for the DVD player core
• Automatically create a Bookmark with picture for every SceneMarker (might be usefull,

but commercial detection software can generate a lot of scenemarkers).