Frame Accurate Browser Launchable Video Player ... ?

Question

I have a requirement where I need to enable playback (full screen) of a h.264 MPEG4 (thanks for the correction!) video from a local network, launchable from a browser link on a Windows workstation, and be frame accurate.

By frame accurate I mean that I need to be able to scrub through the video in the same way you would with a vtr, stop at a frame, and then move backwards and forwards frame by frame (it is for a very specific compliance requirement where have to be able to check every frame if there is something that is potentially against broadcasting guidelines).

The application itself is used to capture notes while viewing the material, so the end model is for a dual monitor workstation, with a web form in one, the video playing full screen in the second (no issue launching the video and manually having to move it to the second screen), and then the user controls the video via keyboard shortcuts or a jog shuttle.

I have looked at QT, but the java bindings seem to be dead or nearly so, flash isn't frame accurate, VLC given its streaming heritage seems to be only able to move forward by a frame and not backwards, and all I have left are commercial offerings that in my experience are difficult and expensive to change.

Any ideas of where I should look or alternative options? Any advice appreciated!

Answer 1

I think you need a proper frame server for an application like this. While I've not done something like this myself, the first two products that come to mind are

• Sony Vegas
• Final Cut Pro

They are both integrated into a wide variety of work flows and I think very much what you are looking for.

Answer 2

An alternative would be on the server side, dumping each frame out as an image, and then just stepping through the video via images rather than trying to get a video player to work frame by frame.

Here's an ffmpeg command line to dump frames out of a video, to get you started:

ffmpeg -i video.mpeg -f image2 frames/frame-%03d.jpeg

If you wanted to get fancy, you could try using a video player for playing the video, and then when you stop and want to step by frames, replace it with a frame-by-frame view implemented using images. This would take a bit more work to convert video times to frame numbers when you pause the video, but may give you what you need.

Answer 3

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