I'd like to control omxplayer seeking with frame precision from an existing instance with python.
I have seen this that I think is the way to go: open via python subprocess an instance, have a keyboard polling loop and echoing commands to the shell that is running the omxplayer instance.
Everything ok but I can not find the ability of frame-precision seeking.
Anyone can give me some suggestions?
tldr; use VLC + e.
I am kind of stating the obvious, but it looks like it cannot be done with omxplayer. A quick search results in the following the keyboard shortcuts that are related but do not offer a solution.
Left Arrow Seek -30
Right Arrow Seek +30
Down Arrow Seek -600
Up Arrow Seek +600
Also, starting up the process at a specific frame is not possible, because it is limited to precision in seconds.
Usage: omxplayer [OPTIONS] [FILE]
Options :
# omitted other options for brevity
-l / --pos start position (in seconds)
I just stumbled upon the topic VLC Hardware acceleration on this RP Exchange. This enables you to run VLC on your Raspberry Pi. Since VLC features frame-by-frame navigation (since 2008) you are saved, just press e!
Just like omxplayer, there are also keyboard shortcuts available - and configurable at command line startup - for VLC but again only with seconds as time unit.
Jump sizes:
--extrashort-jump-size=<integer [-2147483648 .. 2147483647]>
Very short jump length, in seconds.
--short-jump-size=<integer [-2147483648 .. 2147483647]>
Short jump length, in seconds.
--medium-jump-size=<integer [-2147483648 .. 2147483647]>
Medium jump length, in seconds.
--long-jump-size=<integer [-2147483648 .. 2147483647]>
Long jump length, in seconds.
Since this doesn't really work, you could also start VLC --start-time={x} where x is the amount of milliseconds. This starts the video on the defined point in time.
For anyone who comes across this later, you can start omxplayer from any point with the -l command. While the help says seconds, internally it multiplies whatever you put in by 1000.0f. So if you want to specify a start of 10 milliseconds just say -l 0.10
