[Gnash-dev] NetStream design (episode 1)

[strk]

I've been trying to model the new NetStream architecture.
Doing so, questions arise very early in the process, so
here they are.

Consider the following model:


                 +------------+
                 | input      |
                 +------------+
                 | bytes      |
                 +------------+
                       |
                       v
                  ( parser )
                       |
            +----------+---------+
            |                    |
            v                    v
    +----------------+    +----------------+      +------------+
    | video_buffer   |    | audio_buffer   |      | playhead   |
    +----------------+    +----------------+      +------------+
    | encoded_frames |    | encoded_frames |      | cur_time   |
    +----------------+    +----------------+      | play_state |
                                                  +------------+

In this model, the (parser) process would run in its thread and
fully fill the video/audio buffers. The buffers would need to
have concept of 'timestamp' to respond to ActionScript exposed
queries like: "how many seconds of media do we have in the buffer ?"
and accept requests from ActionScript like: "buffer these many seconds
of frames before starting playback".

I can see that the FLV format allows this, in that timestamps are
associated to encoded frames. But is this also true for other kind
of formats ? What about mpeg for instance ? And OGG ?

I'll add more elements to the diagram as feedback flows....

--strk;

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