annotate DOCS/xml/en/edl.xml @ 11483:462b97f8746f

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<!-- $Revision$ -->
<sect1 id="edl" xreflabel="Edit Decision Lists (EDL)">
<title>Edit Decision Lists (EDL)</title>

<para>
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.
</para>

<para>
This is useful for those who may want to watch a film in "family-friendly"
mode. You can cut out any violence, profanity, Jar-Jar Binks .. from a movie
according to your own personal preferences. Aside from this, there are other
uses, like automatically skipping over commercials in video files you watch.
</para>

<para>
The EDL file format is pretty bare-bones. Once the EDL system has reached a
certain level of maturity, an XML-based file format will probably be implemented
(keeping backwards compatibility with previous EDL formats).
</para>

<para>
The maximum number of EDL entries for the current incarnation of EDL is 1000.
If you happen to need more, change the <systemitem>#define MAX_EDL_ENTRIES</systemitem>
in the <filename>edl.h</filename> file.
</para>

<sect2 id="edl_using">
<title>Using an EDL file</title>
<para>
Include the <option>-edl &lt;filename&gt;</option> flag when you run
<application>MPlayer</application>, with the name of the EDL file you
want applied to the video.
</para>
</sect2>

<sect2 id="edl_making">
<title>Making an EDL file</title>
<para>
The current EDL file format is:
<programlisting>
[begin second] [end second] [action]
</programlisting>
Where the seconds are floating-point numbers and the action is either
<literal>0</literal> for skip or <literal>1</literal> for mute. Example:
<programlisting>
5.3   7.1    0
15    16.7   1
420   422    0
</programlisting>
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.
</para>

<para>
To create an EDL file to work from, use the <option>-edlout &lt;filename&gt;</option>
flag. During playback, when you want to mark the previous two seconds to skip over,
hit <keycap>i</keycap>. A corresponding entry will be written to the file for
that time. You can then go back and fine-tune the generated EDL file.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>