MPEG-2 seeking, where to start?

Question

I'd like to be able to seek to an arbitrary frame in a MPEG-2 file (from DVD, I guess it's called MPEG-2 Program Stream). So far I had been using OpenCV 2.1 for accessing those frames but that would only work on a frame after frame basis (only forward seeking). Later when I installed OpenCV 2.3.1 that possibility was lost though, i.e. limited to AVI. Anyways, I'd like to do that without OpenCV. I've managed to seek to keyframes (I suppose) or every so and so frame (e.g. every 12th frame). Now, looking at VirtualDub frame accurate seeking is possible. It says: ''parsing interleaved MPEG-2 file''. What exactly does that mean and where would I have to start to do the same? Is it even legal, I remember reading something about that somewhere, can't really remember though. I'm programming in C++ using directshow. As far as I know directshow won't do it. Then I was looking into CBaseFilter, streamtime method etc but before I dive into that complex topic I'd like to know if that's the right way to go. Looking forward to your answers, thanks!

@ Geraint: code snippet of filter graph:

CoCreateInstance(CLSID_FilterGraph,NULL,CLSCTX_INPROC,IID_IGraphBuilder,(LPVOID *)&pGraphBuilder);
 CoCreateInstance(CLSID_MPEG2Demultiplexer,NULL,CLSCTX_INPROC,IID_IBaseFilter,(LPVOID *)&pib);
 CoCreateInstance(CLSID_CMPEG2VidDecoderDS,NULL,CLSCTX_INPROC,IID_IBaseFilter,(LPVOID *)&pib2);

 pGraphBuilder->AddFilter(pib,L"Sample Splitter");
 pGraphBuilder->AddFilter(pib2,L"Sample Decoder");

 ZeroMemory(&am_media_type, sizeof(am_media_type));
am_media_type.majortype = MEDIATYPE_Video;
am_media_type.subtype = MEDIASUBTYPE_MPEG2_VIDEO;
am_media_type.formattype = FORMAT_MPEG2Video;

pGraphBuilder->QueryInterface(IID_IMediaControl,(LPVOID *)&pMediaControl);
pGraphBuilder->QueryInterface(IID_IMediaSeeking, (void**)(&pMediaSeeking));
pGraphBuilder->QueryInterface(__uuidof(IVideoFrameStep), (PVOID *)&fst); 
pGraphBuilder->QueryInterface(IID_IMediaEvent, (void **)&imev);
pGraphBuilder->QueryInterface(IID_IBasicVideo,(LPVOID *)&ibv);

pGraphBuilder->RenderFile(FILENAME,0);

and then I use IMediaSeeking for seeking the vid. I've also tried frame stepping (hence the references above).

Answer 1

DirectShow is capable of delivering frame-accurate seeking. However, without an index, this is based on a time offset from file start, not a frame count.

Use IMediaSeeking to set the start time. The demux will begin delivery of compressed frames some way before that. The decoder will start decoding at the previous key frame but will discard any frames that are before your chosen start point.

G