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Playing with edit lists

Repeat a segment of a movie without copying media with edit lists.

Overview

A segment of a movie can be repeated without duplicating media data by using edit lists. Suppose you have a single-track movie whose media time scale is 100 and track duration is 1000 (10 seconds). For this example the movie’s time scale is 600. If there are no edits in the movie, the edit atom would contain the data values:

Edit list atom
├── Atom size: 36
├── Atom type: 'edts'
└── Edit list table atom
    ├── Atom size: 28
    ├── Atom type: 'elst'
    ├── Version/Flags: 0
    ├── Number of entries: 2
    ├── Track duration: 6000 (10 seconds)
    ├── Media time: 0
    └── Media rate: 1.0

Because this is a single-track move, the track’s duration in the track header atom is 6000 and the movie’s duration in the movie header atom is 6000.

If you change the track to play the media from time 0 to time 2 seconds, and then play the media from time 0 to time 10 seconds, the edit atom would now contain these data values:

Edit list atom
├── Atom size: 48
├── Atom type: 'edts'
└── Edit list table atom
    ├── Atom size: 40
    ├── Atom type: 'elst'
    ├── Version/Flags: 0
    ├── Number of entries: 2
    ├── Track duration[1]: 1200 (2 seconds)
    ├── Media time[1]: 0
    ├── Media rate[1]: 1.0
    ├── Track duration[2]: 6000 (10 seconds)
    ├── Media time[2]: 0
    └── Media rate[2]: 1.0

Because the track is now 2 seconds longer, the track’s duration in the track header atom must now be 7200, and the movie’s duration in the movie header atom must also be 7200.

Currently, the media plays from time 0 to time 2, then plays from time 0 to time 10. If you take that repeated segment at the beginning (time 0 to time 2) and play it at double speed to maintain the original duration, the edit atom would now contain the following values:

Edit list atom
├── Atom size: 60
├── Atom type: 'edts'
└── Edit list table atom
    ├── Atom size: 52
    ├── Atom type: 'elst'
    ├── Version/Flags: 0
    ├── Number of entries: 3
    ├── Track duration[1]: 600 (1 second)
    ├── Media time[1]: 0
    ├── Media rate[1]: 2.0
    ├── Track duration[2]: 600 (1 second)
    ├── Media time[2]: 0
    ├── Media rate[2]: 2.0
    ├── Track duration[3]: 4800 (8 seconds)
    ├── Media time[3]: 200
    └── Media rate[3]: 1.0

Because the track is now back to its original duration of 10 seconds, its duration in the track header atom is 6000, and the movie’s duration in the movie header atom is 6000.

See Also

Describing tracks