I have the problem that in ELAN the time-line starts at 160ms instead of at zero.
I already created multiple ELAN files each with different videos associated with them and then created annotations (on Win 10). When a colleague opened the files on another computer (Mac) the annotations have the same start and end time but show different Video frames than when I look at it.
So the annotations are always at e.g. 400 ms to 600 ms, for my colleague the annotation shows the video from 400 to 600 ms but for me it shows the video from 240 ms to 440 ms. As a temporary solution I shifted my annotations by -160 ms, but I could not find a proper solution.
See here a screenshot from after creating a new file and selecting a new video:
I am unable to move the cursor further left and the “go to begin of media” button moves the cursor to this exact position.
Does anybody know what the problem’s cause is or has ideas how to fix it?
I’ve seen a similar effect with a video (but there it wasn’t possible to move the cursor below 40ms). Since this doesn’t happen with all videos, I assume it must have something to do with the encoding of the files, without really knowing what exactly causes this.
ELAN builds on, encapsulates, media player frameworks that are available on the operating system it runs on. The default player on Windows e.g. is based on Microsoft Media Foundation. In all cases, in the scenario of going to the begin of the media, ELAN tells the player to set the media time to 0ms, upon which the different viewers in ELAN that display the media time in one way or another, ask the media player for the (actual) ‘current media time’. I don’t think there is much that can be done within the ELAN code to solve the problem you describe.
What could be done is to try to re-encode the video, maybe following the guidelines in this document, and see if this solves the problem. (If all else fails, maybe try a ‘key frame only’ version of the video.)
On Windows there are two alternative media frameworks that you can try, JavaFX and a VLC-based player (if you have VLC installed). Switching can be done via Edit->Preference->Edit Preferences->Platform/OS. Changes apply to windows/documents that are opened after the change. Both alternatives have their own drawbacks, but you could check if these allow to go back to point 0ms. In anyway, it would be best if the default framework could be used, e.g. after re-encoding.
