[FFmpeg-user] Bitstream Switching

[Ahmed Hamza]

Dear All,

I'm using FFMpeg in a project that I'm working to decode a received video
stream. One of the requirements of this project is the ability to perform
fast switching to a different stream. The new stream may be encoded at a
different bitrate for example or a completely different video. I was
wondering how to safely and quickly perform this stream switching and what
I need to do to re-initialize or configure the decoder so that it would be
able to start decoding the new stream?

I believe a call to avcodec_flush_buffers() may be necessary, similar to
what is done when seeking to a different timestamp. However, In the case of
having the same video at different bitrates, I'm not sure how this would
affect the smoothness of the transition between the two streams.

Thanks in advance..

-Ahmed