Seeking is Slow in MPEG1 Files Compressed with Cleaner 6 - Mac

Several users have reported slow seeking times and other playback issues when viewing files compressed on a Mac with Discreet Cleaner 6. On Windows the problem is more evident with larger media files, where seeking to a position in the middle of the file can take several seconds. This problem is not caused by Mpeg Advance Xtra: the same issue can be observed if the MPEG1 file is played in the Windows Media Player or with our older Mpeg playback solutions, including DirectMediaXtra. On a Macintosh machine, trying to seek back and forth on these files (even in the standard Quicktime Player) can cause the system to freeze for a couple of seconds, with the busy spinning cursor that indicates that OSX is busy.

This problem is caused by the multiplexing packet size defined by default in the Cleaner VCD preset. Users are advised to change the multiplex packet size from the default 2324 to 2048, the standard used by most MPEG compressors and tools. This setting can be adjusted in the MULTIPLEX tab of the MPEG Encoding Options dialog box.

If you no longer have access to the original uncompressed files for recompression it is always possible to demultiplex and remultiplex the MPEG1 file to correct this issue. The shareware program TMPGEnc (Windows) can be used for this operation. Select the MPEG TOOLS item in the FILE menu of TMPGEnc, and start by demuxing the MPEG1 file (Simple demultiplex tab). This will split the file into two separate streams: one has the m1v suffix and contains the video track, and the other has the m2v suffix and contains the audio track. Now select the Simple multiplex tab to remux the file: set the type to MPEG1 System Stream (Automatic), and choose the video and audio tracks created in the previous step. Please notice that this demux/remux operation only changes the stream interleave for optimal packet size: your video and audio streams are not recompressed, so there is absolutely no loss in quality.