Seamless playback between consecutive clips in network file/stream playlist files such as ASX

SUMMARY / DESIRED FEATURE:

If I open a playlist file, which contains multiple network file/stream references, such as ASX, the playback of those consecutive multiple files/streams should be seamless.

STATUS QUO / FLAWED:

As of VLC 1.1.9 (Mac Intel) on Mac OS X 10.5.8, there is a time lag between the clips in the playlist.

This is particularly annoying if you watch i.e. a news report with many segments, each lasting only 0.5-5 minutes, and between each of them you have again about 10-30 seconds of waiting.

Demo file: Austrian state television news (ORF ZIB 2) from 2011-04-27.

I guess the current program logic is simply, that if the current file ends, only then the loading/bufering of the next one starts, and this brings this time lag.

Other applications already perform seamless ASX playback, i.e. Apple's QuickTime Player (7.6.6) with Perian (multi codec plugin, I am using version 1.2.1).

I witnessed this time lag on the VLC Mac version, did not test the others. Please change the issue platform flag if it affects others/all. Thanks.

SUGGESTED FUNCTIONAL PRINCIPLE:

A certain time before the current playing file ends, the next file already starts buffering, so that when the current file playback ends, the next one can start without any time lag.

The necessary preloading duration must be estimated by the ratio of currently available average network speed to the bitrate of the media stream, plus some additional time buffer maybe.

RELATED ISSUES:

I only found very slightly related issues in Wiki / Documentation / Issue Tracker.

#20 (closed) and http://wiki.videolan.org/Mini_Projects#Improved_ASX_support These are rather about the parser than playback.

http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/asx-open URL / title sounded promising, but page contained no text!