DVD slideshow GUI - development thread.

[tin2tin]

Try to restart your Windows 8 computer and see if the error persists.

[smmyst]

tried restarting it but the error still occurs

[tin2tin]

Try shut down DSG, delete the ini file, and restart again.

My guess is that the start up problem is caused by a bad ini file and the hcenc bug is caused by a incompatibility problem with Windows 8. So two different things.

[smmyst]

Tried that but still same issue. When DSG does not involve using hcenc (for example avi) the program works well otherwise when hcenc is used it just crashes

any other way to put it onto to dvd without using hcenc (or use a workaround using hcenc) and retaining the quality?

[tin2tin]

Okay so all the crashes are relations ed to hcenc. If you export as .avs (avisynth script) you can import that file to Eyeframe Converter and when converting select delivery and one of the dvd presets. This will result in a dvd iso which can be burned with ImgBurn.

Really annoing with Hcenc is not working properly on your computer, because it is major work to replace it with something else.

[smmyst]

Okay so all the crashes are relations ed to hcenc. If you export as .avs (avisynth script) you can import that file to Eyeframe Converter and when converting select delivery and one of the dvd presets. This will result in a dvd iso which can be burned with ImgBurn.

Really annoing with Hcenc is not working properly on your computer, because it is major work to replace it with something else.

i used avstodvd because eyeframe converter didnt convert it to a playable dvd the media player classic just says something about an invalid decoder

Thanks for your help on the avs idea, i hope hcenc has a more working version for windows 8

[tin2tin]

You can try some of the other/older versions of hcenc and let me know if they are working better. https://www.videohelp.com/tools/HC/old-versions#download

What is the resolution & framerate of your DSG project? If you want to end up with a dvd, the resolution must be dvd compliant.

The EFC presets which starts with DVD will create an iso file which you can't play in MPC, this file is for burning only. The MPEG delivery presets will create DVD compliant files for DVD authoring programs.

[smmyst]

You can try some of the other/older versions of hcenc and let me know if they are working better. https://www.videohelp.com/tools/HC/old-versions#download

What is the resolution & framerate of your DSG project? If you want to end up with a dvd, the resolution must be dvd compliant.

The EFC presets which starts with DVD will create an iso file which you can't play in MPC, this file is for burning only. The MPEG delivery presets will create DVD compliant files for DVD authoring programs.

thats okay then at least theres 2 programs there that can deal with avs files properly

avstodvd does create the dvd iso and it works on a pal tv

hcenc 0.23:
the first time it finished converting the audio file and then crashed with an invalid motion vector
the second time it crashes with the same error mentioned earlier to do with runtime

other hcenc versions:
the others just crash with the same error mentioned earlier to do with runtime

here are my project settings

[goorawin]

Help on interlace output
I have just installed DVD Slideshow to see how it goes. I have used Proshow but feel it is too complex for what I need.
As DVD slideshow is based on Avisynth scritping and I have been using that for many years, I though it would be good to try.
My question is how do you export an interlaced file, which will make all transitions fluid? All current settings are progressive. I would also like to be able to export either 50P or 60P. Is there an easy way to do this?
I have exported the AVS for a basic file and changed frame rates there, but isn't there a simpler way?
I haven't tried an interlace video file to see if it is converted to progressive, but it probably would be.
Thanks in advance

[goorawin]

Since my last question regarding outputting 25i, 30i, 50P or 60P, has not had any response, I'm not too confident in getting a reply to my next question.
Since there are now examples of Ken Burn effects on the DVD Slideshow site when will we be able to use them in DVD Slideshow?
Thanks in advance

[DeeYesses]

Hello there,

I've recently started exploring DSG Gui.. its really wonderful. However, I would like to use an external encoder like VirtualDub or MeGui etc to enable better control of bitrate and other parameters. I however, have a minor issue with the AviSynth script exported. When I open the AVS (Test.avs in this case) for the 1st time the subtitles are displayed fine.. however when opened for the 2nd time the titles appear twice. Like so.






The number of lines go up by 2 each time when opened in MeGui. I have attached the exported avs also.

I have tried opening the avs file with logoff, restart.. but the problem persists. Right now, am exporting the avs without the subtitles and generating the .srt files separately.

Any idea of what could I be missing? Thanks.

[User75]

First, sorry for my bad englisch.
I create a slideshow with this Tool. This can be seen on a website. After the last photo stops the slide show. But I want her to automatically start all over again. There should be a continuous loop. How to do that?

Thanks for Help !

[DeeYesses]

I however, have a minor issue with the AviSynth script exported. When I open the AVS (Test.avs in this case) for the 1st time the subtitles are displayed fine.. however when opened for the 2nd time the titles appear twice. Like so.

I noticed that the AVS script was generating the .ssa file everytime it was invoked like below:
writefilestart(d,"C:\Users\...\.DVDslideshowGUI\DV DsGUItemp"+".ssa","ssa",Append = TRUE). If I edit it to Append = FALSE, the problem is solved. I am not sure if this will introduce bugs elsewhere. But for now I can proceed with this simple edit.

I am not able to find any setting in DSG related to subtitles that could fix this. Any idea why the AVS script is generated with Append = TRUE"

Many thanks.

[george84]

Any idea why the AVS script is generated with Append = TRUE"

See post 1537

[DeeYesses]

Thanks very much george84 for pointing to the earlier discussion on this. This helps.

[pchan]

@tin2tin,
Is there a way to disable the installer from accessing the internet during installation. I know it's trying to look for the latest update. But for PC without internet connection, the installer crashed. The older version that does not need internet connection 0916. Thanks.

[Patrik2012]

To everyone

Had my problems of creating a 450 picture slideshow with various errors when starting the video processing.
Did several attempts of only creating avs or other formats, etc.
When splitting the whole into 2 slides and merging them afterwards was possible but with 2 subtitles in 2 languages I had to do some additional work with other pieces of software.

Anyhow, I came accross of an issue in "large-address-aware" on the homepage of techpowerup.
I updated first the avisynth to the latest alpha version, muxman to latest beta and HcEnc was already up to date.
Then I startet the LAW tool and patched all the files to have 4GB memory range access.
Then I started my large project again and when looking for the memory usage it was going up to 2.6 GB and you know what ?
Everything went till the end and the mp4 file was created.

Hope my experience will help you too for your projects.
I use WIN 7 / 64Bit / 4GB RAM / intel 7i laptop

Have a nice afternoon.
Patrik

[RichU]

I have used DVD GUI in the past - nice. New system now - Windows 7 and AMD CPU.

Just started a new project with 0.9.5.4, trying to add captions/subtitles. . .

But, after doing some Project Settings, then adding about 8 photos as a test, I tried both Save Project and Save As - both "hang" the program. It fades slightly, and nothing happens, even after a minute or more. Clicking on the dialog/program window just gives a "ding" and nothing happens?

Should I uninstall/reinstall? Ideas?

[RichU]

Uninstall/reinstall did not help.

Perhaps this is a conflict with an existing program on my computer?

Suggestions?

[george84]

To everyone

Had my problems of creating a 450 picture slideshow

That's good to hear, but what was your slideshow resolution? (1920 to 1080? or what?), and what was size of original pictures? Maybe is not important because DSG transforms them all .

Then I startet the LAW tool and patched all the files to have 4GB memory range access

What is the LAW tool? Is this also possible for 32bit machines?

Thank you.

[Allan Verhulst]

Hi,
I've created a project. Worked great but I made some changes and when I go back and try to open it again, I get a conversion error. The project has 41 slides with animation and sub titles. The program seems to being opening the project. The indicator the bottom left shows 41 but it crashes before the pictures are loaded for work. The message box indicates:
Conversion error. Can't perform inequlity test on nothing aginst number. menupaste() in the "C....DVD..exe" line 2246
> if(kb_bank(oint(an(i),0,0)) > -1 then
I've looked at my dsg file in notepad but that is no help. Anyone help as to the problem?

[george84]

@Allen

When I look at source code of DSG (Which you can find in your download of DSG) then it seems that in project file .dsg there are six lines to describe every single slide. For example:

a.JPG
Dissolve.avs
20
100
2008:01:12 20:37:22
C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\Kevin\Eigene Dateien\SMIL\BSG Prototyp\AB\a.JPG
1

The fifth line is file path, the sixth line indicates if there is animation. If this number is > -1 then slide has animation. I assume your .dsg file is somehow corrupted. So you would have to find the line after a file path which is not numeric. You could then try to set it to -1. and redo the animation.

Good luck.

[Allan Verhulst]

George84, Thanks for your suggestion. I looked at the DSG file and could not find anything. All my numbers were positive. IF there is no animation, the next line reads " noanimation". Rather searching more for the problem, I will redo it. That is frustrating but i can follow the MPG file from the last working attempt. Shows that it is best to create a new DSG file everytime rather than overwriting the old - that way you have one that works to attempt to make your changes again. I know it is something simple in my DSG file but I do not know.
Thanks again.

[Allan Verhulst]

I'm still having the same problem as posted above. This seems to pop up almost on any project after I have made several saves and opens. I've got three projects with this same error. I can go back to a previous version and export a good mpg file but when I save, the program will not open the saved file. It appears to be opening the file, the music is listed, the picture count goes to the last but just as the pictures are to be displayed the program crashes with the above error. And as I said, if I go back to a version I can load, I can export but it will not save a good file.
Can anyone help?
Thanks

[RichU]

like DSG and have used it a number of times in the last few years. It excels at transitions and overall functionality. Thanks for it.

But, it isn't perfect. Here are a few "issues" that could use some consideration. These aren't meant as criticisms, but as info to the designer (tin2tin). Maybe the program has a few weak areas, or maybe I'm just doing things wrong. . .

1. Tutorial info is VERY useful, due to the many features, and an internet search for that info is a good idea for rank newbies and doing special/advanced features.

I apply the program to some LARGE shows. Version 0.9.5.4 I most recently am packaging almost 870 slides to distribute some vacation info to fellow vacationers (too may for a presentation!) My Win 7 64-bit with AMD 8-core CPU and 8 gigs of RAM handles it OK. Obviously loading takes "a while." The large size amplifies some issues.

2. When editing slide settings/captions near the end of the list, upon clicking OK the change takes effect but DSG jump to vaguely the center of the slides list, perhaps 1, 2, or 300 slides away from the slide(s) that was just edited, making for a lot of scrolling to find the place. Gets pretty annoying, as it seems like it should stay at the view location prior to the edit.

3. DSG does poorly at importing or slide-setting captions. Sorry. I have done small groups and large groups where I want the IPTC Caption. DSG seems OK if they all have individual captions, but blanks or repeats result in jumbled, repetitive and overwritten captions (subtitles). I've tried adding just a space - no help. Just a period - some help - but LOTS of errors: repeats and overwrites. Seems like DSG gets confused. Note: I used the graphic program Irfanview as a comparison - it handled the captions perfectly. They are made in Picasa and show as captions in the IPTC data. Irfanview is not as "robust" a slideshow program - no fancy transitions and does not burn to DVD for DVD players. But it handles the caption/subtitle stuff with ease - can't DSG do the same? Is it related to numbers of slides?

4. Quotes in the subtitles result in failed slideshow, and should not be used. Just knowing this should be enough for users. A preview yields a statement of text in the preview window saying "I don't understand "quoted word." or similar. Remove all the quotes and the preview "movie" is a success.

5. Can the music be looped? or can we just call for the same music twice?

6. I did 5, probably with other edits, and DSG went through all 870 slides, giving the warning about more than 300. When I said OK, then it said something like "Can not the load the file . . . . " and stopped with no info on how to fix it, forcing me to start over, a real time penalty.

7. My personal version, 0.9.5.4, freezes when I click File Open and several other options, until I hit ESC. I can save. To do Save AS and other stuff I have to run in Safe Mode. How odd that somehow there is a conflict or whatever.

8. Just before #6, I did Burn to a DVD successfully. It plays on my computer, but not in my Panasonic DMP-BD60 blu-ray player. (Cannot play disc," or similar) At a friend's house, one of his players played the audio but showed no video. His theater player played the DVD slideshow just fine! Music and photos! DVD is a DVD-R, which I think is in the list for my player. Haven't yet tried a DVD+R, because #6 has me re-doing lots of work.

9. Question about Animation. Tutorials sure helped, as my dim brain has a hard time figuring this out. But I got sort of what I wanted. Zoom in on a part of a photo, thanks to online tutorials. BUT, it looked like the zoom in literally was just a blow up of the animation thumbnail, getting fuzzy as it zoomed in rather than actually zooming in on the original photo to give some additional detail. Is that correct?

Thanks. I am NOT trying to be critical - trying to be constructive with MY "bugs" and issues.

[Allan Verhulst]

Hi RichU,
Thanks for your reply. I am running older equipment, XP pro on a Celeron 3.2 with 2GB. I have been exporting as MPG to a 16GB USB drive that plugs into my DVD player or my new VISIO TV. Just plugging into the TV seems best.

I have copied about 1000 old family slides to didgital. A lot of the old stuff - back to 1965 - is in really bad shape. Paint.net's auto adjust feature was able to fix a lot. These are organized by year. So I have 20 to 150 slides per year. One big problem was duplicate pic names even within such small subsets. Finally got that all straigtened out. But the problem came back with DSG and Paint.NET. I started to use the Paint.net feature but Paint.net saves the pic in the DSG folder as opposed to the originating folder. My pics were in folder by year. I could have the same pic name in folder 1967 as in 1965. The Paint.net stores in one folder so I covered up a pic with same name. You don't know this until you go back to remake an older year and find your picture replaced by one from a later year. I think all pic editing should be done before using DSG. Paint.net is really good for this as I crop to get closer to the 16:9 format. I have to edit every picture.

My pictures are only for family use so I don't need to maintain the pictures pixel density. This is too slow in processing. I resized all to 1920 x ? using Irfranview. This seems to be good enough quality.

The Ken Burns effect of DSG is great. Referring to your #8. The basis is key framing. Very few low priced Slideshow software have it, MemoriesOnTV seems to at $59 and I am thinking at getting it as I am frustrated by all the time I have lost in trying to fix problems. I have found that the quality is the same as the pic. Of course when you blow up the pic quality goes down as the zoom grows. I always place a mark, key frame, at the begining and end. Put one next to the first for how long you want the view to stay. Zoom with mouse to where you want - put a 3rd mark way far from the second. then put a 4th mark for how long you want it to stay - this may be the end. However if you zoom to another place - put mark 5 and mark 6 for its retention time.
To do a scene panorama: Zoom to one side - put a mark, put mark 2 for time length of scene, Zooom to other side - put mark 3 far from mark 2, Then set mark 4 for length. You can do rolling music cred**** at end the same way except zoom from top to bottom. The music pic is created in infranview and save to my picture folder. If software doesn't have the key frame property, I am not interested in it.

I have lost so much time having corrupted files that I am seriously thinking of going to MemoriesOnTV even though it is not as powerful. Also I get the idea that the original developer tnt2tnt has moved on and no one else is taking over. Too bad as it is such a powerful feature rich program. Tnt2tnt has done a marvelous job putting it together. Look at other programs and you soon realize it.

Thanks for responding to me
Allan

[Lehmeier]

Hello!
If the project is DVDSlideshowgui still maintained or is it dead?

There is only one version (0.9.5.4) is over a year old and is already massive in Win 7 problems do not allow the re-use.
These problems are not encountered under Win XP.

So there are artifacts, ghosting, stuttering etc. On More than one Computer ( 32 + 64 Bit ).

It would be nice times to get a short feedback, so I know whether I must replace the program or not (which would be a shame).

Under Win XP Pro under VirtualBOX on Linux Mint LMDE it´s not a Problem.
No Problems with ffmpeg or others.

I wanted to create a mp4 and was selected for the 1080p resolution 1920x1080x25 (16:9). Then I got the following message:

GetFrameBuffer: Returned a VFB with a 0 data pointer!
size=6220864, max=562331040, used =1013347712
I think we have run out of memory folks!
C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\User\.DVDslideshowGUITemp.avs, line 3245

How do I still get my file?


Whenever I will calculate a Slideshow get error after about 10 minutes into the film.
There appear ghosting, twitching, artifacts and partial images of transition effects. Now how do I get a reasonable result?
I also have a problem with the change of subtitles. Whenever I change a Subtitel and simple "Ok" press nothing changes. I click on the change somewhere in the text or highlight something he accepts the change.

When rendering the message comes in HCenc 0:26 (9) Error xxx Interval Error | routinely putmv1 - Invalid motion vector.

The 9 counts down to 1 in parentheses and then again starts at 9th

I do not know if it is related to the error but I wanted to at least mention it with.

Will there soon be a corrected version?

I have a problem of an avi file that I want to use in a slideshow.
I have also created with this DVDSlideshowgui 0.9.5.4 that avi file.

The whole is to be backed by music.

When I create the slideshow then the music will also be included - only the avi is silence.
How do I get it back even when the avi file, the music is used.

It should be created for PAL 720x576x25 (4:3).
1920x1080x25 1080p (16:9) will not be created.

My computer is an old P4 3.4 GHZ and 3 GB Ram and Win 7


Kind regards R.Lehmeier

[george84]

Looking at the forum activity you will notice that it is "dead". Last entry from tin2tin, who created program, was a long long time ago. Your error message says "line 3245", so I assume you have a big slideshow with many slides. With 1920 resolution this can easily run out of memory. This is a avisynth problem.

So my advice, don't expect a new version.
But of course tin2tin would be more competent to answer this.

[andi6510]

Hi Folks,
I stepped accross this forum after I started using DVD Slideshow GUI (0.9.5.4 on Win8.1) to prepare a slideshow. I fixed a couple of issues myself but now I am stuck and maybe somene else already had the same problem and can help me:

I installed the Program including all supplementary programs that come with it

My first problem was the one reported here
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/188464-DVD-slideshow-GUI-development-thread?p=22125...=1#post2212520
Seems all VDF plugins cannot be loaded. I assumed a path problem and after copying all "*.vdf" files from all program subdirectories directly into the program directory (ProgramFiles/DVD Slideshow GUI/...) and this fixed that problem.

Second problem is an error message which is displayed twice when opening the preview. It indicates that I should install a newer version of the runtime environment to get the video player running. I did not get rid of this message which is displayed twice, but nevertheless after confirming these messages the preview is played back fine (

But now I am stuck in my third problem related to the per-slide animation (not transition):
In the slides properties I click the animation button and I can select one of the pre-defined animations. This is working fine.
But I cannot alter the animation settings! For example when I want to increase the position of one of the keys the setting is always reverted back to the default setting when I edit another key.
So I tried to do the following:
1. Close the program, 2. open the project file in a text editor and modify the animation parameters manually., 3. restart the program
Now the new settings are visible for that slide and the preview seems to show the correct animation.
But when I render the final slideshow this slide seems to get skipped (the previous slide is displayed longer instead).

So I wonder if anybody has ever managed to use the animation settings in the latest version. And if not, in what (older) version do they work and where can I download it?

Any help appreciated! Thnx in advance!

[andi6510]

OK, just wanted to update:
I fixed my third problem just by correctly using the GUI:
in the animation settings change the values for a key, then press the SAVE KEY icon manually, then go to the next key. When I do this way the values are not lost each time I navigate in the dialog.
To me this usability seems quite poor. So whenever tin2tin comes back he could improve that.

My next problem:
I added an external self written avs script to my slideshow. This script is creating some small animation by simply loading a couple of pictures one after the other. This animation has no audio. Nevertheless the underlying audio I had added to my slideshow is muted during the playback of this animation. The generated avs script shows that this should only be the case for animations/videos which come with audio. So due to some reason the .hasAudio() check seems to fail. Maybe because some audio function .eqaudio() is applied to my animation before which could be the reason why some (silent) audio is added. I will have to investigate this more in detail and then find a workaround.

Is there a way to influence the how the avs script is generated for export or preview? Any code snippets in some config files that I could edit?

Basically after some experience with DVD Slideshow GUI I would say this program is very powerful but unfortunately still very buggy and with some poor usability in some places. So I would not recommend it to newbies.
Of course these bugs are also caused by AviSynth or other tools which are included. So nothing to blame the author tin2tin.