free dvd authoring tool

[Baldrick]

ifoedit is kinda limited so I was thinking of making a new free windows dvd authoring tool.

I found dvdauthor and compiled it for windows and it works fine and it supports most stuff like, chapters, several titlesets, all kind of audio and video, subtitles, menus, basic linking.

So instead of rewriting all those features maybe a gui for dvdauthor is only that requires. I have to test dvdauthor a bit more first.

Does anyone know if there are any other free dvdauthoring tools or guis out there or beeing made right now???

[mats.hogberg]

I think dvdauthor is the only app used Linux-side...
I've yet to see a GUI for it tho... Maybe a .NET GUI will make this the VCDEasy of the DVD era?

/Mats

[SaSi]

I'm working on a tool to demux all assets from a VIDEO_TS folder contents and create the asset files as well as a Scenarist script. The idea is to be able to load the script onto Scenarist and be able to re-author the exact DVD as the original.

I visited the Soundforge website and downloaded the latest version (0.5.3). It appears to be a command line driven app so it should be possible to also script the options and instructions it requires to re-author. But if anyone wants to modify things, then a user interface is really needed.

[MJPollard]

ifoedit is kinda limited so I was thinking of making a new free windows dvd authoring tool.

As long as it doesn't require the .NOT framework, I'm there.

[Baldrick]

I'm using borland c++ builder...very easy to make windows apps in that and it doesn't require any net framewooorks.

[themichael]

Baldrick

I found dvdauthor and compiled it for windows

...

Could you share you compile?

[Baldrick]

Baldrick

I found dvdauthor and compiled it for windows

...

Could you share you compile?

www.dvdrhelp.com/download/dvdauthor-0.5.3-win32.zip


simple dvd with ntsc mpg clip:

mplex -f 8 dvd.mpg dvd.m2v dvd.m2a

dvdauthor -o folder -f dvd.mpg

dvdauthor -T folder

[NightWing]

Would recomend if some one cooks up a shell to use DirectShow. it strange but better than the old MM stuff.

Before the universe exploded earler this year on reasonable authoring packages I cook up something call VMD { Video of Mass Destruction ) that you could load in a AVI or mpeg and create a txt file to feed into ifoedit to create chapter. It had some issues but was some what usable. It already has playback, chapter marks, load list, save list etc. mostly working. The main designd items were both easy to use and no installing. Hate installers! Esp Installshield garbage!

Wonder if it could be coaxed into being a shell for DVD Author? A temp script creation or command line call could be added.

Baldrick if you want can send a copy to you. Its about 56k in size. Not too big. Was written in VC6 SP5 and MFC.

[vhelp]

hay Baldrick ..

Great idea, messing around w/ some coding and stuff :P

Yea, I use C++ Builder too (not these days though) but I have it for those
experiments w/ .DLL files and things for Delphi and VB. Mind you, I'm no
C++ guru nor fan, but I can get around in it when needed

I'm more of a Delphi fan, and have wrote a few tools to get things done or
aid with.. ie, a bbMPEG muxer shell/gui for instance. ..but I'm glad to see
that you can dable in other areas (programming) ..like those of us here on
this FORUM.

Course, my real challenge will be when i can write my first Filter for either
vdub or avisynth, under C++ Builder and/or Delphi. (though, pref. Delphi)
There are TWO Filters that I want to plug away w/ developing for avisynth,
but am hampered due to the way avisynth was created w/ MS VC only.

Keep up w/ the ideas,
-vhelp

[Baldrick]

NightWing: email it...maybe I could use it.

alpha screenshot


import media fixed.
multiplexing fixed.
now only some authoring stuff...

[vmesquita287]

This is great, I love to see a more powerfull tool than IFOEdit for authoring (which is already very powerful) with command-line!

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[JamesB69]

Yes, a program like this could be a big addition to the dvd burning/authoring scene

[mats.hogberg]

Well, dvdauthor has been around for over a year - On the Linux scene
@Baldrick - Great idea to compile it for Windows - what did you use? Cygwin, or what?
I'd very much like a description on how you compiled dvdauthor!

/Mats

[ChrissyBoy]

Impressive stuff Baldrick. I shall take a look at the dvd author program. However, your alpha looks pretty much there!

Well done.

[vmesquita287]

I just found this Linux GUI

http://cosoft.org.cn/html/osl/projects.php?group_id=5912

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[Baldrick]

Well, dvdauthor has been around for over a year - On the Linux scene
@Baldrick - Great idea to compile it for Windows - what did you use? Cygwin, or what?
I'd very much like a description on how you compiled dvdauthor!

/Mats

Yep, I installed cygwin(with all packages) and ran ./configure and make in the dvdauthor folder...done.

I don't how to fix the subtitles yet though...I have the submux-dvd but you have to make the subs with xste...and it isn't a simple command line tool....does it work to use maestrosbt or some other subtool to make subs for submux-dvd?

[Baldrick]

I just found this Linux GUI

http://cosoft.org.cn/html/osl/projects.php?group_id=5912

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isn't it a macosx gui??

[ChrissyBoy]

Yes it is but heres one for linux:

http://polidori.chapelperilous.net/features.mhtml

[housepig]

English Language link for Sizzle GUI (OSX)

[vmesquita287]

You're right, that's a MacOS GUI... I messed up. It seems now that the problem implementing subtitles... I just found this nice page about Linux DVD authoring:

http://www.home.zonnet.nl/panteltje/dvd/

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[ChrissyBoy]

Baldrick - i notice your gui expects elementry streams (due to the fact that is needs to multiplex with the navigation packs). But presumably it would be useful to use program streams that have already been processed by mplex with the -f 8 argument. It would allow you to reuse assets. I suppose this would be similar to DVDLab's ability to "optionally" NOT demux the programs streams you import - if you know they already have the nav packs. Well i have some code which detects whether an mpg has been multiplexed by mplex with the -f 8 argument. Thus you can "auto detect".

Let me know if you want me to post it here - just a couple of functions.

[Baldrick]

I was looking for something like that. Please post it or email it to me. Thanks!

[ChrissyBoy]

Well its C# I'm afraid but it should be easy to port.

private bool Check4NavPacks(string mpegFileName)
{
	/*
	Navigation packets are PES packets with a stream id 0xbf, i.e.
	private stream 2.  It's made up of PCI, Presentation Control Information
	and DSI, Data Search Information.

	details: www.mpucoder.com
	*/

	byte[] PCI_PACK = {
							0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0xBF, 0x03, 0xD4
						};


	byte[] DSI_PACK = {
							0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0xBF, 0x03, 0xFA
						};

	Stream s=new StreamReader(mpegFileName).BaseStream;
	bool fNavPacks=StreamContains(s, PCI_PACK) && StreamContains(s, DSI_PACK);
	s.Close();
	return fNavPacks;
}

private bool StreamContains(Stream s, byte[] bytes)
{
	long MAX_LENGTH=16384; // only looking at 1st 16KB - enough to contain nav packs
	s.Position=0;
	BinaryReader r = new BinaryReader(s);

	bool valid=false;
	byte[] buffer=new byte[MAX_LENGTH];

	int bytesRead=r.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);

	for(int i=0;i<bytesRead-bytes.Length;i++)
	{
		for(int ii=0;ii<bytes.Length;ii++)
		{
			if(buffer[i+ii]!=bytes[ii])
			{
				valid=false;
				break;
			}
			else
			{
				valid=true;
			}
		}
		if(valid)
			return valid;
	}
	return valid;
}

pseudeo usage:
		if Check4NavPacks(myFile)
			 use this file
		 else
			alert user to demux

[Baldrick]

thanks...yep I must port it...no streamreader or bynaryreader in bcc.

[vmesquita287]

Have you tried to compile using cygwin? It's free.
How is the GUI going?


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[Baldrick]

Have you tried to compile using cygwin? It's free.
How is the GUI going?


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Basic authoring is done(add audio,video and author to titles)...i'm now working on linking and basic menus....and it takes a lot of time to make a good gui for all that.

[vmesquita287]

So it's possible to use multiple VTS? Interesting! Have you found a way to convert subtitles to xste format?

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[Baldrick]

So it's possible to use multiple VTS? Interesting! Have you found a way to convert subtitles to xste format?

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Yes...you can have multiple vts.
No I haven't found out how to fix the subs yet.

Aren't anyone else testing dvdauthor?? or making a gui???

[Compugup]

Hi Baldrick,

I cygwinned the 454 dvdauthor package and the 0.3 submux-dvd package.
I used GCC to compile.
Had to change some lines to get it through.

Almost everything seems to work (I can multiplex and author a DVD) but both submux (in the dvdauthor package) and submux-dvd give very blurred subtitles close to unreadable and in the wrong position, changing the color palette by ifoedit did not improve that it just changed the colors of the subtitles.

I got the subtitles by using vob2sub on a part of a dvd title and multiplexing them back in a mpg using submux/submux-dvd and I also made some myself with Subtitle Workshop. I use Windvd to show the subtitles.

By the way: you can produce subtitles for submux by using the very latest version (2.03 others won't work) of Subtitle Workshop (a great package), export to substation alpha format (not the advanced format) and reprocess it with MaestroSBT (use submux script in the rendering menu). That works, at least for the subtitles not for the end result with submux.

So now I'm stuck with the submuxers because I'm not sure if the compilation was wrong or the files I supplied are not up to par or the submuxers just don't work.

We need to get submux working not only for subtitles but also for creating the menus.

Did you try submuxing?

Compugup.

[vmesquita287]

Compugup,

I just tested the subtitles and they are worked fine for me. Initially they were green and blue, so I changed the color using IFOEdit to SRT2SUP standard colors, and they became black with white ouline. OF course iI wanted the other way around (white with black outline), but the subtitles are OK, not blurry or unreadable, just the colors are not the ones I am used. But it's just a matter of figuring out the correct set of colors.

This is what I did: created with Subtitle WorkShop, converted using SubStation Alpha (I felt a bit lazy to update my Subtitle WorkShop now), rendered using Maestro SBT. Muxed using submux-dvd, compiled using MingW with no changes in the original source code other than putting a line of code that was saparated by "\" in many lines togheter in one (this was causing errors).

I used Baldrick compile of DVDAuthor, I didn't manage to compile it yet. Tested using PowerDVD and my Philco DVP-2500, subs look the same in both. Also no positioning problems (check MaestroSBT configuration). I can't tell you about synch issues since I muxed a sub that had nothing to do with the actual video, just for testing purposes.

By the way, do you know the MinGW developer studio? It's a free Visual Studio like IDE, using MinGW and WxWindows. I love this one!

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