Four questions, suggestions..

[Callan]

Dear Chrissyboy,

Four questions/suggestions. Or do I need to split them up into separate subjects?

A)
On starting up, first thing I notice is "Rip BIN Images" being checked by default. I still wonder what it means. Are only ripped (S)VCD images allowed? Clearly not. Does it mean that SVCD2DVD rips images from CD's if you tell it to? Until now, having no SVCD's, I have used VCDGear. Maybe whatever SVCD2DVD uses is better.

Should I use it, however, "Source" will obviously have to be the DVD drive or whatever one puts the (S)VCD's into, and "DVDfldr" the place where everything ends up: the ripped mpegs, the _DVD mpegs, as well as the VOB folder. So you need some 12 to 13 Gb of space.

(Saying "wipe the ripped mpegs" is not always a solution. If I have to wait five minutes for the ripping of each CD to finish, I may well want to hang on to the original rips. Especially in case something goes wrong..)

No problem, if all you have is one 160Gb C: drive. Although.. I have noticed that when sources and produce are on different harddisks, things can work somewhat quicker. Causes less fragmentation, too.

So, would it be possible to have THREE folders to start with: one for the original/newly ripped MPG's, one the program puts the finished 48k _DVD.mpg's into, and one DVDfldr? So I might switch (physical) drives for two operations, and keep the originals safe?

B)
What is this Update Cache for? And what's more important, why does SVCD2DVD insist on ringing up Mommy (in this case Chrissy) ever so often, four times during the last run, -even if one has stated that one wants to do it manually and received the notice that there are no updates available? (Contacting the ISP may not always be possible, at that.)

I do hope that the program does not want to update (parts of) itself when it's almost finished a particularly long job. Anyway, I do not want to be linked to my ISP all the time. Only when I, I repeat *I*, choose to, when I have some Internet-related work to do, that is. I don't want to be a sittin' duck for cyber hooligans just because I happen to be making a VCDDVD.

So, please can we have an option: "Don't check for updates at all until I feel like it"?

C)
I seem to remember having read somewhere that the DOS boxes don't pop up any more to cover the log file in the making so that the latter is no use at all, most of the time. If they need keep popping up (things will be quicker if they are open and have the focus), cannot you make them all appear, say, at the top left corner of the screen? Instead of where it pleases each one of them?

D)
Please tell everyone somewhere in the Help setup that if one does not make more than one VTS, one still can sort the MPG's in the order one wants them in the VOBs and on the DVD? Until I found out, I have been lugging Gigabytes of stuff around, just to get them in the right sequence. Which I do not wish on anyone.

(You see, I am a UK (and other) railway fanatic with a fair collection of cab ride video's, so I want no menu's in between the parts of a journey, say from Paddington to Fishguard. Or, the longest till now, Plymouth to Thurso. On two DVD's, this one, obviously.)

Well, thanks for the patience.

Bye, Chrissyboy!

Callan

[ChrissyBoy]

On starting up, first thing I notice is "Rip BIN Images" being checked by default. I still wonder what it means. Are only ripped (S)VCD images allowed? Clearly not. Does it mean that SVCD2DVD rips images from CD's if you tell it to? Until now, having no SVCD's, I have used VCDGear. Maybe whatever SVCD2DVD uses is better.

You would use "Rip BIN Images" if you had bin images on your hard drive. Thus if you had a folder with 3 bins & 2 mpgs in it would rip the bins to mpgs then work on the resultant 5 mpgs.

If you have SVCDs burnt to CDR then you may as well use your existing method.

No problem, if all you have is one 160Gb C: drive. Although.. I have noticed that when sources and produce are on different harddisks, things can work somewhat quicker. Causes less fragmentation, too.

So, would it be possible to have THREE folders to start with: one for the original/newly ripped MPG's, one the program puts the finished 48k _DVD.mpg's into, and one DVDfldr? So I might switch (physical) drives for two operations, and keep the originals safe?

No. I wrote a build which allowed multiple drives but it was a nightmare. Because there are so many potential "routes" from start to finish. I got it going but the result was to hopefully reduce processing time. It didn't significantly. I therefore rolled back to achieve more robust/maintainable, less complex code. I'm not going down that route again.

May i suggest:

Seagate U Series X 20 20GB UDMA100, £40.00 inc VAT:
http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/components/harddiskdrives/internalide35/productView.ht...quicklinx=25DD

Barracuda 7200.7 40GB UDMA100, £46.00 inc VAT:
http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/components/harddiskdrives/internalide35/productView.ht...N&familyid=227

What is this Update Cache for?

To download files to which will be updated.

So, please can we have an option: "Don't check for updates at all until I feel like it"?

You already have - turn off check for updates at start up. Thus when you want to update choose "auto update" or "manual update".

I seem to remember having read somewhere that the DOS boxes don't pop up any more to cover the log file in the making so that the latter is no use at all, most of the time. If they need keep popping up (things will be quicker if they are open and have the focus), cannot you make them all appear, say, at the top left corner of the screen? Instead of where it pleases each one of them?

There are no dos boxs now, full stop. Period.

D)
Please tell everyone somewhere in the Help setup that if one does not make more than one VTS, one still can sort the MPG's in the order one wants them in the VOBs and on the DVD? Until I found out, I have been lugging Gigabytes of stuff around, just to get them in the right sequence. Which I do not wish on anyone.

I'm not sure what you mean. Sorry.


CB

[iooi]

Please tell everyone somewhere in the Help setup that if one does not make more than one VTS, one still can sort the MPG's in the order one wants them in the VOBs and on the DVD? Until I found out, I have been lugging Gigabytes of stuff around, just to get them in the right sequence. Which I do not wish on anyone.

I think what he is trying to say is...
If you are using more than one file to make your dvd.
eg. train 1, train 2, train 3
You do not have to use seperate vts's just to get them to play in the right order you want....
By far the easyist way is to ensure the files are named in such a way that svcd2dvd places them in the correct order. I have always found if the films i do are incorrect eg start is in the middle not at the start there is a error in the file names usually just a space causes the files to be placed in wrong order.

[Callan]

Hi Chrissyboy!

Sorry to bother you with my tiny problems..

YOU: "You would use "Rip BIN Images" if you had bin images on your hard drive. Thus if you had a folder with 3 bins & 2 mpgs in it would rip the bins to mpgs then work on the resultant 5 mpgs."

ME: Never seen any BINs. Will it treat VCD's AVSEQ0x.DAT files as well?

YOU: "No. I wrote a build which allowed multiple drives but it was a nightmare. Because there are so many potential "routes" from start to finish. I got it going but the result was to hopefully reduce processing time. It didn't significantly. I therefore rolled back to achieve more robust/maintainable, less complex code. I'm not going down that route again.

May i suggest:

Seagate U Series X 20 20GB UDMA100, £40.00 inc VAT:
http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/compone ... klinx=25DD

Barracuda 7200.7 40GB UDMA100, £46.00 inc VAT:
http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/compone ... milyid=227"

ME: That's what I have, same brand, same type, same speed, only 80 an 60 Gb. And "using multiple drives" is what I routinely do. The harddisks have been partitioned. "Source:" is set to N:\!Source\ which is on partition 1 (15Gb) of the slave drive. "DVDfldr:" is set to F:\DVD\ which is the first large partition (12Gb) on the master drive.

So SVCD2DVD does its upgrading of MPG to MPG_DVD on N: and when finished writes its VOBs to F:. Seems quite happy doing that, too.

Have you ever timed the *copying* of, say, 1.4 Gb to another Folder on the same and to a different physical drive? N:\!Source\ to N:\ takes 131 secs, N:\!Source\ to F:\ takes 90 secs.

If you have, or use, only one drive, it just takes 1/3 (or is it 50%?) longer. Using SVCD2DVD is a waiting game, so I want to minimize the waiting. Reading the original mpg's from F:\ (or I:\) and writing the produce to N:\ would further reduce the time needed.

Though maybe things are different in NTFS?

--------------

ME: So, please can we have an option: "Don't check for updates at all until I feel like it"?

YOU: "You already have - turn off check for updates at start up. Thus when you want to update choose "auto update" or "manual update"."

ME: The icon is in front of "Check for updates Now (Manual)". Has been for weeks. Still, when I start up SVCD2DVD, first thing it does is bring up the login window and if I don't quickly click Cancel, it goes online. I am unable to remove the icon from the list altogether. It HAS to be 1, 2 or 3, it seems. It is 3. Perhaps you should remove the "Now", and make the program obey..

But, what is more annoying, when the program is doing its thing, it periodically brings up the login window again. And, no, "there are no updates available".

--------------

YOU: "There are no dos boxs now, full stop. Period."

ME: So what do you call these large windows poppin' up all the time all over the screen and showing nothing but a black surface usually, or some changing digits when it says "ffmpeg.exe" in the border? Maybe it's different in WinMe..? Cannot you let the program check which OS it's working with?

--------------

Brings me to another little wish. A Panic Button. To stop the program -when things clearly go wrong- without having to click OK on umpteen warnings that Windows cannot abort these DOS processes, which only brings up the next, and the next? CTRL-ALT-DEL is a tad drastic, -and I'm not sure that it works, either. I abhor the Reset button.

--------------

ME: Please tell everyone somewhere in the Help setup that if one does not make more than one VTS, one still can sort the MPG's in the order one wants them in the VOBs and on the DVD? Until I found out, I have been lugging Gigabytes of stuff around, just to get them in the right sequence. Which I do not wish on anyone.

YOU: "I'm not sure what you mean. Sorry."

ME: I am sorry I am not a native English speaker. Well, ..I ain't really..

A while ago, I made these VOBs for a continuous trip: Waterloo->Salisbury->Exeter->Penzance.
SVCD2DVD Files and Author tabs show:
1WatSal.mpg (779Mb)
2SalExe.mpg (1.05Gb)
3ExePen.mpg (1.23Gb)
The digit is part of the filename. I'll leave it at one VTS. 5 min chapters. No menu.

The first two are newly recorded. Then I remember that 3ExePen.mpg is not, and far too long to be a single VCD rip. It rather looks like two of them stuck together with TmpgEnc or Womble. Is that safe? How about the audio sync? So I decide to demux and remux it, at least. (Not that a few secs out of sync matters that much in cab rides..)

Anyway, when I return to SVCD2DVD, the sequence, both in Files and Author, is:
3ExePen.mpg
1WatSal.mpg
2SalExe.mpg
And that obviously won't do. (Even just renaming a file can cause this..)

What I used to do in such cases is: move the whole lot to F:\ (ca 4 mins), and then move them back in the right sequence (1, then 2, then 3) to N:\!Source\ (another 4 minutes).

When SVCD2DVD sees them after that, it has the right order again. Like at first.

The only thing I needed to have done was sort them under the Author tab, even without the help of one or more extra VTSes. Grrr!!

So you see. It's that simple. But clearly not to the programmer, to whom such things are self-evident. A pity that in many cases programmers write the Help files.

-----------

Again a long story. Thanks for being so patient, Chrissyboy.
And thanks for a great program.

Callan

[iooi]

A while ago, I made these VOBs for a continuous trip: Waterloo->Salisbury->Exeter->Penzance.
SVCD2DVD Files and Author tabs show:
1WatSal.mpg (779Mb)
2SalExe.mpg (1.05Gb)
3ExePen.mpg (1.23Gb)
The digit is part of the filename. I'll leave it at one VTS. 5 min chapters. No menu.

I would recomend that you rename the file to someting like
w2ppart1, w2ppart2 & w2ppart3. (Note all same case)
This would save all the problems you are encountering. When you rename use copy and paste just altering the last number, saves stray letters etc getting added....
Bin's are usually encountered when you download files or you store them as back-up's complete vcd/svcds.

[Callan]

Hi, IOOI!

Thanks for your reply.

YOU: "I would recomend that you rename the file to someting like
w2ppart1, w2ppart2 & w2ppart3. (Note all same case)
This would save all the problems you are encountering. When you rename use copy and paste just altering the last number, saves stray letters etc getting added...."

ME: I"m not sure this helps. I had this setup ready for SVCD2DVD:
BurmaA.mpg
BurmaB.mpg
BurmaC.mpg
BurmaD.mpg
BurmaE.mpg
which showed up in this sequence in SVCD2DVD Files and Author.

Then I renamed them, beginning at BurmaA, to:
burma1.mpg
burma2.mpg etc.

Now, when I look into SVCD2DVD Files and Author, I see:
burma2.mpg
burma3.mpg
burma4.mpg
burma5.mpg
burma1.mpg

No luck. Great that I can name them what I like and sort out the right sequence under the Author Tab, even without making any additional VTSes.

Callan

P.S. Capitals or small letters don't make a difference. Computers sort on ASCII codes. 'A' is 65, 'a' is 97 decimal, or 41H and 61H respectively.

[ChrissyBoy]

Never seen any BINs. Will it treat VCD's AVSEQ0x.DAT files as well?

as stated bins are a way of distributing/archiving CDRs. if you rename .dat to .mpg svcd2dvd will do the necessary.

Have you ever timed the *copying* of, say, 1.4 Gb to another Folder on the same and to a different physical drive?

Of course. All i'm saying is that after a major re-write of svcd2dvd i had every step(ripping, demux, resample, mux, author) inputting from 1 drive & outputing to another. On a 3GB run it shaved like 10secs of the single drive benchmark. Therefore i rolled back as the code was 10x more complex. And to the ROI (codewise) was not there for me.

The icon is in front of "Check for updates Now (Manual)". Has been for weeks.

The icon doesn't move. both "auto" an "manual" updates are user initialed if the "check for updates on startup" is un checked.

bring up the login window

This is because of the way you have windows DUN configured. i.e if an app needs to hit the net it prompts you. SVCD2DVD is not updating - it is performing some checks. If it can't reach the net then there is no drama. If you don't want the login screens you can change the DUN settings.

So what do you call these large windows poppin' up all the time all over the screen

LOL. i suspect that is a WinME "feature".

A Panic Button

I will be introducing a neater way of stoping the app. win2k/xp dosn't have half of those problems stopping svcd2dvd however....

[soulie]

i bet its really exciting watching all those cab rides!

lol - deltics forever!! - but then i grew up when i was 18

lolololol

8)

saddo

[iooi]

Hi, IOOI!

Thanks for your reply.
Then I renamed them, beginning at BurmaA, to:
burma1.mpg
burma2.mpg etc.

Now, when I look into SVCD2DVD Files and Author, I see:
burma2.mpg
burma3.mpg
burma4.mpg
burma5.mpg
burma1.mpg

No luck. Great that I can name them what I like and sort out the right sequence under the Author Tab, even without making any additional VTSes.

Callan

P.S. Capitals or small letters don't make a difference. Computers sort on ASCII codes. 'A' is 65, 'a' is 97 decimal, or 41H and 61H respectively.

I have had this happen as well but found renaming them using copy and paste solved the problem .
Still at least you are getting there (Unlike BR)
I know about the caps etc its just easier to spot mistakes if all is in the same case.

soulie, Have you really grown up