Can MPG be demuxed into multiple MPEGs

[Groami Geistalt]

TMPGenc can split an MPG into a series of BMPs; is there a way to split an MPG the same way, but have the individual sections remain in the MPG format?

Failing that, is there a way to batch-convert BMPs to MPGs. I can convert a BMP to MPG one file at a time with MPEG Video Wizard, but I haven't seen a way to do this with a couple hundred files at once. (Or whatever: fifty at a time, twenty-five at a time, just something much less time-consuming than one at a time.)

I want to do this in order to import the multiple MPGs into TMPGenc DVD Author to see how close I can come to creating a controllable interactive 'slideshow' type file with multiple menus.
The objective's a bit clunky, but I'm looking for a way to at least pause the 'movie' and control the slideshow by moving between MPG images that are being treated as Chapters.

Thanks

[guns1inger]

technically, chapters are not discrete title, but points tagged within a single title. What you would end up with is multiple title, which are not as easy to traverse. If you go down the menu path you will find you run out of menus after only a few seconds of footage, as there is a finite limit to the number of menus a title can contain, somewhere in the order of 250, I believe. In PAL land, that equates to only 10 seconds of footage. You are also unlikely to get truely smooth playback using a series of menus auto linking to menus, as the processing of a menu is different to that of a video.

Again, a better description of what you are trying to achieve might get you better answers.

[Fandim]

Okay, here's what I gather you're trying to do.

Make an interactive slideshow, but with motion? So not just still pictures? But still be able to pause it, and easily move on to the next, etc?

You could easily do this, if the pause feature etc wernt so important... Several ways come to mind to get the pieces of an MPG file that you want... You could author the MPG, but just the part of the MPG that you want (I.E. set start and end points in a program like TMPG Author).

Then, Start a new project in TDA, and choose your source as a DVD Video. (and select your previously outputted file). Then when importing, check the little box that says (Save files to my hard drive to make faster - or something similar).

This will give you an MPG file of just the selected clip - Without re-encoding it, or losing any quality.

Do that for all of the files you want. This is going to be tricky.

Next, what you would want to do, is get a still image of say the beginning of each slideshow clip etc you want to be able to view.

Next, take a low-quality DVD compliant MPG (so you dont run out of room on the disc and it wont take much space..) (This wont be seen, theoretically, but could be if you wanted). (should be as short as possible.)

Ok, now. Select authoring mode for showing title, and track menu's. For the main title menu, select as many links as possible.

Now, add each slideshowish MPG into TDA as seperate tracks, do NOT put them all under one.

This will give you a large track menu.. Now, go through, and for each of the menu items (track 1, track 2, etc), select the picture of the start frame of the MPG you wanted, and replace the frame of the link to the track.

Now what you need to do, is go into the track menu, and select the background as your MPG file that you want to play. You wont be able to pause it, but you can have it loop... Now - hide all the default things that appear, or delete them, from the screen. (can put them out of the safe area, etc, or choose an image too small to be seen to replace it, etc.)

So what will happen, is when you select the first track, you'll be taken to the part of the menu, with the cilp you wanted to be viewed playing (as teh background), but no buttons etc unless you want them there. If you have it looping, it'll just keep playing..if not, it'll just stop, obviously. It is important, that in TDA, you select the option, that after each track, return to the main men!

Now, before viewing another slideshow movie etc type file, you'll need to go back to the track menu again. But you have no back button etc, remember?

Simply press "play", and it'll play your super-short movie, so if it's only a second of a black screen, it'll just play that - then return to the track menu.

Subsequently, you could have all the files on one track, and just use chapter menu's. However, the main problem being you'll have to leave your back/forward menu nav buttons on if you want to navigate, as well as, it wont stop after every clip, it'll just start the next 'slideshow' movie.

Judging by what you posted, I think this is similar to what you're trying to accomplish..but without the ability to pause. (or - if you want to use still images - just use the still image as the background instead of the motion mpg.)

If I have the wrong impression in my head of what you're tryin to do, just ignore this post then, obviously. Heh.

Hope this helped.

Seth

[Groami Geistalt]

Thanks for the replies. My description of what I wanted seemed vague because I hadn't actually wanted very much: The focus wasn't on the MPG specifically, just what it allowed for, which was the software recognizing the break between sections.

I can't find any way to make a controllable slideshow. Everything I use presumes to automatically flip from one image to the next.
I'm happy to click between images here on the computer, but I'm trying to put some photos on a DVD for people who'd be using their DVD player's remote and want to move from one image to the next when they're ready to do so.

Toying with the idea, I came up with the notion that maybe by making each BMP a mini-movie, that would help in controlling the images when using a remote: just thumb the button that moves between 'chapters', and that would move from one image to the next.

But this led to all your cool ideas and new things for me to think about, so I'm glad I was vague. Thanks for the input!

I'm still curious, is there a way to batch-convert images like BMPs to MPGs the way MPEG Video Wizard will do it singly? That's just one of those things about which I was curious anyway.

[andkiich]

Probably the easiest way to do what you want is to create a menu structure with the images, then they can just control the image scrolling that way.

You'll probably have to make a dummy movie, possibly do an automated slideshow of the images.

The only drawback to the menu idea comes if you want to have audio playing through the show. Each time you go from one menu to the next, the audio will stop from the last menu and start new on the next one.

[Fandim]

Hmm...not sure about the batch encode. But as for the the slideshow that you control manually... Just use the track menu thing, and use still pictures for the background image (You might have to add borders to the pictuers, to make it the correct file size and not stretch it out badly.) Then just use the nav buttons to navigate through the menu structure. (You could do this by making the files you input all on the same track, and only have one chapter per page...So each chapters page background was really the picture you wanted.)

Then - once again - just hide the actual window on that chapter page. Use the forward, back, forward forward, and back back buttons to navigate.

Seth

[Groami Geistalt]

Thanks again.