AppleScript Error when trying to author DVD with subtitles

[Chopper Face]

Using ffmpegX 0.0.9y on Mac OS X 10.5.2.

I'm attempting to add my own subtitle track as a selectable subtitle to a DVD I have ripped to an mpg.

Going through: Tools > Author

When I put in an mpg file with no subtitle and "Author as" set to "DVD (VIDEO_TS)" it seems to run fine.

When I put something in the subtitle field and try to "Author" I get the following error message:

AppleScript Error

Can’t get text item 3 of " mpeg2video". (-1728)

I have seen mention of similar errors before that had to do with special characters in the path or localisation. I have reduced the paths of my files to something very basic with no change ( /data/smr.mpg and /data/empty.srt )

I have tried various "Subtitle font" and "Text encoding" settings.

I have tried to change my international settings. I now only have "English" left as a language. Keyboard type is "Canadian English" but I have checked "Character palette" to make the icon in the menu bar go away. I do not see an option for resetting international settings to default but I have tried many configurations, as well as creating a new account to try to do the same thing and having the same problems.

Not really sure what else to try at this point. Is there any kind of logging or debugging which may give me more information? Some way to see the command line that these settings are trying to produce or even to try this at the command line myself from a terminal session?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

[Case]

Using ffmpegX 0.0.9y on Mac OS X 10.5.2.

As my system is 10.4.11, I can not verify if 10.5.2 is the issue here.

AppleScript Error
Can’t get text item 3 of " mpeg2video". (-1728)

There have been some new AppleScript errors reported with the 0.0.9y release. If you can, try the 0.0.9x r2 release to see if it authors better.

Is there any kind of logging or debugging which may give me more information? Some way to see the command line that these settings are trying to produce or even to try this at the command line myself from a terminal session?

ffmpegX will try to create an .xml file from the settings, which in turn will be processed by dvdauthor (from within the application package). This .xml file is a temporary file, so for successful authoring, you need to duplicate it (Cmd-D) before the task finishes, in order to view it. Does this smr.mpg.xml file get created before the error appears?

Such an .xml file might like like this:

<subpictures>
<stream>
<textsub filename="/data/empty.srt" characterset="ISO-8859-1" fontsize="24.0" font="Arial.ttf" horizontal-alignment="center"  vertical-alignment="bottom" left-margin="60" right-margin="60" top-margin="20" bottom-margin="30" subtitle-fps="29.97 fps(r): Video: mpeg2video" movie-fps="29.97 fps(r): Video: mpeg2video" movie-width="720" movie-height="480"
/>
</stream>
</subpictures>

Notice how " mpeg2video" appears twice, together with the framerate. Perhaps the AppeScript errored out when it tried to write the .xml but failed to define some parameter, like framerate. What is the framerate for your movie? Maybe you video isn't MPEG-2 (MPEG-1 on DVD would be valid, but maybe not for subs)? Just a few guesses...

[Chopper Face]

Ah. Thanks for the help. I think I might have figured it out, or at least made some progress.

I could not get a .xml file but I wanted to verify the fps of my .mpg file for reference. Well I then noticed I couldn't open it in Quicktime and in VLC it would not play right. So I think it must have a problem. I was able to at least start the subbing process with another .mpg file.

Unfortunately that crashed and died while doing it but regardless that wasn't the file I was going for.

I will attempt to rip this file again or maybe some other way. I had ripped to a single .vob file and renamed as .mpg, as I read about in another thread around.

Will let you know if I get this thing working.

Strange thing I've never seen my computer do. I was testing out just making a DVD with no subs with this file and it just hung there for a while making it, I could see progress using 100% cpu from a top, and then all of a sudden I get a message telling me I have to reset my PC by holding down the power button, and the computer is otherwise frozen. Fun...

Thu Feb 14 18:00:29 2008
panic(cpu 1 caller 0x001430C0): "zalloc: \"ipc kmsgs\" (820768 elements) retry fail 3"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.3.13/osfmk/kern/zalloc.c:770
Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x35007cb8 : 0x12b0e1 (0x457024 0x35007cec 0x13321a 0x0)
0x35007d08 : 0x1430c0 (0x458c70 0x45657c 0xc8620 0x3)
0x35007d68 : 0x14340c (0x17556b8 0x1 0x35007db8 0x19b461)
0x35007d88 : 0x11d982 (0x17556b8 0x4e5b1000 0x0 0x77a01)
0x35007db8 : 0x12d0dd (0x60 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x35007df8 : 0x126247 (0x16e07b00 0x0 0x28 0x35007ee4)
0x35007f08 : 0x19714c (0x35007f44 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x35007fc8 : 0x19f184 (0x687d720 0x0 0x1a20b5 0x687d720)
No mapping exists for frame pointer
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xbffff008

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: Progress

Mac OS version:
9C31

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.2.0: Tue Feb 5 16:13:22 PST 2008; rootnu-1228.3.13~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: iMac7,1 (Mac-F4238CC8)

But I wouldn't dwell on this as my file may just have been bad.

[Case]

But I wouldn't dwell on this as my file may just have been bad.

When Progress invokes a Kernel Panic, then I would be more worried about the general health of the iMac.

[Chopper Face]

Ack! But it's new!

First time it happens.

I don't really know why, but the mpg I get from this DVD by any means is completely messed up. If I do a demux then the .ac3 files all play at varying speeds. The .m2v file won't open normally in anything. Video won't show, application will hang ...

So if I try to mux them back together with ffmpeg it gives an error for the .ac3 track. Then I put a dummy .ac3 track compiled elsewhere in and it drops all frames for the .m2v...

This kind of behaviour happens when ripped with different programs, or reading the VOB file directly, but through all this just playing the DVD straight up with any software player has no problems.

Other DVDs work fine, but similar DVDs from the same publisher have problems (they are all Japanese Sailor Moon DVDs, both a movie and TV show cause this)

Anyway ... this ceases to be specifically an ffmpeg error when all kinds of applications have poor behaviour with this file. I'm just not sure what I'm dealing with.

[Chopper Face]

Well, after countless hours of fighting with this thing, I've had some success.

The problem, it would seem, is just a bad .mpeg stream with the DVD. It plays fine, but rips not so fine. Ripping with MacTheRipper was giving me .vob files that wouldn't open in VLC, MPEGStreamclip, Quicktime or anything. Attempting to Demux them with a variety of software would always do something ridiculous like create 15 .mp1 (MPEG-1!!) files, and make one grow and grow (I stopped it at 100gb... from a 3.5gb source file...) The problem may be somehow related to a high bit rate at certain parts. DVD players seem capable of handling non standard bit rates though. Software, perhaps, not so forgiving.

So yes... finally the solution I found was to rip it with 0SEx. This produced a better .mpeg. What it did, specifically, I don't know, but something was wrong with the data stream and this fixed it, somewhat. It fixed it to the point that the file could be played in most media players, could be demultiplexed properly into it's native streams. The file would not, however, author to a DVD with subs.

Trying to rename the .vob to .mpg and author that with ffmpegx gives a lot of this:
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...

So... what to do? Just demux and mux the file! So I demux with MPEGStreamclip to .m2v and .ac3 files. I then multiplexed with ffmpegx (can only multiplex a maximum of 2 audio files). That's when I got these messages:

(blue)
INFO: [mplex] Average bit-rate : 6141200 bits/sec
INFO: [mplex] Peak bit-rate : 11827600 bits/sec
(red)
**ERROR: [mplex] MUX STATUS: Frame data under-runs detected!

The Peak bit-rate is above the maximum for the VOB standard, which is kind of where I thinking my size problems come from. Regardless, the .mpg file is created and plays just fine. This is after all the bit rate the DVD has always played at.

Now finally, I can go back with ffmpegx and with "Tools> Author", chose my .mpg and my .srt file, make a DVD (well a VIDEO_TS, which I then make into an image with "Tools> img", and then burn with Mac Disk Utility)

So much to say, long long time all to just put a sub on a DVD I have. So maybe if someone else runs into this same problem, they can do similar things to get past it.