AVStoDVD Support Thread

[manolito]

@ bilvihur

according to your screenshot you have specified the same bitrate of 4500 for the lower and the upper limit for 1-pass VBR. This will effectively turn off 1-pass VBR. You need to specify a range of bitrates for every encoding mode.

Example:
Highlight the 2-pass VBR mode, set the lower bitrate level to 2500 and the upper level to 4500
Highlight the 1-pass VBR mode and set the lower level to 4500 and the upper level to 6500
Now highlight the ffmpeg CBR mode and set the lower level to 6500, set upper level to 8500

These are the default values and they work nicely. But you might prefer different bitrate ranges for the different encoding modes, and you can specify these here. Just remember: You must set bitrate RANGES for all three encoding modes.

After you have made (and saved) these settings, AVStoDVD will pick one of the three encoding modes automatically, depending on the video bitrate. If you want to override this automatic decision, you don't do it in the Global Preferences window, you do it under "View/Edit Title settings" individually for each source file in your project. Go to the "Video" tab, uncheck "Auto Video Setup" and specify the desired encoding mode.



Cheers
manolito

[JohnnyBob]

Well - partial success ...
I'm open to any suggestions. Thanks.

Well:
My approach maybe radical, but it save me time in the long run: on fixing things.

You need to take in mind that maybe it's not only 1 "problem" in your AVStoDVD. It could be a 2nd. issue or several's.

Just my $0.02

P.S.
Check my post #2325

+1

[basile]

Great piece of software, simple and to the point.

I have 2 questions?

Question 1:
I want to convert some TV-series episodes to DVD.
I have done couple of test and when the DVD menu creation was disable then I couldn't skip from episode to episode. Seams like it didn't put in any chapters at all. One test video I put in was over 5 minutes and the skip chapter still didn't work.
When the menu was enabled everything worked ok.

And this brings me to my 2nd question:
How can I put some Greek text in the "Menu Title"?
I changed the font to "Arial Greek" (both of them).
When in "Edit" mode it show just fine (in the preview window, in the label I get some funny accented letters).
When I change back to "Preview" mode the letters in the preview window are all garbled up. The same happens after the DVD creation.
(see attached screenshots)

I am using AVStoDVD v2.8.0 portable, AviSynth v2.5.8 and ImgBurn v2.5.8.0
on a Win7 64bit machine and I am rendering to .ISO

[_MrC_]

Hi basile,

first of all welcome there and thanks for the kind words.

Answer 1: I'm quite puzzled, if you enabled chapters (as by default), then you should be able to move forward and backward with your DVD remote controller. If that does not work, could you post here the project log file?

Answer 2: Help > FAQ > Authoring > Q6.3 (apologize)



Bye

[Calidore]

Hi, MrC. AVStoDVD still includes the old HCenc 0.26 beta from four years ago. Have you tried out the recent 0.27 release from last October to see if that works? I'm wondering if I can just update that like I do ffmpeg.

[manolito]

Hi, MrC. AVStoDVD still includes the old HCenc 0.26 beta from four years ago. Have you tried out the recent 0.27 release from last October to see if that works? I'm wondering if I can just update that like I do ffmpeg.

Hi Calidore,

you should be able to update HCenc to the current release 0.27. But keep in mind that it requires AviSynth 2.6 or AviSynth+. It will not work with AviSynth 2.58 which comes with AVStoDVD.


Cheers
manolito

[basile]

Hi basile,

first of all welcome there and thanks for the kind words.

Answer 1: I'm quite puzzled, if you enabled chapters (as by default), then you should be able to move forward and backward with your DVD remote controller. If that does not work, could you post here the project log file?

Answer 2: Help > FAQ > Authoring > Q6.3 (apologize)



Bye

Latest tests' log files:
The "DVD_YES.log" has been generated with the Menu enabled.
The "DVD_NO.log" has been generated with the Menu disabled.

Latest tests' results:
DVD_YES: skip chapter skips to first chapter and then to next title.
DVD_NO: skip chapter skips to first chapter, but doesn't skip to next title.

I understand why in the textbox can't be shown the Greek letters, but why not in the generated bmp?
As to my original 2nd question maybe these links can be of some assistance?
http://www.example-code.com/vb/vbUnicode1.asp
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?p=3261531#post3261531
Found both of them referenced here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/541801 and http://stackoverflow.com/a/14081257

basile

[vile83r]

I have been using this for a long time and I love it! The latest version 2.8 is creating DVDs with audio out of sync. I uninstalled it and went back to 2.5 and it creates them just fine. I'm not sure what could be different between the two versions that could result in this issue.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Another question I wanted to asked was about keeping the entire process hidden. I can keep the the conversion hidden but would like to keep the imgburn hidden also when its writing ISO files. Basically, I would like to run the batch process entirely in the background and not have any windows popping up. If that is possible.

Thomas

[bilvihur]

I read the FAQ and the Help guide, but in the end I decided to restore the AVStoDVD default settings and allow for Smart Selection. I only know enough to make me dangerous, and the less tweaking I do the better. I'll trust MrC. and manolito to do the heavy work and I'll enjoy the results. Thanks again!

[DJ_ValBec]

..and went back to 2.5.

Another question I wanted to asked was about keeping the entire process hidden. I can keep the the conversion hidden but would like to keep the imgburn hidden also when its writing ISO files. Basically, I would like to run the batch process entirely in the background and not have any windows popping up. If that is possible.

Thomas

I still using v.2.7.5 & will be using v.2.8.0 when it became more stable. (No offense)

About:
Keeping the process on the background, etc. it's all possible.
But:
When I do "serious" stuff, I just let the machine do his thing with-out any other open windows, multitasking, connected to the net, etc. ...in order to get the best results.

I have other machines that keep me busy doing something else.

Hope this help.

[manolito]

I have been using this for a long time and I love it! The latest version 2.8 is creating DVDs with audio out of sync. I uninstalled it and went back to 2.5 and it creates them just fine. I'm not sure what could be different between the two versions that could result in this issue.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Another question I wanted to asked was about keeping the entire process hidden. I can keep the the conversion hidden but would like to keep the imgburn hidden also when its writing ISO files. Basically, I would like to run the batch process entirely in the background and not have any windows popping up. If that is possible.

Thomas

Hi vile83r and welcome to the forum!

The main difference between versions 2.5 and 2.8 is that 2.5 comes with ffdshow/Haali as DirectShow filter/splitter and 2.8 now prefers LAV Filters. The main reason is that ffdshow is no longer maintained, and LAV Filters seem to do a better job in many situations. But there are folks who experience sync problems with LAV Filters (you are not alone...).

Of course you can also use version 2.8 together with ffdshow/Haali. If this solves the sync problems, fine, then you know where to look in order to fix the problem. Just one thing: Avoid to have LAV and ffdshow/Haali installed in parallel. If you want to switch between the two, uninstall the other package.

If you feel adventurous you could even participate in debugging the cause of the sync error:

1. Install version 2.8 plus LAV Filters. Make sure that ffdshow and Haali are not installed.
2. If you are using Win7 or Win8 open AVStoDVD as an admin, goto "Codecs" and click "Preferred DirectShow Filters Setup". Make sure to select LAV so the Microsoft filters are disabled. If it does not work this way, download and run the Win7 DS Filter Tweaker tool (download link at the bottom of the window).
3. In Explorer go to the "AVStoDVD\Lib" folder and open the file "A2DSource.avsi" with Notepad.
4. Search for "convertfps = VFR" and replace it with "convertfps = true" (without the quotes). Save the file.

Now do a conversion with the same source file which previously resulted in a sync error and see what happens now...



For your second question: Right now AVStoDVD does not support to run IMGBurn minimized. The command to start IMGBurn is hard coded within the executable and cannot be changed by the user. The closest you could do is using a "Clicker" application which automatically minimizes the IMGBurn window whenever it appears (I use a tool called ClickOff for this). But this would still steal the focus from the window you are currently in.


Cheers
manolito

[TohM]

@ theewizard (9th Jan.)

Thanks for your recommendation to use the .ts directly. However, this way I don't seem to be able to rearrange the audio/subtitle streams. Often the .ts stream from Enigma 2 lists a MPEG audio description first and then the AC3 main audio stream below it; so the DVD created with AVS2DVD would the play the audio description by default.

Also, contrary to your experience, I have found the .MKV containers produced by mkvmerge more versatile than the .ts format from Enigma, at least after cleaning by TS Doctor: They can be played by VLC without any problem. The possibility of creating specification-compatible DVDs with AVSToDVD is just a nice-to-have extra, because not everybody likes to watch videos on their computer using VLC.

So, all this is just fine-tuned to my very personal hardware and software setup, and I am aware that other people may have found different solutions which suit them better.

Best regards,

TohM

[TohM]

@ MrC, manolito (10th Jan.)

Sorry for not getting back earlier. I have played around with this a bit more, and now it works fine in most cases. I think the problem with the error message from MuxMan was me trying to be too clever: I had first tried to put the two parts of the movie onto one double-layer DVD, then decided to keep them separate. So I renamed the .m2v files from that first run (for the double-layer disc) so that the program would prompt to re-use them for the single-layer authoring; and my guess is that MuxMan was confused because a double-layer disk is smaller than two single-layer disks. So when I let the whole thing run through again, re-coding everything, it worked fine.

And indeed most of my attempts have been successful so far. Sometimes you need to correct an audio or subtitle delay, but on the whole this is a very fine software solution, doing a remarkable job - particularly considering that it is donation-based!

Keep up the good work,

TohM

[_MrC_]

Keep up the good work

Thanks! And keep up the feedbacks. They are very useful to continue to improve AVStoDVD.



Bye

[basile]

I have downloaded v2.7.5 and still the same results.
If no menu is generated then you can't skip from one title to the next.

basile

[manolito]

Hi basile,

have you tried it in different hardware players? In my experience they do not behave all the same, it depends on their chipset. My standalone DVD player (old and cheap Cyberhome with MediaTek chipset) certainly does skip to the next title when playing a DVD without menu authored by AVStoDVD. My old version of PowerDVD (version 4.0) does not...


Cheers
manolito

[basile]

@manolito

to be honest I have only tried it on my PC.
I generated the .iso file, mounted it via DAEMON Tools Lite v4.45.4.0315 (SPDT v1.81) and then auto-played the DVD using Windows Media Player v12.0.7601.18150

basile

[manolito]

Just checked it again to make absolutely sure:

Created a DVD with 3 titles without a menu using AVStoDVD.

Test if skipping to next title works:

1. Hardware DVD player: OK
2. PowerDVD 4.0: Fails
3. Windows Media Player: Fails
4. MPC-HC: OK
5. VLC Media Player: Works when pressing "Next Title" from the menu
6. Tiny Player: OK

Looks like you need a different software player...


Cheers
manolito

[basile]

Just tested it with MPC-HC v1.7.8. (Thanks manolito)
Looks like it's working ok.
Now I have to write a DVD and try it on my Hardware DVD player.

basile

P.S.: it would be great though if non-English fonts would be supported in the Menu.

[mike252]

Could someone suggest a good upsize and downsize filter, at the moment i have default which seems a little sharp.

I don't seem to be able to access the Help section. Thank you.

[manolito]

Hi mike252,

the discussions on resizer quality are endless, a lot depends on the source material, if you up- or downsize, and on personal taste.

My personal favorite is Spline36Resize (you have to add it manually to the selection list), and I use it for both up- and downsizing. But a lot of folks prefer BilinearResize for downsizing, and BicubicResize for upsizing. You have to test for yourself...


Your other problem that you cannot access the help section sounds interesting to me (because I had a similar problem recently). Do you get any error message, or is there simply no response? Are there other menu entries which do not work?

The reason I ask is that just recently I suddenly lost the language selection entries (only English was available, Italian and German had disappeared). And I could not access the Quick Startup Tutorial from the "Tools" menu.



Cheers
manolito

[manolito]

To the folks who experienced out-of-sync audio after upgrading to AVStoDVD version 2.80:

There is a new Alpha version 2.81 which adresses these problems.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/avstodvd/files/avstodvd_alpha_beta/AVStoDVD%202.8.1%20...lpha%20150203/

Please test this version and report...


Cheers
manolito

[_MrC_]

As already anticipated by manolito, release 2.8.1 Alpha 150203 is out.

Change log:

- Some bugs fixed
- Added routine to shift times for text-based subtitles when PAL SpeedUp or NTSC SlowDown are activated
- Added Visual Crop section in 'Edit Title'/'AviSynth'
- Added a warning for dual presence of ffdshow and LAV Filters
- Added a check for Windows Common Controls (mscomctl.ocx) presence and prompt to install it at runtime
- Improved PAL SpeedUp routine (now also 24 fps source titles are supported)
- Improved Auto Crop routine and moved to Visual Crop section
- Improved log activity (Chapters creation section)
- Improved filters merit change routine in 'Preferred DirectShow Codecs Setup' section
- Improved RAM detection routine (now it works for 64 bit systems)
- Improved detection of Variable Frame Rate (VFR) sources
- Updated A2DSource.avsi to assume VFR true as default if not specified
- Changed 'Adjust Frame Strategy' default value to 'Add Left/Right Borders'
- Changed 'Unload DirectShow ActiveMovie library at runtime' default value to 'On'
- FFmpeg updated to release 2.2.3 (2014-06-19)



Bye

[mike252]

Hi mike252,

the discussions on resizer quality are endless, a lot depends on the source material, if you up- or downsize, and on personal taste.

My personal favorite is Spline36Resize (you have to add it manually to the selection list), and I use it for both up- and downsizing. But a lot of folks prefer BilinearResize for downsizing, and BicubicResize for upsizing. You have to test for yourself...


Your other problem that you cannot access the help section sounds interesting to me (because I had a similar problem recently). Do you get any error message, or is there simply no response? Are there other menu entries which do not work?

The reason I ask is that just recently I suddenly lost the language selection entries (only English was available, Italian and German had disappeared). And I could not access the Quick Startup Tutorial from the "Tools" menu.



Cheers
manolito

Cheers Manolito, will experiment with those filters.

The other issue with menu would show up but the body of the menu would be blank, I went back to 2.7.5 and its working ok, now 2.8.1 is out might give that a go.

My CDROM error message comes up using 2.8.1 but program starts after I close.

[Yanta]

Hello,

Every time I add a file to A2D I am told "Warning! ... NTSC Framerate"..

I am in Australia. I want all my encodes in PAL. Not all of my players will play NTSC.

Is there a way to default this to PAL so I am not nagged every time I add a file? (I Have DVD Video Standard set to PAL).

Also... A question of curiosity.. On ALL encodes where the DVD is not filled A2D defaults to 8552, even if this means only half filling the DVD. Why is this?

thanks

PS. Using 2.8.0

[manolito]

Hello,

Every time I add a file to A2D I am told "Warning! ... NTSC Framerate"..

I am in Australia. I want all my encodes in PAL. Not all of my players will play NTSC.

Is there a way to default this to PAL so I am not nagged every time I add a file? (I Have DVD Video Standard set to PAL).

No, there isn't. Actually for many users this message is quite useful because if they are converting to a file which will mainly get played on a computer it will save a lot of time and quality if they keep the original video standard.

For your needs I would recommend a "Clicker" application which answers those windows automatically. Have a look at "ClickOff" here:
http://www.johanneshuebner.com/en/clickoff.shtml

Also... A question of curiosity.. On ALL encodes where the DVD is not filled A2D defaults to 8552, even if this means only half filling the DVD. Why is this?

thanks

PS. Using 2.8.0

The DVD specs define a bitrate limit of 9.8 mbps for the video stream. Usually it is not a good idea to tell the encoder to use this high value as the max bitrate because most MPEG2 encoders overshoot this specified max bitrate.

For AVStoDVD the default values for max bitrate and max average bitrate are 9000 kbps and 8500 kbps. It is strongly recommended to not go any higher, many users made this experience in the past.



Cheers
manolito

[davexnet]

I'm trying to figure out the size discrepancy when adding two dvd compliant files to the project.
The source file was originally 23.976 frame rate, encoded to mpeg-2 with pulldown applied.

As can be seen from the explorer window, the video is 407MB, and the audio is 28MB.

However, as can be seen from the A2D window, it calculates a size of 537/4450.

Indeed when you start the project, it gets an error related to size.

Any idea what's happening ?

[manolito]

Are you sure that you have selected "Keep DVD Compliant Video" and "Keep Compliant Audio"? Because if you haven't then AVStoDVD will reencode the streams instead of just muxing them, and this of course will result in a different output size.


Cheers
manolito

[_MrC_]

@dave

nice to see you back on this thread!

There's a discrepancy between the time reported in the source titles section (15:25) and the total project time in the status bar (19:17). The factor is exactly 29.97/23.976. Very likely a fresh bug... Thanks for report.



Bye

[davexnet]

@dave

nice to see you back on this thread!

There's a discrepancy between the time reported in the source titles section (15:25) and the total project time in the status bar (19:17). The factor is exactly 29.97/23.976. Very likely a fresh bug... Thanks for report.



Bye

Thanks MrC - look forward to the next alpha.

The source file was actually 29.97. But it was created incorrectly, it should really be 23.976.
Out of every group of 5 frames, one was a duplicate. Much better to resolve this in the avisynth script,
before encoding to re-create the proper 23.976 frames and encode with pulldown.
You can easily use
tfm().tdecimate()

I don't think A2d could handle this - how would it know the situation within the file?

EDIT I forgot to mention that in this case I encoded the video manually in HCenc to give the correct frames
then tried to use A2D for the authoring. To double check I used a "real" 23.976 file but A2d did the same thing.


Would adding the above commands to the script manually and then adding *pulldown
to HCenc by using "Edit encoder parameters at runtime" work properly?