AVStoDVD Support Thread

[davexnet]

@Nicety1

sorry, the forum rules do not allow to ask for (and to provide) help for illegally downloaded movies.



Bye

Rules are HERE and they mention NOTHING of what you speak. Specifically, it says, "Backup: You have the right to make A backup of your media. You can back up AS MUCH (which would include making a copy for a friend) or as little as you wish."

MrC is the author of AVStoDVD, he always signs off with "bye" - all you had to do was look at some of his earlier posts
Your movie filename as seen in your log is the exact name as a "scene" release. We're not naive, there is some
"grin grin,wink wink, nudge nudge say no more" activity going on but best not to make it obvious.

[Nicety1]

****

[Nicety1]

Got a subtitle question: I now know that the hard-encode option works only if you select to hard-encode the FIRST sub track. I select the FORCED srt as first track and the REGULAR srt as second track. Then toggle on the hard-encode option for the FIRST track. But the result is two sub selections in the resulting dvd menu. The FIRST selection is to the hard-coded subs that don't NEED to be turned on. Is there a way to avoid having the first, forced, hard-coded sub track from showing up in the menu and ONLY have the REGULAR subs show up as an option to turn on?

[davexnet]

Got a subtitle question: I now know that the hard-encode option works only if you select to hard-encode the FIRST sub track. I select the FORCED srt as first track and the REGULAR srt as second track. Then toggle on the hard-encode option for the FIRST track. But the result is two sub selections in the resulting dvd menu. The FIRST selection is to the hard-coded subs that don't NEED to be turned on. Is there a way to avoid having the first, forced, hard-coded sub track from showing up in the menu and ONLY have the REGULAR subs show up as an option to turn on?

This could be considered a slight bug in A2D, but there is a workaround. The forced subs are burned into the video via avisynth "textsub"
so they should not even show up in the subtitle selection - indeed they don't the subtitle1 is empty - at least this is how it looks to me.

Try this, on the main screen at the top hit the +Settings button to show "advanced settings" Select "edit encoder command parameters at runtime"
Start the project.
You can dismiss the first box that comes up, it's for the encoder. When the muxman / Batchmux box comes up, at the lower left
there are three lines to change. Where it says -s2 change it to -s1 on each of the those lines. "X" out to save the change.
For example:

[Nicety1]

Got a subtitle question: I now know that the hard-encode option works only if you select to hard-encode the FIRST sub track. I select the FORCED srt as first track and the REGULAR srt as second track. Then toggle on the hard-encode option for the FIRST track. But the result is two sub selections in the resulting dvd menu. The FIRST selection is to the hard-coded subs that don't NEED to be turned on. Is there a way to avoid having the first, forced, hard-coded sub track from showing up in the menu and ONLY have the REGULAR subs show up as an option to turn on?

This could be considered a slight bug in A2D, but there is a workaround. The forced subs are burned into the video via avisynth "textsub"
so they should not even show up in the subtitle selection - indeed they don't the subtitle1 is empty - at least this is how it looks to me.

Try this, on the main screen at the top hit the +Settings button to show "advanced settings" Select "edit encoder command parameters at runtime"
Start the project.
You can dismiss the first box that comes up, it's for the encoder. When the muxman / Batchmux box comes up, at the lower left
there are three lines to change. Where it says -s2 change it to -s1 on each of the those lines. "X" out to save the change.
For example:

Thanks. This wasn't info for a current conversion but on the next one where I'm using both forced and regular subs, I'll try this method and give feedback.

[_MrC_]

Got a subtitle question: I now know that the hard-encode option works only if you select to hard-encode the FIRST sub track. I select the FORCED srt as first track and the REGULAR srt as second track. Then toggle on the hard-encode option for the FIRST track. But the result is two sub selections in the resulting dvd menu. The FIRST selection is to the hard-coded subs that don't NEED to be turned on. Is there a way to avoid having the first, forced, hard-coded sub track from showing up in the menu and ONLY have the REGULAR subs show up as an option to turn on?

Thanks for the bug report, next release will surely have a fix for that. Meanwhile you can use the workaround proposed by dave (Tnx).



Bye

[_MrC_]

AVStoDVD release 2.8.7 Alpha 171109 is out

Change log (cumulative from 2.8.6):

- Added AviSynth plugin DSS2mod to replace DirectShowSource for video frame serving in 'A2DSource.avsi' script
- Added support to WebM files (*.webm) as input files, subset of Matroska
- Added warning messages when AVC/AAC title is added and Microsoft DTV-DVD decoders are default codecs
- Added a warning message when input title has a DVD compliant audio track with delay, to force audio re-encode
- Added check of .NET Framework 2 presence in 'Preferences'/'System'/'Software Info'
- Added BDSup2Sub 5.1.2 to improve bitmap-based subs handling (resize and resync). It requires Java Runtime Environment
- Added check of Java Runtime Environment presence in 'Preferences'/'System'/'Software Info'
- Added 'Smart Selection' option to 'Preferences'/'AviSynth'/'Hard FrameRate Conversion' option (see Help section for more details)
- Added AviSynth script 'MCJMFPS.avsi' for hard fps conversions (thanks to johnmeier and manolito from doom9)
- Dropped AviSynth script 'MotionProtectedFPS.avsi' for hard fps conversions, mainly due to edge artifacts
- Revised other 'Preferences'/'AviSynth'/'Hard FrameRate Conversion' option labels
- Revised video encoder smart selection rationale: no more HCenc VBR 1-pass for multicore CPUs
- Improved support of VobSub subtitles: resize and resync from BD sources is now implemented with BDSup2Sub
- Improved handling of "non-mod4" interlaced sources within the AviSynth script generation routine
- Spun off Preferred DirectShow Codecs Tool in a separate executable file 'A2DCodecs.exe'
- Removed 'Execute AVStoDVD with Elevated Privileges' option in 'Preferences'/'Misc'
- LAV Filters updated to release 0.70.2
- AVSMeter updated to release 2.6.5



Bye

[davexnet]

Thanks MrC downloading now...

[digicube]

Since version 2.8.5, when you import a DV AVI file and Keep DVD Complaint Audio option is checked, it will do Audio Direct Stream Copy of the WAV file. It doesn't do this on earlier versions.

Been getting BatchMux errors on my DV AVI files on 2.8.7 alpha, going back to 2.8.4.

[Nicety1]

I've encountered this problem a few times. I to the end and the program want to create a layer break for a double layer disc. What's upsetting about it is that there is NEVER any indication that the output size is going to be too large UNTIL the dvd authoring starts. That means I've wasted a couple of hours. Were there a warning in the beginning that the output would be too large - like the times when the "output size" bar on the main interface is red instead of blue, indicating that the output will exceed 4500 MB -- I could alter resolution settings to make the file smaller. I'm sure that's what I've done in times gone by. But what I'd LIKE to know is how to avoid time consuming double conversions.

[manolito]

@ Nicety1

According to your log file the end result is 1.4% oversized. This can always happen when using HCenc 1-pass VBR. Depending on the source characteristics a 1-pass VBR can be off by a few percent. To avoid this you should use 2-pass VBR instead.

Cheers
manolito

[_MrC_]

@digicube

I have not understood if you have problems with 2.8.4 or with 2.8.7 Alpha.

the log files you have provided does not contains WAV audio assets but all AC3 audio assets, as the original WAV have been econded to AC3. Moreover the BatchMux errors messages are not related to audio sections.

Could you please provide the project log file you got using 2.8.7 Alpha?



Bye

[Nicety1]

@ Nicety1

According to your log file the end result is 1.4% oversized. This can always happen when using HCenc 1-pass VBR. Depending on the source characteristics a 1-pass VBR can be off by a few percent. To avoid this you should use 2-pass VBR instead.

Cheers
manolito

Doesn't a 2-pass VBR mean substantial added time? And with little if any real increase noticeable clarity? And isn't an increase of a few percent still a design flaw that needs to be addressed? Finally, does anyone have an alternative solution that doesn't add to conversion time? Or is this simply the best solution despite additional conversion time?

[davexnet]

@ Nicety1

According to your log file the end result is 1.4% oversized. This can always happen when using HCenc 1-pass VBR. Depending on the source characteristics a 1-pass VBR can be off by a few percent. To avoid this you should use 2-pass VBR instead.

Cheers
manolito

Doesn't a 2-pass VBR mean substantial added time? And with little if any real increase noticeable clarity? And isn't an increase of a few percent still a design flaw that needs to be addressed? Finally, does anyone have an alternative solution that doesn't add to conversion time? Or is this simply the best solution despite additional conversion time?

A design flaw of what? Even Hank the author of HCenc has acknowledged that 1-pass may occasionally, depending on the source material,
miss the mark from time to time. For further analysis the HCenc log can be captured.

You can switch to FFmpeg CBR 1-pass but you may see a subsequent loss of quality particularly if the bit-rate drops too low

[manolito]

You can switch to FFmpeg CBR 1-pass but you may see a subsequent loss of quality particularly if the bit-rate drops too low

You can also use my VBR plugin for FFmpeg which offers much better quality than the default CBR encoding mode...
https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1814855#post1814855

The FFmpeg 1-pass VBR mode works quite differently from the HCenc 1-pass VBR mode. In HCenc a sample first pass encode is used (about 10% of the source) to determine the source compressability. FFmpeg 1-passs VBR starts the encoding with a "safe" quantizer and then adjusts the quantizer dynamically to achieve the desired size. Bitrate distribution is more accurate with HCenc, but FFmpeg mostly reaches the desired output size with better precision.

Another way to cope with a slightly oversized HCenc output is to use a CDT (Compressed Domain Transcoder) like DVDShrink on the oversized DVD structure. This is very fast, and for a small oversize percentage like < 3% you will not see any difference in quality.


Cheers
manolito

[_MrC_]

@ Nicety1

According to your log file the end result is 1.4% oversized. This can always happen when using HCenc 1-pass VBR. Depending on the source characteristics a 1-pass VBR can be off by a few percent. To avoid this you should use 2-pass VBR instead.

Cheers
manolito

Doesn't a 2-pass VBR mean substantial added time? And with little if any real increase noticeable clarity? And isn't an increase of a few percent still a design flaw that needs to be addressed? Finally, does anyone have an alternative solution that doesn't add to conversion time? Or is this simply the best solution despite additional conversion time?

Substantial added time depends a lot from your CPU power. If you have a quadcore, the overall encoding time difference between HCenc 1-pass VBR and 2-pass VBR will be almost negligible. Just make a comparison test to figure out. You will be surprised.



Bye

[SwornLeader]

So out of curiosity (apologies if this has been asked and answered) but whenever I try to convert an MKV, there is a period of time after I hit start, when the HCenc screen pops up, that nothing happens and the program completely stops responding. I am assuming something is happening because I see CPU usage (mkv stream extraction maybe?). Eventually, after a few minutes, conversion starts, and completes without error. Just wondering if this is normal, or if I am alone here.

[manolito]

Hard to be sure without seeing your log file...

But it sounds like FFmpegSource is used as your DirectShow source filter, and FFmpegSource needs to index the source file before it starts decoding. This can take some time, but it has the advantage to be frame accurate when seeking is required.

Please post your AVStoDVD log file (it should be in your A2D output folder).


Cheers
manolito

[hdfills]

Yes its normal

[_MrC_]

So out of curiosity (apologies if this has been asked and answered) but whenever I try to convert an MKV, there is a period of time after I hit start, when the HCenc screen pops up, that nothing happens and the program completely stops responding. I am assuming something is happening because I see CPU usage (mkv stream extraction maybe?). Eventually, after a few minutes, conversion starts, and completes without error. Just wondering if this is normal, or if I am alone here.

Another reason could be the activation of audio normalization option (Edit Title > Audio > Normalize Audio). The related AviSynth function scans all the file to get the volume peak, then the conversion starts to raise (or lower) the overall volume level up (or down) to the specified value in Preferences > Audio.

To be more precise to tell you the exact reason, please post the project log file, as suggested by manolito.



Bye

[manolito]

Attention for all users of the latest Alpha 171109:

This version has completely broken authoring with Batchmux (at least for me). Please revert to the previous Alpha from 170921 which does not show this error.


Cheers
manolito

[_MrC_]

Hi manolito,

thanks for the report. To better understand where is the issue, since I have authored several DVDs with the latest Alpha 171109, could you please be more specific about the error, maybe providing the usual AVStoDVD and BatchMux log files?

Thanks



Bye

[manolito]

Hi MrC,

usually I post the more "development orientated" things only at Doom9. Please look at the last 2 posts in the Doom9 thread:
https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1825297#post1825297

(This one and the one after it). The error logs are at ZippyShare.

I only tested it under Win XP. The BatchMux error also occurs if only 1 title is in the project.
To be absolutely sure that it had nothing to do with using the new Alpha together with the older Registry entries I also purged the old version completely including the Registry key before installing the latest Alpha from scratch (as usual I used the noinstall version).


Cheers
manolito

[_MrC_]

Ok, thanks, I'll have a look ASAP. I'm very curious because I do not have authoring problems on the WinXP virtual machine...



Bye

[_MrC_]

Got it. A CR+LF instruction is missing in the BatchMux.ini file:

-SEG2chapfr "I:\DVD_Title_02_Test 2_Chapters.txt"-SEG3v "I:\DVD_MenuPage1.bmp"

shoud be:

-SEG2chapfr "I:\DVD_Title_02_Test 2_Chapters.txt"
-SEG3v "I:\DVD_MenuPage1.bmp"

A hotfix will be soon available.

Of course the error does not come out if the authored DVD has no DVD menu.



Bye

[manolito]

A hotfix will be soon available.

Thanks...
Could you also fix the other issue at the same time (Cropping to mod4 for interlaced non-mod4 sources)?


Cheers
manolito

[Nicety1]

I converted two movies recently that were in sync BEFORE conversion but wildly out of sync AFTER conversion. The first one -- It (2017) - (R) -- actually asked me before conversion if I wanted to switch from NTSC to PAL because it would presumably work better. I didn't because -- though PAL videos pay well in MY dvd player -- I convert movies from friends whose dvd player WON'T play them. I DID notice that the frame rate was 25 fps instead of the 23.9xxx fps that seems typical. The second one -- Bullet Head (2017) - (R) -- I tried twice with movies from two different sources and got the same result. Uploading all logs...

[_MrC_]

@manolito

sure! Thanks for the report.

@Nicety1

see Help/FAQ/General/Q1.5



Bye

[Nicety1]

@manolito

sure! Thanks for the report.

@Nicety1

see Help/FAQ/General/Q1.5



Bye

Thanks. Windows update did this. I've been using all LAV filters exclusivey and didn't think to check it after the recent update.

[Nicety1]

@manolito

sure! Thanks for the report.

@Nicety1

see Help/FAQ/General/Q1.5



Bye

Thanks. Windows update did this. I've been using all LAV filters exclusivey and didn't think to check it after the recent update.

Every time I click on the LAV filter it doesn't change from Microsoft. Please tell me that I don't have to correct this in the registry...