free dvd authoring tool

[trckjunky]

Hello, I have been poking around this forum for many years now. I rarely post but have learned a ton from you guys, thanks alot.
I am very intrigued by DVDAuthor and have been trying to put together a gui using VB. Everything seems to work OK (one title, no menu...very basic). I can't figure out chapters. When I play the DVD the video stops at each chapter mark. Does anyone have any ideas??

it depends on how the video was constructed and how forgiving your dvd player is. I've never encountered that problem, even when authoring chapters on open GOPs, but my guess is that's the problem you're having.

btw, if you want answers to questions specific to dvdauthor, you might want to join the dvdauthor-users lists at Sourceforge... esp since this forum is not for asking questions about existing software...

[adamandhelen]

thanks for uploading 0.6.2 - there does seem to be a problem with spumux though it won't open any png files - complains that they are not PNG files - so unfortunately the example provided errors.

[Compugup]

@Adamandhelen

Did you try the PNG files that are in the upload?
If not, do that. If still errors, provide an error report (reporting exactly what you did and what the programs report).

Compugup

[adamandhelen]

ok here goes: 2 points i have found

1: when spumux opens the menu.xml script it fails on opening the png - i have found that it requires the FULL path in the script, not just PAL_DVD_select_menu.png this can be resolved easily - so further to previous post is not a problem with the png files.

2: the output from spumux is wrong, the remainder of the video stream is not written. i mean pal_dvd_menu_example.mpg is 34kb, the output pal_dvd_menu_buttons_example.mpg is only 9kb. checking in vobedit shows the first nav pack, the sub pack, but then only unknown frame. on compile with dvd author an error message appears regarding video_ts.vob

i have tried the spumux.exe provided with this d/l (2mb) and also previous versions (147kb). there is a huge difference in the file size - is this new code or different compile.

adam

[vmesquita287]

Hi Compugup,
I am having the same probem with your compiled package, using the supplied pngs. I created PAL_DVD_title1.mpg and PAL_DVD_title2.mpg to test. When running the batch, this is what I receive:

D:\Temp\dvdauthor>spumux PAL_DVD_menu.xml 0<PAL_DVD_menu_example.mpg 1>PAL_DVD_
menu_buttons_example.mpg
DVDAuthor, version 0.6.2. Send bugs to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
error, file PAL_DVD_highlight_menu.png isn't a png
bad image, skipping line -1
3 [main] spumux 3492 handle_exceptions: Exception: STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION

940 [main] spumux 3492 open_stackdumpfile: Dumping stack trace to spumux.exe
.stackdump

I also tried recompiling with ImageMagick. My new recompiled spumux works, but the dvd structure generated by dvdauthor won't work on WinDVD and PowerDVD.

[]'s
VMesquita

[adamandhelen]

vmesquita287 - glad its not me just being a noob then

[vmesquita287]

@adamandhelen
1-You're right about this one!

2-The new SPUMUX is bigger because of the XML libraries, I guess. But I am also getting small MPGs like you, even using my compile. Maybe a bug in source? I'll try to compile spumux from 0.6.1 release

[]'s
VMesquita

[adamandhelen]

all i can think of is that because it is not parsing the xml script correctly maybe there is an error with the parsing of the commandline options aswell.

[adamandhelen]

i believe this to be a source code problem. after studying the mpg stream it seems that the video packs are being written ~13 bytes to early. if you study the video pack the pack identifier (000001BA) has not been written at &H0 it is written at &HD. every pack is the same. conclusion - only the first pack after the sub pack is wrong, each pack has the correct length of 2048 bytes. therefore i would suspect that the alogrithym being used to scan the original m2v video stream is slightly off.

[Compugup]

Hi,

It worked at my place (burned DVD). I have win98se, looking at your PATH remark I think you are using another win version.
I would hope that it didn't make a difference, wrong.

The SPUMUX I uploaded is smaller because I have the DLL's outside the .exe

WinDVD crashed on me (but DVD works) because the POST commands (take them out to try).

Did you try the button mpg from the upload (I believe it's in there, I can't check now)?

I have no idea what is happening with your MPG but I don't believe yet the video stream is the problem (It works at my place).

Are there other people on the forum that can relay their findings with different windows versions?

Compugup

[adamandhelen]

i am using win xp - i have been testing with the files that you have provided and some of my own. if i change the paths then it runs fine, but the resulting mpg file is wrong.

[trckjunky]

i believe this to be a source code problem. after studying the mpg stream it seems that the video packs are being written ~13 bytes to early. if you study the video pack the pack identifier (000001BA) has not been written at &H0 it is written at &HD. every pack is the same. conclusion - only the first pack after the sub pack is wrong, each pack has the correct length of 2048 bytes. therefore i would suspect that the alogrithym being used to scan the original m2v video stream is slightly off.

what are the last 2 lines printed by spumux? A successful run should print "max_sub_size=XXX" and "XXX subtitles added, 0 subtitles skipped ..." if it didn't print those then it must have crashed.

if you have mpeg2desc (part of the original dvdauthor package) then you can run it on your original stream and the one created by spumux to see what the difference is.

[Compugup]

Message renewed, look down!

[adamandhelen]

no good here <deltree test> caused an error. removed that and everything ran but as before access violation on spumux, and video_ts.vob is 4kb

changing the paths in menu.xml allows spumux to run correctly and finish without errors, but video_ts.vob is only 8kb

adam

[trckjunky]

changing the paths in menu.xml allows spumux to run correctly and finish without errors, but video_ts.vob is only 8kb

can you include the entire output of spumux?

[adamandhelen]

sure - this is when the full paths are included:

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>pause
Press any key to continue . . .

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>spumux PAL_DVD_menu.xml 0<PAL_DVD_menu_example.m
pg 1>PAL_DVD_menu_buttons_example.mpg
DVDAuthor, version 0.6.2. Send bugs to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
w=720, h=572, bd=8, ct=2
png had 2 colors
w=720, h=572, bd=8, ct=2
png had 2 colors
constructing blank img
autodetect 0 = 80x121-177x167
autodetect 1 = 80x232-177x278
pickbuttongroups, success with 1 groups, useimg=1
Found EOF in .sub file.
warning, sub on line 0 starts before 4s, (some players won't show it)
max_sub_size=544
private sector size 90
max_sub_size=544
1 subtitles added, 0 subtitles skipped, stream: 32, offset: 0.18

and without the file paths (straight from the d/l):


C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>spumux PAL_DVD_menu.xml 0<PAL_DVD_menu_example.m
pg 1>PAL_DVD_menu_buttons_example.mpg
DVDAuthor, version 0.6.2. Send bugs to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
error, file PAL_DVD_highlight_menu.png isn't a png
bad image, skipping line -1
3 [main] spumux 3444 handle_exceptions: Exception: STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION

1404 [main] spumux 3444 open_stackdumpfile: Dumping stack trace to spumux.exe
.stackdump

[Compugup]

Hello all,

We are still working on Adamandhelen's problem.

Meanwhile I edited my little test to be sure that everyone has the same settings. We are on a "programming" forum so I want to be sure that everyone has the same setup (I also edited the code piece of my message and the part about the dll's).

I'm seeing that the cinenow server is overloaded (is that the popularity of our forum !?).

So I hope there are some more people that did the same test and are willing to report. That could help to solve Adamandhelen's problem.

Please give me your feedback!

Compugup

[Compugup]

VMesquita and @Adamandhelen

What I just did on a windows xp and win98 system:

Create a directory C:\testd
Download and extract (check "all files" and "use folder names") the 6.2 version from Baldricks DVDauthor Tools page into this dir (that will create a subdir dvdauthor-0.62-win32)
Download movie from http://dvdgsm.free.fr/vob/THX.vob into C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32
Start cmd prompt (XPtart/all programs/accesories/command prompt Win98tart/programs/msdos prompt).

cd c:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32
ren *.vob PAL_DVD_title1.mpg
copy PAL_DVD_title1.mpg PAL_DVD_title2.mpg
set path=
del test\video_ts
PDE

(The del test\video_ts may result in "no files found")

Working movie in directory test with WinDVD 3.2 (select video_ts.ifo) that doesn't crash and may crash for other versions of WinDVD at the end of the movie but works on DVD!

Size of video_ts.vob 36 KB (don't forget that this is a STILL VIDEO).

Could you do me a pleasure and do the exact same thing?

Please, also check that you have no PATH settings active pointing to older versions of the programs. You can prevent by <set path=> on the command line. Also remove all cygwin related dll's from your windows, windows/system and windows/system32 directories (search for cyg*.dll and rename them to cyg*.dbk then REBOOT).

Thanks!
Compugup

P.S. I see now that there is one statement missing from the PDE.BAT:
I advise to add

del test\video_ts

as first line for the test that I describe above.

[adamandhelen]

no difference here. c:\windows, c:\system & system32 have no copies of cygwin

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Edwards>path
PATH=C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\Sys tem32\Wbem;C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~
1\ULEADS~1\MPEG

C:\Documents and Settings\Edwards>set path=

C:\Documents and Settings\Edwards>cd c:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>ren *.vob PAL_DVD_title1.mpg

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>copy PAL_DVD_title1.mpg PAL_DVD_title2.mpg
1 file(s) copied.

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>set path=

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>del test\video_ts
The system cannot find the file specified.

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>PDE

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>del test\video_ts
The system cannot find the file specified.

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>jpeg2yuv -n 1 -I t -L 1 -f 25 -j PAL_DVD_menu_exa
mple.jpg | mpeg2enc -f 8 -o PAL_DVD_menu_example.m2v
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Parsing & checking input files.
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Image dimensions are 720x576
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Movie frame rate is: 25.000000 frames/second
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Interlaced frames, top field first.
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Frame size: 720 x 576
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Now generating YUV4MPEG stream.
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Processing non-interlaced/interleaved PAL_DVD_menu_example.j
pg, size 83315l.
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Selecting DVD output profile
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Assuming norm PAL
++ WARN: [mpeg2enc] No aspect ratio specifed and no guess possible: assuming 4:3
display aspect!
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Encoding MPEG-2 video to PAL_DVD_menu_example.m2v
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Horizontal size: 720 pel
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Vertical size: 576 pel
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Aspect ratio code: 2 = 4:3 display
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Frame rate code: 3 = 25.0 (PAL/SECAM VIDEO / converted FIL
M)
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Bitrate: 7500 KBit/s
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Quality factor: 8 (1=best, 31=worst)
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Field order for input: top-field-first
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Sequence unlimited length
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Search radius: 16
INFO: [mpeg2enc] GOP SIZE RANGE 9 TO 15
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Setting colour/gamma parameters to "PAL B/G"
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Progressive format frames = 0
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Buffering 39 frames
INFO: [mpeg2enc] SETTING 3DNOW and EXTENDED MMX for QUANTIZER!
INFO: [mpeg2enc] SETTING EXTENDED MMX for MOTION!
INFO: [mpeg2enc] SETTING MMX for TRANSFORM!
INFO: [mpeg2enc] SETTING EXTENDED MMX for PREDICTION!
INFO: [mpeg2enc] GOP LENGTH = 1
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Frame start 0 I 0 0
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Frame end 0 45.21 45.21 8.0 8.00
INFO: [mpeg2enc] GOP LENGTH = 0

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>pause
Press any key to continue . . .

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>mplex -f 8 -o PAL_DVD_menu_example.mpg PAL_DVD_me
nu_example.m2v
INFO: [???] mplex version 2.2.2 ($Date: 2003/05/13 20:27:15 $)
INFO: [???] File PAL_DVD_menu_example.m2v looks like an MPEG Video stream.
INFO: [???] Video stream 0: profile 8 selected - ignoring non-standard option
s!
INFO: [???] Found 0 audio streams and 1 video streams
INFO: [???] Selecting dvdauthor DVD output profile
INFO: [???] Multiplexing video program stream!
INFO: [???] Scanning for header info: Video stream e0 (PAL_DVD_menu_example.m
2v)
INFO: [???] VIDEO STREAM: e0
INFO: [???] Frame width : 720
INFO: [???] Frame height : 576
INFO: [???] Aspect ratio : 4:3 display
INFO: [???] Picture rate : 25.000 frames/sec
INFO: [???] Bit rate : 7500000 bits/sec
INFO: [???] Vbv buffer size : 229376 bytes
INFO: [???] CSPF : 0
INFO: [???] SYSTEMS/PROGRAM stream:
INFO: [???] rough-guess multiplexed stream data rate : 7613696
INFO: [???] target data-rate specified : 10080000
INFO: [???] Setting specified specified data rate: 10080000
INFO: [???] Scanned to end AU 0
INFO: [???] Run-in Sectors = 88 Video delay = 12873 Audio delay = 0
INFO: [???] New sequence commences...
INFO: [???] Video e0: buf= 237568 frame=000000 sector=00000000
INFO: [???] STREAM e0 completed @ frame 0.
INFO: [???] Multiplex completion at SCR=2340.
INFO: [???] Video e0: buf= 208231 frame=000000 sector=00000015
INFO: [???] VIDEO_STATISTICS: e0
INFO: [???] Video Stream length: 29337 bytes
INFO: [???] Sequence headers: 1
INFO: [???] Sequence ends : 1
INFO: [???] No. Pictures : 0
INFO: [???] No. Groups : 1
INFO: [???] No. I Frames : 1 avg. size 29337 bytes
INFO: [???] No. P Frames : 0 avg. size 0 bytes
INFO: [???] No. B Frames : 0 avg. size 0 bytes
INFO: [???] Average bit-rate : 5867200 bits/sec
INFO: [???] Peak bit-rate : 0 bits/sec
INFO: [???] BUFFERING stream too short for useful statistics
INFO: [???] MUX STATUS: no under-runs detected.

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>pause
Press any key to continue . . .

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>spumux PAL_DVD_menu.xml 0<PAL_DVD_menu_example.m
pg 1>PAL_DVD_menu_buttons_example.mpg
DVDAuthor, version 0.6.2. Send bugs to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
error, file PAL_DVD_highlight_menu.png isn't a png
bad image, skipping line -1
3 [main] spumux 3624 handle_exceptions: Exception: STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION

1386 [main] spumux 3624 open_stackdumpfile: Dumping stack trace to spumux.exe
.stackdump

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>pause
Press any key to continue . . .

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>dvdauthor -x PAL_DVD_example.xml
INFO: dvdauthor creating VTS
STAT: Picking VTS 01

STAT: Processing PAL_DVD_title1.mpg...
STAT: VOBU 32 at 3MB, 1 PGCS, 0:00:15
INFO: Video pts = 0.187 .. 22.243
INFO: Audio[0] pts = 0.187 .. 22.203
STAT: VOBU 45 at 4MB, 1 PGCS, 0:00:22
INFO: Generating VTS with the following video attributes:
INFO: TV standard: ntsc
INFO: Aspect ratio: 4:3
INFO: Resolution: 720x480
INFO: Audio ch 0 format: ac3/6ch, drc

STAT: fixed 45 VOBUS
INFO: dvdauthor creating VTS
STAT: Picking VTS 02

STAT: Processing PAL_DVD_title2.mpg...
STAT: VOBU 32 at 3MB, 1 PGCS, 0:00:15
INFO: Video pts = 0.187 .. 22.243
INFO: Audio[0] pts = 0.187 .. 22.203
STAT: VOBU 45 at 4MB, 1 PGCS, 0:00:22
INFO: Generating VTS with the following video attributes:
INFO: TV standard: ntsc
INFO: Aspect ratio: 4:3
INFO: Resolution: 720x480
INFO: Audio ch 0 format: ac3/6ch, drc

STAT: fixed 45 VOBUS
INFO: dvdauthor creating table of contents
scanning test/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_0.IFO
scanning test/VIDEO_TS/VTS_02_0.IFO
INFO: Creating menu for TOC

STAT: Processing PAL_DVD_menu_buttons_example.mpg...

INFO: Video pts = 0.183 .. 0.223
STAT: VOBU 1 at 0MB, 1 PGCS, 0:00:00
INFO: Generating VMGM with the following video attributes:
INFO: TV standard: pal
INFO: Aspect ratio: 4:3
INFO: Resolution: 720x576

STAT: fixed 1 VOBUS

C:\testd\dvdauthor-0.6.2-win32>

[vmesquita287]

Compugup,

I tested under a different machine running Windows 2000 SP4 at work and the results were the same. At the time I had no software DVD Player to test with, but the generated MPEG also had 9 kb. I can't post the complete logfile right now (not at home or work), but I'll do that later. The machine didn't have any cygwin dlls on c:\winnt or c:\winnt\system32, and I cleaned the path before start. SPUMUX gives stackdumps without the path, and produces a 9kb output when I add a path to the PNG in the SPU XML file. The Windows 2K machine I tested was installed from ground in the same day, but already had cygwin (I forgot to do the test before adding cygwin). Today, if time allows me, I'll test in a completelly clean machine, with nothing but windows 2000.

I also tried running inside cygwin. The Batch works (using ./pde.bat), I guess the commands are too simple so the syntax is the same bash uses.
But the output is exactly the same.

[]'s
VMesquita

[trckjunky]

I tested under a different machine running Windows 2000 SP4 at work and the results were the same. At the time I had no software DVD Player to test with, but the generated MPEG also had 9 kb.

what file system are you guys using (does it specifically support long filenames?)

[vmesquita287]

Yes, both tests I did were in systens supporting long file names: both machines I tested were using NTFS... Maybe i should try in a FAT32 partition just to make sure...

[]'s
VMesquita

<edit> Just saw your profile, are you a dvdauthor developer? </edit>

[trckjunky]

Just saw your profile, are you a dvdauthor developer?

yup... actually "the" developer since there's only one...

[vmesquita287]

Man, you created the whole DVDAuthor on your own? dvdauthor, spumux and everythig? trckjunky, you're the best, and I can't thank you enough. Please keep the good work.
Besides being open-source, it's the only tool with command-line support, which is definatelly great for automation. Of course, most unix tools have command-line, but this is definatelly a plus.

Maybe you have some ideas about the spumux problem? Right now I don't have linux in my machine. I will install Kurumin (a brazilian knoppix derived distro) as soon as possible, to see if it also happens in linux enviroment.

[]'s
VMesquita

[trckjunky]

Man, you created the whole DVDAuthor on your own? dvdauthor, spumux and everythig? trckjunky, you're the best, and I can't thank you enough. Please keep the good work.
Besides being open-source, it's the only tool with command-line support, which is definatelly great for automation. Of course, most unix tools have command-line, but this is definatelly a plus.

Maybe you have some ideas about the spumux problem? Right now I don't have linux in my machine. I will install Kurumin (a brazilian knoppix derived distro) as soon as possible, to see if it also happens in linux enviroment.

I wrote dvdauthor myself -- but if you look at the site you'll see I've been working on it for what, two years now? very slow progress! (just in my freetime when I feel like it). Also it helped having mpucoder's site to refer to.

As for spumux -- that is largely taken from submux-dvd, which was largely taken from submux. I suppose I could have done a clean room rewrite using the info on mpucoder's site though.

My thoughts on the problem.... well I was thinking of posting a zip file with an mpeg, a png, and an xml file and just have you run spumux (not jpeg2y4m, mpeg2enc, mplex, or dvdauthor, in order to remove those variables), and then have you upload the results somewhere so I could see them.

btw, Knoppix is very cool. I tried it for the first time yesterday and was blown away by it.

[trckjunky]

Maybe you have some ideas about the spumux problem?

try downloading http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/wintest.zip

unzip it, and run:

spumux sub.xml < menu.mpg > output.mpg 2> run.txt
then zip all the files up (including the ones you uncompressed) and post them somewhere that I can get to.

9kb is an odd size -- dvd sectors are 2kb, so at the very least the output should be a multiple of 2048 bytes. if you got 9kb, that means either that spumux crashed, or there's an error in the reading/writing routines.

[adamandhelen]

results here:

http://numenu4u.users.btopenworld.com/test.zip

without using the path name complete fail

with path names: runs ok, output.mpg is 27kb in size. however looking at the files in vobedit the padding frame has been put before the video frame and the video frame is offset by 1 byte. start header should be 000001BA , but reads at FF000001 . sector 0-nav pack, sector 2 is the sub frame but again bytes are off by 1 , sector 3+ are the video frames (000001E0) but as with the others 1 byte off

i have tried with original spumux and with new spumux provided by compugup- exactly same results

[trckjunky]

results here:

http://numenu4u.users.btopenworld.com/test.zip

thanks. it's a binary vs. text issue. god I hate Microsoft.

MS OS's translate all newlines (char 10) into carraige returns + newlines (char 13, char 10). your output.mpg file was 30 bytes larger than it should be, and the diff looked like this:

4201 15 ^M 12 ^J
4202 12 ^J 61 1
4203 61 1 0 ^@
4204 0 ^@ 62 2
4205 62 2 0 ^@
4206 0 ^@ 62 2

sorry it's all in octal, but octal(12)=10 and octal(15)=13 (octal(10)=8, so 8+2=10, 8+5=13). proof that's what is happening.

There is a way to set binary mode for stdin and stdout -- I just modified spumxu to do this. check out alpha #560 at http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/alpha/

When you run ./configure, make sure that it says "yes" to finding "setmode" and "O_BINARY"

checking for setmode... yes
...
checking whether O_BINARY is declared... yes

I still don't understand why you have to supply the full pathname in the xml file though...

<edit>ooops I bet it's because it's opening the image in text mode too, but when you supply a full pathname then cygwin decides to do binary. alpha 561 opens the image in binary mode too, so try that one without a full pathname</edit>

[vmesquita287]

trckjunky,

Thanks! The path problem and the output seems to be fixed in the latest 561 alpha. Just tested, this time a 38 kb file was created, and the menu worked perfectly in PowerDVD and WinDVD. I will test in my standalone now.

[]'s
VMesquita

[adamandhelen]

hooray

to: compugup & trckjunky

works perfectly now - thanks for all your assistance on this.

now just goto learn the correct syntax for the xml script!