DVD slideshow GUI - development thread.

[tacman1123]

Yes, I downloaded the batch scripter, and it's somewhat interesting, but your program offers much, much more, both in its capabilities as a GUI as well as a learning tool (exporting to .avs and walking through the code).

Have you considering Open Sourcing the code (SourceForge?), and letting others submit mods?

Tac

[tin2tin]

On the fps import issue: The entire NTSC slideshow runs with 29.97 fps, therefore the avi/avs imported must have the same framerate. If I force clips which are not 29.97 to run that speed audio will be out of sync. The optional import of avs scripts allows the user to import pretty much anything avisynth supports(inc. .mov, mpg, mp4 etc.) as long as the framerate is the same as the project.

On the open source question: By now only 4-5 people code in wxbasic, the development(one developer) is moving very slowly(I think it was in 2004 I asked for the function for loading multiple files in wxbasic - as of today it's still not implemented). Take a look at the status thread in the wxbasic forum... In that way it doesn't make a lot of sense to clean up the messy code(13.000 lines of code), in a way that other people would be able to understand what's going on. And as I've mentioned a couple of times in this thread it is very easy to expand DSG with transitions, backgrounds, motion backgrounds, pre-effects, post-effects, but so far only 4 backgrounds has been shared by the users... so I don't want to put my/your hopes too high on the open source - development thing.

[roma247]

Ah! Thank God! It works! I was getting ready to throw things across the room.

My computer is still crapping out on the animations and now that I'm up to about 100 slides, it's having trouble previewing them at all. But I'm guessing that it's just the limitations of my computer, and I'm just going to have to deal with those limitations.

Thank you so much for your help, tin2tin.

Lisa

[tin2tin]

Good. The bug seemed to occur when importing 3 single images in one by one. I guess I never tested that.

On previewing: left mouse doubleclick on a slide and you'll preview that slide+the transition+the next slide. It's much faster to preview and should give you a better play back frames pr. sec rate. Alternativly you should render your slideshow to ex. mpg to see it all. One thing which slows the animation part down a lot is that it's using the original size of the images, so downscaling 6-8 MB photos will help (720xPAL/NTSC height) unless you're zooming a lot into the images.

Highering the virtual memory on the computer will help too.

What's your final format?

My computer is still crapping out

Do you mean the playback rate is bad? Could you be a bit more specific?

[tin2tin]

Added the patch to the pagage on the homepage.

Latest version is 0.85B.

[tacman1123]

Download link from the homepage (http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/DVDsGUI085B.exe)

goes to a 404.

I'm thrilled that you recovered the source code. Can I put in a few requests?

(1) Can you put an "About" screen in the Help, with the current version / build date of DVD Slideshow GUI. Info about the other tools would be cool too.

(2) Speaking of other tools, can you display the command line for the DOS-based tools that you use? For example, exporting to AVI shows a DOS window with the results of avs2avi.exe, I'd also like to see the full command line that created it.

Those two are pretty trivial. The one that's harder is fixing the animation so that it feels more natural. When I'm moving a picture around at a keyframe, I feel like the picture is attached to a spring -- I move it to one side, and it either barely moves, or it zips across the viewing area to beyond where I can even see it. Is that behavior not happening for you? Maybe there's some ratio issue, but I find it very difficult to use.

ProShow Gold's UI (www.photodex.com) is great, but they don't handle imported video very well. Their slideshows, though, are spectacular, the producer version supports keyframes and layers and almost anything you can do to still frames. Anyway, I'm experiencing something with DVD Slideshow that's probaby a bug when setting zoom and pan parameters.

I'll download .85b when it's available to see if the zoom/pan problem still exists.

Thanks again for this program, please tell me you're backing it up somewhere! And BTW, if you did Open Source it, I'd take a look at it, to at least see what was involved in moving it to some other language. And while there might not be many wxbasic programmers out there, people like me could be looking at how the scripts interact, not focusing on changing any of the wxbasic, but rather on integrating things like KBE and SubtitleEx.

Thx,

Tac

[Baldrick]

Yep, the latest download link is broken. Fix now! .

[XfreehueyX]

I'm in need of some big help here.

Every single time I go to finalize my slideshow and turn it into a video it never works in the end. There is always a error or something. What this normally results in is either the video is much shorter than what I intended it [Like 3 minutes instead of 6] or towards the end of the video the last few pictures will just freeze up. That is pretty much all I know about the problem, if you need me to give anymore details just let me know. I warn you that I'm not the most savy at these things so if you can let me know exactly what I need to tell you about the problem.

[tacman1123]

When you say "turn it into a video" is this exporting it to DVD or some other format? Does the Preview work (in Windows Media Player)?

[tin2tin]

@ Baldrick:
Sorry, must have forgotten to upload it. It is up now. I've only fixed Lisa' bug finding(loading slides one by one), and added optional saving of project on exit/crash.

@ tacman1123:
1) Version and used commandline tools info are in the help file.

2) The command line is as far as I remember: avs2avi "path of avs script". The gui is the avs2avi gui. Most command line tools will show you the options with -h or -? or just h or ?.

3) If your slide image is huge the animation tool will have a hard time updating the graphics. In general using 6-8 MB photos is a bad idear - so downscaling images before importing is always a good idear.

4) KBE=Ken Burns ...? The animation tool can make Ken Burns like zooms - and but also rotate the image. The real speedkiller when it comes to animation is overlaying the animated slide on to the background. SubtitleEx: If I want a graphic intensive text over the slide - I prefer to add it in an image manipulation program like Paint.Net.

DSG works this way: The Gui allows setting op various values, which then is exported to avisynth script, which is processed by various tools. The avs export allows you to to see/change what's is happening in the script. Most of the command line tools are just fed with the avs script.

@ XfreehueyX:
Sounds like you run out of either RAM or HDD space when rendering. Ctrl+Alt+Del allows you to view the RAM usage when rendering and also check your HDD for free space when rendering - a lot of temp files are beeing created during rendering and later deleted again. If you're running out of ram(and have a lot of free HDD) heigher the virtual RAM(using the HDD as extra RAM). Alternatively: devide your slideshow in two and render it to two mpg and use Mediajoin to join the files.

[tacman1123]

Traditionally the version numbers are in the executable somewhere -- easy to find, and sometimes the help files aren't updated at the same time a bug fix is made. But more importantly, someone should be able to tell what version they're running in 2 clicks -- virtually all Windows programs have their version information in "Help | About"

I know how to run avs2avi, but with all of your integrated tools, it be nice to see exactly what's being run. Makes it easier to debug problems, and also allows some tools to be run outside of the GUI.

My photos (720x480) are tiny (in disk size)-- 30k - 200k. But they do not slide smoothly at all from within the GUI when adding animation -- the motion is very jerky. I can do a screen capture and post what I'm seeing if you're not seeing the same thing.

Tac

[tin2tin]

I can't see your computer specs on your profile, but all I can say is that it's proberly as fluent motion as possible in wxbasic, which has a very slow image update, and sometimes it doesn't even succed in rendering the image and the result is just plain black. I guess I get what I pay for - wxBasic is free - and so is DVD slideshow GUI... :wink:

[XfreehueyX]

All right so I did the splitting them up and doing them and that worked great for 3 of the 4 parts I am trying make. For whatever reason though the 4th part will not save no matter what I do to it. I opened up the ctl+alt+del thing but I really have no idea what to even look for. What do I need to do to fix the Ram/HDD problem? I know i have 60gb of space left on my HDD so I don't think that would be the problem, and I'm not sure how to check how much ram i have. Thanks again.

[tin2tin]

Does it preview okay? Maybe split the 4 in two?

How much RAM do you have? Use google to find out: http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_much_ram_memory_windows_pc.html

When hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del- the lowest line(status bar) in that window will tell how much ram aka memory is used.

Do you have 60 gb free on the drive where DSG is installed and where your exporting your file to?

If you're running out of ram, this is what you can do: http://www.delete-computer-history.com/increase-virtual-memory.html

[tacman1123]

I'm still having trouble importing my avi files into DVD Slideshow GUI, but I have an avs script that I'd like to use to create a DVD. Would you be willing to share what steps you take in DVD Slideshow to burn the DVD? I see that you have mplayerc, HcEnc, and imgburn, I suspect those 3 are enough to get to a DVD, but I can't tell what you do to call those.

I've been trying MeGUI as well, but for some reason the audio won't convert.

Thx,

Tac

[tin2tin]

Didn't the avisynth batcher not work for you? I mean to add a assumefps(29.97) to a avisource/directshowsource command? It doesn't look too complicated?

Doesn't DSG import your avs scripts like this?

avisource("your file path here.avi")
assumefps(29.97)

I believe someone made a Avstodvd script, but if this is not the case:
Use HCenc to encode you avs script to mpg and keep bitrate lower than 8000 or even better yet lower than 7000. HCenc comes with a gui.

For autoring the mpg to a dvd, use Gui for dvdauthor or Dvdauthor Gui, DVDstyler or if you do not need menus then Muxman will do.

Imgburn can convert the DVD folders into an iso file which Imgburn afterwards can burn. (Gui for dvdauthor will do all this for you automatically).

[fdunlop]

Latest DVD Slideshow GUI - can't read some file names.

This program looks like it has a lot of potential for me, but it has trouble importing files. Sometimes it seems an underscore ("_") ,a hyphen ("-") , or a comma (",") in the file name trips it up.

I get an error DEBUG window: ..\common\image.cpp(318): assert "wxAssertFailure" failed: invalid image. do you want to stop the program?

Then "Details" of the error show something like:
17:28:45: Can't load image from file 'C:\Documents and Settings\Francis\My Documents\My Pictures\_ForPictureFrame\101-/0134IMG.JPG': file does not exist.

Note that there is an unexpected "/" in the file name which should be 101-0134.JPG.

I think the jpg file itself is ok because if I rename it 1010134.JPG then I have no problems.

I have thousands of pictures from my Canon cameras and all have the "_" in the file name.

Has anyone else seen this bug. Is it me, or is it this program?

Thanks for your help,
Francis.

[tin2tin]

Well I made an image called "-_,.jpg" it imports and runs okay. Could you do the same and let me know the result?

101-/0134IMG.JPG': file does not exist.
Note that there is an unexpected "/" in the file name which should be 101-0134.JPG.

The '/' sign is normally read as '\' aka a change of folder and therefore no image/folder exists in that path therefore no image can be found so I guess the error is correct.

The question is why is this sign added to the path?
I have no idea! DSG doesn't do any conversion of filenames.

[tacman1123]

Didn't the avisynth batcher not work for you? I mean to add a assumefps(29.97) to a avisource/directshowsource command? It doesn't look too complicated?

Doesn't DSG import your avs scripts like this?

avisource("your file path here.avi")
assumefps(29.97)

Thanks, yes, DVD Slideshow works if I use a .avs script with the AssumeFPS(), although I had to use DirectShowSource instead of AviSource to have sound (this is a problem I continue to have, no idea why. These are video clips from a Canon camcorder, captured via firewire).

I'm testing the DVD creation now, but it looks like it's working.

Question: why no animation on videos? Seems like subtitling and pan and zoom should all work, yes? I'm not chomping at the bit for it, but I'm curious why you disabled it.

Finally, would you consider adding a log file to the dvd creation? The windows pop up so fast and then go away, and often the batch scripts don't show their command line inputs. I'm very interested in what all the steps are to get from an avs file to a DVD (and I know it's not trivial, lots of steps along the way!)

Tac

[tacman1123]

I believe someone made a Avstodvd script, but if this is not the case:
Use HCenc to encode you avs script to mpg and keep bitrate lower than 8000 or even better yet lower than 7000. HCenc comes with a gui.

For autoring the mpg to a dvd, use Gui for dvdauthor or Dvdauthor Gui, DVDstyler or if you do not need menus then Muxman will do.

Imgburn can convert the DVD folders into an iso file which Imgburn afterwards can burn. (Gui for dvdauthor will do all this for you automatically).

I feel like I'm getting quite close -- thanks! HCenc encodes just the video, right? Where does DVD Slideshow use to create the audio file (which I assume is passed to Muxman to create the .iso?)

Again, thanks for your help!

Tac

[tin2tin]

Question: why no animation on videos? Seems like subtitling and pan and zoom should all work, yes? I'm not chomping at the bit for it, but I'm curious why you disabled it.

It doesn't make any sense to me... and would be an extreme speed/ram killer. But again if you need to do it I guess you use that KB script and import the whole thing as avs script in DSG.

would you consider adding a log file to the dvd creation?

No logfile, sorry. If it is because you want to find out about the process from avs to dvd there are loads of tools doing that process and some of them have a log file. Check out ex. the various guis for dvdauthor.

Where does DVD Slideshow use to create the audio file?

Avisynth plugin SoundOut. Alt. Quenc will render a avs with audio.

(which I assume is passed to Muxman to create the .iso?)

Imgburn can convert the DVD folders into an iso file which Imgburn afterwards can burn. (Gui for dvdauthor will do all this for you automatically).

[gadgetguy]

Thanks, yes, DVD Slideshow works if I use a .avs script with the AssumeFPS(), although I had to use DirectShowSource instead of AviSource to have sound (this is a problem I continue to have, no idea why. These are video clips from a Canon camcorder, captured via firewire).

You're probably capsferring to Type1 DV-AVI. AVISource ignores Type1 audio because there isn't a separate audio stream.

[tacman1123]

I think you have a bug in the option to create all 4 files at the same time -- the .txt file it's creating has a .mpg extension, instead of .txt.

I finally understand how you create the audio, the video, the .ssa and the .txt. And I see mplex flash on the screen quickly, then another CLI. Two questions would help me find the Holy Grail of automated DVD creation -- what are those twp boxes (DOS) that flash up, and what parameters are you sending in (e.g. I see mplex go by, but can't tell what you're calling it with.).

Thanks!

Tac

[tin2tin]

There isn't one way to do it. Ex. you don't need mplex if you use Quenc, because it delivers muxed mpg(and Hcenc doesn't). Google mplex to find out of the commandline options. I can't remember how it is used, proberly just: mplex "your videofile" "your audio-file"...

(If avstodvd has command line options I guees you could use that all the way instead)

Well after you produced the video files they must be authored. DSG is using dvdauthor like some of the gui's mentioned above, but apparently muxman should be more stable(and maybe mplex is not needed then).

There isn't a holy grail, but lots and lots of different ways to do it...

What are you going to use it for?

[tacman1123]

I'm trying to automate some video capture (lots of small clips) to go to both a website (probably Flash, maybe mp4) and also to a DVD, with no interaction other than inserting and removing the DVD-R.

Believe it or not, avstodvd does NOT convert an avs file to DVD:

As a matter of fact, you can't load avs files into AVStoDVD. You can load a "standard" clip (avi, mpg, mkv, etc.) and AVStoDVD will generate a AVS script for you. You can edit the script by clicking on 'Edit Title'/'AviSynth'

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=126647&page=13

So far, DSG is one of the few tool sets that created a DVD from Type 1 DV files with audio, that's why I'm combing through all the steps trying to figure out what you did, what parameters are set, etc. And some of the basic terms are difficult to understand, like the DVD file structure, when you need VOB files, ISO files, when does mpeg include sound, etc. Yes, I can see all the command line options from mplex simply by typing it from the command line, but I'm still what I'm trying to create with it -- input to ImgBurn? input to DVDAuthor? mpeg? iso? a DVD file structure?

I'm still a newbie at this, you'd be amazed how complicated this is to someone that's coming in cold. I can usually figure things out if I have something that works (thus my request to you for logs or at least displaying the command line to the DOS tools that pop up and having the option to pause them before closing the window).

Most pages that describe how to make a DVD recommend a GUI-based program, which is fine, if I can also see what tools it's calling in the background, so I can re-create them with my scripts.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Tac

PS Were you able to verify the 4-file creation problem? I can explain it more if necessary, I'm pretty sure it's just a typo in the code somewhere.

[OldeMan]

Thanks Tin2tin...
Just wan't to say I had been using an earlier version of DVD slideshow GUI and as a result of having to reload my WinXP system, upgraded to the .85B version.

WOW... you've made a lot of very useful enhansements. Esp. in the import open dialogues... I love it.
Seems to work great for me.

Keep up the great work...

[tin2tin]

@ OldeMan - Thanks.

@ tacman1123 -
Most of the tools using dvdauthor uses avisynth/Hcenc/Quenc -> dvdauthor/Muxman -> DVD file format/iso: here.

Were you able to verify the 4-file creation problem?

Yes, that's a bug - thanks.

[fdunlop]

Well I made an image called "-_,.jpg" it imports and runs okay. Could you do the same and let me know the result?

I tried a file called "-_,.jpg" and it imported just fine.

So I went back and tried to import all 600 files with the - _ , in the names, and it worked fine. I will put it down to a glitch in the Windows XP file system that I fixed with a reboot ?!?!

Thanks for your help nonetheless,
Francis.

[tin2tin]

Please test this patch(new version out, look further down). With this one you can edit slides in you favorite paint program like Paint.Net, Gimp, Photoshop(haven't tested) and mspaint from DSG.

Run the test patch from the main folder of an installed DSG version 0.85B.

Tutorial:
Under options - there is a new option: 'Paint' on the selected slide.

When selected DSG will ask you to select the path to your prefered Paint program.

Then DSG copies the selected slide and adds '_copy' to the name(your original image is then untouched) and opens this copy of the image in the selected paint program.

When you're finished editing the image/adding texts/colors whatever then save the image in the same name (with the '_copy' ending) and close the paint program.

Then DSG will update the listcontrol with that new image.

Some other things fixed are: .all bug, keying motion background ajustments etc.

[tin2tin]

Okay it's up. Get the latest version 0.86 on the homepage. And check out homepage for details on the new stuff like 'Paint slide' (acces external photo manipulation program).



[Edit: Would just like to mention that PhotoScape also works, even though DSG thows an error. PhotoScape is really fun to play with, it's got a lot of vingettes, color looks and so forth and is free. Give it a try ]