DVD slideshow GUI - development thread.

[apap]

Hi, tin2tin.

I'm still using 0.85B (just downloaded 0.86), and have a problem importing some PNG files (can't remember the exact error message).

Both IrfanView and Paint.NET have no problem reading those PNG; in fact, they were saved from Paint.NET. They are 24-bit PNG, no alpha channel. (Using 0.85B, I've imported other PNG with no problems, although I believe they were not saved from Paint.NET.)

Is there any e-mail I can use to send you a sample file? I'd rather not post the photo because right now I have no way of contacting the photographer to ask for his permission to do so.

[tin2tin]

I've PM'ed you. Was it an error which made DSG crash?

[apap]

Tin2tin,

I've just read your message. Last night, I had the chance to make a few more tests in a different PC. I had strange results with 0.85B (unable to generate previews or videos with any imported file), so I decided to uninstall it and install 0.86 clean.
After that, everything worked fine, even importing that image I've talked about. So, right now, I'm inclined to think it's a path problem, not a image one. Let me explain it a little better:
- the PCs where I had the problem with that particular image are in a network domain
- the PC where (with 0.86) everything was fine, is not connected to any type of network
- after these experiences, I remembered that there's the possibility of a path problem - not security permissions, I've checked that, but maybe there's a limit to the path length DSG can handle?

During the next hour, I'll probably be able to check this possibility (by moving the «previously suspicious» image to a different folder). Just for your information: the problem happened importing a picture in a folder with a path looking like

c:\documents and settings\87\my documents\my pictures\pdn-task-01\00 25 abril

Not a short path, with some spaces in it, but (if I recall correctly) no non-latin characters.

[apap]

OK, here's the thing:

• - this problem happened with PCs in a domain-type network (Win2003 Server, WinXP SP3)
  - «My Documents» folder is «redirected» (I believe this is the term but english is not my native language) from the server
  - the full path is something like:
  \\server\(some folders this chars long....)\My Documents\As minhas imagens\PDN-tarefa01\00-25-Abril\25abril-jv-16recortar.png

For clarity, I've changed part of the path but I assure you it's exactly the same number of characters and there are no spaces or non-latin characters before «My Documents». The rest of the path is in Portuguese; no translation needed (I hope) to help debug this.

Now, importing that PNG causes an error in DSG:

image.cpp(318): assert "wxAssertFailure" failed: invalid image
Do you want to stop the program?
You can also choose [Cancel] to suppress further warnings.

Clicking «No» causes additional error messages somewhat similar to this one. I believe it's not necessary to reproduce them here because, after those messages, DSG crashes and allows me to save a crash log:

Can't load image from file '\\server\(some folders this chars long....)\My Documents\As minhas imagens\PDN-tarefa01\00-/25-Abril\25abril-jv-16recortar.png': file does not exist.

Notice the «corrupted» path:

• - original path (excerpt):

  PDN-tarefa01\00-25-Abril\25abril-jv-16recortar.png

  - path in crash log:

  PDN-tarefa01\00-/25-Abril\25abril-jv-16recortar.png

The point at witch the «corruption» happens is at character position 91.
Notice that this also happened, yesterday, when I first reported it, and the folder was named

00 25 Abril

instead of

00-25-Abril

(I had replaced the spaces with hyphens).

Everything works If I move the file to the desktop, witch is in the local harddrive instead of the server:

C:\Documents and Settings\username01\Ambiente de trabalho\25abril-jv-16recortar.png

(«Ambiente de trabalho» means «Desktop».)

I'm going to make another experiment about this in order to clarify some doubts in my mind. Be right back ;-)

[apap]

OK, some more details:
- Importing the picture from a shared networked folder, with a longer path and some non-english characters, seems to be OK: no error messages, thumbnail in DSG main window, but the picture name (in DSG) gets a backslash added to the beginning of the file name
- Importing the picture from the desktop (local folder, not network one) caused a crash and at the log a backslash got added to the file name
- Importing from 2 or 3 nested folders in the desktop causes some warning (sorry, failed to get that) and the image seems to get added to the picture list but there's no thumbnail and the filename «lost» the first characters.

This is weird!

Tin2tin, I've taken the liberty to e-mail you the DSG project file I managed to save with this last experiment, a screenshot, a crash log and additional info.

Help, please... I really need this to work.. Thank you.

[tin2tin]

I'm sorry - I'm away for the weekend and I'll not be able to look into the problem till next week.

It sounds pretty strange - but i'll have to spend more time on reading op on your writings in detail.

If you want to chech the paths of the files imported, the info of the files imported is in the clipboard(so after importing just hit paste in ex. notepad).
I haven't tried importing from a network - and and don't have any ways of testing it atm.

Well, next week I'll read up on your findings and tri to figure something out.

Tin2tin

[Safesurfer]

I can confirm this problem. It appears to be related to the total path length. If my path is greater than 100 characters (no spaces) the import will fail, shortening the path to 99 characters (no spaces) works OK.

[apap]

Thanks for checking, Safesurfer. Although my previous tests weren't so definitive on the issue (I was really tired), I too suspected that there was a limit to the path lenght around 90 or 100 characters long.
That was not my first «suspect» because I had some vague recollection of some (undefined) software having a 128 characters limit to the path lenght and, since my paths were shorter than that...

Today, before reading your post, I've experimented moving the pictures to a shorter path and everything went fine, so, I was almost 100% sure that was the problem. Of course, in PCs running on a network, this limit is a big throwback.

Tin2tin, I hope you enjoy your weekend. With this confirmation from Safesurfer, maybe fixing this will prove not too hard. Thanks in advance.

[tin2tin]

@ apap

Please test if this patch fixes your problem with very long paths: [new version further down].
Run it from the main folder of an installed 0.86.

[Safesurfer]

@ apap

Please test if this patch fixes your problem with very long paths: DVDsGUI_4024pathlength.exe.
Run it from the main folder of an installed 0.86.

Works for me

[tin2tin]

Goodie, and thanks for finding that bug.

[apap]

Yes!

The patch seems to have no problem with the long paths. Thanks, Tin2tin!
(I'm sorry I couldn't test earlier but, luckily, Safesurfer was on to it! Thank you, too.)

We'll this be 0.86a or 0.87?

[apap]

Oh, sorry for being kind of pushy, but could I ask you for a small improvement?

Right now, when importing media, if I click a shortcut to some folder, DSG tries to import that shortcut as media and, naturally, fails. It would be nice if, when clicking shortcuts, the browse window would open the target folders.

Of course, if this is some kind of limitation of the (wxBasic?) programming library/API you're using, this could prove to be unfeasible. If that's the case, OK, and (again) please apologize for asking. If there's some easy way around, then please consider it for a future version.

Thanks in advance.

[tin2tin]

I was not aware that windows filedialog treats icon-shortcuts as files and therefore would cause an error if imported. I've tried to fix that in this patch: 0.86A. (Run from an installed 0.86 main folder)

It would be nice if, when clicking shortcuts, the browse window would open the target folders.

Not possible atm.

[apap]

Tin2tin,

the latest patch you gave me (0.86a) solves that problem: instead of trying to import the shortcut, DSG gives a warning: Can't import file: (NAME).lnk.

Thank you very much.

Just a question: new.ini, in DSG's folder, needs write-access, right?
(In a networked environment like ours, by default, regular users only read from Program Files folder (I believe files can be created, but not changed). I had some crashes when changing presets (from limited-users accounts), and seemed to solve the problem by adding write permission only to new.ini. If there's any other file that may need write permissions, please tell me.)

[dancombs]

Hello all

I'm trying to download/install DVD Slideshow GUI, and Avast! is telling me that FileDialog.exe is infected with Win32:Trojan-gen {Other}. I downloaded from http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/download.html, so I suspect this is a false positive, can anyone help confirm this?

thanks

Dan Combs

[tin2tin]

@ dancombs: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic245071-450.html#1831479

@ apap: DSG is a gudied user interface saving temp files for other tool to process them is what is does for a living... meaning there are loads and loads of temp files beeing saved/overwritten all the time...

[apap]

Tin2tin,

I'm aware that DSG is essentially a GUI, I was asking for files that got changed at DSG's program folder.
Anyway, I must say that 0.86a is working fine (if you were waiting for additional feedback, this is my contribution).

On a sidenote, is it possible to make DSG default open folder (when browsing for importing media, open saved projects, etc.) the current user's My Documents folder, for example? I've tryied changing the startup folder in the shortcut, but that didn't work (in fact, DSG «complained» about it or it crashed, can't remember exactly).

Also: DSG seems «picky» about the MP3s imported as background music. I remember seeing something in this forum about it (will look it up later). Are there any easy/fast workarounds or some changes «in the works»?

Last issue - at least for now ;-)
I've tryied exporting as FLV (small slideshow, 5 or 6 photos, just an experiment) and got this error:

The following pins failed to find a connectable filter:
(PathOfTheFile FLV::Video FLV Splitter::Video)

Media Type 0:
--------------------------
Video: Flash Video 1 160x90

AM_MEDIA_TYPE:
majortype: MEDIATYPE_Video {73646976-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
subtype: Unknown GUID Name {31564C46-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
formattype: FORMAT_VideoInfo {05589F80-C356-11CE-BF01-00AA0055595A}
bFixedSizeSamples: 1
bTemporalCompression: 0
lSampleSize: 1
cbFormat: 88

VIDEOINFOHEADER:
rcSource: (0,0)-(0,0)
rcTarget: (0,0)-(0,0)
dwBitRate: 0
dwBitErrorRate: 0
AvgTimePerFrame: 0

BITMAPINFOHEADER:
biSize: 0
biWidth: 160
biHeight: 90
biPlanes: 0
biBitCount: 0
biCompression: FLV1
biSizeImage: 0
biXPelsPerMeter: 0
biYPelsPerMeter: 0
biYPelsPerMeter: 0
biClrUsed: 0
biClrImportant: 0

pbFormat:
0000: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0030: 00 00 00 00 a0 00 00 00 5a 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....*...Z.......
0040: 46 4c 56 31 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FLV1............
0050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........


Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

[tin2tin]

On a sidenote, is it possible to make DSG default open folder (when browsing for importing media, open saved projects, etc.) the current user's My Documents folder, for example?

Folders like that have diferent names in different languages and wxBasic doesn't have the paths like that included in the coding language, so DSG can't start out in a folder like that. However everytime you tinker with the presets window the ini files is updated and all paths are saved in it.

Also: DSG seems «picky» about the MP3s imported as background music. I remember seeing something in this forum about it (will look it up later). Are there any easy/fast workarounds or some changes «in the works»?

That should be fixed. Atm. nothing at all is in the works - I've spend far too much time on DSG as it is.

On Flv

Sounds like you need a flv codec. Dl and install Ffdshow and enable Flv in the video decoder.

[apap]

Yes,

installing FFDShow fixed the FLV issue. Thank you very much.
(Sorry for taking so long to give you some feedback, but these have been very busy days.)

[chris...]

I'm having trouble importing images on DSG under wine on Linux
Everything appears to work including the ability to open the example animation dsg file, I just cant seem to import anything
I've tried wine 0.9.11, 0.9.64 and 1.0
dsg 86 and 86a
and both copies of filedialog.exe
when i go to notepad and hit 'paste' it pastes nothing, if i copy something in notepad and import a file it clears the clipboard

any ideas

[tin2tin]

I guess wine won't run filedialog.exe, since it's coded in autoitscript. The rest is coded in wxbasic(wxwidgets). Apparently some autoit function does work with wine: http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=45266&hl=wine+filedialog If you want to try to change the filedialog script into something which might work in wine(coded in autoit), I can pm you the code.

[minifig]

Hi all,

Am I correct to suppose that DVD Slideshow GUI does not make an ISO file which contains the subtitles?

In the help for the export it doesn't say that in the ISO there are subtitles.

So I'll have to use DVDAuthorGUI for this?

Greetings,

Roger

[tin2tin]

If you check Presets/Subtitles then the subtitles will be "burned into" the video and are non-selectable, but great looking subtitles. All exported videofiles will be exported like this (including .iso) execept .all.

If you want to have selectable subtitles you'll have uncheck the Presets/Subtitles before export(or export as .all) and then add the exported files + subtitle file(srt/ssa) into an authoring program like Gui for dvdauthor.

If I remember correctly then .srt subtitles can be loaded in Gui for dvdauthor in dvdauthor mode. Gui for dvdauthor in muxman mode takes .sup which looks much better, but then you'll have to convert the subtitle file from DSG first to sup.

Btw. Exporting from DSG to .gfd(gui for dvdauthor - in muxman mode) generates a cool dvd with menus - but you'll have to export a srt or a ssa subtitle file and convert it to sup in order to use it in GFD - check out the tools section for free software which will do that for you.

[chris...]

I guess wine won't run filedialog.exe, since it's coded in autoitscript. The rest is coded in wxbasic(wxwidgets). Apparently some autoit function does work with wine: http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=45266&hl=wine+filedialog If you want to try to change the filedialog script into something which might work in wine(coded in autoit), I can pm you the code.

wine runs the filedialog.exe
I dont have the development tools to compile autoit scripts

[tin2tin]

Okay, what happens when you hit import? Do you see the windows fileselector dialog(filedialog)? Can you select the files and hit okay?
If all this is working okay, then right after doing this paste the clipboard into a texteditor(ex. ctrl+v in notepad) and show me what it says.

[chris...]

Okay, what happens when you hit import? Do you see the windows fileselector dialog(filedialog)? Can you select the files and hit okay?
If all this is working okay, then right after doing this paste the clipboard into a texteditor(ex. ctrl+v in notepad) and show me what it says.

ok the filedialog works when loading a project, i can manually edit a dsg file to include pictures i want and when i open them in dsg it work as it should, it also saves the project file.
if importing a picture normally it clears the clipboard.
if i import and type in an incorrect path or filename it complains that no such file exists and the existing clipboard contents remain intact
if i use a correct path/filename no file gets imported and the cliboard is cleared

[tin2tin]

Filedialog.exe is only used for importing files(slides), not opening projects. Wxbasic the coding language of DSG can't import multiple files, therefore is the filedialog done in autoitscript, however I guess that we can conclude that autoitscript can't place text in the clipboard when running in wine...

I think DSG 0.77 and previous versions has the old wxbasic scripted import dialog - and therefore you will not have that problem - however there may be other bugs not fixed in that version. I don't have that version myself, try googling for it.

[chris...]

thanks for trying
i dont fancy using an old version
i'll just write a script to add the files i need

[ghealy]

Just to advise that when attempting to install the latest version 0.86, Bit Defender interferes, stating that:
"File c:\program files\dvd slideshow gui\is-7g8pc.tmp
infected with Trojan.Generic.296577"

I have reported this to Bit Defender, asking that they investigate for possible false positives.

I read all 19 pages of this thread and was quite anxious to give this software a try. <sigh> If it turns out to be half as good as everything I've read so far, I will be a very happy camper. <grin>

Regards,

--Gene