DVD slideshow GUI - development thread.

[apap]

Let me congratulate you, tin2tin, for the new version. It really is a milestone.

I've run into some troubles with DSG 0.9.0.1 and 0.0.9.2. I've made a project of a slideshow with around 40 seconds duration, thirty something pictures. Initially, everything seemed fine, but I've changed some transitions and then I couldn't render the movie (.mpg) anymore. Avisynth complained about the transitions clips/masks needing to be the same size.

Opening other projects also gave me some troubles (!), as if DSG had corrupted itself. So, I've decided to uninstall DSG, Avisynth and Xvid, rebooted, reinstalled 0.9.0.2 and the first project I've opened was the default Example_Animation_Overlay. When I've tryed to export it to mpg, DSG crashed and gave me this error message:

Conversion error
---------------------------
Key must be string or number, not nothing
menuexport() in file "C:\Programas\DVD slideshow GUI\DVDslideshowGUI.exe", line 6850:
> FPuts( handle, "ssa = ssa + " & Chr(34) &"Dialogue: 0," &Chr(34) &"+ convert2hhmmscff(0, rate)+ " & Chr(34) &"," & Chr(34) &"+ convert2hhmmscff(" &expo[PD_Start] - Abs(dur[PD_Start]) &", rate)+" & Chr(34) &",Default,NTP,0000,0000,0000,!Effect,{\\pos(" &(ResX / 2) &"," &ResY - Int(ResY / 8) &")}" & texts[PD_Start] & Chr(34) &" + chr(10)" &"\r\n")'

Tin2tin, a few months ago, I've sent some files to your e-mail. If it's still valid, I'll try to send you the temporary AVS, txt and error log that appeared in DSG's folder.

I've uninstalled, cleaned the temps folder, reinstalled everything and the same thing happened. Now, having read the previous post, I'm wondering if the new.ini is the culprit. You see, after fresh-installing DSG's latest versions, I usually configure the project settings (safe area, background, etc.) and backup the ini (I'll be installing DSG in lots of other PCs). Sometimes, after reinstalling, I just copy that ini over the default one. Maybe that's the source of some troubles...

I'll make some experiments and let you know. In the meantime, maybe the crash files I'll e-mail you will be of some help.[/quote]

[tin2tin]

It will be helpful if you note what characters make things go wrong. In import and in subtitles.

On the red box - are you sure you got the latest version installed? And don't delete temp files until DSG is closed.

On dual screens - try to right click on the player and change the settings for the player. This can't be changed in scripting.

@ apap - redownload 0.9.0.2. I fixed that and uploaded under the same name. (The installer adds a b to the version number).

[Aliby]

As I am not familiar with the script / comand line parameters it is difficult to know what to look for regarding combinations of characters or sysmbols.

In one subtitle I had an "=" and I think that was what the VSfilter errored on
I will check the names, but at this stage I think it may be a combination of underscore and number (eg. _500).

I am using 0.900, .... just finished downloading the latest and will try it tonight.

Dual screens: I found is a setting for Nvidia card under video playback (ALways play full screen on Screen#) which forces the player's video to the other screen- I have disabled that now.

[Mike99]

Aliby,

My latest slideshow has 58 slides and 2 videos taken with a digital still camera. One video is 65 seconds long & the other is 93 seconds. Both are 640x480 pixels, 30fps.

The original photos where 5MP jpgs in 4:3 ratio. The actual file sizes vary from about 1500 KB to about 2200 KB. DSG resizes these to 720x480 4:3 NTSC per the Project Settings.

I have tried the background_golden, but made my own pure black background so that it blends in with the black pillar box sides when shown on a 16:9 HDTV. I’ve made Safe X = 0 and Safe Y = 15 in order increase the size of the displayed image.

I have selected random Transitions for the most part & only changed a few. There is no audio other than what is with the video clips.

Hope this answers your questions.
Mike

[Aliby]

I downloaded the latest version (0.902) and hey the red border is gone, but I am most frustrated.

I renamed all me photos to 01.jpg, 02.jpg thru' 55.jpg in case the names were causing scripting problems.
I resized all the images so that the largest was around 1.2 Mb

Viewing the exported VOB file it finally got past slide 15, but it "froze" the photos and doesn't move past slide 33 now.
I can't understand why?

Could Memory be an issue? Smalller photos size seems to have helped. I have 2G memory, but I see the HC windows indicates 77Mb allocated ??

Any advice? I think I may have to try split the slideshow into two parts then splice them together using AVIdemux, add background music from Audacity and convert to VOB (SuperC) before burning a DVD (Imageburn) - a mission, but perhaps a short term solution.

[tin2tin]

There is no pc with Windows which are the same. So I have no chance to make sure that DSG will run on any setup. And in the end of the day I only did the GUI part, all the hard work is done by tools I didn't code and therefore know to a certain point.

I did a slideshow with 260 slides on my labtop with only 512 MB ram the other day, so I know it works fine here.

Does it run ok when you're previewing your slideshow?

If you didn't uninstall the old version before installing the new one I think you should do so.

[Mike99]

Previously you mentioned that DSG takes the jpgs and corrects the colors to safe broadcast colors & I understand this. When I play a DSG slideshow on my dvd player & view it on my TV the images appear lighter. The colors appear correct, it’s just that they are too light. This is in comparison to the same photos coming directly from my digital camera via a NTSC output and using the same input on my TV. I get the same results using a component connection from dvd player to TV which I previously calibrated using a DVD test disc.

I can decrease the brightness on the TV & darken the picture. It may need other adjustments, however I cannot display two images at the same time so it is difficult to make a side-by-side comparison.

Does the jpg to safe broadcast colors conversion automatically lighten the colors as part of the process?

I don’t recall the details, but some time ago I read there was a difference between the North America NTSC black level and the PAL or Japan NTSC standard. Just a thought, is the jpg to safe broadcast colors conversion taking into account the proper black level for the source & the destination? Maybe other people are not experiencing what I am because they are using the PAL system?

[tin2tin]

Hcenc needs yv12 colorformat. YUV values are not mapped from 0 to 255 (PC range), but a limited range (TV range). This limited range is 16-236 for the luma component and 16-240 for the chroma component of the YUV signal.

On other words max black is higher and max white is lower on a dvd than on a pc.

[Edit: If you want to play around with the color settings in avisynth, then export from DSG as .avs and look for the color functions like tweak and coloruvy. And read up on colors in the avisynth docs.]

[Mike99]

I do not know how the conversions take place, but something is making my photos lighter.

I made a pure black background jpg for my slideshow and it displays black when playing a DVD on my TV.

I started a project & added this black background jpg as a photo. So I now have a black photo with a black background.

I right click on the thumbnail & a Slide Settings window opens & properly displays the image as black.

I left click on the image in order to select it. And then click on Project Settings and the image still displays the image as black.

However if I click on preview the black jpg photo displays as a dark gray rectangle with a black background border.

The conversion is not changing the black background part of the slideshow. Yet it is changing the same exact jpg when it is used as a photo.

Since I am not saving as an mpeg video at this point is the HCenc processing even being done?

[Mike99]

I did export one of my projects as an AVS file as you suggested. I did not find anything with tweak or coloruvy functions.

I did find this near the beginning:
Try {
imgout=ImageSource("C:\Temp Video\color_temp_files\color%06d.ebmp", 0,33, rate)
}
Catch(err_msg) {
imgout=blankclip(1,720,480, fps=29.970).converttoyv12()
}

There were some colour comments in a section that appeared to deal with subtitles. And a couple ConvertToRGB32() under the “# MaskTransition by stickboy” heading.

I have read up on colors in AviSynth. I never wrote a script until a couple of weeks ago so I am really lost. I’m trying to read whatever I can and I understand what you are saying about safe broadcast colors. But I don’t know how a black level of 1 displays on a TV versus a black level of 16. I’m guessing they both display almost the same as there has to be a way to display images with black content, the same way the black background in DSG is displayed.

Any help would be appreciated.
Mike

[roma247]

Hi tin2tin,

I have been using DSG for a while and love it. It's also quite wonderful to be able to have questions answered on this forum. Hats off to you.

After fussing around with my slideshows for way too long, I finally have used GUI for DVDauthor to compile them and burn them. I'm happy with them, but have a few questions...and I have a feeling they may be addressed by the updates you've done since last I downloaded DSG, which was back in May.

I find that the zoom is not as smooth as it could be, particularly at the edges of the photo, which are rather jumpy as it zooms.

I also found that there was a fair amount of flicker, especially when the slides are transitioning. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong there.

Lastly, since my slideshows are not particularly long, I am wondering whether it is possible to have images that are less compressed? I am finding that some of them are blurred to the point where a fair amount of detail is missing (whereas the originals are quite sharp and clear...), and yet the entire DVD (3 separate slideshows) is only 45 minutes...

I wish I could express all of this in more precise terminology, but I am not especially tech-savvy...

But the most burning question I have is this:

If I uninstall the version of DSG from May and reinstall the latest, will I be able to open these older files in the new version? Last time I had to start over from scratch and I definitely don't want to have to do that.

Many thanks,

Lisa

[45tripp]

bug

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=141789

dvd slideshow refuses input of from avisynth with
assumefps(30000,1001)
and other variants,
will only take assumefps(29.97)

[Mike99]

I tried another experiment. I took a solid black movie with my Canon digital camera. Or at least as black as it will go.

I started a new project using a pure black background and added a pure black JPG as a photo & the black movie.

I previewed the project in DSG. The pure black photo displays as dark gray against the black background, just as it did before. But the black AVI movie displays almost pure black. Not quite matching the pure black border, but significantly darker than the dark gray photo. And this may be as dark of a movie that the digital camera can take.

It appears that only JPG photos are affected. Not the JPG background & most likely not AVIs.

[tin2tin]

After more than a month of work(some days with 18 hours of coding) without any income, I really, really need to focus on other things in my life than DVD slideshow GUI, so there might not be any support(from me) and updates for a while.

Good luck and have fun.

Tin2tin

[mlcampbe]

Is it possible to use a different animation effect for individual slides or do all slides in the slideshow have to use the same settings? From what I can tell all use the same setting.

[apap]

Hi, guys. I'm having some problems, maybe someone can help?

One of my slideshows doesn't render with the background music. It has around 118 pictures, resized to 720x576 pixels (actually, somewhat smaller in the vertical dimension) and lasts about 2 minutes and 54 seconds. I add the music (both the original MP3 and a copy in WAV exported from Audacity) and nothing seems to happen:

• the DSG window looses focus
• MediaPlayer Classic doesn't play it (I recall previous versions of DSG doing this, don't know if 0.9.0x is supposed to do the same)
• I click the DSG window, it gains focus and responds to the SAVE command
• I close DSG, reopen it, load the save project but there's no music file information
• clicking Export after adding the music just renders the slideshow with no sound (exporting as MPG or ALL).

I've also tryed updating the soundout.dll (don't recall the exact filename) to 1.1.1 (DSG comes with a previous version) but that doesn't change a thing.

Another question:
DSG 0.9.0.6 doesn't load projects saved in earlier versions. I've changed the version number in the project file to 0.905, as this is the version identification used in current versions. When I load the «updated» project file, DSG complains about a missing transition, but I've checked the project file and I'm only using Dissolve and FF_RadialBlur, and these transition haven't changed in the lates versions (I've checked).
I have rebuilt the project, but would appreciate some tips in avoiding this tedious task.

Thanks in advance and, once again, congratulations to tin2tin.

[Mike99]

I wish I could answer some questions, but I need help too. I have never tried animations or sound. Hopefully tin2tin will find a bit of time to check in here.

[apap]

OK, after a bit of experimenting, here's what I've found:

• Audacity exported the MP3 as a mono WAV
• Apollo player says it's a stereo MP3 (or the ID3 tag has that information)
• I used Apollo players' ability to output MP3 as WAV
• the resulting WAV was bigger than the one exported from Audacity
• using this WAV, DSG rendered the slideshow fine!

This doesn't explain why the original MP3 wasn't accepted by DSG, but it seems that DSG doesn't import mono WAVs (mono MP3s, also?).

Regarding a solution to update projects saved in earlier versions of DSG, I haven't found one yet (and the error message about the transitions really puzzles me).

[tin2tin]

I'm sorry, but as I wrote I will not be able to offer a lot of support from now on. My time is limited, and I should really be doing something else...

However I've updated DSG again hopeing, that I'm getting closer to a somewhat stable version.

In case people don't read up on the old posts - let me post this again:

After more than a month of work(some days with 18 hours of coding) without any income, I really, really need to focus on other things in my life than DVD slideshow GUI, so there might not be any support(from me) and updates for a while.

Good luck and have fun.
smile.gif
Tin2tin

Get the update at the homepage.

[Mike99]

tin2tin,

I understand your situation & really like your program & appreciate all your help & don't mean to bother you.

As previously mentioned, a black jpg border displays properly as black (or is perceived as real black) but when used as a slide the same black jpg displays as dark gray. Somehow the jpgs are processed differently. I would not mind looking to see what affects this, but have no idea what to look for in the program even if you gave me permission to do so.

If you ever find you have nothing to do some day, could you please make this one of the items to look into?

Sincerely,
Mike

[tin2tin]

Images are converted into tv safe colors(Blacklevel 16 and up). This is not a bug.

There must be a difference between the level of black in the background and in the images, since animated backgrounds are keyed into black(under the blacklevel of 16), or else the background will make holes in the images. All slideshows are treated this way, it doesn't matter if you are using animated background or not or whatever format you're exporting to. All exported slideshows(in what ever format should be within the tv safe colors - this program is mainly for DVD authoring - the rest of the export options are just an extra service), and if there is a difference between the background and the images, it might be that the background isn't in tv safe colors, but correcting it means that the background will be just as grey as the images... however on a normal tv everything under a blacklevel of 16 is not allowed and come out as the same black.

In the end of the day DSG is just an interface to produce an avisynth script. And when exporting to avs you can change everything yourself including convering the color range back to pc colors. If you want to change the colorrange with avisynth like that please consult the avisynth manual(which you should know about by now).

[Mike99]

tin2tin,

I understand what you are saying about having safe colors & I have read some material regarding it. Maybe a black level 16 is not true black, but it looks very black. I am using the same exact black jpg file for background & slide image and the two display differently, yet they are both safe colors.

If I watch a TV program or DVD that has black near the edges, it blends in with the black letterbox or pillar box bars surrounding the picture on my 16:9 TV. If I watch a 4:3 slideshow with a black slide picture and a black border, the border blends in with the black pillar boxes but the picture is dark gray. Safe color black for the picture should be the same as safe color black for the border and the broadcast or DVD picture.

I am not trying to be difficult, but the TV can display what is perceived to be black from a broadcast signal or a commercial DVD. And the slideshow black border matches this, or appears to. But the slideshow picture itself is dark gray. Put another way, my TV can display a broadcast picture of a black auto but the slideshow cannot. Therefore I would have to think that the black safe color border is correct.

You mention when exporting to avs I can change everything myself. But how do I get at the scripts? I presume then that the jpg pictures are converted into an avs file before they are burned to a DVD. However I do not know that this is happening because I do not know what is going on inside the program. I am not a programmer & have no idea how to even look at the scripts. If I did want to experiment with colors how do I access the scripts in order to change them?

Again I really appreciate all your time & help and the need for safe colors. I just don’t understand why what is safe for the background is not safe for the slide picture.

Mike

[apap]

Sorry for not posting sooner, but life got in the way...

I hadn't the chance to use DSG 0.9.0.7 but, as far as I can tell, it should not be difficult to update project files created before 0.9.0.5.

• Open an old project file (a copy, just to be safe) in a plain text editor (I use Liquid Ninja's Metapad, Notepad will be fine)
• Change the 0.89 in the first line to 0.905
• Scroll down to around line 30 and you'll see the filename of the first slide
• The line immediately before should be the total number of slides; don't change it
• Add 3 lines, each with one of these numbers: 2, 64 and 48
• Follow the exact order of the numbers; 48 should be the last of those 3 lines, that is, it should appear immediately before the total number of slides.

You'll end up with something like:

0.905
(...)
2
64
48
(Total number of slides)
(Filename of the first slide)

That should do it. Please correct me if I'm wrong (I'm posting at the end of a very busy work day, so, errors are more likely to happen).

[Mike99]

apap,

I did try version 0.9.0.7, but went back to version .8.9.9 RC6 so that I could continue work on my existing slideshows. When I’m done with my current project I’ll go back to a newer version & try your fix.

I’m curious though, how did you ever come up with adding 2, 64 and 48?

What’s holding me up is the black level situation as I have described. Have you noticed that your slides are a bit lighter than they should be? Try a pure black jpg for the picture and also for the background & you will see what I mean.

[apap]

Mike,

to figure out those values needed to update older DSG's project files, I just looked at two identical project files (with only a couple of slides) that I made with both an old and a recent version of DSG.

Almost all of my slideshows are being displayed in a cheap LCD monitor and in a (also very modest) LCD videoprojector. That prevents me from making any comments on the levels of colors or luminance.

In MediaPlayer Classic, the slideshows seem a little lighter and softer (less «jaggies») than in VLC Media Player.

I did, very recently, watch one of my slideshows in a decent CRT TV. I was very pleased with the image quality but there seemed to be a somewhat lighter then I'd expected black background in the transition between 2 slideshows (I had several in the same CD). However, that should be the DVD player's fault.

Notice that I had no images that were prone to show that difference in black levels, and I usually go for a «no-safe border» in order to fill up all the TV screen, even risking some cropping at the borders. This would probably mask any difference in the black levels between the foregound and the background.

I understand perfectly the «safe-levels» processing to ensure optimal TV viewing and have no explanation for the issue you reported. Maybe in the next days I can find some time to try your experiment and check it out for myself.

[Mike99]

apap,

I agree, the image quality is extremely good. I've experimented with the safe area & currently am working with a safey setting of 15. I adjusted my TV & centered the picture so I don't have a problem. But the 15 gives me a little room at the top & bottom just in case I show the slideshow on someone else's TV.

I use a black background so that the it blends in with the black pillar box bars on my 16:9 HDTV. I feel the black background border is correct because it matches the black areas of both broadcast and commercial DVD images. I just don't know how to change the black level of the displayed slide image.

[tin2tin]

In the 0.9.0.7 I see no difference between a black image and a black background.

If you want computer levels: http://avisynth.org/Levels.

Export to .avs and add this line to the end of the script:

ColorYUV(levels="TV->PC")

And run the script in an avisynth encoder of your choice.

Are you sure you ajusted to tv set properly? Is the brightness/contrast is set correctly?

[tin2tin]

If you want more greyscale transitions, then you can find some very nice ones here: http://assistcg.com/index.php/video/transitions.html. Click on the images to get a bigger size, right click to save the image, and save it into the DVD slideshow GUI/Transitions folder and restart DSG. You'll now find the new transitions under the names of the image files.

[apap]

Mike,

I believe that, in 16:9 TV sets, when displaying 4:3 images, the vertical black bars are the result of cutting off the image signal to those parts of the screen. In the central part of the screen, the black level is the result of the input signal and the brightness level.

So, if the brightness level is a bit over the ideal setting, the darker (black) parts of any displayed picture will actually be a very dark gray (almost black, but not pure black).

I don't know nothing about your TV setup and I'm not saying you don't have a point, I'm just looking for additional possible explanations, since tin2tin himself found no problem with 0.9.0.7. (I haven't got the chance to do any tests.)

[Mike99]

I have a 16:9 TV and black pillar bars match black letterbox bars match black NTSC video titles match DSG black border. The only thing that displays different is black within a slide. I played a 4:3 DVD that had a black “Touchstone Pictures” opening title & it matches the black pillar box side bars on the TV and I have to presume the DVD is NTSC safe color compliant.

I did go over the TV settings again using a calibration DVD and my black, grays & white look OK. If the brightness/black level was way off then I would think black titles & other video images would also be too light. However this is not the case and the black on the DVD calibration disc does match my pillar bars.

I reinstalled DSG 0.9.0.7. I also re-installed AviSynth 2.5 and Xvid to make sure everything was up to date. I then burned a DVD with a couple black slides & a black border. The black slides still show as dark gray & the border still shows as black. This is whether I preview the slideshow on my computer or play the burned DVD on a DVD player & view on the TV.

tin2tin,
You state that you saw no difference when you viewed black with black. Was this using a TV, the DSG preview function or other software? I mention this because when I view the DVD using PowerDVD, depending on the Video Color Profile, it makes a difference whether I can see a difference or not.