DVD slideshow GUI - development thread.

[Mike99]

tin2tin,
I did export a few slideshows to .avs & added ColorYUV(levels="TV->PC") as you suggested. I played back using Windows Media Player 6.4 and the added line does make a difference.

I did look at the .avs scripts & noticed the section “Import of background image” had no scripts regarding color. Further down I saw a lot of “ConvertToRGB32()” and items like “0, 1, 255”. I tried playing around with some of these settings, but nothing seemed to make a difference, other than not working at all.

I do want to use safe broadcast colors. And I’m just guessing that black with any value from 1 to 16 displays the same, or about the same, on a TV. I was trying to find out more about this & came across the following:

“All video stored on modern discs….with a range of 16-235. But, the content is mastered such that 0-255 is present….This entire range is then compressed into the 16-235 range….When you play that back on a system set to 16-235, you get all the information as it was intended with no gaps. If you mismatch and play back with RGB (0-255) settings, you'll clip off the black and white levels and black will look "dark gray".”

Could the slide .jpg images possibly be getting processed twice?

[tin2tin]

The 0-255 is no good on some tv/dvd set-ups and will make video come out like this: https://forum.videohelp.com/images/guides/p1806445/cimg1685.jpg.

This is why the range is limited to 16-235. DSG is doing what it's supposed to do.

If you want something else, I've allready suggested a way for you to expand the colorrange back to PC colors.

[Mike99]

tin2tin,

I do want to use safe TV colors because I do not want any problems as you have shown.

But I still do not understand why the safe black for a slide image is lighter than the safe black for a border. My wife and two friends said they too can see the difference, so it is not just me.

[tin2tin]

And you are using 0.9.0.7 and have no pre- and post effects selected(under Presets)...?

[Mike99]

And you are using 0.9.0.7 and have no pre- and post effects selected(under Presets)...?

I am using 0.9.0.7 and do not have any pre or post effects selected.

I just watched some broadcast TV. A lot of commercials are 4:3 and frequently have black content and black borders. This black matches & blends in with the black pillar bars on the 16:9 TV. I have to presume the TV networks are using safe colors. A DSG black background border also blends in & matches the pillar bars, but not a black slide image.

I also tried red, green & blue slides on respective red, green & blue backgrounds. The slides do not match their backgrounds. The difference is more subtle than when using black, but there is a difference.

I'm going to take some of my DSG DVDs to a friends house & see what they look like on another TV.

[tin2tin]

@ Mike99
After about 40 posts like this... I believe that this is the only solution for you: http://www.codejam.com/. Sorry mate!

[Mike99]

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?

How do I check if my original .jpg photos are using PC colors or TV colors?

If I want to burn the .avs file to a DVD, what software do you recommend?

[tin2tin]

@Mike99

How do I check if my original .jpg photos are using PC colors or TV colors?

If I want to burn the .avs file to a DVD, what software do you recommend?

Please read these forum rules:

Please try to do some basic research before posting.
Most fundamental questions are answered on the How To's on this site.

Use the Forum search feature.
Using the search can yield rich rewards as most questions have already been previously answered.

Do not hijack topics.
Please try to stick to the author's first post in each topic, if you want to discuss something else, create a new topic.

[oakjon]

I used the program and made 3 different DVD slide shows. Everthing worked like a charm, and played on 3 different stand alone dvd players. Yesterday I was making some more, and after 5+ tries, I had 1 success. I tried exporting as .iso. It will play in windvd5, but not in dvd shrink or others. In dvd shrink it says "Invalid DVD Navigation Structure".

If I do "Burn DVD" in GFS it will burn the proper folders, and .IFO, .VOB, etc, but will not play in dvd player. If I try to open in dvd shrink it says "Failed to open....\VIDEO_TS.IFO". The folder GFS created has "VTS_01_0.IFO". When I play the working dvd in windvd it says "DVD-Video". When I play any of the others is says "Mpeg".

I did not receive any error messages while creating any of the disks, either good or bad. Tried different media- no luck. I have created fresh projects-no luck. Uninstalled and re-installed program- no luck.

I really like the program, but am really stumped as to why it worked before and now it won't. I have read all the posts in this topic but have not found anything pertaing to my problem. I'm not doing any advanced stuff that the program is capable of, so I think I just goofed on something but don't know what.

I know the author is busy with life, so thought a user might have an answer. Sorry 'bout the length.

Jon

OOPS- Please substitute "DSG" for "GSF"-sorry!

[tin2tin]

Are you using the latest version 0.9.0.7(b)?
(Previous version had an authoring bug when duration wasn't 100)

If you are using this version, open the file 'c:\muxman.log' in notepad and see if it writes anything meaningful about errors.

Another reason could be that the rendered mpg isn't as long as it should be because you're out of harddisk-space/RAM when rendering. So keep an eye on the free harddiskspace(on DSG drive and the drive you're exporting to) and if you're out of RAM(Ctrl+alt+del).

[oakjon]

Good Morning Sir! Thanks for your reply. I am using the newest version (b). I have an Athlon 64 300+ with 512 mem. I redownloaded and reinstalled. I have 49GB space free on the hard drive. I haven't done the memory check while running yet. Tried burning one after fresh reboot. Didn't work.

Don't know what to look for in muxman.log, except at the end it says:

SeqEnd at 2165639C.
Bytes remaining in buffer = 0.
Bitrate - avg: 7347682, min: 3077114 (lba 255369), max: 8151080 (lba 126963).
Shortest GOP has 8 fields, longest GOP has 30 fields.
Fields: 39334, VOBU: 1310, Sectors: 294294.
Reference to non-existant scene "Segment_1_scn97" from PGC "VTS01_TTL01_PGC1"

This was ater doing an export as "all"

I really like the program as it was "idiot proof" when I did the first 3 that worked, so thinking there is something I am doing wrong or some background file that is borked. Again, it worked wonderfully at first. My testing is being done with 4 different projects, even starting from scratch on one. 110 slides in project.

Don't know if it means anything, but when I open the project setting window, the left pane is smooched. My monitor is set for 1024 X 768. I tried other settings but didn't change.

Jon

[tin2tin]

It might be a bug when authoring more that 97 slides(chapterpoint error). Both .iso export and dvd folders export will be affected by this.

I don't know when I'll be able to work on DSG again. So until I get this fixed, export(if more that 97 slides) as .gfd and let Gui for DVDauthor handle the autoring(and you'll get nice menus on top of that).

[oakjon]

I understand your time limitations. If you are like me, I am working on my second million. ( I gave up on the first) Thanks for the help. I was able to do it with GUI for Muxman. (New GIUforDVD author, I guess-Ver.1.07) Then I used dvd shrink to remove the menus and such. They are nice though. I needed a simple presentation. I will keep working on the other. It has to be something I am doing 'cause it worked so great at first.

My other projects were around 115 slides and worked fine.

Thanks again, Jon

[apap]

I've just started with DSG 0.908. For those interested in using older project files:

• Open your «old» project file in a text editor
• Change the first line to

  0.908

• If the file is older than 0.905, read the additional info on my previous post (Oct 29, 2008 19:30 )
• Save it and there you go.

I had one issue with a slideshow with a animation (Ken Burns effect): rendering, Avisynth (through HCenc) complained abou the image being to small to resize (it isn't). At first, I thought it was a DPI issue, but I had to open the animation settings dialog, cleared the animation, and then reload my preset animation effect. Initially, the image was beeing displayed really small - I'm guessing 0.908 somehow has a different way of dealing with the position/zoom settings in animations?

[Mike99]

apap,

Thanks for the information on how to use older project files. I wonder why the files are made incompatible.

[dread]

Was wondering if there was a way to not choose any transition. Only thing I want is like what Windows Movie Maker makes.

[tit4tat]

Great software! The problem I have is when I click Project Settings... part of the window is off the screen. Cannot see all of the options available and cannot downsize the window. Anyone have a fix? Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

[Mike99]

Great software! The problem I have is when I click Project Settings... part of the window is off the screen. Cannot see all of the options available and cannot downsize the window. Anyone have a fix? Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

I had this problem too. Increasing the screen resolution before opening the program solved the problem for me. Try going to the next setting. You can then resize the Project window a bit & then go back to your original resolution & the options may still be visible. Depends on how much you shrank the window & the resolutions you are using. For me, the resized Project window stays in effect until I close out the project.

[Mike99]

Was wondering if there was a way to not choose any transition. Only thing I want is like what Windows Movie Maker makes.

You made me think about about that. I was going to say try reducing the transition setting. I think there is a minimum required value of 5. I looked through the transitions & found "Cut" which sounded like it might do the job & it does.

[Mike99]

I've just started with DSG 0.908. For those interested in using older project files:

• Open your «old» project file in a text editor
• Change the first line to

  0.908

• If the file is older than 0.905, read the additional info on my previous post (Oct 29, 2008 19:30 )
• Save it and there you go.

I had one issue with a slideshow with a animation (Ken Burns effect): rendering, Avisynth (through HCenc) complained abou the image being to small to resize (it isn't). At first, I thought it was a DPI issue, but I had to open the animation settings dialog, cleared the animation, and then reload my preset animation effect. Initially, the image was beeing displayed really small - I'm guessing 0.908 somehow has a different way of dealing with the position/zoom settings in animations?

Thanks for the information.

I added the .908 and the other lines you previously mentioned. My old project loaded, but I received a lot of messages that transitions were missing. I kept clicking OK and the new project has a lot of the default "dissolve" transitions. I looked at some that it said were missing, but they do exist in .0908. Do you know of any way to retain the originals without having to re-enter them?

[dread]

Was wondering if there was a way to not choose any transition. Only thing I want is like what Windows Movie Maker makes.

You made me think about about that. I was going to say try reducing the transition setting. I think there is a minimum required value of 5. I looked through the transitions & found "Cut" which sounded like it might do the job & it does.

Thank you so much just helped me lots ty ty ty.

[tin2tin]

# Open your «old» project file in a text editor
# Change the first line to
Quote:
0.908

# If the file is older than 0.905, read the additional info on my previous post (Oct 29, 2008 19:30 )
# Save it and there you go.

This is absolutely not advised to to this... if the allowed the version number has been changed. There is a reason for this. Meaning that the structure or data positions have been changed, and just changing the allowed version number will cause errors, instability and crashes...

DSG has not reached a stable version 1.0 yet and untill then, projects saved in old versions might not be usable in the latest version.

[dread]

I see the 2 different durations but can you set the time on how long you want each slide to be displayed? Like slide 1 20 seconds, slide 2 30 seconds etc...

[tit4tat]

Great software! The problem I have is when I click Project Settings... part of the window is off the screen. Cannot see all of the options available and cannot downsize the window. Anyone have a fix? Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

I had this problem too. Increasing the screen resolution before opening the program solved the problem for me. Try going to the next setting. You can then resize the Project window a bit & then go back to your original resolution & the options may still be visible. Depends on how much you shrank the window & the resolutions you are using. For me, the resized Project window stays in effect until I close out the project.

Thanks Mike, that did the trick!

[Mike99]

I see the 2 different durations but can you set the time on how long you want each slide to be displayed? Like slide 1 20 seconds, slide 2 30 seconds etc...

The first duration is for the slide & the second is for the transition. I thought I read somewhere that the number, for example 100, stood for the number of frames. With NTSC that would be slightly more than 3 seconds & with PAL 4 seconds. You can change them individually or highlight a group of slides & change all of them.

[dread]

The first duration is for the slide & the second is for the transition. I thought I read somewhere that the number, for example 100, stood for the number of frames. With NTSC that would be slightly more than 3 seconds & with PAL 4 seconds. You can change them individually or highlight a group of slides & change all of them.

Oh I think I see now 100 frames divided by 29.97 for NTSC. The longest you can set the duration for is 1000 so that would be 33 seconds. That should be in the FAQ in my opinion. Unless I am the only one that didn't know that lol.

[dread]

I have a suggestion make the duration longer than 1000. Unlimited if possible so we can set however long we want it. If unlimited cannot be done then for like 3 mins thats like 6000 well 5394.6 to be exact.

[Mike99]

I have a suggestion make the duration longer than 1000. Unlimited if possible so we can set however long we want it. If unlimited cannot be done then for like 3 mins thats like 6000 well 5394.6 to be exact.

3 mins is a long time for someone to look at a slide. You could also just Pause your DVD player for as long as you want.

[aukc]

HI,

Thank you for the great program. I downloaded DVDSlideShowGUI. It was easy to use but I can't make a simple slide-show.
I hope someone can point me to the right path.
1. I don't want transition effects, that is one picture after the specified display duration should go to the next immediately.
2. I want attach a wave file to every picture so as to include voice narration for each slide.

Can the above be done with DVDSlideShowGUI?

Thanks.
KC AU

[Mike99]

HI,

Thank you for the great program. I downloaded DVDSlideShowGUI. It was easy to use but I can't make a simple slide-show.
I hope someone can point me to the right path.
1. I don't want transition effects, that is one picture after the specified display duration should go to the next immediately.
2. I want attach a wave file to every picture so as to include voice narration for each slide.

Can the above be done with DVDSlideShowGUI?

Thanks.
KC AU

Regarding #1, try using the "Cut" transition.
Regarding #2, hopefully someone else can answer as I have never added sound to a slideshow.