DVD slideshow GUI - development thread.

[tin2tin]

@ aukc: DSG is not really made for sound in sync. There is no way of adding sound to individual slides. A workaround could be saving each slide with sound as avi in some other program(maybe MS Movie Maker can do that?). And then import the avis as slides into the slideshow.

Alternatively you can make up a slideshow and use MS Movie Maker to add sync sounds by following this tutorial: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic352601.html#1858882

@ dread: You should take a look at what .gfd export from DSG can do for you. (DVD with remote controlled advancement of slides). There's a is an example video in the DSG homepage and theres a video tutorial on how-to... at the tutorial page.

[BTW. I would prefer that this thread would stay a DVD slideshow GUI bugs and development only thread. And support/usage/how to was dealt with in ex. the videohelp/DVD Authoring thread. Thanks.]

[Mike99]

Project Settings Not Saved -- version 0.9.0.8

I saved a project & later on went back, opened it & burned a DVD. But it did not play in my stand alone DVD player. I tried again. After clicking on burn a DVD I noticed the slideshow time was 00:15:39 instead of the 00:13:03 when I was working on it. I could not cancel the burn from the DSG main screen. When it got to the HCenc process the encoding setting resolution was 720 x 576, not 720 x 480.

Went back & the Project Settings indicated NTSC 4:3, but obviously was not. I changed to NTSC 16:9 and then back to NTSC 4:3. The time now displayed 00:13:03. I re-saved the project, closed DSG & then re-opened it. Opened the project again and the time was back to 00:15:39, yet Project Settings indicated NTSC 4:3.

I had to toggle the settings again in order for the time to display 00:13:03. At that point I was then able to burn a DVD in the correct format.

I even saved the project again after I burned a proper NTSC disc, but when I open it the time is 00:15:39 PAL time, yet the settings show NTSC 4:3.

[Mike99]

Aspect Ratio Incorrect -- Versions 0.9.8.0 and 0.8.9.9 RC6

I do not have too many vertical photos so it took me a while to notice this. But they are too skinny. So I measured the vertical TV images and they are about 1.45:1. I then measured the horizontal images and they are about 1.22:1. In both cases they are about 9% too narrow.

All the JPG pictures used were 2048 x 1536 pixels, which is 4:3.
Project Settings are NTSC 720x480 4:3.

[Mike99]

Aspect Ratio - update

I thought I would check a couple things. If I "preview" the slideshow on my PC monitor and measure the images they are 1.33:1.

If I view the burned DVD on my monitor they are compressed horizontally as described above when measured on the TV.

If I save the slideshow as a .avs file & play it back it too is compressed.

[hyperman]

Project Settings Not Saved -- version 0.9.0.9

No matter what I do, when I open project settings and make any changes or many changes, then hit OKAY it does nothing. I've closed it and reopened, only to find all the default settings back. I cannot make a project this way, its always in pal with 25 second transitions, and won't save any changes. Please let me know if I'm doing something wrong or if this is a bug. Thanks, other than that I think its a GREAT program!


UPDATE: Ok, weird, i saved my project then reopened and opened project settings and they were able to save, guess it was a glitch, thanks for your great work!

[Mike99]

Aspect Ratio -

Has anyone else noticed any compressed images?

I don't know if it happens with all the Project Settings, but it does compress when using NTSC 4:3. I took some original 16:9 pictures & did a slideshow using NTSC 16:9 and the images appear proper. I did not try any PAL formats because I cannot play them on my TV. It may be a 4:3 ratio issue or just a NTSC 4:3 problem.

[tin2tin]

A workaround: To make y value 9% wider save this script as 'Mike99_Ratio.avs' in the 'Posteffects' folder, restart DSG and add the new 'Mike99_Ratio.avs' PostEffect under Presets/Postprocess(slideshow).

It will stretch slideshow y 9% and crop the sides to fit DVD accepted video y size(720).

#colorbars(720,480)
Stretch=0.09  #Stretch procent value
OrgY=last.width()
Stretchy=int(last.width()*(1.00+Stretch))
LanczosResize( Stretchy, last.height())
Cropy=int((Stretchy-OrgY)/2)
Crop(Cropy,0,Cropy*-1,0)
LanczosResize(OrgY, last.height())
#info()

[Mike99]

tin2tin,

Thanks for the workaround.

Mike

[tin2tin]

I have no way of testing NTSC. Does it look as it should for you now?

[Mike99]

The script you provided works very well. Thank you.

Measuring off my TV, a horizontal 4:3 image is about 1.32:1 (versus 1.33:1) and a 3:4 vertical image is about 0.74:1 (versus 0.75:1, the reciprocal of 1.33:1).

Obviously there could be some error in my measuring or non linearity in the TV display.
So it appears the script does make the final image 1.33:1.

I did get the same results measuring off my PC monitor while playing the DVD using PowerDVD, but it is more difficult to be somewhat accurate due to the smaller screen size.

I also did a PAL slideshow & played the DVD on my PC using PowerDVD, but again more difficult to measure. I did NOT use the 9% width expansion script.

A horizontal 4:3 image is about 1.42:1 (versus 1.33:1) and a 3:4 vertical image is about 0.74:1 (versus 0.80:1, the reciprocal of 1.33:1). This is about 7% too wide.

The post-processing does work. Since the image is already resized, how does the multiple resizing or rescaling affect the image quality?

[Hrothgar]

I appreciate the efforts that have been put into making the dvd slideshow gui. I sincerely want to use it and have been trying to. Here is my story.
I downloaded and installed the latest version, 0.9.1.0

I found that I can't change the presets and make a .dsg settings file.

Something is wrong with the "project settings" window.

1. In start up the first "project settings" window show an "effect".. button in the upper left side below the safe settings. When I move the cursor over this button
it immediately and automatically changes to "background".... So I can not change and settings.

2. In addition, I can not get this window into the background and jump to other non related windows, and have to delete it to get back to normal operation.


I have cygwin1.dll already, but I don't think having the the gui installed one is the cause.

I can at least go on to complete my slide show, I believe, If you would kindly a.) tell me how to edit the "new.ini" file to change from "PAL 720x576...etc"
to "NTSC 720 x 480...29.97.." and I'll save the newly created file as
a project file " <name>.dsg"

Alternatively, is there any keystroke commands to [apply] settings in a project setting window. This may work.

I am terribly sorry to bother you, but would greatly appreaciate your assistance.

Regards,
Hrothgar

ps: see openoffice .odt file to see screen images of the "project settings" window and how it morphs.

dvd_slideshow_project_settings_window.odt

[tin2tin]

Hmm, that looks strange. If you compare your screendump with this, you'll notice that the font size is different. In your version it's too big and as a concequence there of the interface comes out wrong.

As far as I know the font size for the GUI is taken from your OS. If you OS is XP I wonder why the buttons have the old squared look - is this something you set as your XP look? And on the same note did you set you OS font to extra big?

In the main DVD slideshow GUI folder there is a file called 'DVDslideshowGUI.exe.manifest' this file tells DSG to use the look from your OS - try to rename that file to something else and restart DSG. Now DSG shouldn't try to adapt your OS look.

If there still is a problem I imagine that it has something to do with a japanese OS - but I'm really out of my limits here...

On the .ini - its the 3. line from the top which sets the ratio/fps
0: Pal
1: Ntsc
2: Pal 16:9
3: Ntsc 16:9

Let me know how things turn out for you.

[Lawbringer]

Are there any plans to support 1280x720 or 1920x1080 resolutions for slideshows?

I've got a 10 megapixel camera and want to be able to make a slideshow that doesn't resize the photos down to DVD resolution.

Would it be possible to add a project setting of HD res, and only do AVS export if that option is selected?

[Lawbringer]

I exported a slideshow as an AVS script, and changed all of the height and width values to their HD counterparts. However, when I encoded the AVS, it still showed up as 720x480. Am I missing something, or is DSG forcing the dimensions somewhere outside of the script?

[tin2tin]

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic245071-390.html#1805513

[Lawbringer]

Thank you for the link and the suggestion.

However, this portion doesn't work:

"Just select all slides, open animation, add a key at the begining and at the end of the animation slide(you don't have to move the image) and okay it. "

I can do this for each individual slide, one at a time, but if I select multiple and try to add the key, I get the following popup:

"Animation can only be added to images with the same size as the first image of the selection"

So I have to do this step for every single slide, which can be very cumbersome, especially for large slideshows.

Is there any way you could add a "use original picture" or "animate all" feature?

[Hrothgar]

Thank you for the prompt response regarding my problem.

> .....If you compare your screendump with this, you'll notice that the font size is
>different. In your version it's too big and as a concequence there of the interface
>comes out wrong.
>..... If you OS is XP I wonder why the buttons have the old squared look - is this
> something you set as your XP ....

I set the theme up as classic, so I suppose this is why.

> And on the same note did you set you OS font to extra big?
My fonts are set to "standard". I played around with the desktop/graphical
utility settings via "control panel -> graphical...."

> In the main.....]DVD slideshow GUI[/url] folder there is a file called
> 'DVDslideshowGUI.exe.manifest' this file tells ....to use the look from your OS - try
> to rename that file to something else and restart DSG. Now DSG shouldn't try to
> adapt your OS look.
I tried this nd it did not work.

I then went back to the desktop graphical settings and then into an advanced panel and changed the "dpi" setting from 120 to "standard 96 dpi" and this fixed the problem.

>On the .ini - its the 3. line from the top which sets the ratio/fps
>0: Pal
>1: Ntsc
>2: Pal 16:9
>3: Ntsc 16:9
Great information! THanks.

> Let me know how things turn out for you.
Problem solved. Thanks for giving me the font oversize clue.

Regards,
Hrothgar

[tin2tin]

@ Hrothgar
Happy to hear you solved it.

@ Lawbringer
You'll only have to do it once for each size. As that messagebox says, the fist selected slide is used for the animation and all selected slides with that size will get the animation values. How many sizes do you actually have? This is a workaround do to something DSG is not intented to do. This will not be added as a feature. I do not have any HD/BluRay hardware(TV/burner/player ect.) so I can't test it and on top of that I've allready spend too much time on coding DSG as it is...

What would your workflow be if you had a correct sized avs script?

[Lawbringer]

@tin2tin
I wrote a little tool (intend to share it once it's a bit more stable) that takes the AVS script generated by DSG (original files MUST be used, which is why I asked about the animation/use-original-file enhancement), performs the changes you suggested earlier (as well as a couple of others I found through trial-and-error, mostly to do with centering the slide) and spits it back out (in a different file).

Then I run x264 Encoder on the generated script and turn it into an MKV, which can be muxed into a BD-compliant m2ts (or whatever one might want) with tsMuxeR

The beautiful thing is, the original script generated by DSG can be used with HcEnc or QuEnc, or anything else that your awesome tool allows.

In the meantime, I'll try to figure out what was going on with the image sizes. Pretty sure they're all the same size/dimensions, but will double-check.

Also, want to take this opportunity to thank you for DSG. I've been using it for years now, and still have barely scratched the surface of what it can do.

[tin2tin]

I see that both x264 Encoder and tsMuxeR are commandline tools. So getting DSG to produce BD-compliant files should be possible. Adding additional videosizes to DSG is a major rewrite of the DSG code. I don't want any other options changed than the ratio pull-down-ui and the export options - the rest should be out of the box. I really don't know anything about BD - how many formats should be supported? And is it possible to go from an avs file to a burned BD (DVD w. ImgBurn) disk?

I guess that if I should add this to DSG, I would need a complete and detailed walktrough, because I have no possibilities to test anything without having the equipment myself...

[Lawbringer]

I would say that if you do decide to add the BD-compliant settings, you'd need to support two resolutions - 1280x720 (720p) and 1920x1080 (1080p) at 23.976fps, with Level set to 4.1 (it's an H264 setting - 4.1 is the one that's compliant with BD players)

I can PM you with more details, if you like, so that I'm not clogging up the thread

[Lawbringer]

OK, some more info on the picture dimensions:
- I have portrait and landscape photos in my slideshow: landscape ones are 3072x2304 and portrait ones are reversed, 2304x3072.

If I select only portrait or only landscape photos and set the keys in Animation, it gets applied to all of them. However, if I have some portrait and some landscape in my selection, the animation is applied only to the first slide, and any of the consecutive slides that are of the same dimension (orientation). As soon as it gets to a photo with different dimensions, it stops there, and the animation is not applied to any of the rest.

Using DSG 0.9.1.0, Vista x64

[ZQX]

I just successfully completed a 300+ photo slideshow with random transitions and music. This software is great! Worked like a breeze!

HOWEVER... I noticed I had one or two duplicate slides so I went back and fixed up my pics and started from scratch again. And NOW it simply won't work for me like the first time! When I export, it does its thing, and then HC pops up with an error message, something like "Error with AVS script / unable to load loop function" or some such (HC quickly closes so it's hard to catch the exact message).

[EDIT: Just saved an avs file and tried to open in MPC, the exact message is "Invalid arguments to function 'loop'", and gives the line number).

What's going on here? First time, it worked terrific, I love it! Now, it just won't work??

Any help would be much appreciated. This is a project I must complete soon, and I'd really like to use DVDSlideshowGUI for it.

(I already unistalled/reinstalled - no luck!).

[EDIT #2: I think I found the bug! I believe the "invalid loop" involves the very last slide, which after applying the "Match Duration to Audio" feature, gives the last slide a duration of "117.001" frames! Obviously the "loop function" doesn't like floating-points, I changed the duration to 118 and HC happily continues on its way!

Tin2Tin, could you please have a look at this?

I am happy now though, because I can easily work around this for the time being, and I enjoy this software very much!]

[ak79]

I have found a bug in the .dsg - Files.
If i import pics and select seval pics at once it could happen that some pics have the same ID.
Therefore if i want to animate them there will be problems for example the program sets in every pic those
red stick but i animated only one of them. If i remove one of those red sticks in one pic it removes or adds it in the other
pic with the same ID. Sorry, my english is not the best and it took me perhaps two days to find out about that.
Please make sure that every pic has a unique ID after the import.
I have found a temporary solution in simply giving every pic a unique ID manually in the .dsg files but i hope that no other
user will troubled by this nasty thing again

[tin2tin]

@ ak79
It's not a bug. If you want to add individual animations to individual slides you should add animations one by one and not add an animation to the entire bunch. It's done that way because if each slide had it's own ID with animation it would eat up too much RAM.

@ ZQX
It sounds like some missing int function somewhere - I don't know when I'll get the time to track that down.
BTW. Thanks for the 10'er. The reason for the 'heart' transition is this: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic357484.html#1893927. If there are certain transitions you don't like and don't want among the random transitions just open the 'Transitions' folder and remove the file with the name of that speciffic transition and restart DSG.

[fvisagie]

@ tin2tin: 0.9.1.1 photo property subtitle import does not seem to work?

Hi tin2tin,

Long time no speak - I see we both have been very busy .

I just did the upgrade from 0.8.6.8 to 0.9.1.1. Everything seems to work equally well or better than before, except I can't get DSG to import photo property subtitles.

If I deinstall 0.9.1.1 then install 0.8.6.8 and go F7, Subs: Date/Time, apply and import photos, the date/time subtitles work perfectly as before.

If I deinstall 0.8.6.8 then install 0.9.1.1 and go F7, Subs: Date/Time, apply and import photos, the subtitles are empty. I've also tried importing various different photo property subtitles, even file size, but the subtitles always end up empty.

Between deinstalling and installing the other version, I clean out the DSG directory to remove any lingering settings.

Just so you know, with both 0.8.6.8 and 0.9.1.1 installs I do not install Avisynth and XviD again. Both are already installed. With 0.8.6.8 I cancel their respective install dialogues, and with 0.9.1.1 I uncheck them. My Avisynth installation is at 2.5.8 and XviD I don't use with DSG, I think - I just import photos and export to all.

Please have a look at this? I'd be happy to do whatever further tests you recommend to get to a resolution.

Improvement suggestion:
While on the subject of importing photo properties for subtitles, currently it seems the only way of changing subtitles to a new photo property is to remove the photos and reimport them. Would it be possible to split the subtitle import code from the rest of the import code? That would make it possible to apply a new Subs: value and correspondingly update just the subtitles, without having to reimport the photos.

Thanks and kind regards,
Francois

[tin2tin]

I'm sorry there is a EXIF import bug in 0.9.1.1 try 0.9.1.0 instead(get it here at videohelp.com).

[fvisagie]

Thanks for confirming, in that case I'd rather wait for the next version - 0.8.6.8 does what I need correctly .

Please consider my suggestion of updating the subtitle property import without having to remove and reimport the photos?

Kind regards,
Francois

[tin2tin]

https://www.videohelp.com/download/DVDsGUI0910.exe

Atm. I'm don't have the time to work on DSG, sorry.

[fvisagie]

Shame, I understand. Don't worry about it.

Kind regards,
Francois