DVD slideshow GUI - development thread.

[tin2tin]

Try to start the program by right clicking the DVD slideshow GUI icon and select "Run as Administrator".

Btw. there has been a version 0.9.3.1 out for some time now.

[DWheeling]

I can't find v0.9.3.1 - every time I download what is said to be this version, I end up with the previous version.

I have tried running as admin, reinstalling the entire program suite, running XP compatible, and trying new pictures. But, I still can't get the pictures to appear when previewing. The subtitles cycle by normally, though.

Any new ideas?

[tin2tin]

Well, looks like I forgot to change the version number in the interface. The latest download from the DSG homepage should have been called 0.9.3.1, sorry! I was on vacation when I replyed on my cellphone.

On your other problem. If giving DSG admin rights doesn't work - then it may be that HCenc needs it too(you'll find it in the DVD slideshow GUI main folder).

DSG is making a lot of temp files to process a slideshow - if DSG or any of the programs doing the actual work is somehow not allowed to save files - things might not work as expected. However I'm not too familiar with security premisions on Vista.

[tin2tin]

DVD slideshow GUI is featured in the 2/2010 edition of ComputerBild:
ComputerBild 2/2010(350k image)
Unfortunately there are a few mistakes in the text a such as DSG is not for making CDs and a duration of 100 in PAL is 4 seconds(25 frames pr. sec.).

If you want to help out with the translations, all you need to do is register at launchpad. Here is the current status of the various translations:
https://translations.launchpad.net/dvdslideshowgui/trunk

Some of the languages only needs a few more translations:
Czech untranslated: 55
Dutch untranslated: 22
French untranslated: 67
Italian untranslated: 182

[tin2tin]

DVD slideshow GUI 0.9.3.2 is out!

- Paste music bug
- Default background: black
- Default safearea 0
- Translations updated

[tin2tin]

A 'Dakar Rally 2010' slideshow done in DVD slideshow GUI:

[tin2tin]

The upcoming version of DVD slideshow GUI will be able to import Power Point & Impress(Open Office) presentations, so you'll be able to make dvds directly from a ppt of obp file. Combine that with the DVD menu export option and you can do Power Point/Impress presentations from your dvd standalone and beeing able go back and forth between slides on the dvd with your remote. It's very cool actually.

I'm pretty sure that no other free application will let you do this. :P

[tin2tin]

DVD slideshow GUI 0.9.3.3 is out:
- New: PPT2DVD and OBP2DVD, meaning import of Power Point/Impress presentations (odp, ppt). Needs Open Office installed.
- New: 720p 25fps, 1080p 25fps .
- Bugfix: Converting to avs abort animation value.
- Bugfix: Animation key level for animated backgrounds.
- Bugfix: Flv export - animation render quality.
- Translation updates.

Version 0.9.3.3 Import of Power Point and Impress presentations
Import of Power Point(ppt) and Impress(odp) files are supported in DVD slideshow GUI. However Open Office is needed for the process, so first you must dowmload and install the free Open Office(I've only tested with v. 3.0 and v. 3.1). You can get it from here.

When DVD slideshow GUI is started it will find Open Office if it is installed in the default location or else you'll have to correct the path of Open Office in DVD slideshow GUI > Slideshow > External Applications. Now you should be able to import ppt and obp.

If you want to convert your ppt/odb presentation to a remote-controllable-dvd you need to install Gui for dvdauthor this can also be done by reinstalling DVD slideshow GUI and check Gui for dvdauthor in the installer and it will be installed automatically. When both programs are installed properly and the paths are set up in the External Applications window, all you have to do is DVD slideshow GUI > Files > 'Export to DVD Menus' and in 'Gui for dvdauthor' change the look of the menus to your liking and finally hit 'Burn DVD'.

[tin2tin]

DVD slideshow GUI
Tutorial on how to import Power Point presentations and add them to a dvd with menus.

Better quality:
http://blip.tv/file/3107809/

Lower quality:


The text from the tutorial:
Download and install Open Office.
Download and install Gui for dvdauthor.
Start DVD slideshow GUI
Check path of Open Office in External Applications
Project Settings: Pal/Ntsc
Pal is for Europe and Ntsc for US
Import a Power Point(ppt) file.
Ajust timings, background and add audio.
(A duration of 100 is 4 sec in 25 frames pr. sec.)
I'll just make a fast slideshow...
Preview
Export to DVD Menus
If Gui for dvdauthor is installed in the default location it will open automatically after the export or else you will have to open the exported file yourself in Gui for dvdauthor
In Gui for dvdauthor. Ajust the menu.
Create DVD
Show DVD - All what I'm doing with the mouse can be done with your dvd-remote...
Burn DVD

And that's it. Thanks!

Download DVD slideshow GUI here:
http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin

Open Office from here:
http://www.openoffice.org/

And Gui for dvdauthor:
http://download.videohelp.com/GFD/

[tin2tin]

DVD slideshow GUI 0.9.3.4
See the new gradients here:

New: FFmpegSource instead of Avisource
New: 17 Gradient Backgrounds
New: 14 animation presets
Bugfix: Unsucceful ppt import add slides
Bugfix: Safearea box corrected

[tin2tin]

Post number 1000 in this more than 5 years old thread!

DVD slideshow GUI 0.9.3.5 is released:
- New: Use left and right mouse button on keys to go to or delete keys.
- Bugfix: Crash in Preset window.
- Bugfix: ssa subtitle timings where off with negative transition durations
- Bugfix: Animation last frame missing
- Bugfix: Animation when changing duration update keybuttons
- Bugfix: Change background and change font from toolbar shouldn't result in a preview render

[tin2tin]

After yet another two solid weeks in a coding frenzy resulting in some new features, several improments and bugfixes, I could use som feedback from you people using DVD slideshow GUI. That is, if anyone actually is using it? (I wouldn't want to waste any more time on this - if no one uses it).

So let me know what works and what doesn't work, and most importantly what you find the most usable.

[nr.1]

I only want to say a great "THANK YOU", tin2tin, for creating and
spending a lot of time and work to this very good free-of-charge-program!!
For me it's easy usable, with practicable tutorials and you made a
good presentation of the numerous effects on the homepage.
Hope and wish you keep working on in future!

I know it's primary made for windows, but yesterday the installation of DSG under
Linux (sidux) with Wine (unstable, v. 1.1-32) ran without problems here.
After slideshow-export the mediaplayer-classic crashes each time,
but that is not really an issue as long as the video is completed and saved before.
Don't know if i'll ever use the ppt-import-feature, but i think
it could nevertheless be nice for someone.

Hope you understand my bad english, the last lesson at school was
a long time ago and i don't use it in everyday life, google-translate helped me
finding some words for this text.

Greetings from Germany
nr.1

[george84]

Hi tintin

It seems you have been very active. After a long pause I decided to retry with DSG. I originally had problems with subtitles caused by a Jhead error. I modified Jhead and now I am able to see my subtitles.
In doing export from DSG there is however a bug for .srt files. Only the titles of the first two slides are output. Export for .ssa works correctly. In the following you see the first few lines of the exported srt and ssa files.

Example of srt:

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000
Jasmin in D. N. Road
2
00:00:06,001 --> 00:00:09,001
Platz mit Oriental Building
3
00:00:11,001 --> 00:00:14,001
4
00:00:16,001 --> 00:00:19,001

Example for ssa:


[Script Info]
ScriptType: v4.00
Collisions: Normal
PlayResX: 1920
PlayResY: 1080
Timer: 100,0000
[V4 Styles]
Format: Name, Fontname, Fontsize, PrimaryColour, SecondaryColour, TertiaryColour, BackColour, Bold, Italic, BorderStyle, Outline, Shadow, Alignment, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, AlphaLevel,Encoding
Style: Default,Arial,39,16777215,65535,0,0,0,0,1,2,0,2,20 ,20,70,0,1
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Actor, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,00:00:00.00,00:00:04.00,Default,NTP,0000,0000,00 00,!Effect, Jasmin in D. N. Road
Dialogue: 0,00:00:05.19,00:00:09.00,Default,NTP,0000,0000,00 00,!Effect, Platz mit Oriental Building
Dialogue: 0,00:00:10.19,00:00:14.00,Default,NTP,0000,0000,00 00,!Effect, Flora Fountain
....

[tin2tin]

@ nr.1
Thanks, that means alot to me. Good to know that the Linux/wine thing works. You could try some the other versions of MPC the one included is the MPC-HC release from august 2009.

@ george84
Yes, that's a bug - fix one thing - break another(bug only in v. 0.9.3.5). That was a quite easy bug fix. It'll be included in the next release.

Anyone else wants to reply on this?

After yet another two solid weeks in a coding frenzy resulting in some new features, several improments and bugfixes, I could use som feedback from you people using DVD slideshow GUI. That is, if anyone actually is using it? (I wouldn't want to waste any more time on this - if no one uses it).

So let me know what works and what doesn't work, and most importantly what you find the most usable.

[george84]

Hi tintin

I have extensively evaluated your program, but I haven't yet created a real slideshow. I think that your product is very powerful. It has many features. It is quite difficult to master and I think usability should be improved. I miss drag and drop of files, I think it is inconvenient when new releases cannot import old projects and it has quite some bugs.

I don't want new features, but I would like to see improvements in above mentioned points.

In my evaluation I wanted to find out in what format I would like to have my show. I was thinking of:
DVD format with many different bitrates or formats
AVI (Xvid) which takes less time
Blue Ray format for best quality.

So checking these formats took much of my time and so I was not creative.

But I surely have planned to continue using your product, which overall is really great.

Thank you

[tin2tin]

Thanks, for your feedback.

I miss drag and drop of files, I think it is inconvenient when new releases cannot import old projects

Both things are because of limitations in wxBasic. It's simply missing functions for drag and drop and XML handling(for making decent .dsg files). I hope they will be implemented some day.

it has quite some bugs

Could you be more speciffic - so I can try to fix them?

I don't want new features

I'm not sure that I can fulfill this request.

In my evaluation I wanted to find out in what format I would like to have my show. I was thinking of:
DVD format with many different bitrates or formats
AVI (Xvid) which takes less time
Blue Ray format for best quality.

If you export to .avs (avisynth script) and use ex. Super to encode that file - you can encode it to pretty much anything(in only one encoding, avs is just a frameserving script). But watch out, it may eat up even more of you time for beeing creative.

(Next version will (hopefully) allow subtitles on and animation of videoslides(avi+avs) like imageslides. And fixes of subtitles beeing off when using negative transition timings.)

[george84]

Hi tin2tin

I have 2 bugs which affect the preview and have therefore an impact on the usabilty of DSG. in the final slideshow the result ist however correct.

1. In "Pan, zoom and rotate tool" window I do a review. This starts "Media Player Classic".
Bug: In this preview I don't see the last frame .

2. I have a slideshow with only 2 slides. First has a duration of 50, second a duration of 100. Project Settings of 1080p.
Bug: The last frame i see in preview is in the middle of transition from first to second slide.

[tin2tin]

2. I have a slideshow with only 2 slides. First has a duration of 50, second a duration of 100. Project Settings of 1080p. Bug: The last frame i see in preview is in the middle of transition from first to second slide.

What is the name of transition?

[george84]

Hi tin2tin

What is the name of transition?

The name of the transition was marbles3.avs.
Perhaps I should also mention that my machines is a Pentium V with 2.8Ghz.

To be more general: In the normal preview window we have for dataelements which should be in sync:

1. seconds counter at right in status line (12/24)
2. status at left in status line (Paused/Playing)
3. progress indicator in progress bar
4. the visuell contents (eg. frame)

In the normal preview I often have the effect, that the seconds counter and the progress bar at the bottom of the preview window show that the preview has finished. But in fact the frames (visuell content) in the preview window has not yet completed. Also the status line still says "playing" while the counter has already completed. I have a simple example with three sildes which should give a total time of 24 seconds. But the indicator "paused" appears only 30seconds after the counter has already reached 24 seconds.
Also the preview playback is stuttering. So maybe my machine is just too slow.

[george84]

Hi tin2tin

Just a proposal regarding usability.
Please provide a possibilty to display at least the location from where a slide was imported.

Background: For my previous post I wanted to find out the original dimensions of my slides, but I only know the name of the file.

[george84]

Hi tin2tin

I have a request concerning the handling of changes of duration in animation.

Current handling:

If you have defined an animation with several keys and later only change the duration of the animation then all keys keep their position or are possibly lost when you reduce the duration.
Lets say you define a zoom in and later decide to increase the duration of slide, then you get a black screen after the previous end.

Desired handling

If you change the duration of an animation then all keys are adjusted proportionally.
I think this would cause us less work.

Somebody agrees?

[tin2tin]

On preview:
In most cases will the preview not be realtime. The preview is played from RAM and very hardware dependant. 1080p will in most cases not be realtime. In MPC enable View > Statistics and you'll be able to see framerate(drop(!)) of the playback. Marbles is one of the more heavy transitions and MPC hangs during the transition. In order to preview sometimes doubleclicking a slide will give you a realtime playback of that slide and the next or if the playback rate is important - render to XVID or flash for fast renders. Try to do a render with the marbles transition - I think it will be rendered correctly.

To see the path of the current slide click on the vertical line to the right of the 'Subtitle' heading in the list ctrl and drag to the right and the path will be revealed.

If you change the duration of an animation then all keys are adjusted proportionally.
I think this would cause us less work.

Correcting the keys manually will not be very time consuming compared to who much time it will take for me to implement that. This is more of a nice to have and not a need to have function IMHO.

[EDIT:

1. In "Pan, zoom and rotate tool" window I do a review. This starts "Media Player Classic".
Bug: In this preview I don't see the last frame .

I've fixed that bug in the upcoming version. Thanks for reporting it.]

[george84]

How to create a slideshow for playing from UB stick on Philips Television 7403D

Some Phlips televisions have a USB connector and allow to play MPEG2 files stored on USB stick.

It took me quite some time to find out how to do that. The most important finding is:

1. it plays only PS streams and not TS streams
2. freeware AVIDEMUX can create PS streams
3. it probably always needs audio
4. it plays resolution up to 1920*1080
   

I did the following

1. create DSG project 1080p
2. modify DSG file HCBD.ini for bitrate 8000 and maxbitrate 10000
3. export DSG show as .m2v and .ac3
4. in AVIDEMUX create PS stream, name it .mpg

The playback quality is quite good, but sometimes I have stuttering. Bitrate should perhaps be reduced.

Details for AVIDEMUX

File / Open... /Select Video file (say yes on index)
Audio / Main Track... / External AC3 select audio file
Format / MPEG-PS (A+V) (in main window at left)
File / Save / specify file.mpg

[tin2tin]

I don't know Avidemux that well, but it seems that Avisynth scripts can be used in Avidemux by using the Avidemux - Avsproxy.

If this works, all you need to do is to export as .avs from DSG, make a proxy and open that in Avidemux. This way you'll only have to render your slideshow once.

[george84]

I don't know Avidemux that well, but it seems that Avisynth scripts and be used in Avidemux by using the Avidemux - Avsproxy.

If this works all you need to do is to export as avs from DSG, make a proxy and open that in Avidemux. This way you'll only have to render your slideshow once.

AVIDEMUX doesn't do a new encoding, it is just like tsMuxer. It is as fast as tsMuxer. So there is no need for avsproxy.

[george84]

Hi tin2tin

I have a question regarding colors.

1. I have jpg files which are color managed, e.g. they include a profile and are not standard sRGB. Do you takes this into account?

2. I notice that in generated avs file there are luminance conversions. Are the generated files thought for playback on PC or SD TV or HDTV? Or is everything handled automtically? I am speaking of mpeg format?

[tin2tin]

1. I have jpg files which are color managed, e.g. they include a profile and are not standard sRGB. Do you takes this into account?

As you can see in the generated Avisynth scripts images are imported with the ImageSource function. I don't know it is handeling the images more specifically.

2. I notice that in generated avs file there are luminance conversions. Are the generated files thought for playback on PC or SD TV or HDTV? Or is everything handled automtically? I am speaking of mpeg format?

Mpeg is exported in yv12, which is what HCenc needs.

[george84]

Hi tin2tin

I am trying to understand the working of Pre Effects / Post Effects. Unfortunately this is largely a trial and error experience. I am aware of the Help / Library of effects and I find the slideshows on your web start page fascinating.
However there seems to exist no written documentation. It was rather by chance that I found out that PreEffect is per image and PostEffect is per slideshow.
It would be helpful if you could provide the demos in the form of project files (.SDG) together with the original pictures. This way we could learn how to do things and on every new release we could test if things still work.

So I tried to systematically go through the effects, but encountered some problems.

My project setting is 1080p. For my tests I have only two slides. The first one is landscape (1600*900) the second one is portrait (1200*1600).
For my tests I always export to an .avs which I import into VirtualDub.

First test: Just plain vanilla import the slides, export avs. This works perfectly.

Second test: Add FishEye as Pre Effect. Result: I believed there was no effect, but now that I look again I see a very very minor effect. I guess I have to take a look at FishEye.avs and modify it.

Third test: As in first test but Kaleidascope.avs as Pre Effect. Result: First slide gives a nice Kaleidoscope. Following transition is correct. But instead of second slide there follows the background as a kaleidoscope.

Fourth test: As in first test but sequence of slides reversed. Kaleidascope.avs as Pre Effect. Result: First slide gives now a Kaleidoscope. Following transition is correct. Second gives also a kaleidoscope but is completely different from the one in third test

Fifth test: As in first test but AMP_FilmLook.avs as Pre Effect. Result: This works perfectly.

Summary: PreEffect only modifies the original picture and stores it as .ebmp. It is static, has no temporal effect. You could achive the same effect by editing the picture in some photo editor. Of the four PreEffect tests I made only one worked as expected.


Next I will test Post Effect. I will let you know.

[tin2tin]

Yeah, the help file needs an update. I'll gladly add a better description, if you can write something up which gives more sense.

This is what is written about those two elements:

Effects: Pre-process(images):
Will add an effect to the all the images.

Effects: Post-process(slides):
Will add an effect to the entire slideshow.

And the tooltips:
Pre:

Effect on images before they are added to to slideshow.

Post:

Effect on the finished slideshow.

Are they translated correctly in the german translation?

With your specs testing Post-Effects on 1080p you will never get realtime playback. You will in most cases need to render/export the slideshow to see the actual effect.

Previously I've had some demo files included, but as you know when things are changed in the safe/load routine files saved in previous version will not work anymore and it was just too much work to update them each time.

2. The fish eye effect proberly needs a stronger effect for 1080p.

3.+4. Kaleidascope.avs works okay here. What is the problematic slide is it an image or a video?

In the menus Help > Library of Effects will render and show you examples of all effects(the render time is a bit long). Be aware that some on them will not produce a visible effect(like some of the MSU ones) the way they are tested there. You can also see/test all the transitions that way too.

Here is an old render of some of the effects: http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/PostEff_Preview.html

Some of them needs motion and some of them are too heavy for motion. Those effects are really just a bunch of toys to play around with.

Thanks for testing.