DVD slideshow GUI - development thread.

[Chris Sherrick]

Hmm - I'm trying to get something out next week.. Do you know of an earlier version where this should work?

(And thanks again for all your hard work making such a great product - I know many of us appreciate it.)

[tin2tin]

Well, at least I got 'The Animation Quality Setting' working now:

The current version is farely unstable as it is now. I also need to update translations and docs. I've allready used too many of my working hours on DSG this week and my vacation starts next week, so I can't promise any release date...

However you could look into the avisynth scripting and the Zoom avisynth plugin, that way you can code it yourself and use ex. Super to render the avisynth script.

[Chris Sherrick]

Thanks for the guidance with this! I'll look into those tools. Thanks!

[tin2tin]

After some heavy days in a coding frenzy here's a beta for you people to test. It will give you a lot of control over video clips in the slideshows.

Footage from the Blender production Big Buck Bunny.

Get the beta here: DVDslideshow GUI0937 Beta
DVD slideshow GUI 0.9.3.6 must be installed prior to using this beta.

In the installed DVD slideshow GUI folder rename DVDslideshowGUI.exe to DVDslideshowGUI_backup.exe, so you'll have it for later. Now place the unzipped files into the DVD slideshow GUI folder and allow files to be overwritten. Start DSG as you normally would or by clicking that new DVDslideshowGUI.exe file.

New stuff in this beta:
- Avi and avs can now be animated(Ken Burns), overlapped(negative transition durations), overlayed(a transition for adding new slide on top of the old one) and subtitled. A preview image will be visible in the listcontrol/Slidesettings window/Animation window. In other words videos can be handled like slides now whithout the previous limitations.

It has been really difficult and time consuming to add this stuff, but now DSG can be used as a simple NLE when used with Avsp. Check out the tutorial on trimming and cutting with Avsp here!

- In the music listcontrol the right click menu has a new function called 'Use Video Audio'. If this is checked music will fade in and out around videoclips in the slideshow and if it is unchecked the music will be played over video clips too and no audio from the videoclips will be heard.

There has been a massive amount of bugfixes and stuff like:
- Blacklevels(george84)
- Zoom in 16:9(m98)
- DVD menu in 16:9 nr. of chapterbuttons(m98)
- Animation Quality(Chris Sherrick)

However this is not an official release – but only a release for people willing to do some beta testing. If you encounter bugs with videos – please pm me a .dsg file with as few slides as possible illustrating the problem.

Stuff like new translations and updating the help file is on my to do list.

And remember donations are always accepted.

Have fun
Tin2tin

[tin2tin]

10 days gone by and no reactions on the beta. Have I just been wasting my time I wonder?

[m98]

I'm definitely interested in the beta, I just lack the time at the moment

Later next week I will provide some feedback for sure!

[chowmein]

Wow man this is looking real interesting! How about some basic audio mixing/layering? Then you will have fabulous free NLE!

Keep up the excellent work!

(Likewise comment above, I am busy at the moment but will DEFINITELY try this out soon! Looks GREAT!)

[Mike99]

Using videos & animations & all that neat stuff is way above my creative level so I have not tried the beta yet.

[tin2tin]

How about some basic audio mixing/layering?

Check out how to use MULTIQUENCE with DVD slideshow GUI.

(I've just corrected the scaling of the video previews in the List Control - and re-uploaded the file above)

[george84]

10 days gone by and no reactions on the beta. Have I just been wasting my time I wonder?

Well , I reported some simple errors 5 months ago, and had to wait so long to get them corrected (I didn't test yet). When nothing happened I went to look around for other tools. It is just not the season to make DVD Slideshows. Maybe after the vacation.
Sorry, I am so hard. I will give it a try when it's less hot.

[tin2tin]

DVD slideshow GUI 0.9.3.7 has been released. It's the one which will give you much more control and power over videoclips. Read above for more.

Get it here!

[minifig]

Hi,

I ran into a problem with DSG today. I got green slides (with subtitles) in my movie. A few pages back there was another guy who had more or less the same problem. My problem is different in that I do not have a problem with one particular slide, but with the position of a movie between the slides.
- version=0.9.3.7
- Winsdows 7 (DSG runs as administrator)
- there are 25 slides in the test I've created (much less than in the original).
- there's one avi-movie in position 18.
- when creating a movie with DSG with all the files in order, only 17 (0 to 16) ebmp files are generated instead of 25 resulting in a faulty movie but not with green slides as was the case in the original. The problem now is that at the end of the movie, no more slides come by and that the subtitles pile up on one another.
- the error also occurs on position 17 (also 17 ebmp files).
- when I move the avi-movie up to position 16, all the ebmp files are generated and I get a good movie from DSG, but not the one I want.

I've uploaded all the slides and avi-movie to http://www.minifig.be/slide-test.zip
In the zip you'll also find the slidetest.dsg that generates the fault.

I hope you can reproduce the problem with my zip file so you can shed some light on this problem.

Greetings and keep up the good work.

Roger

[tin2tin]

Back on monday. Try the 0936 version.

[minifig]

Back on monday. Try the 0936 version.

The 0936 version has the same problem.

[wolfit]

You are right, that's one of the smaller problems:
The difference between ITU-PAR and Generic-PAR ist 2,56%.
You would only see a difference when you produce slideshows with big circles only,
but with an ordinary photo / video slideshow you won't see the difference.

[tin2tin]

@Minifig
Thanks for your files - they made it much easier for me to track down that bug. The bug will happen if a video is in position 16 or higher. Now I've fixed it(I hope) and uploaded the quickfix here. Eventually I need to get DSG some error checking when preparing images for slideshows.

The 'Read Me':

DVD slideshow GUI must be installed prior to using this beta.
In the installed DVD slideshow GUI folder rename DVDslideshowGUI.exe to DVDslideshowGUI_backup.exe, so you'll have it for later.
Now place the included files into the DVD slideshow GUI folder and allow files to be overwritten.

Start DSG as you normally would or by clicking that new DVDslideshowGUI.exe file.

New stuff in this beta:
- Bugfix for slideshow with videoclip in position 16 or higher.

Best regards
Tin2tin

@wolfit
Who/what are you replying to?

BTW. Chip.de has a photo gallery of the main functions of DVD slideshow GUI here.

And some really nice photos in a slideshow done by zeptome with DVD slideshow GUI (in 720p too!):

[minifig]

[QUOTE=tin2tin;2004831]@Minifig
Thanks for your files - they made it much easier for me to track down that bug. The bug will happen if a video is in position 16 or higher. Now I've fixed it(I hope) and uploaded the quickfix here. Eventually I need to get DSG some error checking when preparing images for slideshows.

The 'Read Me':

DVD slideshow GUI must be installed prior to using this beta.
In the installed DVD slideshow GUI folder rename DVDslideshowGUI.exe to DVDslideshowGUI_backup.exe, so you'll have it for later.
Now place the included files into the DVD slideshow GUI folder and allow files to be overwritten.

Start DSG as you normally would or by clicking that new DVDslideshowGUI.exe file.

New stuff in this beta:
- Bugfix for slideshow with videoclip in position 16 or higher.

Best regards
Tin2tin

Thanks. I tried it and it works (at least on a small number of slides). I'll give it a go in a few days on a bigger amount of slides and movies.
Thanks for the fast help by the way.

Roger

[tin2tin]

A new patch dealing with at few bugs:
http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/DVDslideshowGUI_0937C.zip
Place the zipped DVDslideshowGUI.exe in the main folder of an installed DVD slideshow GUI 0.9.3.7 as always.

0.9.3.7C
Bugfixes:
- Avi (position 15+) Thx Minifig
- Audio fadeout
- Import bug
New:
- Slide load check
- Filenames when opening.

[tin2tin]

New Tutorials for External Applications and Falling Postcards.
Paint, avisynth script and trim slides. Import Power Points. Export DVD menus. Animate and Overlay slides.
External Applications Tutorial:


DVD slideshow GUI - tutorial
External Applications

A full install will download and
install all needed programs except
a paint program(ex. Paint.Net) and Open Office.

External Applications Menu:

Paint:
Downloading and setting up a path to ex. Paint.Net

Painting on slide.
Save under the same name and exit.

Avisynth:
AvsP is an Avisynth editor. Check path.

Convert image-slide to Avisynth script.
Edit script.

Convert video-slide to Avisynth script.
Trimming a video clip with AvsP.

Power Point via Open Office:
Check Path.
Import.

DVD menus in GUI for Dvdauthor:
Export.
Edit menu.
Author
Preview.
Burn to disk.

On making the Falling Postcards - slideshow:



Select all slides.
In Animation move slide ouside of frame and set a key at the frist frame.
Go to the last frame with the slider. Hit Reset Position and zoom a bit out. Set a new key at this frame.
Okay Animation.
Open Slide Settings.
Select Overlay.avs as transition for all slides.
Open each slide in Animation and change the position and rotation randomly of the last key. Remember to set a new key at the last frame.

[tin2tin]

Cooked up a blog on DVD slideshow GUI today on Wordpress(never tried it before). Having the page on Wordpress.com does mean limitations on the layout.

What do you think about it?
http://dvdslideshowgui.wordpress.com/

[tin2tin]

New Grid Box Transitions!


Check out the greyscales:

Download here:
http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/Grid_Box_transitions.zip

Install this way:
Open Start > DVD slideshow GUI > Transitions on your computer.
Copy & paste the files from the upzipped Transitions folder into this one: DVD slideshow GUI/Transitions/
Restart DVD slideshow GUI and the new transitions will be ready for use.
They are all called ”Grid_Box_...”

[tin2tin]

Tutorial in russian(DSG v. 0.9.10):


The resulting slideshow:

[george84]

Hi tin2tin

Today I tested 9.3.8. I reported a long time back problems with wrong colors. See

13th Feb 2010 14:21

Well I have good news and bad news.

Good news: For normal slides the colors are quite good now, there can be a small error of 1 in an RGB value.

Bad news: For animations the colors are still completely wrong. For black(0,0,0) you generate still (20,20,20), and for an almost black(20,20,20) I get a (39,39,39). What do you think about the solution I proposed you.

Have a nice summer

[rehillegass]

Hello,

I'm just getting started with DVDsGUI and I am trying to figure out hot to prevent the DVD that is created from the slideshow from looping. Is this possible?

Thanks,

RH

[tin2tin]

@george84
My vacation is over and so is my time for another round of coding-craze atm. I'm sorry to hear that I didn't manage to fix the animated-slide-black-level issue - I think it was because doing what you suggested resulted in some serious background key'ing issues. But I've been over a lot of the render code because of the video implementation - and unfortunately I've broken some things as like the Overlay transition. The render code is such a mess, that I mostly try to fix things on a trial-and-error basis. I have not schooling in coding. I've started by copy/pasteing code - and this is pretty much what I'm still doing. I'm a professional film director occasionally suffering from writers block, and when that happens - I code(and get poor). You could say that for me it's not a profession, it's just a distraction...

About your suggestion. Do you mean the "scaling" of keys when changing the duration? I'm sorry I've must have overlooked that. Well, I think it's a good idear, but there are bugs on my list which must be dealt with first. If you can cook up some code in wxBasic which does what you suggest, I might be able to add it sooner.

@rehillegass
No it is not possible. That's hardcoded. However if you export as .all and use Muxman to author the dvd I think you'll be able to make the dvd play the way you want. Or you could dig into the .gfd(gui for dvdauthor) export and get a dvd with menus(and no loop by default).

[george84]

Hi tin2tin

Thank you for your fast response. I checked my patch as proposed in February concerning the wrong colors in animations.

img = img.Lanczos4Resize(Int((img.width()/1)/4)*4,Int((img.height()*1/1/1/4)*4))
a = AddAlphaBackNoLev(img,back).ConvertToYV12()
a = a.levels(32,1,255,15,255,coring=false)
a = a.Lanczos4Resize(1920,1080)
at = Trim(a, a.framecount-1, a.framecount)

I inserted the bold line into the avs where the animation is handled. The result I checked in mcplayer and looks quite good, grey is mostly grey.
(I also checked with (33, ....) and the results are very similar). In Details for above values:


OriginalRGB(0,0,0) DSGRGB(20,20,20) NewLevelsDSG(0,0,0)
OriginalRGB(4,4,4) DSGRGB(25,25,25) NewLevelsDSG(5,5,5)
OriginalRGB(12,12,12) DSGRGB(32,32,32) NewLevelsDSG(13,13,13)
OriginalRGB(20,20,20) DSGRGB(40,40,40) NewLevelsDSG(20,20,20)

OriginalRGB(126,126,126) DSGRGB(136,136,136) NewLevelsDSG(126,126,126)
OriginalRGB(153,153,153) DSGRGB(162,162,162) NewLevelsDSG(151,151,151)

OriginalRGB(231,231,231) DSGRGB(233,233,233) NewLevelsDSG(230,230,230)
OriginalRGB(251,251,251) DSGRGB(250,250,250) NewLevelsDSG(248,248,248)
OriginalRGB(255,255,255) DSGRGB(255,255,255) NewLevelsDSG(253,253,253)


So the blacks and midtones are much better now, while the white is a little worse.

I find encouraging, that with a single statement we can improve a lot.
Please check that there are no sideeffects. Idon't think that tuning the parameters of the "Levels" could improve the results.

There is however another strange behaviour.
The original images are in .png format and consist of rectangles of a unique color, say (251,251,251).
When I look at the generated video, then there are several colors in such a rectangle. For previous example I find

NewLevelsDSG(248,248,248), NewLevelsDSG(249,249,249), NewLevelsDSG(250,250,250), so this means we get three different color and that the levels in above table could be wrong by +-1.

I would assume that these "errors" are caused by the encoder, or is it possible that rounding errors in the many conversions cause this?


I think you should give this problem a high priority. In animations the blacks look really washed out, and this patch would bring a big quality improvement of generated shows.
Whiile many screens won't display a real black (0,0,0) the error caused by making a dark grey of (20,20,20) into one with (40,40,40) will be visible on all screens.
You just lose too much contrast and about 20% of possible colors.

[tin2tin]

Test this, please:
http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/DVDsGUI_4369_Color.zip
Unzip, move to 'DVD slideshow GUI' folder, and run by double clicking the file.

Try to use an animated background - found in the Backgroundsfolder - either .avi or .avs thats where the keying problems might be visible.

And please test with videos as slides too.

I would assume that these "errors" are caused by the encoder, or is it possible that rounding errors in the many conversions cause this?

Dunno. There's a Gui version of HCenc too so you can test it outside DSG with a reliable sourcefile.

[george84]

Hi tin2tin

I tested with your new "color" version but it doesn' t solve the problems. I guess you inserted the levels statement in the wrong place.
In my tests I get a generated .avs with two places where the function AddAlphaBackNoLev will be called.

In the first place it looks in standard 9.3.8 like this:

a = AddAlphaBackNoLev(img,back).ConvertToYV12()
a = a.Lanczos4Resize(1920,1080)

and in second place:

bt = AddAlphaBackNoLev(img,back).ConvertToYV12()
bt = bt.Lanczos4Resize(1920,1080)

In the first place it looks in "color" 9.3.8 like this:

aimg=img.levels(32, 1, 255, 15, 255, coring = false)
a = AddAlphaBackNoLev(img,back).ConvertToYV12()
a = a.Lanczos4Resize(1920,1080)

and in second place:

btimg=img.levels(32, 1, 255, 15, 255, coring = false)
bt = AddAlphaBackNoLev(img,back).ConvertToYV12()
bt = bt.Lanczos4Resize(1920,1080)

and this gives still wrong colors, instead of (0,0,0) it still generates (20,20,20) and instead of (20,20,20) it generates (39,39,39).

I have to leave this evening for one week so I cannot spend too much time on analysis right now. I just notice that:

1. You inserted levels statement in two places. My proposal was one place.
2. You inserted the level statement before AddAlpha.., I proposed after AddAlpha.... This difference affects the background, I didn't test the background.
3. I am not sure anymore of avs syntax, but shouldn't you use the output of levels statement, e.g. btimg, later as input??

Dunno. There's a Gui version of HCenc too so you can test it outside DSG with a reliable sourcefile.

That's a good idea. Maybe I should also check with the newest beta which came out August 6.

Have a nice week

[tin2tin]

Quick reply: try to use a slide image with black areas and add an .avs background and see the problem when levels is placed where you suggested - it will simply key holes in the slide in the black areas.

EDIT: I added that line very fast - and aimg should be img and btimg should also be img. The animationcode is a function and changing/adding something to that means that the code will be same for every time that function is called.

Reuploaded it with that small fix:
http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/DVDsGUI_4369_Color.zip

[tin2tin]

DVD slideshow GUI was featured in ComputerBild in Lithuania: