DVD slideshow GUI - development thread.

[george84]

Reuploaded it with that small fix:

I tested this newest reupload. The results are as follows:

The generated avs file has as code:

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

The generated colors are as follows:

Oriiginal 0 becomes 15
Oriiginal 4 becomes 15
Oriiginal 12 becomes 15
Oriiginal 16 becomes 18
Original 20 becomes 21
...
Oriiginal126 becomes 126
...
Oriiginal 231 becomes 231
Oriiginal 251 becomes 250
Oriiginal 255 becomes 254

Diagnosis

I'm afraid things are still wrong.

Cure

Why don't you insert the

levels(32, 1, 255, 15, 255, coring = false)

after the

AddAlphaBackNoLev

as I proposed and tested???

[george84]

Crash when adding Audio

With version 9.3.8 I cannot add audio, specifically mp3, to slideshow. See attachment for error message.
I start DSG and immediately try to add a mp3 file. I tried several files, all give the same problem. After the first error message there is one more message and then DSG crashes.

I noticed that DSG created a file .d2a in the directory where mp3 is located.

[tin2tin]

Why don't you insert the
levels(32, 1, 255, 15, 255, coring = false)

after the
AddAlphaBackNoLev


as I proposed and tested???

This is the reason:

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.

I simply need more time to dig in and figure out how to do that without breaking other things. I'm sorry that I didn't manage to solve that before releasing 0.9.3.8, but that release was with focus on the video editing enhancements. There is only one script 17.000 lines of code for DSG, and no external subversions and such - so I need to finish one thing at a time.

Apparently that audio bug was introduced during the implementation of the video editing code. Damn - but thanks for letting me know. It's not that hard to fix, but making and releasing a new installer takes me a couple of hours each time. And my work situation is killing me at the moment...

[tin2tin]

Fixed that audio bug and uploaded DSG under the same name, so please redownload DSG 0.9.3.8 if you encounter this problem.

[joeseg]

I'm having some problems seeing the Projects Settings window properly. On one computer it shows up just fine, but on another (my faster machine), it comes up with the menus on the left looking scrunched and the options on the bottom not showing up at all - I can't save any changes I make.

I've tried different pixel settings for my screen on the 2nd computer, without success.

Suggestions??

[tin2tin]

It's your DPI setting:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/322102-DVD-slideshow-GUI-v0-9-3-6-resiz-window?p=19...=1#post1995226

[joeseg]

yes, I fixed that, thanks!

I now have another problem. I changed the settings to NTSC 720x480, moved all my photos to the right places, and then asked it to export the slideshow. I get an error window:

MPEG2 encoder has encountered an error.

Looking into the details, it seems to be the hcenc.exe program and avisynth.dll that have issues/


Meanwhile, it seems to be doing something in the background, as I can see it encoding.

Should I just ignore this error? It happened on both machines.

[tin2tin]

What does it say if you hit preview?

Keep the number of slides low.

[joeseg]

I have only 69 slides and the preview seems to work just fine - it is running now.

It did generate an MPG for me, and that loaded but seemed to have some sound issue,, with the sound inconsistently present.

I'm going to run another encode.

It gets 2% into the encode and produces the error message, but then continues. It is running the encode now, at 24% of pass 1

[joeseg]

Update- if I close the error box, it stops encoding. If I leave it alone, it finishes.

[joeseg]

Although the encoding for the video finished, only the 1st couple of seconds of the audio were included, which implies that it when it crashed, the audio is what got lost. The audio is a standard mp3 file, produced by LAME for Audacity.

[tin2tin]

Sounds like it's HCenc problems - if the preview is fine. Try to grab the lates HCenc and correct the path to the new HCenc under Slideshow > External Applications

Hcenc is video only.

Audio can't be muxed proberly if there's something wrong with the video track.

What's your specs?

[joeseg]

Unfortunately, the latest HCenc crashed the same. The preview works fine. Any other suggestions?

[joeseg]

Not sure which specs you are looking for.

I have made an equivalent MPG that works fine on this system, and yet now this new one is problematic.

If hardware, Intel Core 2Quad Q9400 @ 2.66GHz 2GB RAM

[joeseg]

Is there some other encoder I could try instead of Hcenc ?

[joeseg]

I just tried it again, after restarting my machine so nothing else is running (it actually has 4gb). I am running Sophos AV but I was running that in the past so it should not be a new issue. Now I get an error message from Hcenc : ERROR, can't allocate memory

[tin2tin]

Yes, there are other encoders. Look under the Tools section here at Videohelp. Export to .avs and try ex. Super.

Are you running 64 bit? Someone had problems running Hcenc on that recently.

[chowmein]

tin2tin, just wondering, (I am no programmer lol!), is there something fundamental coding-wise that prohibits using lots of pics? I was trying to load a few 100 pics to sync to the duration of a song (kinda like a rapid-fire onslaught of imagery!)... but HCenc crashes...

[tin2tin]

DSG produces "only" an Avisynth script, which is handled by external apps in order to export to various formats. If the preview works okay, then it's somehow related to the external apps. DSG is a GUI. Therefore the name... I did not code Avisynth or HCenc and can't fix things which are not DSG releated.

The way Avisynth works is to load all images/and videos into the RAM before they can be "converted" to any other format, so you'll get into trouble when you're out of RAM... and that's hardware related - unless you higher the virtual memory of your computer.

Just rendered(to mpg) a slideshow of 112 photos, matched to a song with a duration of 4:20 on my Vista, dualcore 2.17GHZ, 3 GB RAM laptop without any problems.

[chowmein]

Yep gotcha. It's a RAM thing, I shoulda guessed!

Hey tin2tin, while you're here, check out this youtube clip - I know DSG can't do complex stuff like this, but it got me wondering about that avisynth function "AudioGraph", which superimposes the audio waveform over the video. Can you incorporate AudioGraph into DSG?? Would be FANTASTIC to be able to overlay that buzzing audio wave over the slideshow!!!! (Just a suggestion heh!)...

(BTW how do you think that youtube video was made?? It looks pretty sophisticated...maybe one of the commercial slideshow-makers? Or a NLE?)

[tin2tin]

Well, if you want to do something like that it's quite easy.

Download the plugin from here: http://avisynth.org/warpenterprises/

Unzip the files into the DVD slideshow GUI/PostEffects folder.
Open Notepad and type this:

LoadPlugin("AudGraph.dll")
converttorgb32()#The plugin needs rgb colorspace.
audiograph(10)#Show the curve for the 10 frames before and after the current frame. 
Converttoyv12()

Save this as AudioGraph.avs extention into the DVD slideshow GUI/PostEffects folder and restart DSG.
You'll find this new Posteffect among the other PostEffects in the Project Settings window.

You could also check out the Histogram function: http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Histogram

I once experimentet with audio manipulation videoeffects - but it was a very unstable operation in Avisynth at that time:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1020289#post1020289


BTW. that video you linked to looks like it's just video captures of Winamp video effects.

If you want more layers like that video, you can make one slideshow and export it as avi or avs and use that slideshow as the background of another slideshow with ex. animated slides.

[chowmein]

tin2tin you are a GENIUS. Thank you so much, I have a weekend to experiment! Yay!

[joeseg]

Further update - I am now trying the encoding of the previous slideshow that did work, and it is encoding just fine - no errors. The basic concept and content is identical:

-less than 70 jpgs all sized to the same size (864x574)
- a background mp3 about 30m long
- the duration is matched to the music
- all transitions are the same, dissolve blur

I am totally baffled as to why one set works and the other does not. Any ideas what might be causing the problem?

[tin2tin]

@ joeseg
I've send you a pm.

[joeseg]

After some fiddling around and testing, I seem to have found the source of the problem - the MP3 file I was using as background. I had created this file in Audacity and exported it as an MP3, using LAME. There might be something weird that happened in that file creation.

To test, I exported the same music from Audacity as a WAV and then used FormatFactory to convert to MP3. As I write, Hcenc is 25% through the 2nd pass of encoding and no error messages so far.

[tin2tin]

Happy to hear that you found a solution. Thanks.

[joeseg]

The problem was the mp3 file. The new one made with FormatFactory worked just fine.

[tin2tin]

Great. Two DSG made slideshows found on Youtube:

In 720p(if you select that resolution).


With naration:

[tin2tin]

Got some new post effects for you!

Download here unzip and place the files in the DVD slideshow GUI/Posteffects folder:
http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/OldTV_unzip_to_PostEffects_folder.zip
Restart DSG and find the new stuff under Project Settings > Effects and select them among the Post Effects.

[tin2tin]

Apparently some users have troubles with downloading and installing DVD slideshow GUI, so here's a tutorial on how to do that: http://blip.tv/file/4305910