Need help with “Parsing XML” error

[Mr. Burn]

I want to learn to burn DVDs from my home video camera (Hi8). My son was in a school Christmas show and I thought it would be a good first project to learn on. Here’s what I’ve done and what my problem is….

Before I lay out money for software, I want to use freeware to learn the process so I know what features are important to me. I’ve downloaded TMPGEnc (ver. 2.524) and DVDAuthorGUI (ver 0.996b). I have an ATI AIW 8500 for capture from my video camera and use version 8.1 of their software. I plan to burn it with Nero Express (ver 5.5.9.9) when I get that far.

I’m a newbie so over the last week I’ve been reading lots of beginner guides on this site. I’m especially grateful for the good information from the articles on www.digitalfaq.com where I got the information for most of my settings.

I’ve captured the video using the ATI software (MPEG-2, 352 x 480, NTSC, 3.91 Mbit/sec, 48kHz). I then used TMPGEnc’s MPEG tools to cut out idle times and merge it all back together. I again used the MPEG tools to de-multiplex. At that point I went to DVDAuthorGUI and made a menu and added a few stills.

The problem comes in when I try to Author the final product. From the log I see it multiplexes the title (main video) OK, then it creates buttons for my menus and multiplexes them. So far, so good. However, when it comes to Author the title, it gives the error “Error in parsing XML.” It’s probably a stupid newbie question but I can’t find anything specific on this error in the forums. Any ideas? Below is the last part of the log.

Other info:
-I’ve found that if I do a test clip (1 min long instead of the 32 min of my original clip), it authors fine. It looks like the parsing error has something to do with a larger file.
- I’ve gone to the Microsoft website and downloaded the latest updates for XML Parser (MSXML 3.0 SP5) but that didn’t help.
- I've tried de-multiplexing and re-multiplexing and still have the same error.


INFO: Locale=C
INFO: Converting filenames to US-ASCII
STAT: 0:00:00.000
INFO: PNG had 2 colors
INFO: PNG had 2 colors
INFO: Constructing blank img
INFO: Pickbuttongroups, success with 1 groups, useimg=1
INFO: Found EOF in .sub file.
INFO: Max_sub_size=800
WARN: Read 0, expected 4
INFO: 1 subtitles added, 0 subtitles skipped, stream: 32, offset: 0.18

Statistics:
- Processed 0 subtitles.
- The longest display line had -1 characters.
- The maximum number of displayed lines was 0.
- The normal display height of the font arial.ttf was 0.
- The bottom display height of the font arial.ttf was 0.
- The biggest subtitle box had 800 bytes.
erase "C:\Documents and Settings\Dad & Mom\My Documents\My Videos\Christmas in the Country\Test Dvd\menu5.mpg"

echo *authoring title(s).....
*authoring title(s).....
"C:\Program Files\DVDAuthorGUI\bin\dvdauthor.exe" -x "C:\Program Files\DVDAuthorGUI\config.xml"
DVDAuthor::dvdauthor, version 0.6.10-2773.
Build options: gnugetopt iconv freetype
Send bugs to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>

C%3A%5CProgram%20Files%5CDVDAuthorGUI%5Cconfig.xml :2: parser error : xmlParseEntityRef: no name
<dvdauthor dest="C:\Documents and Settings\Dad & Mom\My Documents\My Videos\Chri
^
ERR: Error in parsing XML
erase "C:\Documents and Settings\Dad & Mom\My Documents\My Videos\Christmas in the Country\Test Dvd\*.mpg"
echo *generating udf iso.....
*generating udf iso.....
"C:\Program Files\DVDAuthorGUI\bin\mkisofs.exe" -dvd-video -V DVDVideo -udf -o "C:\Documents and Settings\Dad & Mom\My Documents\My Videos\Christmas in the Country\Test Dvd.iso" "C:\Documents and Settings\Dad & Mom\My Documents\My Videos\Christmas in the Country\Test Dvd"
Total translation table size: 0
Total rockridge attributes bytes: 0
Total directory bytes: 68
Path table size(bytes): 10
Max brk space used 2000
417 extents written (0 Mb)
echo *process complete
*process complete

[liquid217]

Dad & Mom

rename your folder so it doesn't have the '&' symbol in it (like 'Dad and Mom'). That is what is throwing off your XML causing the error.

[Mr. Burn]

I moved my files to another drive since changing the name would mess up my links and data path names. I got parsing error but not the same one. This time it says there's a ";" that it can't handle. I don't have a semicolon in any of the file names or paths. Any ideas? Here's the error.

echo *authoring title(s).....
*authoring title(s).....
"C:\Program Files\DVDAuthorGUI\bin\dvdauthor.exe" -x "C:\Program Files\DVDAuthorGUI\config.xml"
DVDAuthor::dvdauthor, version 0.6.10-2773.
Build options: gnugetopt iconv freetype
Send bugs to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>

INFO: Locale=C
INFO: Converting filenames to US-ASCII
ERR: Parse error 'syntax error, unexpected SEMICOLON_TOK' on token ';'
ERR: Parser failed on code ' ; '.
erase "D:\Movies\Christmas in the Country\DVD\*.mpg"
echo *generating udf iso.....
*generating udf iso.....
"C:\Program Files\DVDAuthorGUI\bin\mkisofs.exe" -dvd-video -V DVDVideo -udf -o "D:\Movies\Christmas in the Country\DVD.iso" "D:\Movies\Christmas in the Country\DVD"
Total translation table size: 0
Total rockridge attributes bytes: 0
Total directory bytes: 68
Path table size(bytes): 10
Max brk space used 2000
417 extents written (0 Mb)
echo *process complete
*process complete

[liquid217]

off the top of my head, check the 'first play' option under the 'nav commands' window, and make sure it is set to '<default>'. If this does not resolve the problem, please email me the project (*.dva) file and the log to liquid_217@hotmail.com

[Mr. Burn]

Thanks Liquid. I changed the setting to default and it finished OK. When I burned it, it was just as I wanted. I can't believe I burned my first DVD and didn't have to make a few coasters first!