Gui for Dvd Author keeps giving fatal error

[BobT]

I would like to use Gui DVD Author so that I can put multiple tv episodes on a DVD with subtitles so that I can view them with a portable DVD player. I convert the closed captions with CCextractorwin to an SRT file (Closed captions don't show up to good on Portable DVD players!). I capture with a Pioneer PCR531. It turns out that Gui for DVD author keeps giving the error "SCR moves backward, Remultiplex input" for almost everything I record. Does someone have a method of Demux/Remux so that I can get Gui DVD Author to accept them. DVD Flick also uses DVD author and doesn't have this problem. Dvd Flick, however, doesn't have provisions for a DVD menu.

[iant]

Can't recommend a de-muxer (Just go to the Tools section of this site and try a couple out and see what fits) but try the IMAGO multiplexer (Also available in the Tools section).

This has always given me totally compliant streams.

Good luck,
Ian

[BobT]

Thanks for the tip Iant. I tried Imago and it did not solve the problem. I just discovered that if I run the video (elementary video and audio streams) in GUI for DVDauthor WITHOUT the SRT subtitle file I do not get any errors. When I add the SRT file invariably it will give the Error "SCR moves backward, Remultiplex input". If I run the same files in DVD Flick it never errors and always works properly. Both GUI for DVDauthor and DVD Flick both use the same version of DVD Author.

I wonder if someone could take the time to dowload CCextractor from SourceForge and rip the Closed Captions from an MPG video and run this through GUI DVDauthor. I'm beginning to think this could be a software bug.

[borax]

As I don't have any Closed captions (not common in Europe), I would suggest another procedure to track this error:
Do the same (single) video with both GfD and DVD Flick and send me the used control files (all xml files created by both applications and the .gfd project file) together with the SRT file (my email can be found in the GUIAuthor.log). I can combine these with one of my own video files and try to solve the problem.

[dennis albright]

Whenever I have gotten that error it was because my audio was not compliant. The audio has to be mpeg at a 256 bitrate. Anything else will crash.

[Nelson37]

I use AC3 @ 224 and never had a problem. 384 does give issues, but I think it is in the original file.

I also use SRT files converted from CC files, never had an issue with these causing a disk creation problem.

BobT, I see we have the same card, what version of MMC or capture software are you using? SFAIK, MMC does not create an MPG with embedded CC, only a VCR file which is only recognized by one software other than ATI (Ulead DVD player). I am curious how you are using CCExtractor as my attempt revealed it did not recognize the VCR file type.

Since the error only occurs with the SRT file, I've got a guess for you and possible solution. Having used many types of conversion for CC to SRT, in some cases the time codes overlap, have an extremely short duration, or even seem out of order, IOW the time moves Backward. This could be the cause of the error. I have used Subtitle Wizard, I think it is called, to identify and to some extent correct these errors. But it is not perfect.

One thing you could try is use just the first 100 lines or so of the SRT file, and manually check for overlapping or out of sequence time codes.

Borax - What exactly does the "SCR" refer to in the error message? I assume it does not mean Screen? Does it specifically refer to Subtitles? If so, then the timecodes are almost certain to be the problem.

[BobT]

You know I forgot the AIW7500 was included in my profile. I haven't recorded anything off of it in a good while. I record everything now with a Pioneer PCR531 since it automatically includes Closed captions in the MPEG recording. So I use CCextractor to generate an SRT subtitle file from the closed captions. I was using the McPoodle software but CCextractor is faster and easier.

There is some information in a few threads about the "SCR moves backward" error at Sourceforge.net. Most of the discussion was about this error is fairly common with Video recorded from TV programs. I had never seen it, of course, the only DVD authoring program I used until recently was TMPGEnc DVD Author (Vers 1.15 yes its old but it doesn't strip CC off!). Evidently the issue of "SCR moves backward" is very difficult to correct once the MPEG is made. Also the comment was made that very few DVD players will recognize this when it happens. It appears that this is just strict adherence to a standard and has very little effect on the final product! One of the solutions suggested in the thread was to Demux/Remux/Demux but no software was mentioned. I tried that with several different demux remux thingies and didn't get anywhere.

The strange thing is that every video which has failed in Gui for DVDauthor (GFD) goes through DVD Flick with no problem. Both of these use the DVD Author module! By the way SCR means System Clock Reference (Since I'm old school I was thinking Silicon Controlled Rectifier!).

I have sent Borax the info he has requested. Hopefully He can come up with a solution. I really would like to use GFD cause it is a very nice program. I'll keep you posted.

[borax]

@BobT
THX for the files!

As this topic is 'public interest', we should discuss it here in the forum and use email only for file exchange.

The first difference I can see in the log files is the different multiplexer used by GfD (mplex) and DVD Flick (tcmplex).
This could result in different SCRs which are then 'interpreted' by spumux (spumux adds the subtitles with new SCRs into the existing mpg stream) and finally result in 'SCR moves backwards' by dvdauthor. I don't know if it is possible (I don't use DVD Flick myself and therefore I don't know if you can keep the 'temporary' files), but the first test would be to use the 'premuxed' mpg file from DVD Flick (...DVD Flick Movie\title0.mpg in your example) as 'input file' in GfD and just add the subtitle stream. If this should work, I think it would be possible to use tcmplex as alternative multiplexer in GfD too.

A completely other approach would be to use MuxMan as authoring engine. Your video and audio files seem to be 100% DVD compliant, just the subtitles would need converting to the SUP format. There are a lot of programs available for this task (srt2sup, txt2sup, SubtitleCreator...). Make sure to use an identical appropriate palette in all steps (converting and authoring with GfD).

[BobT]

Well I finally got internet access back. We had some thunderstorms earlier in the week and I lost access for a few days.

Borax I tried both of your suggestions and had success with using Muxman. Running the video through DVD flick and then GFD resulted in an error in exactly the same place. At least I know that DVD Flick does not change the original video.

When I switched GFD to using Muxman I tried both Subtitle Creator and SRT2SUP to convert the SRT file. Both seemed to work with no problems as GFD had no errors. The SUP file created with Subtitle Creator caused problems in ALL three of my standalone DVD Players. Both Pioneer players acted like subtitles were selected but would not display them. A sony player just locked up when I selected subtitles. I tried to author 3 DVD's this way and the result was always the same. Power DVD had no problem running the DVDs or displaying the subtitles.

When I used SRT2SUP there were no problems with the completed DVD. I have done about a dozen DVD's so far using GFD with Muxman and have had no errors. Quite a turnaround from using GFD with DVDauthor where I coundn't get anything but errors.

Currently this is how I record and process video's to a DVD

1 Record - Pioneer 531
2 Edit - Womble MPEG2VCR
3 Demux - PVAStrumento
4. Extract CC - CCextractorwin.exe
5. Clean up CC (SRT) - Subtitle Workshop
6 SRT to SUP - SRT2SUP
7 Author DVD - GFD with Muxman
8 Burn DVD - Nero 6

The CC will still be in the completed DVD IF the Demux software has not stripped them off. Some Demuxers such as ProjectX will eliminate the CC.

Borax thanks for your help!

[borax]

Nice! I'm glad that it works now (using MuxMan). Still I don't understand why the dvdauthor version used by DVD flick runs and the version used by GfD errors...
May I ask you for another test?
Just to trace the error a little bit more exact:

Create the DVD using DVD flick with subtitles and add the resulting
...DVD Flick Movie\title0.mpg into GfD (don't add the subtitles again - they are already included in the title0.mpg). Check it the error remains (if no error, the problem is the spumux version used by GfD).
Create the DVD using GfD with subtitles (turn off 'delete temp files'!) and copy the resulting ...DVD\Temp\Barrens_SUB1.mpg to the DVD flick directory and replace the ...DVD Flick Movie\title0.mpg with it. Then run the dvdauthor version from DVD Flick 'by hand' from a command prompt with this command line:
C:\Program Files\DVD Flick\dvdauthor\dvdauthor.exe -x "D:\DVD Flick Movie\dvdauthor.xml"
If no error comes up, it is the dvdauthor version used by GfD...

Or ... another (simpler) idea: Copy the mplex.exe to the ...DVD Flick\dvdauthor directory and set this directory in GfD as 'dvdauthor path' (permanent default settings). Turn off 'Short Log' and use 'standard colors' for subtitles in GfD.

[gsing]

I've got the same error with the latest version of GfD but with a different setup and different files so I actually don't know if this belongs here or if I should start another thread (if so: mods please split). But maybe this helps to track the bug down (if it's a bug...)
Ok, here's the story: Lately I'm encountering with the big majority of my tv-captures the same error message:
"SCR moves backwards! SCR delta = -627,75 sec. at ~60% of file"
Time value varies between -500 and -850 sec but it's always 50, 60, 70 or 80% of file never inbetween the tens. If I ignore the message and proceed the resulting DVD is fine (=plays well). What makes me think it is a bug and not my files is that this didn't occur with earlier versions of GfD where this error was extremely rare. (Older files that once passed without it now get the error-message). Also this usually happens with files longer than 90 minutes, never with short ones (60 min or less).
Here's my setup: TV-Captures demuxed with ProjectX, edited with Cuttermaran (then muxed with mplex). Authoring with GfD - no extras, no subtitles, nothing.
Regards

[borax]

No, that's something completely different. I've included this warning for vob files (and it is to be regarded as warning), which are made from several mpg files in one titleset (then the SCR is reset after each mpg file and dvdauthor cannot handle this files). I'm sorry if this error arises for 'normal' files, but I don't know how to fix it. I've tested ~100 of my own files and it worked without 'false warnings'. But there may be other files, where the algorithm fails...
To have a look what's going wrong here I would need such a file. And this kind of files are just to large to be transfered by I-net...

BTW: ...but it's always 50, 60, 70 or 80% of file never inbetween the tens. I only check the consistence of SCRs and timecodes in GOP headers each 10% of the file...

[gsing]

OK, sorry for crossposting.
For me it's just irritating that my standard m.o. suddenly results in error messages with an scr delta of more than 10 minutes. (On the other hand: it seems that noone else besides me is reporting this strange errormessage with ordinary mpegs - maybe something's broken on my machine.)
I don't know how much effort you want to take to track this down, but if it helps I could send you a dvd with one of my files.
Regards

[borax]

...maybe something's broken on my machine
No, I don't think so. It's probably more a problem of AC3 audio streams (which have sometimes 'header codes' within the data.
...but if it helps I could send you a dvd with one of my files.
Of cause this would be helpful for me. I will give you my postal address by pm.

[BobT]

Borax, here are the results of the tests you asked for.

All of the tests were run with the same file I first sent the error logs for (ie Barren)

When the DVD Flick title0.mpg was run in GFD there were NO errors.

When the GFD Barrens_SUB1.mpg was run in the DVD Flick/DVDauthor directory via command
line the Error "SCR moves Backward" occured.

When mplex was copied to the DVD Flick/DVDauthor directory and GFD set to this directory
Spumux errored with "unknown option -w".

Let me know if you would like any other tests run.

[borax]

Thx for testing.
...When the DVD Flick title0.mpg was run in GFD there were NO errors.

So it's the spumux version which causes the problem.
But the question remains if it is really an error in the spumux source code/compiler option or just a different command line parameter.

When mplex was copied to the DVD Flick/DVDauthor directory and GFD set to this directory
Spumux errored with "unknown option -w".

If you untag 'Short Log' in the GfD default settings (tab: Permanent, lower right corner) there should be no "unknown option -w" error. If this works, it is probably an error in the spumux source otherwise ("SCR moves backward" error) it is just a different command line parameter (which would be much easier to correct).

EDIT:
One more idea...
rename the spumux.exe in the DVD Flick\dvdauthor directory in something like 'spumux.exe.bak' and copy the spumux.exe from the GfD directory into the DVD Flick\dvdauthor directory. Then use DVD Flick 'normally' (with subtitles) and check if then the "SCR moves backward" error appears.

[BobT]

Borax, some interesting results.

When I placed the Spumux.exe from DVD Flick in the GFD directory (and paid better attention to
how GFD was setup!) the video ran without error. I ran numerous videos just to make sure. None generated the "SCR moves backwards" error. The compiled DVD files also ran without
problems on several players.

When I placed the Spumux.exe, from GFD, in the DVDauthor directory of DVD Flick. DVD Flick also compiled videos with no errors!

I did notice that the Spumux.exe from both DVD Flick and GFD are the same version. Their sizes are different possibly due to different compilers being used. The Spumux.exe for GFD also has the GFD added after the version (nice way to keep track!).

Let me know if you need any other tests run. Thanks for all your help.

[borax]

Funny...
So it must be a combination of used parameters AND some of my changes in the spumux source code. This will probably take some time to figure out the differences. Thank you for the tests. ATM I don't know of other things to check, but as soon as I have compiled a new spumux version, it would be nice if you could test it.

[Seeker47]

Can't recommend a de-muxer (Just go to the Tools section of this site and try a couple out and see what fits) but try the IMAGO multiplexer (Also available in the Tools section).
This has always given me totally compliant streams.

Would anyone happen to have IMAGObatch.Zip ? The link for it in Tools (this was in a poster's review) no longer works.

[borax]

@gsing
Again thx for your dvds!

Problem solved.
Next version will do better (just a silly +/- error in the code, which only arises if the mpg file has more than 2147483647 bytes)

@BobT

When I placed the Spumux.exe from DVD Flick in the GFD directory (and paid better attention to how GFD was setup!) the video ran without error. I ran numerous videos just to make sure. None generated the "SCR moves backwards" error.

Just to be sure:
If you use exactly the same setup in GfD (standard colors for subtitles, no 'Short log' option), just with the 'original' GfD spumux.exe you still get the "SCR moves backwards" error?
I've checked the source and cannot find my error...

[BobT]

Borax,
I checked things again to see specifically how the error is generated. When I run both versions of Spumux.exe (from DVD Flick and GFD), as you described, there is NO error generated!

The error (SCR moves backward) only appears when the "Special" tag in the Subtitles section is selected. When I started using the program I was using this to try to get different color subtitles. It doesn't matter what color is selected. The error will always appear on video"s longer then approx 30 minutes when this tag is selected. Without this tag selected no error appears.
Hope this helps you narrow it down and thanks for all of your help.

[borax]

...this helps you narrow it down

Yes it does. Now I know at least which part of my changes is concerned. I will try to get rid of it asap...

Thx for your help.

[kohare]

Would anyone happen to have IMAGObatch.Zip ? The link for it in Tools (this was in a poster's review) no longer works.

Is this it? http://homepage2.nifty.com/sophia0/freesoft/ImagoBatch.rar - webpage is in Japanese but programme "ImagoMPEG-Muxer Batch Controller" seems to be in English

[Seeker47]

Would anyone happen to have IMAGObatch.Zip ? The link for it in Tools (this was in a poster's review) no longer works.

Is this it? http://homepage2.nifty.com/sophia0/freesoft/ImagoBatch.rar - webpage is in Japanese but programme "ImagoMPEG-Muxer Batch Controller" seems to be in English

Thanks for that link ! I'll check it out.