GUI for dvdauthor problems – Strange menu sequence behavior using Henc

[jsbullock]

Hi, Any help would be greatly appreciated on the following inter-related problems I’ve encountered with a DVD project I’m trying to render using GFD, thanks! – j.

Problem 1

Priority issue: I’m encountering a problem using GUI for dvdauthor 1.07 with dvdauthor set as the engine. The DVD project has one title set with chapters. There is, however, a fairly complex animated menu structure, setup in advanced mode, with a few custom pre and post commands. The first play sequence has been working just fine using Quenc. It transitions automatically through MainMenu to stop at TitleSet1. When I switch to HCenc for the muxer, then preview the compiled DVD with MPC, it doesn’t function, starting out at a dinky looking version of the subtitle menu, which is TS1SubMenu1.

Problem 2

I also have a secondary problem: getting the subtitle menu to compile, without mplex throwing Frame bitrate under-run errors using Quenc, which was the impetus to switch in the first place – everything compiles without errors, when the muxer is HCenc .

Menus are all animated with bitrate setting 1500. They are all avs scripts, frame serving motion jpgs or jpg bitmaps with chroma key overlays, etc. The m2v’s are from Quenc with default settings at bitrate 1500.

Third problem: Poor quality still menus. I’m tolerating an unsatisfactory work-around, for the time-being. Falling back to Quenc. I’m using a still jpg for the menu background of the subtitle menu, with the bitrate setting cranked up to 9000.The background image is a still anyways, It’s a detailed scan of painted artwork. I’m not at all happy, however, with the quality of the rendered image v.s. my crisp original.

The DVD title is all about showing off full-colored artwork stills with some rostrum pans, zooms, transitions, etc. added for interest. I have detailed still artwork scans set for the menu backgrounds and the only way I seem to be able to render them to a professional looking quality, is by animating them. Why is that? Is there a way to substitute a more effective process for rendering still menus, or other such tweaks to get a high quality product?

Project details:

MainMenu, with a pre command: g4=1; resets flag indicating root menu has been played, or first play has occurred. Animation is an Intro mv2 clip, with no looping, pauses 3 seconds and then jumps to MainSubMenu1 by the post command: jump menu 2; which is a transition to the TitleSet1Menu, and is a custom avs script. Post command: jump titleset 1 menu; TitleSet1Menu is animated with 3 buttons and switched menus. The default button plays titleset 1. Another calls a transition menu to the chapter menu. There are five clip buttons and switched menus off the chapter menu. The third button on the Title set 1 menu goes to a simpler subtitle menu with simple buttons, where English subtitles can be set on or off and post commands resume play or jump to a transition menu then back to title set 1menu. The title set menu also has a pre command which checks for the previously mentioned g4 flag and defaults subtitles to be on, if the root menu has just been played. Under the title set 1 menu, there are a total of 14 sub menus starting with the subtitle menu.

[borax]

Sorry, I have only written the GUI, not the underlying command line programs (mplex, dvdauthor) and encoder programs (Quenc, HC and mpeg2enc). I know the flaws of these programs, but I cannot change them.

Is there a way to substitute a more effective process for rendering still menus, or other such tweaks to get a high quality product?

Use MuxMan as authoring engine. I know the syntax is rather complicated, but same answer again, I haven't written MuxMan either...

Concerning your 'Priority issue': I have no idea, why just using another mpeg2 encoder causes problems with the menu structure. If you create the control files with the Create Batch function in GfD, one time with quenc as encoder and one time with HCenc as encoder, you should get exactly the same results (all png, xml, avs... files binary identical), with the only difference in the XXXBrun1.bat files. If there are other differences, please tell me.

[jsbullock]

Thanks for the advice Borax. I will try Muxman, even though I'm not looking forward to negotiating it's command language. Perhaps it is better documented than dvdauthor's VML is, which I've yet to find a decent reference for outside your help files. I have been using Create DVD exclusively, so maybe using Create Batch will help reveal something.

While I've got your ear, can you also please tell me what mechanism I can use to control buttton highlight sequence - when using navigation keys on the remote, that is - and which one is the default to highlight first?

BTW your software is very impressive. Thanks for all your efforts. - j.

[borax]

...Perhaps it is better documented...

No, not really. The major difference is that MuxMan doesn't use something like a 'high language' as dvdauthor does, therefore it is much more comparable (more or less identical) to the basic VM commands which are used and 'documented' by others (pgcedit, dvdreplica...).

...control buttton highlight sequence:
Usually the first added button (except back) is the default to highlight first. This can easily be changed with a button=... (or SetHL_BTNN HL_BTNN=... for MuxMan) command in the pre section of the menu. The actual sequence is done by spumux (for dvdauthor) and by GfD itself for MuxMan. Both algorithms have their flaws. For both authoring engines the only way to change the default behaviour is to manually adjust the control files (activate 'Edit author.xml file before DVD creation process'). Unfortunately all changes here are not saved in the GfD project file.

[jsbullock]

I solved the problem I was having by deleting all the temp files before compiling. I'm pretty sure switching back and forth between compile options, without clearing the old temp files, caused the strange behavior I was experiencing.

I still don't know why Quenc complains so much about one of my menus, but things are working fine now using HCenc and dvdauthor as the engine. Muxman looks interesting, but I've got a DVD to get out.

> "No, not really. The major difference is that MuxMan doesn't use something like a 'high language' as dvdauthor does, therefore it is much more comparable (more or less identical) to the basic VM commands which are used and 'documented' by others (pgcedit, dvdreplica...). "

So one should be able to imply Muxman's commands by studying a DVD VM reference?

Being well acquainted with C-like scripting languages, I'm only looking for a comprehensive reference list of all dvdauthour VML commands, not a tutorial. Do you know where I can find one?

An example of what I'm looking for: I know there is a NOP in DVD VM. Is there a corresponding command in dvdauthor? I'm filling up the holes in my switched button commands, i.e. if Up, Down, Left or Right doesn't go anywhere, I put in a jump call back to the current menu. But this seems awkward because the menu ends up getting reloaded. A NOP or some other do nothing command would be more elegant. I've already tried nop and it isn't accepted as a valid command.

Thanks again for all your help Borax - j.

[borax]

Good to know that clearing the old temp files had solved the problem! I will keep it as a hint for others with similar problems.

So one should be able to imply Muxman's commands by studying a DVD VM reference?

Yes.

...comprehensive reference list of all dvdauthour VML commands

Besides looking into the source code of dvdauthor, I only know about two other pages in the web (which are also linked to in the GfD help):
Dvdauthor manual: http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/doc/dvdauthor.html and Wiki: http://nfs.shawnfumo.com/wiki/DVDAuthor/VMLanguage

NOP is not supported by dvdauthor. But you can use a 'pseudo nop' if you set a register value to itself like:
g1=g1;

[mvllekd]

jsbullock wrote "Priority issue: I’m encountering a problem using GUI for dvdauthor 1.07 with dvdauthor set as the engine."

I am attempting to "place two 1hr OTA videos recorded on a Panasonic DMR-ES15 on one DVD-RW. DVDShrink was used to remove commercials. VOB files.

I have downloaded DVDStyler and DVDAuthor in hope that I could get the two videos on the single DVD. I have DVDstyler running but I can't get the downloaded DVDAuthor to "start", but was able to get it "unzipped" (I think!!). I can't find any instructions on "setting DVDAuthor as the engine for DVDStyler".

As you can tell, my experience is somewhat lower than that of a beginner. But, any help will be GREATLY appreciated. Need to use freeware (I'm on a tight budget).

[borax]

Then download gfd, because I do not support dvdstyler.

[jsbullock]

Hi Borax,

"NOP is not supported by dvdauthor. But you can use a 'pseudo nop' if you set a register value to itself like:
g1=g1; "

Thanks for the advice. That's a good general 'do nothing' piece of code. But regarding the application I tried to use it for: filling in code, for a switched menu button, where the particular direction: Up, Down, Left, or Right, doesn't go anywhere, it produced unwanted results. So would using NOP, if it were available.

Navigating in a direction not handled by a menu jump caused the other buttons on the current menu to be navigated. It would work if there was only one real button on the menu, but other buttons are there, just in case the DVD is playing on a PC, for highlighting/handling mouse-overs.

The code to put in such a hole, therefore, is "button = 1024 * ButtonNum;" where ButtonNum is the number of the current menu's auto button.

I also found out that if there is a switched menu with existing custom pre-code already, that the usual "button = 1024;", etc. doesn't get added to the xml automatically, for the auto button. Therefore, such a line needs to be included in the custom pre-command code explicitly.

Thanks again - j.

[borax]

Hi jsbullock,

The code to put in such a hole, therefore, is "button = 1024 * ButtonNum;" where ButtonNum is the number of the current menu's auto button.

I think that's a good idea. I will try to add this command as default for switched menus in the next GfD version. ATM I'm working on another topic: Optionally use imago as muxer instead of mplex. The first tests have been successful. 'Complex' menus where mplex failed could be muxed with imago without problems. I'm not sure if imago will fail for other video/audio combinations, but let's see.