Unable to create chapters while converting from AVI to DVD using DVDAuthor.

[sumit_pankaj]

I am following the following steps for converting a AVI file to DVD:

1) transcode -i movie.avi -y ffmpeg --export_prof dvd-ntsc --export_asr 3 -o movie -D0 -s2 -m movie.ac3 -J modfps=clonetype=3 --export_fps 29.97

2) mplex -f 8 -o dvd_movie.mpg movie.m2v movie.ac3

3) dvdauthor -x dvdauthor.xml
dvdauthor.xml:
<dvdauthor dest="DVD">
<vmgm />
<titleset>
<titles>
<pgc>
<vob file="dvd_movie.mpg" chapters="0,15:00,30:00,45:00,1:00:00"/>
</pgc>
</titles>
</titleset>
</dvdauthor>

These above mentioned steps are working fine for converting the avi file into dvd format but i can't see the chapters being initialized in the DVD. Am I doing something wrong in this? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
You can reply here also: precious_pankaj_here@yahoo.com .

[guns1inger]

Are the chapters there when you test play the DVD files from the IFO file in Video_TS ?

[sumit_pankaj]

Hi,

I am unable to check whether there are chapters in the IFO file or not.
Can you please elaborate how to check.

I am just opening the VOB file in a dvd player and its not showing any chapters.

Thanks,
Pankaj

[manono]

Opening a VOB file? Ordinarily you open an IFO when playing a DVD. At least that's how my PowerDVD does it. I think for some software DVD players you point to the VIDEO_TS file. Anyway, one way to check for the presence of chapters is to open the completed DVD in PGCEdit and double-click on the movie. In the new screen you'll either see a bunch of chapters listed or you won't. Another way is to open the DVD in VobBlanker, highlight the movie so it appears in the lower screen, highlight it in the lower screen and to the right hit 'Cells'. In the new screen you'll either see your cells (chapters) listed, or there will be only the one for the entire movie. There are lots of ways to check for chapters but playing a VOB isn't one of them.

[sumit_pankaj]

Thanks I could see the chapters now from PGCEdit. The only thing which i want now it able to create a menu so that i can navigate to those chapters easily.

So what i want know is when i open a DVD in a player there should a menu showing various chapters present and a button to navigate to it.
I think its possible to create that with the DVDAuthor, can someone pls provide me the dvdauthor.xml syntax to achieve this.

Thanks

[guns1inger]

Why not use one of the GUIs for DVD Author, such as DVDAuthorGUI, GUIForDVDAuthor or DVD Styler ?

[sumit_pankaj]

Can't use those because I have to achieve all this through a set of comamnds from my source code.

So GUI is not the option....can't we achieve this through DVDAuthor using some special syntax in .xml file?

[guns1inger]

Yes, but you will have to learn it by reading the help files and/or examples.

http://nfs.shawnfumo.com/wiki/DVDAuthor/XML
http://www.wershofen.de/downloads/dvdauthor.xml
http://radagast.bglug.ca/linux/dvd_authoring/dvd_authoring.html

Should get you started, and there is plenty more if you google dvd author menu xml