Rapid Menu Writer help

[seangriffin]

Sean,

I've run 1.3 and if you can believe it, it is still getting stuck at this point:

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic372158.html?sid=dfaf6060e931e8d95bd0e02addbca459#1999025

Before I could get past this error because it would give me the option of manually finding it. But this time it just stopped. I am not sure why it chooses "dvd-out" as the path instead of"dvd", but it does.

Darryl

Okay, I've followed the log through and reproduced the steps it's taken.

What we know for sure is your DVDStyler menu load file did get created, and is sitting in this folder on your computer:

C:\Documents and Settings\Darryl\Local Settings\Temp\dvd_menu.xml

I can confirm this through the log file. The log file also says that executing DVDStyler with this file worked. The result you should see on your computer I have snapshot below:



Note that if Rapid Menu Writer worked, you wouldn't see this window for very long. Also note that Menu 1 in DVDStyler appears to have only 1 big blue button called "Tex Avery 1". Don't be concerned. This menu isn't used in the final DVD. The second menu (Menu 2) is used (the one with the 12 small blue buttons).

The log file then tells me that F9 was pressed which should have opened the Burn window in DVDStyler. Here a screenshot of the Burn window immediately after it is opened on my computer:



All good so far. At this point something goes wrong. Rapid Menu Writer is now looking for a window titled Burn. For some reason it can't find this window on your computer. Perhaps the Burn window isn't open? I think it is open though, because you are saying that it is choosing "the dvd-out as the path instead of dvd". I get the feeling you are reading this information from the Burn window. Is that correct? If so, it is very strange that RMW crashes here.

Note that at this point (when the Burn window is first opened) you will be seeing old text in the Temp directory field. This is because RMW hasn't yet recognised the window to populate it with the new text. This is probably why you are still seeing "dvd-out" at this point.

I'll describe what should happen next. RMW should see the Burn window, and log the following:

Waiting for the "Burn" window. Result = 1
Activating the "Burn" window. Result = 1
Setting the text of the "Burn" window "Temp directory" field. Result = 1
Clicking "Burn" window "just generate" button. Result = 1

At this point the Burn window should look like this (with the correct Temp directory text):



The log file tells me that the Temp Directory field should have now had the text:

C:\DOCUME~1\Darryl\LOCALS~1\Temp\~ekhaoko.tmp

The log file would then add:

Clicking "Burn" window "Start" button. Result = 1

and the Burn window should close, and the Generate DVD window opens. RMW then continues through the Generate DVD window, closing it when it's finished, and closing DVDStyler, and moving onto PgcEdit.

So in summary, RMW is not finding your Burn window. This is wierd, and I haven't experienced this problem before, or heard of anyone else with this problem yet. As a workaround, try pressing F9 yourself to open the Burn window in DVDStyler (if it's not already open). Once you do that RMW should continue. If it doesn't, then we've got a real issue here. If RMW is not able to find your Burn window when it "is" displayed then it's a serious bug. As I say, I haven't encountered this before. The AutoIT language that RMW is written in is quite robust in my experience, and I haven't yet seen a case when it cannot find a window, such as this one.

Let me know how you go.

Sean.

[dphirschler]

I don't remember a Burn window showing up. But I can check it again. I did try dropping the VIDEO_TS folder onto VLC Player and I got an orange menu similar to the one you show above. I am not sure how to get to the menu with the 12 cartoons on it though. Everything I click plays the first cartoon (presumably followed by the second and so on).


Darryl

[seangriffin]

I don't remember a Burn window showing up. But I can check it again. I did try dropping the VIDEO_TS folder onto VLC Player and I got an orange menu similar to the one you show above. I am not sure how to get to the menu with the 12 cartoons on it though. Everything I click plays the first cartoon (presumably followed by the second and so on).

Darryl

VLC doesn't accurately play a RMW menu (unfortunately). I mentioned this in the RMW help file on the System requirements page. I just tried myself on the same 12 title/button example used in the help file, and this is what I end up with:



I think this is also what you are seeing. For some reason VLC doesn't read the first PGC command of the DVD, which would tell it to open the second menu (with the 12 buttons), rather than the first (with 1 big button). This seems to be a failing with VLC.

The most accurate free DVD player I've found to date is Media Player Classic Home Cinema (mpc-hc.sourceforge.net). Download yourself a copy of this. It's very good. Use the File -> Open DVD menu item and select the VIDEO_TS folder of your DVD, and you should get something like this:



A hardware DVD player will display the menu exactly like this. Move your mouse over the buttons and the highlight changes. In my example, Title 12 is a video of some sand dunes, and Title 11 is a video of a leopard. If I click Title 12 like so:



I get the sand dunes video:



Then the menu is displayed again (because Title 12 is the last video of the DVD).

If I select Title 11 like this:



I get the leopard video, followed by the sand dunes video:




Then the menu is displayed again (because again it has played the last video - Title12).

Hope this makes sense. It is clumsy trying to describe a DVD without actually seeing it. I could always email you a copy of this example DVD with the 12 titles in it. It is 7.5 Mb though.

[dphirschler]

All right, I just ran it again and the error comes from DVD Styler:

"Can't load image from file 'C\DOCUME~1\Darryl\LOCALS~1\Temp\': files does not exist."

I hit 'OK' and it just sits there in DVD Styler with a menu just like the one you showed above in this post https://forum.videohelp.com/topic372158-30.html#2008719. It's empty with "Tex Avery-1" text and a "menu" button at the bottom. PgcEdit is still open as well. But clearly RMV is waiting for something. It still says "Writing the DVD menu" with 'back', 'next', and 'cancel' buttons, none of which do anything. I had to "end process" to stop it.

Viewing the menu in Media Player HC, is shows 12 titles with a heading "TEX AVERY DISC-1 MENU". The titles have generic names like "Title 1" even though I named each one in RMV. And when I click one to play it, nothing plays. It seems to hang.


Darryl

[seangriffin]

All right, I just ran it again and the error comes from DVD Styler:

"Can't load image from file 'C\DOCUME~1\Darryl\LOCALS~1\Temp\': files does not exist."

I hit 'OK' and it just sits there in DVD Styler with a menu just like the one you showed above in this post https://forum.videohelp.com/topic372158-30.html#2008719. It's empty with "Tex Avery-1" text and a "menu" button at the bottom. PgcEdit is still open as well. But clearly RMV is waiting for something. It still says "Writing the DVD menu" with 'back', 'next', and 'cancel' buttons, none of which do anything. I had to "end process" to stop it.

Viewing the menu in Media Player HC, is shows 12 titles with a heading "TEX AVERY DISC-1 MENU". The titles have generic names like "Title 1" even though I named each one in RMV. And when I click one to play it, nothing plays. It seems to hang.

Darryl

I'm really having a hard time now. I think I'm going to need to pull in other help. If there is anyone reading this post that understands the internals of DVDStyler, please speak up.

The error "Can't load image from file 'C\DOCUME~1\Darryl\LOCALS~1\Temp\': files does not exist." originates inside DVDStyler inside the source file "wxVillaLib/imagjpg.cpp". There is a method in there called "LoadImageFile" and inside that method is the call to display this error that Darryl is getting:

wxLogError( _("Can't load image from file '%s': file does not exist."), filename.c_str() );

Why this error is being called, and why this method (LoadImageFile) in C++ is being called, I don't know. I don't know anything about DVDStyler's internal source. I only automate the front-end.

I do find it strange first of all that the error message only show the path 'C\DOCUME~1\Darryl\LOCALS~1\Temp\', when Darryl is still able to visually see the menu inside DVDStyler (the menu is from the load file C\DOCUME~1\Darryl\LOCALS~1\Temp\dvd_menu.xml which is generated by Rapid Menu Writer). Assuming DVDStyler is incorrectly trying to open the file 'C\DOCUME~1\Darryl\LOCALS~1\Temp\', I tried running DVDStyler myself using this command-line:

"C:\Program Files\DVDStyler\bin\DVDStyler.exe" C:\DOCUME~1\Darryl\LOCALS~1\Temp

The result was no error, and simply the DVDStyler main window open with no menu.

It is okay that PgcEdit remains open. It is simply waiting for the Burn process to complete in DVDStyler before it imports the menu created by the burn.

All I can't think of Darryl is that you try to manually recreate the process that RMW is trying to perform automatically. That is, to load the DVDStyler import file created by RMW into DVDStyler yourself, run the Burn process yourself, and see if that process works without error in DVDStyler only.

To do this, go back to your post on the "Sep 25, 2009 23:48" where you pasted the log file. Copy the text below the line "2009-09-25 09:42:27 : The DVDStyler XML file:" into a "dvd_menu.xml" file onto your computer. Run DVDStyler and open this file. You should see Menu1 and Menu2 in DVDStyler at this point. Menu2 having the 12 buttons. Press F9 to start a burn. In the Temp directory field, provide the name of a new folder on your computer to store the burn. Make sure the just generate radio button is selected. Click Start. When the burn has finished, check if DVDStyler reports any errors. If that is all successful, then something is failing in RMW's automation of that process.

I won't be surprised if you are cheesed off with all the problems you've had so far Darryl. I would be too.

[bahjan]

I tried running version 1.3 on XP SP3 32bit, but seemed to have the same problem as Darryl: gets to DVD Styler then says, 'Select the IFO file with menu to import' then shows a temp directory in drive C, despite the fact the VIDEO_TS I loaded was on a different partition. If I click OK to try and select as requested, the window just reappears with the same message and I can't select anything. Futhermore, I can only get out of the situation by closing everything via Windows Task Manager. Seems like a great little tool - wish I could get it to work! Any chance you could get your app to work with 'Simple DVD Creator' - it only creates chapters, it would be great to add simple menus too as it's much quicker at processing DVD than DVD Styler.