Authoring DVD from a single .mpg file problems - size 0 kb in VIDEO_TS

[Nimloth]

Hello All!

I've been reading previous posts trying to solve my problem, but I cannot seem to find a case that matches mine.
The details:
I have a single .mpg file (720x480 NTSC) that I want to author as a DVD (to play on a DVD player) using ffmpegX; I also want to add a subtitle track to this file using ffmpegx.
Here's what I have tried:
Tools/mpg file - added my file
Tools/subtitle - added my .srt file
Author As 'DVD (VIDEO_TS) was checked
Pressed 'Author'
Process seemed to take some time, then it finished successfully.

The result:
The process seemed to finish successfully, though when I went to check up on the files, there were the two standard folders of VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS, yet the VIDEO_TS file only contained one file, a .VOB file, which was 0 Kb in size...
Here's the log:

INFO: Locale=C
INFO: Converting filenames to US-ASCII
INFO: Detected subtitle file format: subviewer
INFO: Opened iconv descriptor. *UTF-8* *ISO-8859-1*
INFO: Read 1771 subtitles
INFO: Unicode font: 242 glyphs.
STAT: 0:02:05.840
WARN: Read 0, expected 4
STAT: 0:02:08.100 ...
... [too long to post the rest here....]
STAT: 2:19:35.700
INFO: Found EOF in .sub file.
INFO: 1771 subtitles added, 0 subtitles skipped, stream: 32, offset: 0.50
Statistics:
- Processed 1771 subtitles.
- The longest display line had 53 characters.
- The maximum number of displayed lines was 2.
- The normal display height of the font Arial.ttf was 28.
- The bottom display height of the font Arial.ttf was 34.
- The biggest subtitle box had 2190 bytes.
STAT: Picking VTS 01
STAT: Processing /Users/[My name]/Movies/[file name].mpg.s.mpg...
WARN: System header found, but PCI/DSI information is not where expected
(make sure your system header is 18 bytes!)
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
... (A repetition of "WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...")
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
WARN: System header found, but PCI/DSI information is not where expected
(make sure your system header is 18 bytes!)
... (A repetition of "WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...")
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
STAT: VOBU 0 at 0MB, 1 PGCS

There is an (file name).mpg.s.mpg file outside of the DVD folder, and it works (video/audio) when played by a media player, yet the DVD folder, as I wrote above, has only one file in the VIDEO_TS folder and it is 0 kb in size.

What has gone wrong? What should I change? Am I to do something in the other tabs (Summary/Video/Audio/Filters/Options ...) as well? I thought that since ffmpegx is only authoring the DVD, I don't need to set anything anywhere else since the file won't be tampered with (it won't be 're-encoded'). Is this a correct assumption?

Additional info you may need: I have a Mac OSX.6.8

[Case]

I have a single .mpg file (720x480 NTSC) that I want to author as a DVD using ffmpegX; I also want to add a subtitle track to this file using ffmpegx.
The process seemed to finish successfully [...] yet the VIDEO_TS file only contained one file, a .VOB file, which was 0 Kb in size...

WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...

My best guess --
Your single MPG file may have some problems, which may prevent proper authoring.
Try running your file through MPEG Streamclip. Just open the file in that app, Edit>Fix Timecode Breaks, File>Convert to MPEG. This should ensure a proper MPEG file. Stream data is preserved, i.e. content is NOT converted (slowly). Change output file suffix from ".mpeg" to ".mpg".
The new file may have some errors fixed and may behave better in ffmpegX.

Am I to do something in the other tabs (Summary/Video/Audio/Filters/Options ...) as well?

No, the Tools tab works independently of the rest.

I thought that since ffmpegx is only authoring the DVD, I don't need to set anything anywhere else since the file won't be tampered with (it won't be 're-encoded'). Is this a correct assumption?

Yes. Your procedure seems right. That's why I suspect the file.

[Nimloth]

Dear Case,

Thanks for the tips.
Here's what I've done:
1. Installed Streamclip
2. ran the fix option: result, it did not find any errors
3. exported as mpeg, as suggested, then changed suffix from .mpeg to .mpg. Conversion worked fine. I tested the movie after and no problems.

Next I tried the ffmpegx authoring, as before:
mpg file: my file
subtitle: my subtitle, tested just before with the video using VLC player (downloaded the subs from Opensubtitles.org), they work
Author As: DVD (VIDEO_TS); checked
Split mpg: unchecked
Subtitles font: Ariel
Text Encoding: ISO-8859-1; Font size:2

I pressed encode...and lo and behold, this time an error message popped up with the following message:
"AppleScript Error. The variable _videoinfo is not defined. (-2753)"

Can you make anything of this message? Any suggestions?
What I'm ultimately aiming at is trying to get a DVD with subtitles that I can turn on or off. I've tried a whole bunch of programs; most burn the subs directly onto the video, while others (like Xilisoft for Mac, for example), though they claim that you can add multiple subtitles (and turn them on/off as desired), actually did not work (the movie was encoded but an error popped up saying that the subs could not be encoded - I tried multiple times with different videos and subs).
If ffmpegx won't end up working for me, maybe you can suggest another program that does this?
Also, it seems that all other DVD creator programs for mac, like Xilisoft, (except for VisualHub, Toast, and ffmpegx) (I've tried a lot of them...) do not end up keeping the original ratio of the file (the movie I'm trying to author is originally 2.35:1 (1280x544 pixels). You set them to 16:9, letterbox, or whatever other option (I tried everything) and the final product is still not the same ratio as the original file. Did you encounter this as well?
Anyway, I'm going off topic...

One last question I do have about this Tools/Author option: is it possible in any way to create chapters (say, every 5 minutes) in the final authored DVD? If not, if the original DVD had chapters, would the .mpg file keep them and will these be kept when ffmpegx authors it?

Again, many thanks for your time and help!

Nimloth

[Nimloth]

Sorry, a quick correction in the above post.

In my procedure I wrote "exported as mpeg", what I meant to write was "Converted to mpeg", that's what I did.

[Case]

subtitle: my subtitle, tested just before with the video using VLC player (downloaded the subs from Opensubtitles.org), they work

Just FYI: If something doesn't work in VLC, that is often a bad sign. But if it works, it means almost nothing, as VLC has quite good error handling and error correction. That is, even if your file is bad in many ways, usually VLC can display it properly.
I don't think it is the subtitle though. From the log it seems that that part is processed without error.

[...] Next I tried the ffmpegx authoring, as before:
mpg file: my file
subtitle: my subtitle [...]
Author As: DVD (VIDEO_TS); checked
Split mpg: unchecked
Subtitles font: Ariel
Text Encoding: ISO-8859-1; Font size:2

I pressed encode...and lo and behold, this time an error message popped up with the following message:
"AppleScript Error. The variable _videoinfo is not defined. (-2753)"

Can you make anything of this message? Any suggestions?

The error seems like a bug to me, i.e. the developer didn't foresee some thing would happen, and didn't write routines to handle such an event. I haven't encountered this particular error myself, but one or two other users have posted with this error message on this forum, without a cause or fix being mentioned in the thread.
I've seen AppleScript errors that could be user-prevented by being careful which fields were used and/or selected. So maybe try to reboot, start ffmpegX fresh, don't do anything else besides using the intended Mux window and fields, see if it behaves differently.
I had hoped MPEG Streamclip would have written a proper MPEG file for ffmpegX to easily process. Maybe MPEG Streamclip did everything right and the cause is in ffmpegX. Not sure if I could suggest anything else to try that would improve things.
If it were my file, I would maybe try demuxing and re-muxing again, but the result from that might fail as well, as the cause might be elsewhere.
Also, you might try just the default font size (1), just in case it matters and is the only option that works. Untested by me.

Unusual characters in the filename or path (parent folders) could throw things off perhaps, although I would expect a different error if that were the case.

What I'm ultimately aiming at is trying to get a DVD with subtitles that I can turn on or off. [...] If ffmpegx won't end up working for me, maybe you can suggest another program that does this?

The users of DVD Studio Pro say it's the best and most flexible for authoring, but I wouldn't know. I use ffmpegX for my DVD selectable subtitling needs.

Also, it seems that all other DVD creator programs for mac, like Xilisoft, (except for VisualHub, Toast, and ffmpegx) (I've tried a lot of them...) do not end up keeping the original ratio of the file (the movie I'm trying to author is originally 2.35:1 (1280x544 pixels). You set them to 16:9, letterbox, or whatever other option (I tried everything) and the final product is still not the same ratio as the original file. Did you encounter this as well?

I don't make many DVDs anymore, but when I do, I keep to the tools that I'm familiar with (Toast, ffmpegX). So I wouldn't know about how other apps handle aspect ratios and letterboxing. Any application that cannot handle this correctly is useless in my book.

One last question I do have about this Tools/Author option: is it possible in any way to create chapters (say, every 5 minutes) in the final authored DVD? If not, if the original DVD had chapters, would the .mpg file keep them and will these be kept when ffmpegx authors it?

ffmpegX authoring currently doesn't have options for chapters. I haven't tested if ffmpegX would keep any chapter marks from from the source file, but I doubt it. Toast would be able to insert chapter marks (regular intervals; copy from source; set marks in the viewer), but any subtitle stream would be thrown out in the process.