I-author user guide ??

[Ekin]

I just got I-author and i was wondering if anybody have or know where i can get a guide for it? For encoding, authoring dual audio ect.. Everything....

[adam]

Well there is a simple guide in the author section, http://www.geocities.com/bug2kbug/helper/iauthor.htm.

Encoding and dual audio really have nothing to do with I-Author directly. For encoding you simply need to create a compliant svcd or vcd and for dual audio tracks you simply need to use a multiplexor that supports this, such as TMPGenc, bbmpeg or I-Author's default multiplexor.

I recommend you use bbmpeg for multiplexing. I-Author's multiplexor has alot of bugs. If you need dual audio tracks then simply encode your video and both audio tracks separately and then load them all into bbmpeg, there is a guide on this site explaining how. You will then need to download mpgxmps. Its a simple but great little program which converts mpgs to .mps files for use in I-Author.

One thing you need to be aware of, by default I-Author creates SVCD's not Super VCD's. They are basically just different compilancy formats, the former storing the mpg file in the mpegav folder and the latter storing it in the mpeg2 dir. As soon as you start a new project goto view/preference/project preference and change it to Super VCD.

Do you have any specific questions about how to author using I-Author such as chaptering, menu creation, functions etc...?

[Ekin]

Adam: thanks for the reply. I would figure that since I author is out b/c they don't have the demo version that's why people is not using it, or maybe it just sucks that no one ueses it. Well anyways. The link you gave me it's dead since yesterday. I know it was up before but it's dead now. Oh and YES I would like to know how to do chatpering, menus and ect...anything. I don't know how to use this program so anything is better than nothing. So you're saying bbmpeg is better than TMPGenc for making dual audio ? (as far as i know under MPEG tools --> Multipexor in TMPGenc does not have two audio and 1 video input for encoding. Only have 1 video and 1 audio when u load the mpg files.) See my goal is to make dual karaoke SVCD. But I ran into alot of dual audio problems.

[adam]

Well I can assure you I-Author does not suck, it is the single most powerful svcd authoring software available.

Bmpeg is better for multiplexing svcds because it gives you the option of alligning mpeg headers and adding SVCD scan offsets, both of which aid in maintaining sync. TMPGenc does not even do these at all.

To multiplex 2 audio streams in TMPGenc use the multiplex option, not simple multiplex. Instead of adding one stream just add two.

Karaoke disks are actually different from svcds and I don't have alot of experience with these but I-Author's multiplexor has a special function for it. The bugs that I-Author's multiplexor has only apply to svcds so this multiplexor might actually be better for your purposes.

Anyway, that site will be up again soon, it just exceeded the maximum bandwidth limit for the day. Have you played with I-Author at all? It seems really self explanatory to me. Go to the video tab after creating a new project. Right click and select create item/menu item. This will be your main menu. Select either a still picture at a resolution of 480x480/576 or 704x480/576 or you can select an .mps file if you want a moving menu. Just keep adding menu's like this. In each menu you need to set the directional buttons. Next and previous should be obivous. Default is where you go when you hit the enter button and return is where you go when you hit the stop button. For motion menu's set the loop to 127 and for stills just leave it alone. For stills set the wait time to infinite unless you want otherwise. If you do then set how long you want the still to wait before jumping to a set still picture, which you define in the timeout option.

You can also designate any number from 1-99 to define a selection. Input the number and under item name select which item you want it to go to, then hit the + button.

For chapters right click in the video tab and create item/play item and select your .mps file. Do this for every chapter point you want, each time selecting the same .mps file as the source. Now go through and link each chapter, ex: ch 1 next goes to ch2. Ch2 next goes to ch3 and ch2 previous goes back to ch1. Again you need to set a return button, just make it go back to your main menu.

Now leave ch1 alone, it will play from start to finish. Go to chapter 2 and deselect the from start box. In the empty slot input where ch2 begins in seconds. Now close this and do the same for ch3 and so on.

Thats it now your done. You can create a default template with chapters already set up at an interval if thats all you need. Then you can simply load your video source each time you start a new project or you can edit the project file, its just a text file. Edit the source to the appropriate path and name.

If your source is a dvd then you can get your chapter times from chapterextractor. You'll have to convert them to seconds though, but if you get creative you can make a little autorun script of sorts to do it for you, thats what I did.

Oh I forgot to mention end items. Basically every svcd should have one. Set the main menu's return button to this, and maybe do the same for your video tracks, its up to you. When you hit stop it will jump to the end item, basically just telling the dvd player to stop reading the disk. Otherwise the player will continue reading until you hit eject.

[Bill_Boquet]

@adam, as you seem the guru of I-Author and bbMPEG, I would appreciate your feedback on a thread I posted in doom9 DVD2sVCD forum : http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25637. Thanks in advance for your consideration, Bill (alias avdmb)

[Ekin]

Adam: really apreciated for those info. I'll try it when i get home from work. I'll ask you more question by Monday. I figure I'll run into problems by then....But I have one more stupid question though. Ok I am use to ripping DVD by Smart Ripper ---> DVD2AVI (which create 2 files D2V and Sound) ---->TMPGenc. But I know that some other programs like I author uses other formats. Like in video inport it wants VBS, MPB. Audio: ABS,MPA,MP2. How do make those files so that i can load it in I-author test it ???

[Martí]

Well, you need a program called "mpgXmps" that gets the original mpg file and makes a mps archive.

With this system, you can make even VCD's with I-Author.

Look for it at Google or at Doom's page.

Good Luck!

Martí

[Ekin]

Marti: Where do u get that mpgXmps i can't find it...it's not at Doom. Can u share that please ???

[adam]

Ekin as Marti suggested, mpgxmps if very good for converting mpgs to mps, bypassing many of the bugs in I-Author's multiplexor. You can find a mpgxmps here http://jeanpierre.aubrun.free.fr/mpgxmps/mpgXmps.html

If you choose to use I-Author's multiplexor simply rename your video and audio stream extentions from m2v to vbs and mp2 to mpa, or whatever. They are all video and audio streams, the ext doesnt matter.

Bill_Boquet, I'll take a look.

[Ekin]

Adam: I am trying out your info and i ran into a problem. Ok I "Right click and select create item/menu item. This will be your main menu." After that I know i would either have to load a .bmp or .mps . So the .bmp would be my background menu. So the .mps would be a clip it would play before it gets to the menu or what. What does that .mps. doe ?? "Just keep adding menu's like this." By that you're saying that i can add another .bmp or .mps?? But why..why would I want to add another background of the menu.? Or why would I want to add another mps clip in the background ?

Another is that after I "click in the video tab and create item/play item and select your .mps" My "Next, Previous, Return, and Wait. They all are selectable to menu1 which i made earlier. So how do I put it to play to the next file.?

One last thing that I was wondering is how do u make a button or something that let u click on it and that would play the whole disc without stopping at the menu. ? A play-all button ?

file.

[adam]

You don't keep adding more backgrounds to the same menu item you create multiple menu items each with their specific background. An .mps file is just a moving menu as opposed to a static one which is a bmp.

When setting where your "buttons" take you obviously you can only assign them to items you have already created. If you want the next item to take you to the next menu then you first need to create that menu and then go back and assign that button. With each new item you create you will see that when you highlight a navigational button, that new item becomes availabe as a selection.

So create your main menu, add either a static or motion menu and then close that item. Now create another menu item, again with its respective background. Continue adding ITEMS, not backgrounds. Now go back and link them all. Just think of it as a slideshow. Create all your slides first and then decide where you want to be able to go from any given slide.

I'm not sure what you mean by a play all button. Play all of what? All your menu's or all your play items, ex: the movie itself. If you wanted to play all your menu's than that just sounds like a slideshow, simply set the appropriate wait time you want and set the timeout to the next slide and do this for each. Have the first menu be that "slide" and it will just play the whole sequence.

If you mean play a series of play items such as trailers and deleted scenes then just link them all with the next button ex: play item 1 next is set to play item 2, play item 2 next is set to play item 3 etc. Now just find a way to jump to your play item 1 and it will play the whole series.

The first item played doesnt have to be a menu either, it can be a menu item or a play item. Notice that at the bottom right of each item there is a slot for "first item" or something like that. So if you want you can make your movie be the first item played. For instance when I author svcds I usually make them 2 disks. Disk one automatically plays the main menu when I start the disk. On disk two all of the menu's are the same except when I start the disk it automatically plays the movie, and if I hit stop at any point it takes me to the main menu. I do this so that after watching disk one you don't have to go through the main menu to start the second half of the movie.

I would recommend using the wizard feature of I-Author to create a simple layout. Then go and look at what it did to get an idea of how the linking of items works. Once you figure it out its extremely simple to do on your own and you will see that its just a matter of repetition.

[Ekin]

Adam: Ok I follow the Wizard and got my .cif file but then when i try to burn the file using Roxio Easy CD Creator i got an error "Reservation Confiict: this drive can not be use b/c it is already being use by Roxio DirectCD Kernel". I tried other programs too like And CDRWin under Record Disc --> Load cue button, and the it gave a error "Invali cuesheet command at Line 1 Illegal cuesheet" and CDmage error is : File length doesn't match sector boundary. Why..?? So what program should i use to burn ??

[adam]

Ez CD Creator is just plain evil and it is the only program which can burn I-Author cif files, and version 5 of Ez CD doesnt even support these kinds of cifs anymore.

Get the latest beta version of CDMage in the tools section. Load your cif file and click file/save as. It will automatically try to save it as a bin and cue. On the top left you should be able to select 2352 or 2336 as bytes per sector, set it to 2352 and save the bin and cue. Burn with CDRwin and you should be set. I should have mentioned this procedure earlier.

[Ekin]

Adam: I guess you mis-read my last post. Because I tried to load my .cif file into CDmage. But it gave me an error "File length doesn't match sector boundary. " Do u know why ??

[adam]

Sorry I don't know what's causing this. I've heard of this error before but I've never encountered it. I can tell you that the only way to burn I-Author cifs is to use ez cd creator (just not version 5) or to convert to bin and cue with I-Author.

All I can tell you is to try to make another cif file.