TitleWriter ver 4.21 - add DVD text/Menus/Automation - 19 May2007

[PBS]

backups

hmm,it's still creating backups..what's the switch to _not_ backup?
[in docs it says /B twice,once for backup, once for not]

/B Backup to default Undo folder
/B NEVER No backup will be made

so far so good...got it working with 4, 3, 2, or 1 movie,no problem...
[was quite a trick,adding a 'null:' for each title that DIDN"T exist! lol]
not noticing any weirdness so far...but then i updated my .xml files too..
testing for chapters now..
man,had a little bug that only happened when i ran batch file, but not when run from command prompt...and it would delete all my files!
[don't set a variable within an 'if' statement..it gets set,but you can't read it till the if is over!]
basically it ended up deleting /s *.*!!
i caught it quick enough but it got a lot of files...grr..
took a while to figure it out too..now i'm using rd /s /q for safety..
was using: del /s /q %dvdtemp%\*.*
and with the variable not there it looked like \*.* !!
ahh,batch files...

but all is working perfectly now...what did you mean if i 'get fancy' with the menus? i doubt i'll be adding any features..there will always be the 4 squares..[i can add more if needed eventually] and when less than 4 movies exist, it seems to handle it quite well...[just blanks out those squares]
i added a main 'title' text to the menu but that's about it...i'll add shadows and bevelled frames soon...
and all movies go back to menu afterwards..
the generic trick will be handy for some..so that's nice..
most of my shows are about 1 hr/1.5 gig so don't forsee having many more on one disk...[tho some half hour ones could total more than 4..]
and occasional actual dvd main movie title mixed in...[no menus,just movie]
so i'm happy...can't forsee anything to add with my limited input sources..
will clean it all up and shoot you a nice all-in-one menu bat with support files...
i made the menu1.xml, mask png, and select png with dvdauthorgui..very easy..shouldn't nneed to change unless i change layout..
and i put the chapters in the menus main .xml so hoping it will pick them up...testing now..[my initial test vobs weren't long enough..lol]

[FallenAngel]

Hmmm actually the \B is always on in TW currently default and is useless

\B NEVER cli command only applies to DVD_TEXT, as soon as a menu request is detected the backup is switched back on and executed.
I'm a little unsure if I want to change this behavior (Newbies) but I guess anyone who knows how to use CLI isn't a newbie
and understands IF TW crashes on menu import and UNDO is overridden the compiliation may be toast. I'll override and make /B NEVER global in next release.

Get Fancy -- An example is a straight menu button with RESUME command in vts pgc.
It will work fine if ttn content has been played -- DVD crash/exit if not.
So usually a gprm is set to 0 on VMG menu entry and 1 in Pre ttn commands. TW's simple templates work this way
Then the button command is if gprm == 1 then RESUME

Or a preamble thats shown only once

So if \Generic and those commands are in menu all is well \Generic imports them wiping out any existing commands (The post command you added when you created the VTS)

You are getting away with this because you currently have no ttn pre post cell commands if you ever add a command in Menu ttn,TW will detect that command and overwrite existing jump vmgm command

If \GENERIC is not specified then the pre post cell ttn commands are left untouched and playback will start with movie 1 (default) unless /JMP_TO_MENU specified which will jump to VTS 1 Root Menu

You can have either the Menu ttn commands or the compiliation ttn commands.

Safest bet --(Especially if someone starts to customize the Menu)is somehow to get that post Jmp VMGM command into the menu designer so all navigation is in one place

Isn't Defensive coding Wonderful

[PBS]

hmmm,what about chapters?

tried the chapters thing...didn't work..i made menu with small vobs,could this be why? i only got 2 chapters per title...
i added them in when creating original VTS..and had them in menu compilation too...[same exact ones] but still no chapters...any ideas? could it be cuz the blank vobs i create menu with aren't long enough for chapters?
how big was the blank you used? [length-time/size-bytes]
and how did you 'shrink' it? i used ffmpeg and mencoder to succesfully replace mplex as it was encoding 705x480 for some reason when input is 720x480 for sure...eventually i'll replace a lot of the extraneious functions with ffmpeg to keep consistant..[plus it comes with GBPVR so my audience already has it]
i just made a black frame vob of 99 minutes, by piping jpeg2yuv to mencoder.. [99mins/57 meg]
will have to create menus with that as title and see what happens...
[chapters would be nice to have]
yea,i was thinking only other thing i might have is another page for movie thumbs..[a second page on menu1]
but i'm pretty sure that should be doable...lol
ever wonder why not one dvd creation proggy can load a profile and movies from command line? [and possibly burn?] yea,lots of complicated stuff goes on behind the scenes,but all users just want to add movies,and have a menu..it's built into comercial dvd recorders..[linux no doubt..lol]
and works quite nicely there without many options..very usable..

anyways..any help on the chapters would be appreciated..i'm stumped...
i'm thinking, not using generic and add /JMP_TO_MENU?
i have chapters and i changed to 'normal' call vmgm menu; in VTS post cmd..[in both compilations] still nada...

[FallenAngel]

my dummy was about 100mb length - about 7 min with 36 chapters made by taking a chunk of Movie (From DVDShrink) into DVDLab pro then hand cutting in chapter points.

When creating the dummy try reducing your chapter length request to say 5 sec or so. Make sure your dummy isn't a still
the "times" in the dummy.vob for chapters don't matter - its the # entries created (TW needs something to map to) and you will need targets in dummy if you ever create a chapter menu.

A word on chapter creation -- don't use stills as dummy.vob (Fewer I frames to hang a chapter point on)

That was a bit simplified -- I'm not sure how deep your knowledge is of the functions of the individual ifo tables or DVD Specs or Internal MPeg-2

ever wonder why not one dvd creation proggy can load a profile and movies from command line? [and possibly burn?] yea,lots of complicated stuff goes on behind the scenes,but all users just want to add movies,and have a menu..

That I can answer -- Profiles only work if your source has a consistent layout (as in your case) there are infinite ways for studios to muck up a simple concept -- Thats why TW's Happy Face -- it essentially reduces a movie+menu to the basics required

yea,i was thinking only other thing i might have is another page for movie thumbs..[a second page on menu1]

??movie thumbs?? (?If Links to chapter points) MUST be in VTS menu not VMG
or are you thinking just more links to more then 4 movies (then you would be correct just another VMG menu page)

i'm thinking, not using generic and add /JMP_TO_MENU?
i have chapters and i changed to 'normal' call vmgm menu; in VTS post cmd..[in both compilations] still nada...

No -- has nothing to do with chapters

[FallenAngel]

PBS Heres a beta -- /B NEVER -- Complete Create Backup override (No exceptions)

Careful with this -- I'm in the middle of some major internal changes/testing cycle -- the changes shouldn't apply to what you are doing.

Oops -- Overriding backup was harder then I thought just changed attachment

[PBS]

chapters working

cool...got chapters working...your tip on the chapter spacing worked just great..
[sure didn't wanna have to distribute a huge dummy file!]
also there was some syntax errors in my piping command...it's picky..and without help it's trial and error...
so finally it ended up looking like..

fmpeg -i %%f -y -f vob -target ntsc-dvd -vcodec copy -acodec copy -|dvdauthor.exe -o %dvdtemp% -t -c 00:00:00,00:10:00,00:20:00,00:30:00,00:40:00,00:50:00,01:00:00,01:10:00,01:20:00,01:30:00  -i post="call vmgm menu;" -f -

order very finnicky..
i think i may have just cracked the dvdauthor syntax code too...lol
[may be able to make the menus from command-line alone.. how to translate any of the xml codes to CLI....i'll let ya know]
but we shall see....for now this is working great..

seems more stable with the chapters too..[you were right]
looking very nice and i cleaned up the buttons and will do more visuals soon...should be ready in day or two..

yea,will be looking into making a second page for movie selection, for those 6+ show dvds..may be too much to mess with tho all my batch is expanable..[but tiny thumbs on one page wouldn't look good..]
working nicely now with the chapters..they remap from 1 second apart in menu temp to the 10 minutes i encode the shows with..
more to come..

[FallenAngel]

if all you are after is 13 chapters you could probably reduce the dummy into the 2 to 10 meg region (maybe even smaller) just created one here 5meg size with 20 ch cuts using ifoedit. I believe the shortest chapter possible is .15 sec (assuming I frames exist)

[PBS]

working great still.. i'm gonna try to make an all i-frame menu vob and see what that gets me..[the one i have is 1/sec. chapters,so that's fine if need be..[5 megs]
i found that 'dvdauthorgui' actually makes all the commands in a batch file so i can even do the selection button .png's with graphics magic..

also i found that ffmpeg can do the thumbnails as well,[perhaps better]
using...

fmpeg -i %1 -y -sameq -f image2 -vframes 1 -ss 30 -s 352x240 "%~n1.jpg"

[tho only jpeg output possible far as i can tell,but that works.]
visuals almost there...shadows looked terrible [no blur] so just added frames and a title with shadow..
the new version is working fine for me too...using it without generic and with /B NEVER /JMP_TO_MENU...
also,had to run with start /min ...to get it to quit 'popping' up everytime it ran...
so far dvd's play just fine in stb players with chapters and all,returning to menu after..
here's what the menu looks like now...:

[PBS]

i tried it with .2 sec. chapter intervals...success! [chapters- 00:00:00.2]
that sllows me to have a 200k dummy vob.. [or more chapters]
excellent work..!

[FallenAngel]

Looks close- very close
I used 33 chapters in my dummys -- as the limit buttons/menu/page is 36
with 3 for intra menu navigation and a resume.

Yes been playing with dvdauthorgui -- may incorporate into tw for generic Vmg thumbnails (Perhaps chapters)
I have all required text and titles in DVD_Text area and the current vob viewer already takes snapshots.
Probably simpler in TW gui then you had it as all the numbers are at my fingertips so to speak and looping is simple.

had to run with start /min ...to get it to quit 'popping' up everytime it ran...

Are you refering to tw - The Gui comes up for a split second -- Foible of VC++ form mode -- never could get around it from inside TW

Just noticed approaching my 300 post -- wonder if I get a Prize

[PBS]

oh yeah,it doesn't seem to be skipping the undo as it should..i still get them...
[even with /B NEVER]
not a real big deal tho..
workin like a champ for me...but i found a file i can't for the life of me get chapters into..lol...seems like it only allows me to put 2 vobu's into the file so that's how many chapters i get..? i dunno..works with every other file..i even tried re-compressing..no-go.. figured that would fix the timeline but doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the timeline...
whatever...lol
i found a nifty little re-compressor you might wanna look at..works just like the one in dvd-shrink...10-15 mins for an entire dvd! and excellent quality..
there's a requant.exe that's only command-line but Rejig has extras and does command line too...[plus there's source available!] they only work on the video part [.m2v] so de/muxing necessary..if i could only pipe it it would be jammin..
just thought you might like to know..

[FallenAngel]

Yes -- Now I see the fuzzy -- my LoadDvd() was executing before \B NEVER in cli mode.

Sometimes I just hate converting Windows non sequential GUI logic to a sequential series

When I designed the backup logic was more worried about making sure all paths led to it -- never thought I would intentionally be trying to bypass it

Fixed I think -- you get to play Beta tester

One word of caution -- \B NEVER alters the preference for backup switch -- applies to all subsequent TW boots (Until reset via Settings)

[PBS]

finally figured out dvdauthor

finally figured out how to make the whole thing with buttons and all with dvdauthor..cli...seems i had to use an older version..[pre-6.x] cuz apparently cli is broken in newer versions..only .xml..
also found some interesting capabilities for ffmpeg..replaced almost all other processing with ffmpeg...eg. muxing, jpeg->mpeg menu creation, nav insertion and thumbnailing...
so i actually have an entire menu-creating,thumbnailing,burning batch file!
just feed it a few mpg's and it'll make a menu,add thumbs,title them, and create a whole dvd structure on the fly and burn with nerocmd..
it uses just dvdauthor and ffmpeg and graphics magick [and spumux till i can get ffmpeg to do that part too!]
so that kinda [for me at least] obsoletes your program for my purpose...
tho my bro has a Sony changer so he'll use it i'm sure...lol

i can share my batch file if you'd like..i pipe everything possible so it's fairly fast and uses no temp files...just need space for the final dvd compilation..
if i can pipe the output of dvdauthor to cdrtools then it would burn realtime! lol but i digress...
basically get a dvdauthor pre-6.x [5.3-5.4] and buttons can be created on the fly from command line.. [i found one in tytools10r4]
blew me away that this info wasn't available somewhere prominently..
[i still see people doing things in ancient bloated ways, and dvdauthor is being run almost like an insiders club..or development has stopped]
and the docs are really non-existant..really has been an adventure finding Anything out...and can't find a version 5.4 win32 anywhere...looks like i'l have to try cross-compiling it myself....[ugh!]
thanx for all your help..will let ya know about the no-save option..
[my batch was much simpler with your prog doin the work..lol]

[FallenAngel]

PBS
Really didn't know ffmpeg was that versatile -- Yes I'd be curious to see what you came up with. Do you handle N titles recursively or sequentially.

[PBS]

N titles? not sure what you mean by that..but i do add titles sequentially..
to add titles: [with newest ver of dvdauthor.exe]

 ffmpeg -i %%f -y -f vob -target ntsc-dvd -vcodec copy -acodec copy -|dvdauthor.exe -o %dvdtemp% -t -c 00:00:00,00:05:00,00:10:00,00:15:00,00:20:00,00:25:00,00:30:00,00:35:00,00:40:00,00:45:00,00:50:00,00:55:00,01:00:00,01:05:00,01:10:00,01:15:00,01:20:00,01:25:00,01:30:00 -i post="call vmgm menu;" -f -

[executed with a for loop from a file list for adding titles]
then for menu creation and toc just one more line..
[with older ver. 5.3 of dvdauthor.exe]

dvdauthmenu.exe -o %dvdtemp% -T --menu  -b "79x71-337x253,vts1;" -b "379x71-637x253,vts2;" -b "79x266-337x448,vts3;"
  --entry="title"  -f "menu1.mpg"

[of course adjust # of buttons etc and make menu .mpg beforehand]
here's a full deal with instructs..
[of and edit to change "fmpeg" back into "ffmpeg"....i had to do that cuz i had to use a ffmpeg 'proxy' to use from menus in gbpvr ]
[and recinfo.exe won't do anything for you without a GBPVR installation db,so can be removed,but should run fine without it]
dvdauthmenu.exe is just ver. 5.3 of dvdauthor..dvdauthor.exe is ver 6.x something....
Enjoy!!
[edit:had to yank Graphicks magic out cuz it was too big...just dl the prog and put in same dir and it'll work fine..]