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13th January 2004, 14:45 | #1 | Link |
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SceneImport: import chapter lists directly into Scenarist
Hi,
SceneImport is an utility I wrote that makes it possible to import scenes into tracks directly from the Scenarist GUI. Helpful if you prefer to author some project manually and want to skip the Export to Script/ScenChap step.Here is the Readme. Have fun! Code:
SceneImport v1.2 for Sonic Scenarist by RB ========================================== Release : 1.2 Date : Tuesday, March 9 2004 1. What's this? 2. Usage 3. History 1. What's this? --------------- SceneImport is an utility that enables importing of chapter (scene) lists directly into a Scenarist project. You no longer need to export to script and use tools like ScenChap if you prefer to manually author some project. 2. Usage -------- Copy SceneImport.exe and SceneImport.dll into the Scenarist installation directory, in the same directory with Scenarist.exe. I have tested with Scenarist 2.6 and 2.7. Then run SceneImport.exe, this will automatically launch Scenarist. Now to import a chapter list, switch to Track Editor, select a track and select "Import Chapter..." from the Tools menu. Chapter files need to be text files, containing one chapter time code per line in HH:MM:SS;FF format. The delimiters actually don't matter and can be any character but they need to be there. For example: 00:01:02:12 00:05:04:05 and so on. IFOUpdate and DVDDEcrypter create chapter files in this format, for example. Alternatively, you can import CCE chapter point files (like those created by IFOUpdate and DVDDecrypter). The format of the CCE chapter files needs to be chapter=<framenumberX>: chapter=<framenumberY>: and so on. The chapter files may have some "header lines" (comments, format specifiers and so on), these will just be skipped. If the currently selected track is NTSC, there will be a checkbox for conversion to NTSC drop-frame timecodes at the bottom of the Open File dialog. If you check this option, SceneImport assumes that the currently selected track is drop-frame NTSC but the timecodes in the chapter file are non-drop frame (CCE chapter files are always "non-drop frame"). Timecodes are then automatically converted to drop-frame while importing so that your scene times will be accurate. Unfortunately, there is no way for SceneImport to automatically detect whether or not the drop-frame format (yes or no) of the selected track and chapter file matches, so you'll have to know what you are doing. In any event, chapter files created by IFO parsing utilities like IFOUpdate or ChapterXtractor will always be in non-drop frame format because IFOs always use non-drop frame time stamps. Now select the appropriate chapter file and click Open. Scenes will be imported from the chapter file. Note, Scenarist needs to be run through SceneImport.exe for SceneImport to work. Because of this, SceneImport associates itself with Scenarist project files (.SCN) every time it is run. This way you can still run Scenarist by double clicking on a .SCN project file and use SceneImport. To uninstall SceneImport, simply delete the two SceneImport binaries from the Scenarist directory and run Scenarist.exe once to repair the .SCN file association. 3. History ---------- 09/03/2004 v1.2 - Added support for Scenarist 3.0.1, verified support for Scenarist 3.0.0 29/01/2004 v1.1a - It was not possible to import scenes after creating a new script from the Scenarist Project Manager dialog. Fixed. 22/01/2004 v1.1 - Added NTSC non-drop frame to drop-frame conversion - Added ability to import CCE chapter point files 14/01/2004 v1.01 - Found a potential timing issue. Solved by moving the code that simulates the keystrokes into a separate thread. This also ensures that the scenarist GUI remains responsive while importing chapters. 13/01/2004 v1.0 - First release supporting Sonic Scenarist 2.6 and 2.7 Last edited by RB; 23rd May 2006 at 07:48. |
13th January 2004, 23:17 | #2 | Link |
jdgljlfljg
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Sounds like you've used a similar type of approach as EclCCE, and much better than Scenchap IMO - I'm in PAL land and just find copying and pasting chapters manually less hassle. But this is even easier =)
Great work once again RB =) What about the whole NTSC/drop frame problem? Don't you have to adjust the chapter list or something? |
14th January 2004, 10:25 | #3 | Link |
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Well, I'm in PAL land too, so for now I decided to simply ignore the NTSC issues and assume that the chapter file is already adjusted for the drop-frame issue if necessary. Anyone knows whether IFOUpdate does this when saving the chapter files? I'll ask jdobbs anyway.
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14th January 2004, 21:24 | #4 | Link |
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Here is a first minor update. Download new version from link in first post.
Code:
14/01/2004 v1.01 - Found a potential timing issue. Solved by moving the code that simulates the keystrokes into a separate thread. This also ensures that the scenarist GUI remains responsive while importing chapters. |
15th January 2004, 01:54 | #5 | Link | |
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Quote:
Your alternative would be to increase your code complexity. You would figure out whether the .m2v is drop-frame or non-drop-frame, read the chapter file and note the colon or semicolon separators to figure out whether the timecodes in the chapter file are drop-frame or non-drop-frame. And if they're the opposite format from the .m2v, you would convert the timecodes individually during the import.
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15th January 2004, 10:06 | #7 | Link |
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@SomeJoe:
The problem is that unlike Maestro, Scenarist doesn't indicate drop-frame time codes by a semicolon frame delimiter (even for PAL projects, the format of the scene location edit box is always hh:mm:ss;ff). After all, there's no official Scenarist scene list format. So in the next version, I'll simply add a checkbox "Convert to drop-frame timecode" to the Open Chapter File dialog. I'll try to find a way to determine whether the currently selected track is drop-frame NTSC so the checkbox is available only in this case. The ideal solution of course would be to import chapters directly from an IFO, but I'll leave that for a much later version if at all @hrg27: Sure. You just need to have chapter files for the VOB IDs (IFOUpdate can generate these). |
15th January 2004, 22:32 | #8 | Link |
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sounds nice. Will give it a try soon.
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16th January 2004, 16:43 | #9 | Link | |
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Having a checkbox for conversion is somewhat confusing because it may not be applicable under several different sets of conditions. If you can determine the drop/non-drop status of the .m2v, then your import code can do precisely what is necessary with no input from the user. It's just an idea.
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18th January 2004, 15:13 | #10 | Link | |
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Quote:
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18th January 2004, 23:37 | #11 | Link | |
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But I understand what you're saying that there are many utilities that generate chapter files with timecodes & delimiters that don't follow this standard. For that, I'd suggest the following: Have a check box that says "Override automatic SMPTE Timecode detection and:" followed by two radio buttons that say "Assume all timecodes are drop-frame" and "Assume all timecodes are non-drop-frame". This gives the user the ability to use a non-compliant chapter file. Of course, if the .m2v is PAL, you wouldn't even offer the options, since no timecode conversion would ever be necessary.
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22nd January 2004, 17:26 | #14 | Link |
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IFOUpdate always exports non-drop frame timecodes. And yes, IFOUpdate exports chapter files for NTSC film mode.
OK, uploaded new version 1.1 with optional NTSC drop-frame conversion and ability to import CCE chapter files. See readme in first post. I have tested this fairly extensively, but would welcome any feedback from NTSC users. |
4th March 2004, 13:08 | #20 | Link |
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We? you have a multiperson disorder ?
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