BatchMux plugin - MuxMan authoring with DVD2SVCD

[Sir Didymus]

Here it is the link to release 1.8 of the BatchMux plugin:

http://www.mediafire.com/?z7gj3lxlxg1


1. What is BatchMux.zip ?
As the thread title say, it is a plugin to enable the usage of MuxMan inside DVD2SVCD.

2. BatchMux.zip contain a readme.txt file, describing with some details the steps to perform in order to install and use the plugin. The procedure is quite simple (setup DVD2SVCD to author with DvdAuthor, then point the three components Mplex, SpuMux and DvdAuthor to their hacked counterparts Mplex_hack, SpuMux_hack, DvdAuth_hack, included in the zip).

3. Enjoy DVD2SVCD with the authoring quality of Muxman !!!


- Thanks to Nick for its very very nice testing avi :cool:
- Thanks to manolito for the suggestions, the support, and the testing files.
- Thanks to the author(s) of DVD2SVCD for giving to the community this big, nice and and very complete backup suite!
- And finally a big thank you to Mpucoder: everybody all around here should be grateful to him for its enlightening contributions, discussions and great authoring program.

Edit 18-12-2007, Released version 1.8
- Unified the logic of the process for the different XXX2DVD modes
- Improved the code of acquisition for some parameters (movie length, framerate, pulldown flag) in order to be more robust in the scenarious of killing & resume of the XXX2DVD sessions.
- CAVEAT: quoting an appropriate warning, suggested by manolito, "If you really cannot resist to kill DVD2SVCD in the middle of a conversion and then resume with different settings, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN !"

Edit 17-09-2007, Released version 1.7
Changelog (all related to Mplex_hack.exe component):
- Celltimes.txt file is now used back as a single chapter point format
- FPS entries are now used to detect the correct framerate, instead of the TV system alone...
- In framerate conversions now NTSC sources have always 30 frames per second...
- Changed: one frame less reported by GetMovieFrames from ecl files...

Edit 27-08-2007, Released version 1.6
Changelog:
1. Refinements (of the Mplex_hack.exe component). Reworked the handling of chapter points in order to provide higher precision, especially in case of NTSC + pulldown sources.
2. BugFix (of the Mplex_hack.exe component). Under some circumstances audio delay parameters handling was NOK. The issue is now solved.
3. Trying to use a different file upload service - Mediafire... They claim no time limitation for uploaded files... Let's see...

Edit 20-06-2007. Released version 1.5
Changelog:
1. Bugfix (of the Mplex_hack.exe component). The proper support for sources needing pulldown was nok. Solved. Thanks to Fishman0919 for the bug report, the excellent testing and the very appreciated support... Many thanks to manolito and to Nick who gave significant assistance and contributions on the same (not trivial) issue.
2. Bugfix + improvement (of the Mplex_hack.exe component). Audio delay parameters, when present in the mplex command line, were completely unsupported, breaking the plugin. These are now supported and passed to the authoring stage. Again many thanks to manolito for raising the issue up.
3. Version alignement (of the BatchMux.exe component). Release 1.0 of BatchMux.exe is now adopted. Due to the lack of support for the older releases, it is recommended to adopt this newer version of the authoring wrapper...

Edit 23-04-2007. Released version 1.4
Changelog:
1. Bugfix (of the SpuMux_hack.exe component). The support for srt subs was nok. Solved. Thanks to bionic for the bug report...
2. Improvement (of the Mplex_hack.exe component). It should be now able to directly support encodings based on CCE. Now chapters file should be properly created in case of CCE+fixed chapters. Very little testing performed, but it should work... Many thanks to manolito for the contribution...
3. Version alignement (of the BatchMux.exe component). Release 0.8 of BatchMux.exe is now adopted. It should have no impact for DVD2SVCD users...

Edit 03-10-2006. Released version 1.3
Changelog:
1. Bugfix (of the BatchMux.exe component). One change introduced in release 1.2 lead to the incorrect production of the muxman script, happening when no chapters are present in the title. The situation is quite rare, but still easily possible, in the DVD2SVCD usage.
2. Another bug is related to the wrong parsing of the -vidmode argument, never used in DVD2SVCD.
3. Slight functional improvements in the usage of the DvdProducer argument.
All of the above points are related to release 1.2, so, whoever downloaded and used release 1.2 is invited to update the plugin to version 1.3. People who is happy with release 1.1 may avoid to upgrade, since version 1.1 is still valid and effective. Sorry for the trouble.

Edit 24-09-2006. Released version 1.2
Changelog:
1. Just changed (quite heavily) the BatchMux.exe component. Other components unchanged. Since all of the implemented modifications do not - hopefully - have any impact on the plugin functionnalities for DVD2SVCD, people who is happy with release 1.1 is not specifically asked to upgrade to 1.2...

[manolito]

Thanks so much, SD!
Will start testing right away...

Cheers
manolito

[manolito]

Just did 3 short test conversions using DVD2DVD and AVI2DVD modes, and everything worked like a charm. In DVD2DVD mode I used 2 audio tracks and 3 sub streams without problems. In AVI2DVD mode I converted a captured AVI, first transcoding the audio from wav to mp2, then using Nick's AC3Enc plugin to convert audio to 2channel AC3. In both cases there also were no problems at all. Even the "chapter bug" with AC3ENC when using fixed chapters was magically gone!

Well, those were just some quick tests, and my folder structure for DVD2SVCD is simple (one work folder plus a separate folder for subs), but as far as I am concerned, BatchMux will be ready for a stable release very soon!

Thanks again to SD, this plugin really keeps DVD2SVCD at the top.

Cheers
manolito

[Sir Didymus]

...Even the "chapter bug" with AC3ENC when using fixed chapters was magically gone!


Hi manolito! :)

The reason is that now Mplex_hack generates a new chapter file for authoring (CellTimes.txt) starting from the chapters extracted from the DVD [if DVD chapters are used] or using just the Chapter length information available in the DVD.INI file [if fixed chapters are used]. In both cases the source information seems valid and unaffected by the "chapter bug".

The code used for the chapter generation is:


if (MovieFrames>MIN_FR_LAST_CHAP)
{
for (ChapPoint=ChaptersLength*VideoFps;
ChapPoint<MovieFrames-MIN_FR_LAST_CHAP;
ChapPoint+=(ChaptersLength*VideoFps))
{
fprintf(out,"%I64d\n", ChapPoint);
}
}


As a consequence, now the audio track is not involved any more in the calculation, and, in case of fixed chapters, the BatchMux plugin prevents the generation of a last chapter too short. Actually the parameter MIN_FR_LAST_CHAP is set to 10 seconds...

Cheers,
SD

[manolito]

Thanks for the explanation!

More test results:
I did a PVA2DVD encode over night, everything works perfectly.

Since I never use external subs, I don't know what else to test. I am completely happy with the plugin as it is now!

Thanks again,

Cheers
manolito

[Sir Didymus]

I am very happy too about what I hear so far... :)
Thanks to you for testing!

[ChickenMan]

Thanks Sir Didymus for a great plugin. :) I tried it last night in Batch mode on a few AVI's, with D2SRoba, Nicks AC3 batch file and your Muxman files and all worked perfectly together. Thank you.

One small problem however, I set the DVDAuthor's output folder to a different folder (normally on another HD) than set for the Default output folder. But the final VIDEO_TS folder is generated in the Default Output folder (where all the other DVD2SVCD files are generated) and not the folder I set. Can this be fixed?

As a minor request, is it possible to get the "Data Preparer" text as entered into DVD2SVCD imbeded into the output rather than the default text of "MPUCoder" produced by MuxMan ?

Keep up the good work, this has made DVD2SVCD the ultimate in AVI to DVD conversions.

[Sir Didymus]

...I tried it last night in Batch mode on a few AVI's, with D2SRoba, Nicks AC3 batch file and your Muxman files and all worked perfectly together...


Gulp...
I have to admit...
Never ever thought before to test BatchMux in Batch mode...
Lol... Nice to hear everything is almost ok...


One small problem however, I set the DVDAuthor's output folder to a different folder (normally on another HD) than set for the Default output folder. But the final VIDEO_TS folder is generated in the Default Output folder (where all the other DVD2SVCD files are generated) and not the folder I set. Can this be fixed?


This is a little "bug" in my brain, not in the plugin...
Hopefully it will be not difficult to fix... :cool:

Well, seriously, I take the opportunity of your question to spend few words about BatchMux.exe...

This is the "engine" of the plugin, which is basically a "wrapper" of MuxMan. BatchMux.exe is the single component of the plugin which is usable (and very useful, IMHO...) also outside DVD2SVCD - as a standalone command line application - enabling the usage of MuxMan with a rich set of command line arguments.

It is sufficient to launch it without arguments to get an help screen showing all of the supported options... This component is already fully parametric, needing no changes to implement what needs to be fixed.

The problem you discovered is a little design fault, depending ... hem ... on the limited analysis I did of the DVD2SVCD GUI... :o

Could you tell (or show) me what is exactely, in the GUI of DVD2SVCD, the panel and the editbox where you set the VIDEO_TS folder ?


As a minor request, is it possible to get the "Data Preparer" text as entered into DVD2SVCD imbeded into the output rather than the default text of "MPUCoder" produced by MuxMan ?

Mhhh. I don't know...
Basically, if it is possible to change the "MPUCoder" label through mxp scripting, the answer is yes...
But I am not sure on the matter...
I will check...


Keep up the good work, this has made DVD2SVCD the ultimate in AVI to DVD conversions.

Hei, thanks, ChickenMan.
DVD2SVCD is really a great suite...
and MuxMan is really a great authoring application...

Cheers,
SD

[manolito]

One small problem however, I set the DVDAuthor's output folder to a different folder (normally on another HD) than set for the Default output folder. But the final VIDEO_TS folder is generated in the Default Output folder (where all the other DVD2SVCD files are generated) and not the folder I set. Can this be fixed?This is a little "bug" in my brain, not in the plugin...
Hopefully it will be not difficult to fix... :cool:
Actually this should be very easy to fix. The "Authoring" folder can be found in DVD2SVCD.INI under "I-Author Folder". No problem for MPlex_Hack.exe to find this folder and create the VIDEO_TS folder there.
The reason for this little issue probably is that you cannot specify a folder for authoring under the "Misc" tab. This is because Mplex / DVDAuthor were added later to DVD2SVCD. Before this only Scenarist was supported, and there was no need to have separate folders for muxing and authoring.

Cheers
manolito

[ChickenMan]

Could you tell (or show) me what is exactely, in the GUI of DVD2SVCD, the panel and the editbox where you set the VIDEO_TS folder ?
You enter it in the DVD Image window with DVD Author selected as per

[manolito]

@ChickenMan
Until Sir Didymus releases a new version, there is an easy workaround for your problem. Batchmux creates the VIDEO_TS folder within the "Muxed" folder, not in the work folder. So you can just specify the desired output folder under the "Multiplexer" tab in DVD2SVCD. The "Mplex_Muxed_File00.mpg" which is also created in this folder is just a short dummy file.

Cheers
manolito

[ADLANCAS]

Is BatchMux (as a standalone command line application) able to create .mpg instead a .vob file ?

[Sir Didymus]

Actually this should be very easy to fix. The "Authoring" folder can be found in DVD2SVCD.INI under "I-Author Folder".

Ok! I see...


The reason for this little issue probably is that you cannot specify a folder for authoring under the "Misc" tab. This is because Mplex / DVDAuthor were added later to DVD2SVCD. Before this only Scenarist was supported, and there was no need to have separate folders for muxing and authoring.

Ok! I understand...
This is exactely the reason for the issue: in xxx2DVD modes, the I-Author button is not enabled; that made me assuming that all of the I-Author entries in the DVD2SVCD.INI file were unrelated to DVD Author, so I completely missed the authoring folder...


You enter it in the DVD Image window with DVD Author selected as per...


Ok!
I will fix the authoring folder issue with the next release of BatchMux - Hem... as soon as possible... in the early days of next week, most probably...


As a minor request, is it possible to get the "Data Preparer" text as entered into DVD2SVCD imbeded into the output rather than the default text of "MPUCoder" produced by MuxMan ?

Ok. Got it... It is the Preparer-ID field (32 bytes) in the video_ts.ifo...
It requires a little postprocessing step to be performed by the dvdauth_hack component...
It should also be available in the next release...


Is BatchMux (as a standalone command line application) able to create .mpg instead a .vob file ?

No. BatchMux.exe, as a standalone command line application, does not work as a muxer (i.e. it is completely different from ImagoMuxer or Mplex). It simply allows the usage of MuxMan with command line arguments. In other words it just launch MuxMan. The benefit (and the rationale for its existance) is that it does not require to write in advance a more or less complex script in order to use MuxMan: it takes the arguments, it create automatically a dedicated mxp script, and it launch MuxMan. That's all.

Cheers,
SD

[manolito]

Ok!
I will fix the authoring folder issue with the next release of BatchMux - Hem... as soon as possible... in the early days of next week, most probably...
Hi SD,
take your time, and I think you do not have to release the next version as Beta any more. I have been using your plugin exclusively since it came out, with 10 conversions at least, in AVI2DVD and DVD2DVD modes, and there simply is nothing to report. It just works perfectly!

Thanks and Cheers
manolito

[Nick]

Agreed. I have tested it with a number of DVD's and AVI's and even with files I have kept only for testing purposes due to their problematic nature. I just can't break it whatever I try :)

Good work SD. Added to the plugins sticky.

[manolito]

Just one quick question I'd like to ask before the final version comes out:
XmlFile set to --> I:\Movies\DVDAuthor.xml
WorkingFolder set to --> I:\Movies
Authoring Folder set to --> I:\Movies\VIDEO_TS
Mux Folder set to --> I:\Movies
Audio 0 set to --> --

This is the last part of the DVDAuthor log, right after the Muxman log. Audio 0 is set to nothing. Does this indicate a problem? The encode is just fine, the (one) MP2 audio track was muxed into the stream perfectly.

Cheers
manolito

/Edit
Too late, I just noticed that version 1.1 is already online. Downloading already...

[Sir Didymus]

You may find the link and the changelog in the first post of the thread...

Hem... apart the critical bugfix related to folders containing spaces, I did some large cleaning and review in the code, so better still considering the plugin as a beta, for a little while...

Future plans:

1. Short term: Bug fixing...

2. Medium term: Adding some multi VTS capabilities in BatchMux.exe. This will have no impact for DVD2SVCD users, but will make the core component of the plugin a little bit more general, making it more appealing for other usage, as a standalone application...

3. Long term: External encoding of the subpictures. Actually the Scenarist SST format is used. Adopting the Ifoedit SUP format seems leading to a significant speed up of the authoring, when a large number of subtitle streams is used...

Cheers,
SD

[Sir Didymus]

Oops...

Sorry manolito...
I was just uploading the file while you were posting...

Well, the "--" string is related to the audio language, and it means that the language is not specified...

If you set it in the the GUI to a specific language, it should be obeyed...

Anyway, it is a perfectly legitimate value...

Cheers,
SD

P.S. You will notice the log files changed a little bit... just formatting and readability... the content is more or less unchanged... Now the string above should read as "Audio 0 language --> -- "

[manolito]

Alright, cool!
And I really think you should announce the core BatchMux application in the Authoring thread also. I believe it certainly is stable enough to be useful for many Muxman users.

Cheers
manolito

[manolito]

Just finished a resumed mux / author session with the new version. I changed the target folder for the VIDEO_TS folder, and the report is very short:
Muxing / authoring was uneventful, everything worked as exspected. Which means that reviewing and cleaning the code seems to not have introduced any problems.

Cheers
manolito

[ChickenMan]

Just tried the new ver 1.1, works exactly as expected for me :) many thanks SD.

[Sir Didymus]

...Which means that reviewing and cleaning the code seems to not have introduced any problems...
...Just tried the new ver 1.1, works exactly as expected for me...

good reports...
me too tested a little bit more...
it seems this release 1.1 is quite solid... :-)

happy authoring!

[Matthew]

2. Medium term: Adding some multi VTS capabilities in BatchMux.exe.

Just curious, how will you do this?

Personally I included the structure/data in directories/filenames (e.g. VTS01_TIT01/P_OL_blah.m2v).

[Sir Didymus]

Hi Matthew! :)

Just for the benefits of casual readers, please remind BatchMux.exe (the authoring component of the BatchMux plugin) is a MuxMan wrapper. Nothing more nothing less.

Into this next medium term release, BatchMux.exe will have no navigation support, meaning that it will be able to use MuxMan 15P for producing DVD titles with multiple VTS, but all of the the navigation (including PGC precommands and postcommands) will be hardcoded, in order to perform a straight playback of the VTS, just one after the other...

In other terms, for the moment, no CLI arguments will be available in BatchMux.exe in order to do any organisational or navigational tasks [the "spreadsheet" and the "navigation", just to adopt the MuxMan terminology, will be added - if even - in a second time, i.e, future developments].

The definition of the BatchMux.exe frontend (the list of CLI arguments) is actually completed and it is totally conservative respect to the one available in the DVD2SVCD plugin version 1.1. I am especially happy about this because it will imply no changes of the other components, inside the plugin itself, carrying out the BatchMux arguments preparation.

Keeping the assets of the different VTS in different folders before authoring is a good practice. I do almost the same as in your example. BatchMux.exe is totally happy with this. To say the thruth, one of the reasons for the development was exactely the speed up of the re-authoring of different VTSs, in doing DVD backups, with a command line program.

Let me go deeper into this... Assuming you are in a scenario where you need to reauthor a DVD with two or three different VTS, one related to the main feature and two to the extras. In order to rehauthor the first VTS, you have to type, in a dos shell, in the folder where the main feature assets are placed, the needed BatchMux.exe commands (and that takes more or less the same as doing the job in the MuxMan GUI).

But then, all you need to do with BatchMux to author other VTS, in the different folders, is to move to these folders and recall the same command previously issued, just doing little tuning for changing some parameters (e.g. audio strams). That takes much less than redoing the job with the MuxMan GUI...

If you are so curious as you say, maybe you'd like to get a look at the CLI frontend for the next release (it will take a couple of weeks, more or less to complete the coding of version 0.5...)...


//
//============================================================================
//= BatchMux - version 0.6: Wrapper to use MuxMan 0.15P as a CLI application =
//= --> Limited functionalities but - No scripting + CLI interface :-) =
//============================================================================
//
// First release 18-07-2006
// Version 0.2 26-07-2006
// Version 0.3 19-08-2006
// Version 0.4 11-09-2006
// Version 0.5 24-09-2006
// Version 0.6 03-10-2006
//
//
// Arguments:
//
// -d destination_folder, mandatory
// -mxp target script_file, optional; default to C:BatchMux.mxp
// -l log_file, optional; default to C:MuxMan.log
// -muxman folder, place where to look for the MuxMan.exe file, optional, default
// NULL string, meaning the same folder where BatchMux is executed
// -palette palette_file, optional; ascii file with 16 colour entries (index,
// red, green, blue) adopted for redefining the default color palette
// used by MuxMan
// -preparer "32_char_string"; optional copyright string setting the DVD preparer
// field in the VIDEO_TS.IFO and VIDEO_TS.BUP files. Note: it is overridden
// by the -norun option
// -norun allows to open the MuxMan GUI, to load the script file and to stop
// -[SEGi]v video_file, mandatory; note: in all of the arguments with the
// "SEGi_" prefix, the i index should be an integer value, in the range
// [2...99]; also, segments sequence should be progressive: e.g if segment
// 4 is missed, all segment arguments from 5 to 99, if present, are ignored
// -[SEGi]vidmode 4:3 | PS_LB | PS | LB display mode for the video file,
// optional, if present and compatible with the actual video mode, it is
// honored, based on the authoring application rules; if not present, it is
// not included in the script
// -[SEGi]a1 audio1_file ... -a4 audio4_file; all optional;
// -[SEGi]a1lang xx ... -a4lang xx two characters language code for the audio
// files, all optional; default unspecified
// -[SEGi]a1ext 0|1|2|3|4 ... -a4ext 0|1|2|3|4 language extensions for the audio
// files, where 0 --> unspecified, 1 --> normal, 2 --> visually impaired,
// 3 --> director comments, 4 --> alternate director comments; all optional;
// default 1 - normal
// -[SEGi]a1delay xxx ... -a4delay xxx audio delays, positive and negative
// values, in ms, in the range [-300...300]; all optional; default 0
// -[SEGi]s1 subpic1_file ... -s8 subpic8_file; all optional
// -[SEGi]s1lang xx ... -s8lang xx two characters language code for the subpic
// files, default unspecified
// -[SEGi]s1ext 0|1|2|3|5|6|7|9|13|14|15 ... -s8ext 0|1|2|3|5|6|7|9|13|14|15
// language extensions for the subpicture files, where 0 --> unspecified,
// 1 --> normal, 2 --> large, 3 --> children 5 --> normal captions,
// 6 --> large captions, 7 --> children captions, 9 --> forced,
// 13 --> director comments, 14 --> large director comments,
// 15 --> children director comments; all optional; default 1 - normal
// -[SEGi]s1dmode LB | PAN | LB_PAN | WIDE | WIDE_LB | WIDE_PAN | WIDE_LB_PAN
// ...
// -[SEGi]s8dmode LB | PAN | LB_PAN | WIDE | WIDE_LB | WIDE_PAN | WIDE_LB_PAN
// display modes and track assignement for the subpicture streams;
// all optional; default --> unspecified if video A/R is 4:3,
// default --> WIDE_LB if video A/R is 16:9
// -[SEGi]celltc timecode_file; optional file containing chapter points in the
// hh:mm:ss:ff - 11 char fixed ndtc format
// -[SEGi]cellfr celltimes_file; optional file containing chapter points in the
// "usual" CellTimes format - plain frame indexes
//


Edit: reference code update to release 0.6...

[Matthew]

But then, all you need to do with BatchMux to author other VTS, in the different folders, is to move to these folders and recall the same command previously issued, just doing little tuning for changing some parameters (e.g. audio strams). That takes much less than redoing the job with the MuxMan GUI...

So each VTS multiplex operation will be performed using its own separate mxp script then?

If this is the case...how does implementing menu support fit into this?

Note that I have no intention of switching to your app as my own script generation suits me better atm (I have my own tools to demux dvds and perform avi->m2v/ac3 to the required input conventions), but I'd be quite happy to pinch any useful ideas ;)

[Sir Didymus]

So each VTS multiplex operation will be performed using its own separate mxp script then?

Yes, but just in the example I gave, that was describing some benefits of CLI... BatchMux, on its own, generates always a single script per session... The example I made, was intended to show, in case your reauthoring process implies multiple Muxman sessions, that adopting the CLI of BatchMux may speed up significantly the overall process. In this scenario you need usually other tools (demuxers, encodeers, and finally VobBlanker by Jsoto) to build up the reauthored DVD...


If this is the case...how does implementing menu support fit into this?

For the moment (or better, for the next release...) BatchMux will build up a single mxp script, allowing the generation of multiple VTS - one VTS per segment in the title domain. Organisational tasks, like placing segments in the VMG domain, or placing more than a segment into the same VTS, will be not supported atm... Maybe in a second time...


Note that I have no intention of switching to your app as my own script generation suits me better atm (I have my own tools to demux dvds and perform avi->m2v/ac3 to the required input conventions), but I'd be quite happy to pinch any useful ideas...

Well, I now understand better your question - sorry English is not my mother tongue, so I have sometimes troubles with this...

I am happy with your statement :-) I mean, I am aware advanced users of MuxMan would take advantage by BatchMux just for speeding up some ripetitive tasks, while other people, less familar about writing and modifying mxp scripts may be happier about BatchMux.exe...

But first of all I have to admit I should spend some words to describe very clearly what BatchMux is and what it does...

If you want to get a look to some samples of the scripts produced by BatchMux.exe, please PM me, or just wait some little while: I will post (in the proper forum, the Authoring one - I don't want to go too much OT here...) the next release of BatchMux.exe, together with some description and examples...

Cheers,
SD

[Matthew]

BatchMux, on its own, generates always a single script per session

Yup, I see that now...the command could get very long though, e.g. if there were lots of vtss and audio and subtitle streams.

[Sir Didymus]

Yes... :)
That's right... the length is proportional to the complexity of the project...
It takes more or less the same time as selecting and entering the entries in the GUI...
The nice aspect of the CLI is that, if needed, you can "recall", and then change and/or reuse the whole project with a single keystroke...

[Sir Didymus]

Release 1.2 of the plugin is available. It is an evolution step, not changing the plugin functionnalities for DVD2SVCD users, so whoever is happy with release 1.1 is not specifically suggested to switch to 1.2. The link is in the first post of the thread...

The single BatchMux.exe component has been changed (significantly) respect to release 1.1.

Since this (authoring) component of the plugin may be used outside of the plugin itself, some further details about BatchMux.exe are given in the authoring forum...

I did nor receive bug reports on the previous release, so I think both 1.1 and this 1.2 con be considered as stable versions...

Cheers,
SD

[manolito]

Here is a small extension for BatchMux users which does two things:

It overcomes a chapter creation issue when using CCE 2.70

It allows almost automatic PAL to NTSC conversion

Download here:
http://scifi.pages.at/manolito/CCE270/D2S_CCE2.70.zip


Cheers
manolito

[bionic]

You guys are doing an excellent job evolving d2s like this, much much appreciated :)

Unfortunately i do seem to have a problem with the batchmux plugin(latest version), i cant get subs to work when doing avi2dvd(havent tried any other modes)
D2s always errors out in the spumux stage, with a SpuMux failed for unknown reasons error.

I suspect it has something to do with the muxing stage as Mplex_hack produces a nonfunctional 12kb muxed file and a 0kb muxed subbed file, but thats a very uneducated guess. It does produce a 12kb file when doing no subs too though but the authoring still finishes proper.

Ive gone through the logs but id rather leave the interpretation to you experts.
Please take a look.

http://fileho.com/download/3b57f3397560/logs.rar.html

[Nick]

Seems to be a very odd AVI you're converting...
According to the logs, it's only a couple of minutes long (5055 frames) and audio conversion took less than a second :confused:

Try playing back the extracted and encoded audio files.

Is this as it expected? If not I suspect a corrupt AVI. The VDubMod trick in the AVI-problems sticky may help reconstruct it.

[bionic]

Thx for replying :)

Should have mentioned..Its just a clip i use to test, its an xvid with 2ch ac3 audio 3.30 mins long.

Have tried many different avi sources with both ac3 or mp3 audio. The moment subs are involved the batchmux plugin fails.
To sum up.
default dvdauthor and muxers with subs =ok
imago with subs =ok
imago+your excellent ac3 plugin and subs =ok
Batchmux =ok
Ac3plugin+batchmux =ok

batchmux with subs=error
Ac3plugin+batchmux with subs=error

[Sir Didymus]

Hi Bionic!

I will get a look asap to the logs. I have to say that the subs support, at the time of the development of the plugin was one of the most complex (and estensively tested) features implemented. I will report back to you as soon as I get a look to the logs...

Cheers,
SD

EDIT: OK. Just got through the log files... It seems that the first subpicture in your srt file has been converted, then the plugin broke down. Your info about the "strange" filesizes of some of the generated files are related to the normal behaviour of the plugin. It should generate a single bmp file for each of the png in the source directory, and then it should generate a sst file to import within muxman. In order to understand what it's going on it should be very helpful if you can post or send to sir_didimus (at) libero.it the original srt, in order to replicate the bug...

EDIT2: OK. I got through the segment of code, in spumux_hack, producing the error reported after the reading of the first picture in the srt file. I suspect that your source srt has been manually edited, breaking the srt format. According to the description here:

http://www.matroska.org/technical/specs/subtitles/srt.html

the srt assets should be composed by (a list of):
1. A number indicating the which subtitle it is in the sequence.
2. The time that the subtitle should appear on the screen, and then disappear.
3. The subtitle itself.
4. A blank line indicating the start of a new subtitle.

In the implementation supported by spumux_hack, each one of the items above should be present and it should be contained in a single line of the srt file...

[bionic]

Thx for looking into it.
I have sendt you the subs.

[Sir Didymus]

I see; it's a limitation of the current implementation supported by spumux_hack, that allows just a single line of text for each subtitle item in the srt file.

As I just checked, multiple lines should be supported, since the srt format allows them.

Involved modifications of the code are quite easy to implement. Tomorrow, most probably, I will send to you a PM with an updated version of spumux_hack.exe. It is the single component of the plugin affected. In case it solves the bug, I will distribute a new release of the plugin with the bug fix.

Many thanks for reporting the problem!

Cheers,
SD

[bionic]

Np, just glad i didnt waste your time.

I have recieved your pm and have tested with and without subs and im glad to report its now working proper.
Excellent work, thank you :)

[Sir Didymus]

OK. Excellent. I had also some doubts regarding the other sub format supported (MicroDVD) but it seems it shouldn't be affected by the same issue you have discovered...

So, thanks again for the report and testing...

Now that an update release of the plugin is necessary, I think it could be nice to take the opportunity for including in the plugin also the support to the usage of CCE 2.70, as provided by the brilliant solution of manolito, few post above...

All the best,
SD

[ChickenMan]

Sir Didymus, are you going to release your modified plugin that appears to have fixed the SRT subs problem. I ask as I have been having the same problems as bionic reported :(

[Sir Didymus]

Hi ChickenMan!

Afraid for the time it took to upload the new version of the plugin. You can get it at the first page of the thread...

Three component are updated in release 1.4 of the plugin:

1. the SpuMux_hack.exe component. The support for srt subs was nok. Solved. Thanks to bionic for the bug report...

2. the Mplex_hack.exe component. It should be now able to directly support encodings based on CCE. Now chapters file should be properly created even when CCE 2.7 is used. I did few testing on this, but I am quite confident it should work... Some confirmation will be appreciated...

3. the BatchMux.exe component. Release 0.8 of BatchMux.exe is now adopted. I am active on the developments related to this component, since other applications (like FAVC) may get significant benefits (for example in supporing menus in the batchmux sessions). It should have no impact for DVD2SVCD users, however...

Cheers,
SD

[manolito]

Hi SD,

thanks for the update. I cannot test the new Spumux_hack file (I never use subs), but I did test CCE 2.70 fixed chapter creation. Works like a charm.

Cheers
manolito

[bionic]

Manolito! thank you much sir for your work on evolving d2s

Sir Didymus, thank you for the updated plugin.
Are there any changes to spumux_hack other than those implemented when i tested it?

[Sir Didymus]

Hi manolito!


...but I did test CCE 2.70 fixed chapter creation...


Excellent!
:)

@bionic:
no; the spumux_hack component is the same I sent to you as a beta...

For whoever is interested in using the authoring component of the plugin (BatchMux.exe) outside DVD2SVCD, please consider that the release 0.8 of this component have a nasty bug (the file composer is broken). This have no impact for DVD2SVCD users, since this feature is not used in the plugin. However, the bugfix release of this component is available here (original thread in the authoring forum):

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=116297

Cheers,
SD

[ChickenMan]

Sir Didymus, thanks for the updates, very much appreciated and keep up the good work :)

[Fishman0919]

Having a problem getting BatchMux plugin started....

getting this error...

DvdAuth_hack: Version --> 0.5
XmlFile set to --> C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\DVDAuthor.xml
WorkingFolder set to --> C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie
Authoring Folder set to --> C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\VIDEO_TS
Mux Folder set to --> C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie
Audio 0 lang set to --> en
Error opening File C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Mplex_hack_dat.txt

[Sir Didymus]

Hi Fishman0919!

Could you post also the log file produced by Mplex_hack ?

It is supposed the missing configuration file needed by DvdAuth_hack is produced by Mplex_hack...

Cheers,
SD

[Fishman0919]

Sure, I'm at work now... I uninstalled and reinstalled DVD2SVCD and start the disc over again.... will post when I get home.

[Fishman0919]

Sorry, seems to be working fine now after reinstall everything....

but I noticed the chapter points are not correct for dvd to dvd

[Sir Didymus]

Well, to say the truth I am aware of a small glitch in the DVD2SVCD process affecting the positioning precision of the chapters...

:rolleyes:

The result is that, in average, the chapter positions can be ensured only within +/- 1.2 seconds (1 GOP). Are you referring to this effect or to something more critical ?

...If this is the case, I always assumed nobody would care about, since the glitch was present before the development of the BatchMux plugin, and the issue was not raised in the forum posts of the last two/three years... It seems the missed inclusion of the chapter points among the encoder parameters is the cause...

The problem is present for all x2DVD modes and both for dvd chapters and fixed chapters.

However, better to ask to Nick for some confirmation on the matter...

:)

Cheers,
SD

[Fishman0919]

The result is that, in average, the chapter positions can be ensured only within +/- 1.2 seconds (1 GOP). Are you referring to this effect or to something more critical ?

No, they are way off.... 5, 10 sec... 1, 2 mins off

If I use dvdauthor.exe they are within +/- 1.2 seconds

Running new disc now... will post after complete