Not able to author DVDs in Linux

[ramirez123]

Hi everybody,

I have a really big problem.

OK, let´s start:

I usually author DVDs with Ulead DVD PowerTools2 without any problems.

I only have problems when I want to realize it with Linux:

I use a Hauppauge PVR-150 Capture-Card
I use SuSE 10.1
I make my records with MythTV 0.19 with these capture settings:
Video-Resolution:
352x576 (Half-PAL)
Used-Format: DVD
Ratio: 4:3
Bitrate: 2800
Max. Bitrate: 2800
Audio:
48000 kHz
Type: mp2
Bitrate: 224

I use AVIDemux 2.2.0 r2091 for cutting out the commercials.
I always save the movie with these settings:
Video-Format: mpeg video (copy)
Audio-Format: copy

This will produce me my Audio und Video-File
movie.m2v and movie.mpa

I multiplex these with mplex:

mplex -f 8 -o movie.mpg movie.m2v movie.mpa

For dvd-authoring I use qdvdauthor version 0.1.1 which produce me the ISO-File that I burn with k3b version 0.12.14

When I make a preview with xine or mplayer (content of VIDEO_TS Folder), everything works fine.
Also when I watch the DVD (content of VIDEO_TS Folder) it works fine with my favourite DVD-Player Appication.

But when I watch my burned DVD at my Hardware-Player (note that it always works with the DVDs created by Ulead DVD PowerTools2 - so it is not a problem with the burner!!!) the main menu is fine, but when I want to watch my movie following happens:

The movie is OK for about 1 second, then it jumps 2 seconds forwards then again 1 second OK, then jumps again 2 seconds forward.

And the sound comes every xx seconds, and then only a fragment with xx miliseconds.

Maybe anyone has an idea, or can help me ?

I have a dual-boot system with a 2GB FAT32-Partition, so I make my records with Linux and then I have to copy the movie to my FAT32 Partition - Then boot into Windows, author the DVD and burn the DVD. This is eventually OK, but when I have Files that are bigger than 2GB, I have to split my movie into 2 Parts, and this takes sooo long time.

Hope anyone has more experience with authoring DVDs with LINUX.

Best wishes and million thx for you replies....

[lpn1160]

I think captureing direct to mpeg whether in linux or M$ causes problems especially when edits need to be done. I think one should always capture direct to .avi either with mjpeg or ljpeg or huffy. much easier and better end result quality

[shevegen]

Also a problem is that there are not so many really nice documents for linux in general.
Sure there are thousands of wise people, and good examples for
single programs, but as my previous poster pointed out... thats a
unique knowledge gem :)

[ramirez123]

Thx for your replies.

But when I capture in avi-format it also doesnt´t work (after re-encoding to mpeg with transcode... I did it once with an anaolg-card).

But the point is, that I want to safe time (This is the reason, why I bought the PVR-150 - because it records directly into mpeg-format), and the point is, that I want to burn them into DVDs that I can watch at standard-players.

But anyway, thx for your replies.

Still hope, that someone can help me to solve my problems....

best regards

[nm]

Have you tried any other authoring program (such as DVDStyler (http://dvdstyler.sourceforge.net/)) and burning manually with growisofs (like this: http://www.brandonhutchinson.com/Burning_Video_DVDs_in_Linux.html)?

[ramirez123]

Thx nm, I tried it out but without any success.

I think that this is maybe a problem with dvdauthor ?!?

This is what I did:

wrote a little shell-script:

#!/bin/sh

mkfifo aud0
mkfifo vid0
mkfifo dvdmpg

mpeg2desc -a0 < $1 > aud0 &
mpeg2desc -v0 < $1 > vid0 &
mplex -f 8 -V -o dvdmpg aud0 vid0 &
dvdauthor -o $2 -f dvdmpg
dvdauthor -o $2 -T

rm aud0
rm vid0
rm dvdmpg

made an iso-file
(mkisofs -dvd-video -udf -o movie.iso /tmp/)

Then I burned it, and still have the same problems...

Is there anyone who use a similar configuration/combination of applications (MythTV + PVR-150) ?

Thx

[nm]

I bet there are lots of people with similar setup at the MythTV mailing lists ;)

[juicemansam]

What do the /var/log/messages (or dmesg) say during a burn or rip? If you're getting "DriveReady SeekComplete Error" errors, that might indicate a failing drive. I had a drive produce bad discs, in which the only symptom was skipping video. The drive supposedly worked flawlessly in Windows, but in Linux it produced those errors. If you can, toss in another drive and test it.

[ramirez123]

Thx juicemansam,

But it is not a problem with my burner:

I updated my mythtv to 0.20 and burned directly from mythtv, with the result, that the menu is correct - this means that I created a menu with music and when I play the DVD at my standalone DVD-Recorder, I can hear the music without any problems. Only when I want to watch the main movie, I have the same effect as described above.

So I think that it is a general problem with the PVR-150 Card - Not a mythtv-problem, not a dvdauthor-problem (MythTV saves the mpeg2-stream direct from the card without re-encoding...).

Maybe there are some adjustments at the module possible.

But as I said, I think that it is a problem with the PVR-150

Does anyone uses Linux with a PVR-150 and author DVDs ?

I could not image that I am the only one ?

Thx for your answers...

Best regards

[Amnon82]

Tryout dvdwizard (http://www.wershofen.de/downloads/dvdwizard.tar.gz) to do it. It uses MPEG-files directly. I did a converted AVI including an AC3Stream perfectly. I did the convert also with AVIDemux.

Usage: dvdwizard [options] mpeg-file(s)

miscellaneous options:
----------------------
-h | --help print this lot out
-v | --version print version and exit

general processing:
-------------------
-C | --config-file filename of dvdwizard-configuration file
[~/.dvdwizard/dvdwizard.conf]
-o | --output Path where the final DVD will be stored [$BASEDIR/dvd]
-x | --xml Print dvdauthor XML-specs into this file
[$BASEDIR/dvdwizard.xml]
-l | --logfile Write Log-Messages to this file [$BASEDIR/dvdwizard.log]
--restart Do not start from beginning but from step x
x may be dvdcpics, mk_vmgm, mk_vtsm, author
--xmlonly Do not author final DVD, only create menus and xml

Note: $BASEDIR defaults to the current directory if not stated otherwise in the
config file (either default ~/.dvdwizard/dvdwizard.conf or specified with the -C
option)

DVD-specific options:
---------------------
-T | --vmgm DVD-Title <string> Titlestring for the whole DVD [-t]
if not specified, Titlestring from the first Title on the
DVD will be used
-B | --vmgmbg Background-Picture for VMGM-Menu
-N | --tvnorm TV-Norm to use <PAL|NTSC> [PAL]
-V | --tvsize Visible Area on TV-Screen <XxY> [635x535]
-WS Widescreen-Option (nopanscan or noletterbox) for whole DVD
may be overwritten by -ws for a specific titleset
-P | --palette Name of palette File, needed i. E. for subpictures
-A | --Audio language for audiotracks. <lang1,lang2,...,langn> [de,en]
for each different audio-track format (mp2,ac3), assignment of
language starts from beginning of list. first mp2 and ac3 track
found in stream will be assigned to "lang1", second track to
"lang2" etc.
applies to all titlesets on the DVD, may be overwritten by -a
for a specific titleset
--audio-seq Assign languages in sequential mode, regardless of audio formats
--notitle Suppressed printing of DVD-Title on VMGM-Menu

Title-specific options:
-----------------------
-t | --vts Create a new titleset on the DVD with the subsequent options and
mpeg-files.
-t must be followed by a filename or a string or the word "auto"
"auto" determines title-string from filename of first mpeg-file,
if -t is followed by an existing filename, that file is considered
to be the first mpeg in this titleset, else the string is used as
movie title for this titleset
-c | --chapters Chapter-Specification <0|file|timecodes|interval> [300]
0 means no chaptering except for different mpeg-files
-b | --vtsmbg Background-Picture for VTSM-Menu
-ws Widescreen-Option (nopanscan or noletterbox) for this titleset
-a | --audio see -A, but only applies to this titleset
-s | --subpic pass subpicture information to dvdauthor.
This is a string like "en" for english, "de" for German etc.
More Languages by Comma Separation, i.e. "-s de,en".

Note: Every new "-t" creates a new titleset on the DVD. Subsequent options -c,
-b and -a and mpeg-file(s) apply only to that titleset. To create a DVD with 2
titlesets, use for example:
dvdwizard -t auto -c 300 title1.mpg -t auto -b background.ppm title2.mpg