PgcEdit v8.6 released (January 12, 2008)

[Robotik]

@r0lZ,
i know it's not fair to nag you about new features after such a tremendous job has just been done, but i read it in goonix's guide on "How to make a new menu or modify the background image of a menu (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=99306)" in this forum, that you've planned to add a feature to PgcEdit, that would export subpicture streams as bmp. is it going to happen?
whether it is or not, i'm grateful for this excellent piece of software, i'm only curious.

[Calimari]

Well, it's a possibility, but I have so many things to add or improve, that I'm not sure.


Sure, I guess you receive many ideas and requests, and you need to shift a little. Anyway, it's nice to hear the maintenance of this jewel goes on and on. I hardly can't wait to see the next release.

In the meantime, I would like to quote Robotik
@r0lZ,
whether it is or not, i'm grateful for this excellent piece of software.

[2COOL]

r0lZ,

In the Menu Buttons dialog, there is the Image buttons (frame skip). May we have that as a slide bar instead of buttons? Sometimes for some menus, I have to click forward alot of times for me to get the right frame to view the menu words. I think there is enough room for it.

[Robotik]

good idea. also, as we are such insatiable little dorks, is it possible to have prev/next buttons on the top next to the cell selector, as an alternative for selecting a cell? when there are a lot of cells and you are looking for the one of them, it can be a little inconvenient to select the cell from the list again and again.

[r0lZ]

@Robotik:
Saving a subpicture as BMP cannot be made directly by PgcEdit. However, that should be possible with the PgcEditPreview, written by jeanl. So, ask him! ;)

@2COOL:
No, sorry, your request is impossible to implement for 2 reasons. The background image is generated by the PgcEditPreview (again!) and is written on disc. Therefore, the method is too slow to allow a slide bar. Furthermore, PgcEdit doesn't know how many I frames are available in the portion of the video covered by the subpics, and it is impossible to program a slide bar without specifying how many steps it must have.
However, you can skip 4 I frames (and jump directly to the 5th one) by clicking on the < or > button with the right mouse button.

@Robotik again:
The prev/next buttons to select a cell are possible, but I don't want to charge the GUI with too many buttons. Maybe I'll do it, but I want to work on the verifier before, and that's a lot of work. Anyway, I'm in holidays now, and I have the intention to work less during this summer! :cool:

[Robotik]

thanks, and have a nice holiday! (i wouldn't touch a computer with a 5 ft pole on vacation, so shouldn't you :D) anyway, your herd is waiting here, and thinking about even more twisted requests! :D

[Robotik]

@Robotik:
Saving a subpicture as BMP cannot be made directly by PgcEdit. However, that should be possible with the PgcEditPreview, written by jeanl. So, ask him! ;)
jeanl, can you hear us? :) is it possible, pleeeeeeeeease?

[whocarez]

Hello I have 8.0 and tried copying the new one(8.1) in that directory and it won't work (may be a Vista thing) but when I copy the older , it works again. I dislike vista!
but it does give a cool clipping tool for screen capture. attached is the error screen.
thanks

[Robotik]

this folder and his parent? when did a folder become a person??? :D

[r0lZ]

Whocarez, this kind of error occurs usually when the config file is corrupted. Try to delete it (or move it to another folder.)
The config file is: "C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name>\Application Data\PgcEdit\pgcedit.cfg".

Also, try to download PgcEdit again.

@Robotik: Touché!
It's now corrected.

[blutach]

I think this is a translation from La Français!

Regards

[whocarez]

Hello,
I went to "my computer and tried to find the folder and it didn't show it. So I then went to a command prompt and found it . but when I got to the folder and tried to move the file it said "access denied". I tried then to use the old attrib command( but its been awhile so I may have used it incorrectly) and it more or less said NO.:confused:

The more I use Vista , the more I miss XP. (who am I kidding, I still ms dos :)

[r0lZ]

Luckily, I don't use Vista. But under XP, the Application Data folder is hidden. Try to change the Show Hidden Files and Folders option in Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View tab.
If that doesn't help, use PgcEdit's Options -> Install -> Uninstall PgcEdit. (However, I'm not sure this procedure works fine under Vista.)
You could also try to log in with administrator rights. In that case, deleting a file should be possible anyway.

[blutach]

Maybe try running the app in XP Compatibility mode.

Regards

[whocarez]

Hello again,
I got it to finally show the folder..
It won't let me go there. I tried editing access and it kept telling me NO. It let me check the boxes, but when I click apply... it still says NO.

I also already tried the XP compat mode, same results as when not that way.. oh well thanks for your attempts, Guess I will just use the 8.0 version.. no bigggie.
cya's

[Calimari]

Hello again,
I tried editing access and it kept telling me NO. It let me check the boxes, but when I click apply... it still says NO.


You don't have to change the rights. I've checked on my XP SP2 machine, which has a restricted user account for my kids. I logged in and ran PgcEdit. Then I went to the application data folder and was able to delete the pgcedit.cfg file without any problem.
Are you sure you're looking in your own application data folder? Are there more users on your machine?

[Calimari]

@rOLZ
Did you get my latest PM's? Might be some important info.

[whocarez]

You don't have to change the rights. I've checked on my XP SP2 machine, which has a restricted user account for my kids. I logged in and ran PgcEdit. Then I went to the application data folder and was able to delete the pgcedit.cfg file without any problem.
Are you sure you're looking in your own application data folder? Are there more users on your machine?

I don't have this computer setup for more users.
I should have admin rights for all. Its kinda a pain in the butt, on this computer. Everytime I goto do something in a subdir. a screen pops up for me to verify that its ok for me to that.??:confused: Why I need to verify my own actions puzzles me. What does it think I am going to do, get into a split personailty battle with myself on changes?

[SamuriHL]

I don't have this computer setup for more users.
I should have admin rights for all. Its kinda a pain in the butt, on this computer. Everytime I goto do something in a subdir. a screen pops up for me to verify that its ok for me to that.??:confused: Why I need to verify my own actions puzzles me. What does it think I am going to do, get into a split personailty battle with myself on changes?

It's UAC that's preventing this. If you don't need UAC, you can disable it easy enough and that should prevent this problem from happening again. However, MS somehow believes UAC will save the world...personally, it's the first thing I turn off on a Vista machine.

[strayerboy]

Thanks very much for the great effort. Just looking at the list takes quite a while.

[whocarez]

What is UAC??? if its causing all these prob.s I want to turn it off.

[SamuriHL]

UAC is that stupid dialog that pops up every time you do something and says "are you sure you know what the hell you're doing?!" :D Seriously, though, this link should explain what UAC is:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa906021.aspx

To turn it off you can go into the User Account control panel.

[whocarez]

Hello, and thanks all... I turned of UAC(dumbest thing I have ever seen) renamed the cfg file(in case things didn't work), and started 8.1 with no more prob.s
Why do they think we need to verify every step we make????

[r0lZ]

Glad it worked. However, I don't understand why v8.1 doesn't work with UAC, and v8.0 has no problems. Nothing has changed regarding security, and what is saved on disc and when.

The only thing I can think about is the auto-updater feature. This is a new feature of 8.1. When "Options -> Startup -> Check for new version at startup" is enabled, PgcEdit tries to read a little file containing the latest PgcEdit version number on my homepage, each time you launch it. Maybe there is something in UAC or the Windoze firewall that doesn't like that? However, it's strange, as this option is disabled by default.

I would greatly appreciate if someone unlucky enough to have Vista can help determine the cause of the problem.

[whocarez]

UAC wouldn't let me get to or delete pgcedit.cfg (or in my case rename) once that file was gone 8.1 worked.

[SamuriHL]

@whocarez

Are you running as a standard user or an administrator under Vista? My gut instinct tells me that you're a standard user and that is why it won't let you write to that directory with UAC on. As an administrator, it should simply prompt you with the "do you really know what you're doing?!" annoying dialog. As a standard user, I'm not sure if it'd prompt for the admin password or whether it would simply deny access. I don't have any standard users on my machine nor do I have UAC turned on right now. I suppose if this issue can't be determined, I can certainly turn UAC back on and check it out.

[r0lZ]

Well, I know the guys at M$ are stupid, but obviously, a program MUST be able to write in its application data folder, otherwise I wonder how it is still possible to run a program under Vista! Therefore, PgcEdit should be able to read and write its config file. Since there is absolutely no reason to let v8.1 write in appdata but not v8.2, v8.2 MUST work also. I really don't understand what happens.

Whocarez, are you sure v8.2's exe is not flagged with a stupid flag saying that it has been downloaded from the internet and that it is potentially dangerous? Have you downloaded the v8.2 archive, or directly the standalone executable? Have you downloaded it with Internet Explorer or with a descent browser like Firefox?

[SamuriHL]

Applications written with the assumption that the user will be running with administrator privileges experienced problems in earlier versions of Windows when run from limited user accounts; often because they attempted to write to machine-wide or system directories (such as Program Files) or registry keys (notably HKLM)[1]. UAC attempts to alleviate this using File and Registry Virtualization, which redirects writes (and subsequent reads) to a per-user location within the user’s profile. For example, if an application attempts to write to “C:\program files\appname\settings.ini” and the user doesn’t have permissions to write to that directory, the write will get redirected to “C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\appname\.”


Source: UAC Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Account_Control)

[r0lZ]

Thanks, but since PgcEdit writes its config file in "C:\documents and settings\username\Application Data\PgcEdit\" and that folder is owned by the current user, again, that should work.
Anyway, again, I haven't changed the config folder between v8.0 and v8.1, so, if v8.0 works, v8.1 should work also.

[Robotik]

you mean between 8.0 and 8.1

[SamuriHL]

Thanks, but since PgcEdit writes its config file in "C:\documents and settings\username\Application Data\PgcEdit\" and that folder is owned by the current user, again, that should work.
Anyway, again, I haven't changed the config folder between v8.1 and v8.2, so, if v8.1 works, v8.2 should work also.

So on Vista, that equates to:

"C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\PgcEdit"

Vista automagically redirects files all over the place in an attempt to keep things neat and tidy. But yes, they most DEFINITELY should be able to write to that folder. Why turning UAC off affected anything I'm not sure, but, it did seem to help their problem.

[r0lZ]

you mean between 8.0 and 8.1Oops, yes!

[r0lZ]

So on Vista, that equates to:

"C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\PgcEdit"
So, they have changed the appdata path, and written something to redirect the files to the new path? That's incredibly stupid!
Anyway, PgcEdit uses the appdata path defined by the system, not an hardcoded path. So, it should write directly in the correct folder.
I continue to think that the new version is flagged with something that inhibits the normal rights to read and/or write to the folder. There is already something similar in WinXP when you download an exe with IExplore. Whocarez, can you verify the properties of PgcEdit.exe?

[SamuriHL]

So, they have changed the appdata path, and written something to redirect the files to the new path? That's incredibly stupid!
Anyway, PgcEdit uses the appdata path defined by the system, not an hardcoded path. So, it should write directly in the correct folder.
I continue to think that the new version is flagged with something that inhibits the normal rights to read and/or write to the folder. There is already something similar in Win2K when you download an exe with IExplore. Whocarez, can you verify the properties of PgcEdit.exe?

Beats me on the properties, but, I can tell you *I* have no issue at all with PGCEdit 8.1 writing the cfg file. But, then, I'm not using UAC. I can't for the life of me figure out where his problem lies, though...even WITH UAC he should DEFINITELY have full access to the folder!!

[r0lZ]

I agree, but when WinXP thinks that a program has been downloaded from the internet, it handles it differently, because of the risk of viruses. Maybe it's something similar happening here.

[SamuriHL]

It's possible. I downloaded the zip file and extracted it to my tools directory. But I do see what you're saying and it's very possible.

[r0lZ]

This is why I need to know if whocarez has downloaded the zip or the exe. I might have to remove the possibility to download the unzipped exe on my homepage.

[whocarez]

Hello, I dl'ed pgcedit_winexe.zip .
I use Avant Browser and Download excellarator plus (and yes I can't spell) I opened the file with Winzip(full reg version)and clicked and dragged it to \program files\pgcedit , and I let is make a copy of the old file "pgcedit(2).exe" just in case the new file had problems with Vista. This is a one user computer(everyone, me and my wife and son just turn it on , no logging on, just hit the power button). Under users only my name is there. I never had this kind of probs with any of our XP machines, (or even way back with the old win95).
everything seems fine now that UAC is off (for GOOD, thanks again for the info) only other info I can think of is I do have wizard mode plug-in.

[whocarez]

oh yeah , and here is how the permission is set under property's

[SamuriHL]

That's just freaky bizarre. A one user machine means you're an administrator so you'd have access to all directories even with UAC turned on. I wish I had an explanation for this one, but, I simply don't. :/ It's good that it's working, but, it doesn't help determine why it failed in the first place, I'm afraid.

[r0lZ]

Have you enabled the check for update at startup option? I guess this option could cause a problem with a picky firewall.

Anyway, the best thing to do is to drop Vista, and use XP or Linux! :p

[Calimari]

Anyway, the best thing to do is to drop Vista, and use XP or Linux! :p

I've set my first steps in Linux land. I have one machine Windows-free, running Ubuntu 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" and I would recommend this to anyone who wants to steer away from Windows. However, I'm afraid that the use of some important videotools still requires Windows. Luckily, PgcEdit has a Linux version, but some other (Windows based) tools just don't run smoothly under the Wine layer (yet).

[SamuriHL]

Linux is fine for a lot of things, but, there's a lot of things I can do in Windows that are either much harder in Linux or not possible at all. Vista gets a bad rap, IMO. Most of the problems I've seen people complain about(not all, but, most) are related to the STUPID and USELESS UAC. I hate that thing with a passion. If everyone got rid of that the world would be a happier place. :) Of course, I left it on my daughter's machine just to annoy her. :D HEHEHEHEHE.

P.S. Just so you don't think I'm anti-linux, I have an Ubuntu server in the basement that simply ROCKS. So I DO like Linux a LOT.

[whocarez]

r0lZ, you have a dead link on your page,(it looked to be interesting, so I wanted to go read it)

[blutach]

Hopefully, that link should be back up soon.

In the meantime, the guide can be sourced here (http://www.digital-digest.com/~blutach/48866.pdf).

Regards

[Dr.Khron]

Hey, just used the "Jump to PGC" Macro for the first time!!!
(I like to do things manually, and I got stuck in my ways)

Thanks again, r0lZ!
The macro is very well designed and works flawlessly.

[whocarez]

I don't know if this could have been my problem b4 but I am also running norton security suite.(doesn't really matter since 8.1 works now)
thanks for everything
ps , what is muxman?

[r0lZ]

Hopefully, that link should be back up soon.
It is back! Thanks blu!

@Dr.Khron: Thanks for your appreciation! :)

[r0lZ]

I don't know if this could have been my problem b4 but I am also running norton security suite.(doesn't really matter since 8.1 works now)
thanks for everything
ps , what is muxman?
Maybe Norton is responsible, IF you have enabled the option to check for new versions at startup, but I don't think so, since v8.1 works now and you haven't disabled norton, right?

Muxman is a DVD authoring tool written by mpucoder. It is probably the best muxer. You can download a free version (with a somewhat basic GUI) here (http://www.mpucoder.com/Muxman/).

[Robotik]

In the meantime, the guide can be sourced here (http://www.digital-digest.com/~blutach/48866.pdf).

off
hi Blu, i've read your guide and it's cool, but wouldn't it be simpler to split the end credits with VobBlanker and then use VobBlanker's 'still' function on each cell to create the stills? this way you can keep music, and don't have to worry about timing, either.
sorry to be off-topic