AVStoDVD Support Thread

[MrC]

I was probably too vague or missed something. Audio won't downmix from 5.1 to 2.0 when I manually set it that way in AVStoDVD. I checked the modified AC3 with DGIndex and it says 3/2 192 kbps, but I wanted stereo 192 kbps.

The FAQ hint is valid anyway, even if the channels scenarios are opposite.

What directshow AC3 filter do you use? If the answer is ffdshow, then AVStoDVD (should) take care of channels configuration, if the answer is something else (i.e. AC3Filter), you have to manually setup the filter mixer to 2.0 channels.

;)

Bye

[Flux]

Probably ffdshow because I don't have AC3Filter installed. MPCHC shows ffdshow audio processor and LAV audio decoder for DVD playback. When I play AC3 file, there is also MPC DTS/AC3/DD+ Source. I'm using mixer from ffdshow which has been set for 2/0/0 - stereo.

For now, I just downmix the AC3 audio with MeGUI and use that with AVStoDVD. That way I get stereo track for DVD.

[MrC]

1. If you use GraphEdit to render the input title, is ffdshow displayed as audio decoder?

2. Could you please post the project log file?

;)

Bye

[Flux]

Project log file as an attached file.

I don't have GraphEdit because it requires SDK installation and not familiar with it either. Maybe later.

With A2Dsource I get stereo downmix. Same with DirectShowSource. FFMpegSource seems to keep 5.1 even when set to 2.0 from AVStoDVD audio setup.

From some reason built-in PAL speedup doesn't work for me. It only changes frame rate, but audio is out of sync. I'm adding AssumeFPS(25,true).SSRC(48000) to the end of the script. A2Dsource and DirectShowSource also requires manual change for their frame rate setting from 25 to 23.976.

I'm using FFMpegSource because it seems to give smoothest videos. Sometimes A2D and DSS produce video stuttering.

[yab_tater]

I have added a music track to my menu background, but I cannot figure out how to make the track playback loop. Right now in my DVDs, the track plays once, reaches the end, and then dead silence. I am using a static background in my DVDs. Thanks for having a look. :)

[MrC]

@Flux

with A2DSource and DSS you get downmix because output audio channels configuration is driven by the direcshow filter mixer (i.e. ffdshow). FFMS instead needs a proper audio channels remixing using AviSynth. In the next release I will add this capability (thanks to Tebasuna downmix functions ;) ).

PAL SpeedUp works only if input video is detected as 23.976 fps. In your project the input source is VFR (variable frame rate). But you can force AVStoDVD to believe that source title has 23.976 fps. Just use 'Title'/'Edit Source Title Info'/'Video FrameRate' option. Remember to toggle on 'PAL SpeedUp' from 'Preferences'/'AviSynth' before adding the source title.


@yab_tater

if menu is Static, then audio will not loop. To have menu looping you have to make a Motion menu, with video and audio.


;)

Bye

[8ternity]

It was related to some mismatching values stored in Win Registry. It should have been solved in 2.5.0. If not, let me know

Thanks for the report

;)

Bye

I will download it again and tested again and let you know when possible.

thanks.

[Pawpcorn]

Hello, MrC!

I was wondering if there is any "user handle" for being able to set the "Target Video FileSize:" size parameter, that gets passed for each video, to Hcenc, by AVS2DVD prior to encoding?

Here's my situation, and the resulting problem, and my current work-around:

I'm building a series of DVD videos for my Thai English students, which include 5 videos on each DVD:
DVD Menu of "I, Robot", my latest project (http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/7527/menuscreencapture.jpg)
1) Trailer
2) The Making Of ...
3) OST Original Soundtrack Music
4) Main Movie, with 2 subtitles available
5) Main Movie with burned in DUAL subtitles

Here's my problem: the OST really consists of a single jpg slide that's just a static CD album picture, non-changing throughout the hour-long music album.

Since it's just a static slide, (and the music is what's important) it really doesn't need more than about a 400 maximum bit rate, and 200 bit rate, to look fine.

I know I can set these 2 values by having the "Edit Encoder Command Parameters at Runtime" checked, and then modifying the HCenc Command INI file "MAXBITRATE" and "BITRATE" settings.

The results of the OST file are fine, because, as you know, it is possible by using these settings, to REDUCE the SIZE of the resultant m2v file below the initial file size parameter "Target Video FileSize:" that you pass to Hcenc.

The PROBLEM is (in the case of the MAIN Movies) that you can't use these same (HCenc Command INI file "MAXBITRATE" and "BITRATE") settings to EXPAND the size (or bit rates used) beyond what was passed as "Target Video FileSize:" to Hcenc.

Thus, you can shrink the file size, but you can't expand the file size, using the Hcenc ini menu. Apparently the "Target Video FileSize:" parameter sets a "hard ceiling" upon the encoding process within Hcenc, not allowing the resultant file size to expand beyond this setting, no matter WHAT larger numbers you pump into the "MAXBITRATE" and "BITRATE" settings.

Since AVS2DVD performs the initial file size estimates apparently based upon the DURATION of each video, the estimate for the OST "movie" file size is MUCH LARGER than required, and thus the AVS2DVD estimate for the file size of the MAIN movies is MUCH SMALLER than desired.

Thus I end up with a DVD with a GB or so of empty space, and lower-than-desired quality on the main movies.

My current work-around is:

1) I perform an encoding process using the defaults of AVS2DVD.

2) I save the satisfactory results of the "Trailer" and "The Making of..." m2v video file for the final muxman process, in the end.

3) I create, manually, using AVS2DVD (and Hcenc), the proper size OST Video m2v video file, (manually setting the Hcenc ini settings for the proper small file size), and .ac3 file, and save these .m2v and .ac3 files, for the final muxman process at the end.

4) I then look at the log file to see what the estimated file size was going to be for the OST video.Then I try to calculate what size a fake OST file would be needed to be to produce the desired results of getting the correct file sizes ("Target Video FileSize:") for the two main videos. This gets complicated by the fact that once I reduce the size of the OST video file (with the fake file) the AVS2DVD program also boosts the size of the TRAILER video and the "The Making Of" videos, larger too! {headache forming lol}

5) I create this fake OST video, then make a new AVS2DVD project again, setting up the DVD menu, and run AVS2DVD again, with the "Edit Encoder Command Parameters at Runtime" ticked. I close every Hcenc ini menu that comes up, accepting the defaults.

6) When the menu for MuxMan comes up, I stop... and go to where I stored the Trailer, OST, and "The Making Of..." files, (including the chapters.txt file for the OST, which I've customized with the actual start locations of each music piece) and RENAME the files to the same name as the current project. I SAVE all of the current project files off in temporary storage, then overwrite the current project files with the previously stored Trailer, OST and "Making" video, audio, and chapter files. Then I close the MuxMan menu screen, so the AVS2DVD process can complete.

7) Then I manually use ImageBurn to burn a DVD ISO image, to test the results: Fits on a single 4.7GB DVD? Not too much slack space on the DVD?

8) If unsatisfactory results, then I must resize the Fake OST video AGAIN, and refresh the OST video in the AVS2DVD project (so the NEW Fake OST file size will be used in the next attempt) then rebuild the DVD Menu again, which got destroyed by refreshing the OST video.

9) Go back to mid-step 5 and repeat.

Clearly... so many variables are involved that this ends up being somewhat a trial-and-error process, VERY time consuming (as each project attempt takes 3 hours minimum) and a number of attempts, while fine tuning the end result.

It would be SO great if I could just specify the desired "Target Video FileSize:" right off the bat, since I already KNOW what I want, at the beginning.

Since the behavior of Hcenc doesn't allow me (via the MaxBitRate and BitRate .ini file settings) to create a LARGER file size than specified in the AVS2DVD "Target Video FileSize:" parameter, I'm forced to jump through these many many hoops just in order to trick the AVS2DVD program to send a LARGER "Target Video FileSize:" parameter to the Hcenc program.

Any chance for a manual "handle" on "Target Video FileSize:"?

As always, thanks for your wonderful AVS2DVD program, with the splendid DVD Menu. I am very appreciative of this fine program of yours.

Respectfully,
Gerald

[MrC]

Hi there again Gerald,

I'm very happy to read you are still using AVStoDVD to create educational DVD for your students.

About the issue, have you tried simply changing manually the avg video bitrate:
- 'Edit Title'/'Video'
- toggle off 'Auto Video Setup' and 'Auto Bitrate'
- change default bitrate as you want

Doing that, you will get also legal output size decrease/increase and the cop "Target Video FileSize" will let you pass.

Let me know

;)

Bye

[Pawpcorn]

Hi there again Gerald,

I'm very happy to read you are still using AVStoDVD to create educational DVD for your students.

About the issue, have you tried simply changing manually the avg video bitrate:
- 'Edit Title'/'Video'
- toggle off 'Auto Video Setup' and 'Auto Bitrate'
- change default bitrate as you want

Doing that, you will get also legal output size decrease/increase and the cop "Target Video FileSize" will let you pass.

Let me know

;)

Bye
OMG :eek: I can't believe I NEVER NOTICED this series of menus before!!!! Oh man......!!!!!!

I'm so glad I wrote you! This last project almost "did me in'!!! :(

I looks exactly like what I needed to do all along, (almost like the menus were written for my exact problem and frustration!) and I am flabbergasted and speechless!!! Words fail me! {which is rare!} hahhaaha :D

I haven't tried the new menus yet, but I WILL, soon, in the next few days, and I'll get back to you with the results!

Thanks for the kind words and the advice on how to control this size/bitrate business!!!:cool:
:thanks:
Take care,
Gerald

[8ternity]

Hi Mrc,

I've start a little bit French Translation. I'm not to much developped but here snapshot of test with 2.5.0 beta rev.

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr165/8ternity/2012-07-18_10h34_10-1.jpg

[MrC]

@8ternity

génial! Go ahead! Thanks a lot.

;)

Bye

[MrC]

New 2.5.0 alpha release is available (https://sourceforge.net/projects/avstodvd/files/avstodvd_alpha_beta/AVStoDVD%202.5.0%20Alpha%20120720/).

Cumulative change list from 2.4.2:

- Some bugs fixed
- Added Quick StartUp Tutorial to setup main AVStoDVD preferences
- Added possibility to customize GUI language. Support to create translation ini files is welcome!
- Added support to HCenc *ZONE command (to increase or lower bitrate for parts of the video)
- Added 160 kbps as supported bitrate for MP2 and AC3 audio encoding
- Added 160 kbps to DVD compliant audio bitrates list for MP2 and AC3
- Added 'Set encoding Priority' in 'Preferences'/'Misc'
- Added 'Encoding Window Style' in 'Preferences'/'Misc'
- Added Preferences Paths integrity check at startup
- Added question messages (Yes/No) with automatic default reply at runtime
- Added 'Seek Chapters' option in 'Title Edit'/'Chapters'
- Added AviSynth library 'Downmix.avsi' (thanks to tebasuna51)
- Removed 'Display errors messages at runtime' option in 'Preferences'/'Misc'
- Replaced 'Keep DVD Compliant Video/Audio' with 'Video/Audio Direct Stream Copy' in 'Title Edit'
- Improved FrameRate detection routine with MediaInfo
- Improved support to SubStation Alpha subtitles (ssa/ass)
- Improved 'Fix SRT' routine for authored subtitles
- Improved audio channels downmix routine
- MuxMan updated to 0.16.8
- FFmpeg updated to N-35509
- MediaInfo updated to 0.7.57

;)

Bye

[Pawpcorn]

OMG :eek: I can't believe I NEVER NOTICED this series of menus before!!!! Oh man......!!!!!!

I'm so glad I wrote you! This last project almost "did me in'!!! :(

I looks exactly like what I needed to do all along, (almost like the menus were written for my exact problem and frustration!) and I am flabbergasted and speechless!!! Words fail me! {which is rare!} hahhaaha :D

I haven't tried the new menus yet, but I WILL, soon, in the next few days, and I'll get back to you with the results!

Thanks for the kind words and the advice on how to control this size/bitrate business!!!:cool:
:thanks:
Take care,
Gerald
Hello again Mr.C !
Can you stand receiving some TOTALLY positive feedback, without a single complaint??? hahahaha... here goes ! This Week's DVD project, with SIX Menu Items! (http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/7527/menuscreencapture.jpg)

Using your "Edit Titles" series of menus I was able to fine-tune this project to be able to cram in about 5 hours of material, maintaining [in the two versions of Main Movie] a Bits/(Pixel*Frame) value of over 0.2 (considered the benchmark for very high quality) PLUS include a 45 minute OST Music CD (static video slide) with the movie music pieces, all set up with customized chapters for every music piece.

I DID have to repeat the entire process of building the DVD about a dozen times, primarily (but see my question below too) because I needed to push the envelope as to squeezing as many bytes as possible onto this DVD, since it contained SO MUCH DATA, and I am a stickler about maintaining high quality video.

I ended up manually setting every bit rate, setting 103% (of normal DVD size) estimated, to get just under 100% resultant size, after the VBR 2 pass compression schemes were run.

All in all... I'm VERY happy with the results; I think you gave us ALL the handles we could possibly require to customize every possible technical aspect of the DVD, and I really admire that design approach (with successful program performance) that you achieved.

As an aside, (and NOT a complaint(!) ) but a technical curiosity, I DO have a question about video compression when the source material is simply a single slide, ie, the OST video. ALL the other videos presented no problems and no surprises.

If you can fill in any of the missing (or faulty) logic, information, or tell me about techniques that may be available, I'd appreciate it.

Here goes: (for some reason, probably compression technique differences) I had to spec the bit rate of the OST slide to over twice the bit rate value I used with the original Xvid 2pass codec, or the resultant video image was too deteriorated.

Here's a screen capture of the OST slide (with 295 bit rate Xvid encoding; quality deemed satisfactory); the black borders are all part of the video image (ie the slide is not full screen) (http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/8183/ostscreencapture.jpg)

Here's a screen capture of the resultant DVD (using Henc 1 pass, 750 bit rate, .m2v file about twice size the original Xvid, quality... "OK", ie a little quality loss.) (http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/9857/ostondvdscreencapture.jpg)

I'm sure a static slide running for 45 minutes has it's own unique demands, but considering that there's not a single "scene change" with a static slide... needing a bit rate of about 700, with either encoder in AVS2DVD to maintain quality, when it worked with 300 as an Xvid AVI has me mystified.

I'm thinking that maybe I need to slow down just how often the static video image is "refreshed". Then, maybe, the bit rate could be lower?

But I have no idea if it's even possible to change the frequency with which the image is forcibly refreshed, or if this even has anything to do with my needing over twice the Xvid bit rate, when encoding a static slide video.

Any ideas on this?

I DID just get the idea that maybe I should have tried encoding the original Xvid OST video at a rather HIGH bit rate... start out with EXCELLENT video quality, and then see how low I can push the Henc Bit Rate, to end up with "satisfactory" results.

Incidently, I KNOW the two screen shots above are of poor quality, but in as it's just music, I really didn't care about quality, past being able to read the song titles.

Here's an example of the actual MOVIE on the DVD: DVD Screen Capture (http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/8910/dvdscreenshot.jpg)

Thanks again for your superior program!:thanks:
Gerald

[Pawpcorn]

Thanks for the new version! Already installed! :)

I posted a notice on the 1080ip web site I belong to, urging a donation, here: http://1080ip.com/forums/thread-7656-1-1.html

[Sparktank]

New 2.5.0 alpha release is available (https://sourceforge.net/projects/avstodvd/files/avstodvd_alpha_beta/AVStoDVD%202.5.0%20Alpha%20120720/).
- Added support to HCenc *ZONE command (to increase or lower bitrate for parts of the video)
- Added Preferences Paths integrity check at startup
- Added question messages (Yes/No) with automatic default reply at runtime
- Added AviSynth library 'Downmix.avsi' (thanks to tebasuna51)
- Replaced 'Keep DVD Compliant Video/Audio' with 'Video/Audio Direct Stream Copy' in 'Title Edit'
- FFmpeg updated to N-35509

:thanks: Looking forward to testing this out. Been so happy so far with the recent alpha's.

Out of curiosity, the FFmpeg you are updating, are they still the Sherpya sources?
There hasn't been a compiled update pushed out yet. But updates to the sources have been constant as of late.
I was curious about it the last time you pushed an Alpha release with an FFmpeg update.

Will report any hiccups :)

[MrC]

@Pawpcorn

you really cannot demand too much from mpeg2 compression. Probably you can play with some HCenc adv settings, like Lumgain (for dark scenes/pictures) or matrixes, but below 1000 kbps avg mpeg2 has too much hard time.

Thanks for the kind words and for the 1080ip.com support. It is very appreciated!


@Sparktank

yes, I have always used Sherpya win builds. No big issues, good reliability. Probably not a lightning about new sources embedding, but, you know, ffmpeg usage in AVStoDVD is very limited (AC3 encoding, BMP output, video/audio demuxing).

;)

Bye

[Pawpcorn]

Hi, Mr.C! Any tips as to if it's possible, and, if so, the steps involved in adding some sound to the menu (motion, 27 seconds)?

Thanks!
Gerald;)

[MrC]

Any tips as to if it's possible, and, if so, the steps involved in adding some sound to the menu (motion, 27 seconds)?

From 'Menu Wizard', toggle on 'Enable Bacground Audio' form 'Template' tab. Then in 'Menu Editor', 'Edit Mode', select your audio file from 'Audio'.

;)

Bye

[Pawpcorn]

From 'Menu Wizard', toggle on 'Enable Bacground Audio' form 'Template' tab. Then in 'Menu Editor', 'Edit Mode', select your audio file from 'Audio'.

;)

Bye
Gotcha there; I now understand it needs to be a separate audio file, thanks for the pointer!

Another question, is there any way to beef up the sensitivity of the "Seek Chapters" function in "Title Edit", Chapters?
It only found 6 significant scene changes in "Little Miss Sunshine" movie... :(

Thanks again!
Gerald;)

[MrC]

The rationale to have a scene change in "Seek Chapters" is very simple: a black screen for more than 1 second.

But I'm open to suggestion how to improve it. Feasible suggestions, of course...

;)

Bye

[Pawpcorn]

The rationale to have a scene change in "Seek Chapters" is very simple: a black screen for more than 1 second.

But I'm open to suggestion how to improve it. Feasible suggestions, of course...

;)

Bye
I understand the rationale, and the method makes good sense.

My suggestion, then, would be to allow the user specify how many milliseconds of black qualified as a "Scene Change". Would that be feasible?

If I were able set a shorter duration to qualify as a scene change, in this last project, I'm sure I would have had much more than the 6 scene changes that were found, with the default >1 second threshold.

Thanks! :)
Gerald

[fantasmanegro]

hi!

if i do:

1) set HCEnc matrix to NOTCH
2) save as HCenc defaults
3) set Auto video Setup to "CHECKED"

does any body knows if AVStoDVD uses NOTCH MATRIX for ENCODING or it USES the "AUTO" one?...

[Sparktank]

as apposed to seconds, I would suggest frames, perhaps?
Although, sometimes blank screens are part of the artistic approach where dialog takes over.

Perhaps some sort of integrity of the degree of blank frames VS. a certain audio decibel level?

That might cause too many options. Maybe set it to only 3 varying levels of decibel levels to structure the seek algorithms?

This will require more research. I wonder if I can find any documents on how other programs currently determine the sensitivity of blank frames for a valid scene change...

[MrC]

@fantasmanegro

matrix will come back to default MPEG. By you can change the default matrix to NOTCH just in HCenc advanced option window.

@Pawpcorn, Sparktank

please continue to elaborate more effective strategies for chapters detection. Just remember that I have to operate within AviSynth and/or FFmpeg commands domains, thus the strategies must be supported by one of those apps.

;)

Bye

[fantasmanegro]

thank you very much!

[8ternity]

Hi Mrc, I had found an issue with the version 2.5.0 alpha 120621;

When delete a media into the source title; i've gor two errors, one after the other and AVStoDVD crashed.

im with a partial French translation; dont know if it's matter.

Errors is:
Error 5
Invalid procedure call or armunent.

and

Run-time error '5':
Invalid procedure call or argument

and application crashed.

Can you help me with that? I know it does that on all king of medias. It's when i want to delete a media sources from the list that it does that.

8ternity

[Pawpcorn]

@Pawpcorn, Sparktank

please continue to elaborate more effective strategies for chapters detection. Just remember that I have to operate within AviSynth and/or FFmpeg commands domains, thus the strategies must be supported by one of those apps.

;)

Bye
OK; can you give me which commands you're currently employing to find 1 second of black video? Starting with that, I can try to study the commands / command structure available, and see if I can come up with something.
Thanks!

[hlrsnd]

Hello,

I use this great program occasionally to burn DVDs of my own camera mjpeg videos which are edited together as Avisynth scripts. Unfortunately I have somehow broken it since I last used it in August 2011. It no longer recognizes .avs files; something about an error in line 76. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Avisynth, ffdshow, and AVStoDVD versions 2.4.1 and 2.4.2. Nothing worked. Edit: no problems recognizing the mjpeg avi files without the Avisynth scripts.

As a test I tried installing Avisynth, ffdshow, and AVStoDVD version 2.4.2 on an older PC which had none of these installed previously. AVStoDVD recognized the Avisynth scripts perfectly as it had in the past on the newer PC.

Any suggestions? Registry editing?

[8ternity]

Hello,

I use this great program occasionally to burn DVDs of my own camera mjpeg videos which are edited together as Avisynth scripts. Unfortunately I have somehow broken it since I last used it in August 2011. It no longer recognizes .avs files; something about an error in line 76. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Avisynth, ffdshow, and AVStoDVD versions 2.4.1 and 2.4.2. Nothing worked. Edit: no problems recognizing the mjpeg avi files without the Avisynth scripts.

As a test I tried installing Avisynth, ffdshow, and AVStoDVD version 2.4.2 on an older PC which had none of these installed previously. AVStoDVD recognized the Avisynth scripts perfectly as it had in the past on the newer PC.

Any suggestions? Registry editing?

Had you updated any component for another software (AviSynth, ffdslow, etc.) ?

I suggest to download latest requirement softwares here:
ffdshow | http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow-tryout/files/SVN%20builds%20by%20clsid/generic%20builds/ffdshow_rev4475_20120712_clsid.exe/download

AviSynth 2.5.8 | http://sourceforge.net/projects/avisynth2/

Reboot after that, and retry.

Please, also post an log file of AVStoDVD; and the mediainfo of the source file that you were trying to convert.

[MrC]

@8ternity

I cannot replicate the issue. Do you get the error with the default English language too?

@Pawpcorn

I'm currently using the FFmpeg -r 1 command to generate still images at 1 fps

@hlrsnd

in addition to 8ternity suggestions, I would add to check the option to delete the AVStoDVD registry key when you do a complete unistall.

;)

Bye

[manolito]

Hi MrC,
it has been a while...:D

I normally do not use AVStoDVD, and it was pure coincidence that a few days ago I saw the latest Alpha build which supports language files. And I remembered that some time ago I did offer to do a German translation for AVStoDVD. Well, here it is:
///Link removed///

Some things (mostly tool tips) could not be translated because they are not included in the language file. The translation for the Menu Wizard shows up in the text menu, but not in the menu button text. And there is a false assignment in the Aften Advanced Options. The "Dynamic Range" text shows up twice while the "Lowpass" text does not show up at all.

And I have one suggestion: At the first start AVStoDVD displays a Quick Start Tutorial, and since no language has been selected at this time, the tutorial always shows up in English. It would be nice if the program did check the current country setting first and switch to the corresponding language before displaying the tutorial.


Unfortunately I get a similar program crash as 8ternity. Whenever I click on an entry in the sources window, I get the message: "Runtime error 9. Index out of valid range", and the program aborts. This only happens when I use my German language file, with the English or Italian language file everything is fine.

Another thing which does not work is indexing with DGIndex when I try to open an IFO file from a DVD. I just get the message that indexing failed without any further explanation. (This also happens with the stable version 2.42)

Last thing for today is a question about MKVToolNix versions. The stable installer versions of AVStoDVD come with an older version of MKVToolNix which obviously does work. Some time ago Mosu changed the behavior of MKVToolNix regarding the track IDs and track numbers of audio files, and this broke some older software which relies on MKVToolNix (StaxRip is one of them). Is the current Alpha of AVStoDVD compatible with the latest versions of MKVToolNix, or do we have to use an older version?


Alright, enough for tonite, time to go to bed...


Cheers
manolito

[Sparktank]

something about an error in line 76.

Sounds like a typo in the AVS script.

Can you post the script? (Particularly line 76)
:script:
Are these manually structured scripts for AviSnyth?
Sometimes it's as simple as forgetting a character or adding a different one.

[MrC]

@Manolito

Hi there ;) and thanks for your always appreciated and valid inputs. And many many thanks for the German localization file! That's a great support to AVStoDVD!

As you have already discovered, languages support is still a work in progress. Some tooltips and almost all messages have not been translated yet. Probably I will distribute the 2.5.0 final release with a preliminary languages support, to be extended in further releases.

Thanks about the main titles window issue and the DGIndex error reports. I will fix them ASAP (now I'm in vacation with my family, just few minutes to check the forum ;) ).

I didn't know about the MKVtoolnix tracks ID management change. Bad news indeed. Two MKVtoolnix versions to handle for a while...

The first Quick StartUp Tutorial language reading from the Win registry is surely feasible. I will add it to the ToDo list.

About the German localization, please have a look to labels fitting into textboxes and toolboxes. Since german words are sometimes extremely loooong, there is the possibility that there is not enough space.

Thanks again for the support

;)

Bye

[manolito]

About the German localization, please have a look to labels fitting into textboxes and toolboxes. Since german words are sometimes extremely loooong, there is the possibility that there is not enough space.


Oh yes, I do know that...:(
And since VB does not use the standard resource format a translator has no way to adjust the size of input boxes, message boxes and so on.

But I believe I did catch all problems (it took longer to modify text to fit into the boxes than the raw translation itself). Luckily it does not depend on the screen resolution, I tested it at 800x600, and everything did fit into the boxes.

It sure makes for some translated phrases which are not too elegant, but I think everything is understandable. And of course there is a lot of room for improvement...

I didn't know about the MKVtoolnix tracks ID management change. Bad news indeed. Two MKVtoolnix versions to handle for a while...
The problems started with version 5.20. MKVExtractGUI-2 and MKVCleaver had to be updated to work with newer versions of MKVToolNix. Have a look here...
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1547092#post1547092


Enjoy your vacation, hopefully with nice weather...:)


Cheers
manolito

[hlrsnd]

@@hlrsnd

in addition to 8ternity suggestions, I would add to check the option to delete the AVStoDVD registry key when you do a complete unistall.

;)

Bye
I was using the 2.4.1 NoInstall package and switched to 2.4.2 NoInstall which then couldn't understand .avs scripts. I tried installing and uninstalling several Installer packages which didn't work. Per your suggestion, I finally deleted all the AVStoDVD registry keys I could find then tried 2.4.2 NoInstall again. Success! Apparently running 2.4.2 NoInstall over the 2.4.1 NoInstall registry caused the problem. Thanks for the help!

[8ternity]

@8ternity

I cannot replicate the issue. Do you get the error with the default English language too?



True. Only does that in FRENCH language. In English it's okay.
Did you want the French.lang partial translation to reproduce?

thanks

[MrC]

@Manolito

thanks for the MkvToolNix issue link. I have just downloaded it and, yes, AVStoDVD needs to be updated to support the new indexing system. Hopefully it is not that difficult: ID(new) = ID(old) - 1

About German translation, have a look to the main window toolbar: the 2 last icons ('Jobs List' and 'Help') have been pushed out to the left ;)

I have catched the title section bug using the German languages. Just wait few days for the bugfix.

@hlrsnd

nice to hear that you have fixed. ;)

@8ternity

yes thanks, that would be better, to confirm the same bug as the German translation.

;)

Bye

[manolito]

About German translation, have a look to the main window toolbar: the 2 last icons ('Jobs List' and 'Help') have been pushed out to the left
Thanks for catching this, already fixed..
Redownload:
///Link removed///


Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

Thanks! Great job!

And here you are the hotfix (https://sites.google.com/site/avstodvdmain/AVStoDVD_250_Alpha120809_exe_only.7z)

;)

Bye

[manolito]

YES !!!
The hotfix takes care of the crashes caused by the language file. The Aften Advanced Options malassignment is also fixed. Beautiful...:thanks:


So there is room for some other suggestions, thoughts and bug reports:

The Menu Wizard option still has a problem.
This is how it should be:
http://www.bilderload.com/bild/234798/menucorrectRW4M2.png (http://www.bilderload.com)
And this is not:
http://www.bilderload.com/bild/234799/menuwrong6MWAF.png (http://www.bilderload.com)

The behavior of the Quick Start Tutorial should be improved. After making the settings pressing OK should take over these settings to the main window (not working for the language selection) plus save these settings. But nothing is saved unless you do this manually through the settings dialog.

Under the Options menu the "Advanced Project Settings (F8)" entry has no effect at all. It can only be invoked by clicking the button.


And I have some more suggestions:

I reported earlier that indexing an IFO file from a DVD does not work. The reason is that AVStoDVD tries to save the index file in the source folder of the DVD. Indexing only works right now if the whole DVD structure is ripped to the HD first. I know that this is generally desirable, but I think it would be more elegant if the index file was stored in the AVStoDVD working (or Temp) folder. At least there should be an error message which explains why the indexing failed...

I found out the hard way that AVStoDVD needs at least AviSynth version 2.57 (the shortcuts for changefps like "pal_film" are not supported prior to v. 2.57). I was still using v. 2.56, a warning from AVStoDVD would have saved me some time.

And the last item on my wish list is updating HCenc to version 0.26 beta. Hank has not updated HC in more than a year, version 0.26 is stable as a rock, and it has a couple of improvements over 0.25. And under the advanced HC settings I would like to see the manono matrices included, they are really very good.



Ok, I hope my wish list isn't too long...:D
Looking forward to the stable version 2.50, and many thanks for this beautiful piece of software.


Cheers
manolito

[stax76]

Some time ago Mosu changed the behavior of MKVToolNix regarding the track IDs and track numbers of audio files, and this broke some older software which relies on MKVToolNix (StaxRip is one of them)

I confirm this and a change regarding chapters generated by MakeMKV as breaking change in mkvtoolnix, I don't have a schedule but it will be fixed.

[MrC]

@manolito

thanks for the inputs. This new alpha (https://sourceforge.net/projects/avstodvd/files/avstodvd_alpha_beta/AVStoDVD%202.5.0%20Alpha%20120820/) should cover most of them.

;)

Bye

[manolito]

Thanks very much for the new version...:thanks:

I thought you were enjoying your vacation, but instead you have been working very hard on my wish list. And yes, almost everything works like a charm.

I fixed some ugly things in the German language file, get it here:
***Link removed***

I also played a little with the DVD parsing tool, and most things already work. The two things I noticed are that for some DVDs the subtitle extraction failed (without much explanation) while for others it worked fine.

And for some DVDs which were authored with Mplex/DVDAuthor audio demuxing resulted in an error message followed by a program crash. Here is the error message:
http://www.bilderload.com/bild/238203/parsingQ8K1N.png
(Wrong file name or -number)
This did not happen with DVDs which were authored with MuxMan, and all commercial DVDs I tried also gave no errors. So I suppose it is DVDAuthor's fault.


Anyways, thanks again for your hard work, AVStoDVD deserves Beta status already IMO.

Cheers
manolito


//Edit//
One thing I forgot to ask:
I noticed that whenever my source is a DVD IFO, The Direct Stream Copy option for the video is greyed out. The video is certainly DVD compliant (converting the VTS to an MPEG file and feeding this file to AVStoDVD does let me use Direct Stream Copy).
Is this behavior intentional, or did I discover a bug?

[MrC]

Hi Manolito,

vacations are already finished, always too short, my bad...

Thanks for the German update. Your support is highly welcome. ;)

About the DVD parsing tool, keep in mind that it is very experimental, mainly because it is based on an old VB6 parsing routine I have found some time ago. Nothing really sophisticated neither rock solid. For example many Disney DVDs, that have usually complex structures, are not correctly parsed. BTW, do you get the error with every dvdauthor output or only with some? Have you noticed any commonalities?

If the source is a DVD ifo, then indexing is required, so the "new" source file is the resulting d2v output from DGIndex. Re-encoding is mandatory (DGDecode.dll and MPEG2Source) and Direct Stream Copy is greyed out.

;)

Bye

[manolito]

BTW, do you get the error with every dvdauthor output or only with some? Have you noticed any commonalities?

Hi MrC,

just did a couple of tests to find out if I could see any reproduceable pattern when audio demuxing would fail. Right now it looks like it is not even DVDAuthor by itself, but it is DVDAuthor when used from within an older version of DVDStyler. :confused:

I use DVDStyler frequently as a one-stop authoring and burning tool, and all players I have access to never complained about the output. But the AVStoDVD parsing tool always chokes on these DVD structures.

Authoring the same source file manually with the same version of DVDAuthor results in a DVD structure which your parsing tool handles without any errors.

Which means that DVDStyler is to blame...So just forget about it :o

//Edit
Tested the current version of DVDStyler (which has other issues), and this took care of the problem...


Cheers
manolito

[davidcw]

Hi MrC,
When I set AVStoDVD for wav sound and set the output to elementary MPEG2 streams, the bitrate exceeds the DVD specs when the sound bitrate of 1.5mbits is added on.
See the attached image.

This only occurs with the latest versions including
2.5.0 Alpha build 120820.

Edit: Am using HC026 two pass encoder.

[MrC]

@manolito

thanks for the feedback on the DVD Styler issue. But, please, do not consider my experimental parsing tool as a bible... that's much far from.

@davidcw

does Muxman refuse to author the produced assets (m2v and wav)? Do you still have the project log file?

;)

Bye

[manolito]

@MrC

I am just playing a bit more with AVStoDVD and configuring it better for my needs (not using QuEnc any more, too many problems with Muxman at high bitrates. Also changed max bitrate from 9000 to 8500 in the registry). And I am very impressed how well all settings are adjusted automatically according to the source.

One small thing (call it nitpicking):
The AVS file mostly has the entry :
Video = Video.ConvertToYV12

It should be
Video = Video.ConvertToYV12()

because due to an AviSynth peculiarity these brackets will increase speed.


Cheers
manolito

[davidcw]

[QUOTE=MrC;

@davidcw

does Muxman refuse to author the produced assets (m2v and wav)? Do you still have the project log file?

;)

Bye[/QUOTE]

Yes muxman refuses to author the produced assets (I create the wav sound file separately with Audacity)