AVStoDVD Support Thread

[manolito]

I had some oversize problems with the latest Alpha, here are the details:

Source is an XviD file, duration 1 hour 57 minutes.
Destination DVD-5, Audio 224 kbps AC3.

My reference is good old DVD2SVCD, it calculated a video bitrate of 4955 kbps, and the resulting file did fit perfectly on a DVD-5 (ImgBurn reported 99% fill rate).

With AVStoDVD the video bitrate varied depending on the output format:

For DVD structure, ISO image or Burn DVD the bitrate was 4927 kbps. This did work perfectly.

But when selecting Elementary Streams or Muxed MPEG2 files the video bitrate was 5037 kbps, and these files could not be burned to a DVD-5 blank, they were way too big.


What is wrong here? I think the video bitrate should be the same no matter which output format is selected.


Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

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.

Ok, good hint. Thanks. ;)

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

I have noticed on the log file that AVStoDVD switched to FFMpegSource. Probably the DirectShowSource may help, just install flvsplitter.

If this does not help, what about switching back to HCenc 0.25 instead of HCenc 0.26beta?

I had some oversize problems with the latest Alpha, here are the details:

Source is an XviD file, duration 1 hour 57 minutes.
Destination DVD-5, Audio 224 kbps AC3.

My reference is good old DVD2SVCD, it calculated a video bitrate of 4955 kbps, and the resulting file did fit perfectly on a DVD-5 (ImgBurn reported 99% fill rate).

With AVStoDVD the video bitrate varied depending on the output format:

For DVD structure, ISO image or Burn DVD the bitrate was 4927 kbps. This did work perfectly.

But when selecting Elementary Streams or Muxed MPEG2 files the video bitrate was 5037 kbps, and these files could not be burned to a DVD-5 blank, they were way too big.

What is wrong here? I think the video bitrate should be the same no matter which output format is selected.

I have reserved some extra space for DVD structure, using following rationale:

If OutputSetup >= DVD_Folder Then
DVD_Size = Int(DVD_Size * (0.995 - 0.01 * DVD_Time / 3600))
End If

and that formula applies only if the Output Setup is 'DVD Folder' or higher.

Let's say if the elementary assets are then used to create a DVD structure, then same formula should be applied (but why not using directly 'DVD Folder' as output?).
If the elementary assets (or the muxed mpeg) are stored as they are, then the extra space should not be added. Otherwise the predicted output space will not match.

Does it make sense?

;)

Bye

[manolito]

Let's say if the elementary assets are then used to create a DVD structure, then same formula should be applied (but why not using directly 'DVD Folder' as output?).
If the elementary assets (or the muxed mpeg) are stored as they are, then the extra space should not be added. Otherwise the predicted output space will not match.

Does it make sense?

;)

Bye

Thanks for the explanation, but to be honest, it does not make much sense for me...:devil:

Even if I select Elementary Streams or Muxed MPEG file as the output format, my final format will still be a burned DVD (the name of the software is AVStoDVD after all). So IMO this formula to save some extra space should always be applied no matter which output format is selected. But it's no big deal now that I know how it works...:cool:



Cheers
manolito

[manolito]

I just looked at davidcw's log file, and I believe that his problem comes from his max bitrate of 9000 kbps. If you add 1536 kbps for PCM audio you will be far beyond DVD specs.

From a recent post by TheSkiller:
The highest bitrate for the video alone depends on the audio it will be muxed with. Maximum allowed combined bitrate of video+audio+subtitles is 9800 kbit/s.
So if you have a single 256 kbit/s audio stream for example, the theoretical maximum would be 9544 kbit/s for the video. But better don't use this value, as it's the very edge of what's allowed. I have done plenty 9200 kbit/s CBR encodes (audio 256 or less) and on many various players I have never had a problem. If I do VBR encodes I usually use a maximum of 9200 as well. Maybe 9300 or 9400 would work just as well but I'd rather leave a 200-300 kbit/s margin to the absolute max.

AVStoDVD has a default max bitrate of 9000 kbps which can only be modified in the registry. I believe that AVStoDVD should recalculate the max bitrate automatically according to the combined audio and subtitle bitrate. In the case of davidcw the max bitrate for HCEnc should be about 8000 kbps (including a little safety margin).



Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

AVStoDVD has a default max bitrate of 9000 kbps which can only be modified in the registry. I believe that AVStoDVD should recalculate the max bitrate automatically according to the combined audio and subtitle bitrate. In the case of davidcw the max bitrate for HCEnc should be about 8000 kbps (including a little safety margin).

Good point. I agree. Next release will have that fix for both WAV and DTS streams @1536 kbps.

And for the extra space, probably you are right, it would be more straightforward to manage all the output in the same way.

;)

Bye

[manolito]

Thanks a lot for considering my suggestions...

And for the extra space, probably you are right, it would be more straightforward to manage all the output in the same way.
Maybe with the exception when the user chooses "Custom Size". In this case the user might prefer to reach the specified size as much as possible and not care that much about creating a DVD.

Another suggestion:
When audio normalizing is selected, audio is normalized to 100%. I have read more than once that this is not a good idea when you are creating compressed audio files. Maybe the default should be "audio.normalize(0.98)" ?

And I found one more error in the language file, the latest version is here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/wegtjl



Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

Another suggestion:
When audio normalizing is selected, audio is normalized to 100%. I have read more than once that this is not a good idea when you are creating compressed audio files. Maybe the default should be "audio.normalize(0.98)" ?

Good suggestion. I can add a textbox in the Preferences to customize the normalization value (with 0.98 as default).

And I found one more error in the language file, the latest version is here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/wegtjl


Thanks for the update and for the strong support!

;)

Bye

[manolito]

It seems that many conversion programs cannot handle sources with mono audio. This is an old issue, it has nothing to do with AVStoDVD itself, but it would be nice to have some kind of an automatic workaround to avoid the situation that after the whole encode is finished you notice that the resulting DVD is not working due to a screwed-up audio stream.

I tested a couple of MP4 sources (AVC video, mono AAC audio). AVDtoDVD always prefers DirectShow over ffms2 as long as a DS source filter and a splitter are present. I have ffdshow and Haali installed, so AVStoDVD uses DirectShow for these files.

The resulting DVD contains audio at half speed. Sounds very interesting at times (especially when the source is an adult clip), but mostly this effect is not what you want...:rolleyes:

I experimented a little, and for me forcing ffms2 as the source filter always worked (using DS and forcing stereo output did not work).

Do you think that automatically using ffms2 whenever a mono audio source is detected would be a good idea? Or is there a better way?


Cheers
manolito

[qyot27]

It seems that many conversion programs cannot handle sources with mono audio. This is an old issue, it has nothing to do with AVStoDVD itself, but it would be nice to have some kind of an automatic workaround to avoid the situation that after the whole encode is finished you notice that the resulting DVD is not working due to a screwed-up audio stream.

I tested a couple of MP4 sources (AVC video, mono AAC audio). AVDtoDVD always prefers DirectShow over ffms2 as long as a DS source filter and a splitter are present. I have ffdshow and Haali installed, so AVStoDVD uses DirectShow for these files.

The resulting DVD contains audio at half speed. Sounds very interesting at times (especially when the source is an adult clip), but mostly this effect is not what you want...:rolleyes:

I experimented a little, and for me forcing ffms2 as the source filter always worked (using DS and forcing stereo output did not work).

Do you think that automatically using ffms2 whenever a mono audio source is detected would be a good idea? Or is there a better way?


Cheers
manolito
Just out of curiosity, does it work with DirectShow if you add GetChannel(1,1) to the script it uses? It's basically a dumb way of turning mono into stereo, but if it works then it's something to consider (IMO, it'd probably be a good idea to do that regardless of the source filter, but whatever).

[manolito]

Just out of curiosity, does it work with DirectShow if you add GetChannel(1,1) to the script it uses?

Thanks for the suggestion, this would have been very nice, but unfortunately no, it doesn't work. Audio still comes out at half speed. :mad:

And ffms2 also is not the universal solution. For a couple of test source files with mono aac audio I got an error message that no audio could be found. Bummer...:confused:

//Edit
It turned out that this error message could be ignored. It was an AviSynth error message triggered by Quenc. It said that no audio could be found and pointed to the AVS file line #3. Just clicking OK resulted in a perfect conversion.

Which means that for sources with mono audio ffms2 must be used instead of DirectShow.



Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

@manolito

I'm not sure to have understood what is the problem with 1 channel output. If the source has a 1.0 audio track, AVStoDVD just keep it as mono. Or at least, it is supposed to do that... ;)

Mono conversion log sample (https://sites.google.com/site/avstodvdmain/DVD_0.log)

Do you have a log or, even better, a portion of the problematic source file?

;)

Bye

[manolito]

Here is a test file with mono aac audio and two conversion logs. With DirectShowSource you get audio at half speed, with FFMPEGSource everything works fine.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/5wcdi1

Could it have something to do with the uncommon sample rate of 22.05 kHz? Unfortunately files like this are quite common on the internet.



Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

Weird audio track:

AAC LC-SBR - 17 kbps - VBR - 1 ch - 22050 / 11025 Hz - 20 seconds (0 ms delay) - Internal

effectively DSS is not able to handle that. Speed distorsion comes out even removing ConvertToMono and SSRC(48000). Could be a ffdshow issue dealing with 1.0 AAC?

BTW 1.0 tracks are not all problematic, I have some samples (mp3 actually) that are correctly converted using DSS/ffdshow.

I will surely put a reference to this issue to the audio FAQ section.

;)

Bye

[qyot27]

It would appear that only the libavcodec option in ffdshow has an issue. Just a wild guess, but I think it's that the file is using Parametric Stereo (HE-AAC v2), since ffdshow's libfaad2 option and CoreAAC (also based on faad2) both handle it correctly. ffdshow version is r4486. ffmpeg itself (git-f857465, built on August 4th 2012) does not exhibit the problem. So either ffdshow doesn't integrate libavcodec's AAC decoder quite right, or there's a fix for Parametric Stereo that exists in FFmpeg but not in libav, which seems to be what ffdshow switched to.

[manolito]

Thanks so much qyot27, you got it exactly right...:)

After changing the ffdshow audio configuration and selecting libfaad2 for aac decoding AVStoDVD handles this audio stream correctly.


Cheers
manolito

[manolito]

Stable version 2.50 has just been released, thanks a lot MrC... :D

I have already tested it a little bit, everything works just fine so far.


Cheers
manolito

[manolito]

There is an issue with MediaInfo when the source is a DVD compliant MPEG2 file (one video track, one AC3 audio track). MediaInfo 07.59 reports a nonexistent second MPEG audio track with a bitrate of 0 kbps. (The latest version 07.60 also shows this issue)

This throws off AVStoDVDs size calculation quite a bit. Going back to version 07.58 fixed the issue.



Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

Hi Manolito,

there's already 2.5.1 release, 2.5.0 had a bug in the Installer package. Mediainfo is still 0.7.59.

I cannot replicate your issue with mpg, this is a very simple mpg2 file I use for testing:

GENERAL INFO
PathName: D:\Movies\Test\Bad Day Mpeg2 720x576 1.333 AC3.mpg
FileName: Bad Day Mpeg2 720x576 1.333 AC3
FileExt: mpg
FileSize: 13,4 MB
Container Format: MPEG-PS
Video Tracks: 1
Audio Tracks: 1
Text Tracks: 0

VIDEO INFO
Time: 26 seconds
Compression: MPEG-2 Video
BitRate Mode:
Avg BitRate: 4000 kbps
Min BitRate:
Max BitRate:
Resolution: 720x576
Display AspectRatio: 1,333
Pixel AspectRatio: 1,067
Frame AspectRatio: 1,25
Standard: PAL
FrameRate Mode: CFR
FrameRate: 25 fps
Frame Count: 654
Scan Type: Progressive
Field Order:

AUDIO INFO (Track 0)
ID: 189 (0xBD)
Time: 26 seconds
Compression: AC3
BitRate Mode: CBR
Avg BitRate: 192 kbps
Channels: 2
SampleRate: 48000 Hz
Resolution: 16 bit
Language:
Delay: 0 ms


;)

Bye

[manolito]

Looks like the Mediainfo problem only shows up for bigger files...:confused:

I stripped a short segment from the file which exhibited the issue, and now Mediainfo 07.59 reported everything correctly. Strange...

I imported both files (the original long version plus the stripped short version) into AVSoDVD, and this is what it looks like (notice the DVD size for the long version, it should be ~4400 MB):

http://www.bilderload.com/bild/248097/mediainfoCNTSD.png (http://www.bilderload.com)


Another question:
I noticed that you still use a very old version (version 2.12) of ffms2.dll. Is there a reason for it, or can I upgrade to the current version 2.17 ?


Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

Got it. Have you already informed Zenitram about the 0.7.59-60 bug?

About FFMS2, AVStoDVD is still equipped with 2.12 release, I did not have the time to check the next releases compatibility. BTW the only flags used are 'track', 'cachefile' and 'seekmode' together with FFVideoSource and FFAudioSource. If nothing has changed about that, you can safely go with 2.17. Let me know.

;)

Bye

[manolito]

Got it. Have you already informed Zenitram about the 0.7.59-60 bug?
Yes I did.
About FFMS2, AVStoDVD is still equipped with 2.12 release, I did not have the time to check the next releases compatibility. BTW the only flags used are 'track', 'cachefile' and 'seekmode' together with FFVideoSource and FFAudioSource. If nothing has changed about that, you can safely go with 2.17. Let me know.

;)

Bye
Browsing through the ffms2 change log I did not find any changes related to track, cachefile or seekmode. So I went ahead and used ffms2.dll version 2.17 for one conversion, and everything worked as expected.

Of course this was not a very comprehensive test, but I will stick with v. 2.17 for now and let you know if I find any issues later...


Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

Of course this was not a very comprehensive test, but I will stick with v. 2.17 for now and let you know if I find any issues later...

Thanks, your support is always appreciated!

;)

Bye

[Big Vern]

MrC.
Been using your AVStoDVD tool for ages now, cannot fault it!

One burning question though? Are there any plans to make an "AVStoBLURAY", or similar, version? Would be nice to have a very-easy-to-use tool like yours, but with the ability to add a few HD titles, a simple menu to author on a blu-ray disc.

I have tried MultiAVCHD, but that is just too confusing, and the one I had managed to complete, did not work :(

I do not know how much work would be involved making a blu-ray version of AVStoDVD, as I am no coder, but I would gladly donate, as I suspect, would loads of others.

[MrC]

Are there any plans to make an "AVStoBLURAY", or similar, version? Would be nice to have a very-easy-to-use tool like yours, but with the ability to add a few HD titles, a simple menu to author on a blu-ray disc.

AVStoBD would be surely an intriguing project. Unfortunately it is not planned in the close future. Maybe one day...

Meanwhile I suggest you to get familiar with MultiAVCHD which is an outstanding project, even if it is no more developed.

;)

Bye

[8ternity]

AVStoBD would be surely an intriguing project. Unfortunately it is not planned in the close future. Maybe one day...

Meanwhile I suggest you to get familiar with MultiAVCHD which is an outstanding project, even if it is no more developed.

;)

Bye

If you want something more easy, use Ripbot264; which i used from a while. Easy, stable, a perworfull tool.

[manolito]

Would be nice to have a very-easy-to-use tool like yours, but with the ability to add a few HD titles, a simple menu to author on a blu-ray disc.

RipBot264 is a nice GUI for X264, but it will certainly not author BlueRay disks. It can output AVCHD, MP4 and MKV, and of course you can burn AVCHD to a BlueRay blank and most BD players will play it. But it still is no "real" BlueRay disk, and don't even think about a menu...

Right now MultiAVCHD is the only free solution to create BlueRay disks with a menu, and there is not much hope for competition.


Cheers
manolito

[Yanta]

Every time I try to convert an MKV with subtitles AVStoDVD responds with "Warning! Errors found during subititles track selection" and the subtitles are not added. Is it looking for external subtitles even though they are embedded in the source file? Is there a way to rectify?

[MrC]

Every time I try to convert an MKV with subtitles AVStoDVD responds with "Warning! Errors found during subititles track selection" and the subtitles are not added. Is it looking for external subtitles even though they are embedded in the source file? Is there a way to rectify?

Are you using the latest AVStoDVD release (2.5.1) with a recent MKVToolnix release (higher than 5.2.0)?

If yes, could you please upload the problematic mkv? I hope it is legal material... no support for unknown sources...

;)

Bye

[Yanta]

Are you using the latest AVStoDVD release (2.5.1) with a recent MKVToolnix release (higher than 5.2.0)?

If yes, could you please upload the problematic mkv? I hope it is legal material... no support for unknown sources...

;)

Bye

Yes. I'm using MKVToolnix 5.8.0

No, I am still using 2.4.2. I will install 2.5.1 and try again...

5 minutes later: Yes, that seems to have worked much better.

thank you

[manolito]

Originally Posted by MrC
Got it. Have you already informed Zenitram about the 0.7.59-60 bug?
Yes I did.

Just wanna let you know that the current version 7.61 of MediaInfo corrects this issue...



Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

Just wanna let you know that the current version 7.61 of MediaInfo corrects this issue...

Thanks for the feedback.

;)

Bye

[Sjakko]

Hi MrC,

I found that if you use text based titles and right align the labels, the selection bar in the menu doesn't completely cover the labels.

[MrC]

@Sjakko

could you please post some screenshots (Edit Mode, Preview Mode and DVD output) to better explain the issue?

;)

Bye

[Sjakko]

Hi MrC,

If I use italics on right-aligned titles the text does stick out a mm or 2 but that really isn't the core of the issue. I didn't really get the situation clear in my head. Let me try again:

I have 13 right-aligned text-based titles with varying width. The first title is quite wide (+/-520 pixels) and the rest is relatively narrow. In the down-left quadrant I have a background picture that I don't want covered by the selection bar. I have 2 choices:

- Either I get the same width for all titles and let the selection bar cover the background picture. This is the easiest but not nice. The selection bar sticks out a lot on the left (depending on the length of the title) and none on the right because of the right-alignment.
- Or for esthetic purposes I set the title width for each title separately to match the text width exactly. This way it won't cover the background image as I wanted and sticks out 0pixels on both sides. But this is quite laborious because I'd have to work out the width for each title and calculate the left position from the desired right position.

Ideally I'd love to have right-aligned text with a selection bar centered over the text with like 10 pixels sticking out on both ends of the title.

So I guess my request would be to have the option for the selection bar to match the title width (or rather an x number of pixels on both sides) and the option to set a right position.

EDIT: I noticed too that there's a difference in font size and positions between Preview and Edit Mode. If I make the title label square exactly fitting with the text, the preview and the resulting DVD actually show the selection label sticking out. JPEGs:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14050315/1.%20Edit.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14050315/2.%20Preview.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14050315/3.%20DVD.jpg

[MrC]

Ok, not it is more clear.

So far, since the Visual Basic 6 graphical capabilities are quite poor, the Edit Mode cannot be 100% wysiwyg. Thus there will be always some differences in text display between the Preview Mode and the Edit Mode.

I understand that the process to create a proper DVD menu can be tedious, a sort of try-and-error path, but we have to manage it with AVStoDVD.

;)

Bye

[Sparktank]

Suggestion:

Can we have a command option for "avisynth frameserving check on all titles (in currently loaded project)" ?
Would be handy for doing episodic videos or anything with more than one title.
Currently have to select each title (in currently loaded project) and check frameserve independently.

Also,
Can we have a GUI for a bitrate calculator?
Would be handy when I want to do sample testing.
For some bluray movies, I used avisynth/x264 lossless with some options to adjust visual presentation before converting to DVD.
I output sample videos to 10 minutes or less, so when I add video to AVStoDVD it gives me maximum bitrate for 10 minutes.
I have to manually input avg. bit rate. I currently use an online DVD bitrate calculator.
http://dvd-hq.info/bitrate_calculator.php

Thank you for your current progress :)

[MrC]

Can we have a command option for "avisynth frameserving check on all titles (in currently loaded project)" ?
Would be handy for doing episodic videos or anything with more than one title.
Currently have to select each title (in currently loaded project) and check frameserve independently.

Ok, good suggestion. In the ToDo list.

Can we have a GUI for a bitrate calculator?
Would be handy when I want to do sample testing.
For some bluray movies, I used avisynth/x264 lossless with some options to adjust visual presentation before converting to DVD.
I output sample videos to 10 minutes or less, so when I add video to AVStoDVD it gives me maximum bitrate for 10 minutes.
I have to manually input avg. bit rate.

Could you please elaborate better the requirements? I mean, what are the input fields? what is the output?

;)

Bye

[Sparktank]

Could you please elaborate better the requirements? I mean, what are the input fields? what is the output?

;)

Bye

I suppose the same fields as the website illustrates for calculating bitrates. It seems to offer a lot of options for different circumstances.
I haven't been able to find a program that offers that much for free.

[MrC]

I suppose the same fields as the website illustrates for calculating bitrates. It seems to offer a lot of options for different circumstances.
I haven't been able to find a program that offers that much for free.

... hence a link to that website would be perfect ...

I would not duplicate anything free that already works.

;)

Bye

[Sparktank]

... hence a link to that website would be perfect ...

I would not duplicate anything free that already works.

;)

Bye

http://dvd-hq.info/bitrate_calculator.php

The only thing he asks, if you use his code, is to link to his site.
If you quote text from this page in any forum posts, e-mails, etc., or if you use any of its code, please include a link to this page (http://dvd-hq.info/bitrate_calculator.php).

[bekar]

The only thing he asks, if you use his code, is to link to his site.

[Sparktank]

The only thing he asks, if you use his code, is to link to his site.

Said the echo...

[Garrog]

Hi. Hope MrC or someone can help?

When I started installing A2D 2.5.1 I noticed it planned to install the Haali splitter even though I already have it.

The A2D Haali version is given as 1.10.348.15 whereas I have later version 1.11.288.0 already installed through the CCCP codec pack.

I'm holding off on the installation until I find out what to do now. If I deselect Haali 1.10 as part of the A2D installation will it be able to use the 1.11 version? The fact Haali isn't automatically deselected during A2D installation indicates that A2D for some reason does not recognise it which suggest it would not be able to call it up in use. Either the A2D installer cannot recognise later versions or I imagine there is some registration problem with the splitter which happened during CCCP installation?

Is this an issue which needs to be fixed via a new version of A2D before I can install? Or some other workaround?

I'm using XP btw (yeah, that's right, still rocking the XP!).

Thanks!

ps I also posted this query on the Soundforge forum yesterday but on closer inspection it looks like that forum's not really active whereas this one is: if I get a reply here I will paste in the answer there to close the loop!

[MrC]

Hi there Garrog,

AVStoDVD installer package queries the following Windows registry entry to detect a previous Haali installation:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\HaaliMkx\Install_Dir

If Haali has been installed correctly, then that key will be present.

About using the release 1.11.288.0, I cannot guarantee its compliance. If you test it and get no issues, please report it back. Thanks!

Take note that last official Haali release is 1.11.96.14 (http://haali.su/mkv)

;)

Bye

[edwood]

I just discovered AVStoDVD a couple of days ago. I have been using DVD Flick for several years. I really like AVStoDVD much better. I have been playing around with the program and find it very user friendly.

One thing that I miss that is a good feature in DVD Flick is the ability to easily select the thumbnail image that you wish to include with the video. In DVD Flick, it is a simple matter of viewing the .avi clip until you find the frame you want to use. This is done in the menu edit screen, and is done by selecting the time stamp frame window where you can step through on an hour by hour, minute by minute, and second by second basis until you locate what you are looking for.

As far as I can tell, in AVStoDVD you must use the Frame Start and Frame End to accomplish the same task. When I select the Edit Button on the Frame Start - Frame End line, I am taken to a different screen which looks very much like a media player. However, when I start the .avi file by pressing the run button, I have audio but no video. So I cannot find a way to select the thumbnail image that I want to use.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
Ed Wood

[MrC]

Hi there edwood,

it is a matter of directshow raw video codec configuration. See Help/FAQ/GUI/Q2.2 for more details and how to fix it.

;)

Bye

[Garrog]

Thanks for your advice, Mr.C.

Re. CCCP and their later Haali version, I believe CCCP is a popular and widely used codec pack. Also please note it is endorsed by Matroska (http://www.matroska.org/downloads/windows.html).

I think I will have to query this all with CCCP developers but I will come back if and when I have more info on the issue! Let me know if you have any further info/queries you would like me to pass on assuming I am able to make contact. Thanks for now.

[JEEB]

Hi there Garrog,

AVStoDVD installer package queries the following Windows registry entry to detect a previous Haali installation:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\HaaliMkx\Install_Dir

If Haali has been installed correctly, then that key will be present.
Only the Haali installer sets this as far as I know; You should be checking if the needed DShow filters are registered/still on file system if you want to actually check for filters and not for if the official installer was run or not :) Of course you could also just tell people to not come around if they haven't used the official installer.

That said, just checking that registry key AFAIK doesn't tell you if the specific filters in Haali's package are actually registered, so switching to checking if certain filters are found in the DirectShow system is a relatively good idea (people can uncheck various checkboxes in the Haali installer after all).

About using the release 1.11.288.0, I cannot guarantee its compliance. If you test it and get no issues, please report it back. Thanks!

Take note that last official Haali release is 1.11.96.14 (http://haali.su/mkv)

;)
You seem to have missed it on the CoreCodec site. Haali never got to updating his own site, so CoreCodec's download page was the only place you could get this version from, except for the 3.x CoreAVC releases. It is Haali's alright :P

If CoreCodec's support site is back up by now, you should be able to grab it from there.

[Garrog]

I should maybe apologise for asking a misleading question in the first place - I thought CCCP had "installed" Haali but I realise now it had only registered the specific filters. So apologies if I took the query in a misinformed direction.

I'm no developer, and you haven't had chance to reply to JEEB yet (who I believe is), but...assuming that AVStoDVD can call directly on the filters I assume that ideally the AVStoDVD installer would, as JEEB said, check for the filters which AVStoDVD may require in use and uncheck Haali installation if already present. Is that a possibility for future release, Mr.C? I'm surprised this issue hasn't come up before actually - maybe no-one realised there was a conflict!:D

[MrC]

Only the Haali installer sets this as far as I know; You should be checking if the needed DShow filters are registered/still on file system if you want to actually check for filters and not for if the official installer was run or not :) Of course you could also just tell people to not come around if they haven't used the official installer.

That said, just checking that registry key AFAIK doesn't tell you if the specific filters in Haali's package are actually registered, so switching to checking if certain filters are found in the DirectShow system is a relatively good idea (people can uncheck various checkboxes in the Haali installer after all).

Well, my purpose was eventually to check if HMS is installed in the system, not just registered. BTW, I agree with you, a better rationale would be to check the dshow registration, at least for HMS. There is always room to improve!

You seem to have missed it on the CoreCodec site. Haali never got to updating his own site, so CoreCodec's download page was the only place you could get this version from, except for the 3.x CoreAVC releases. It is Haali's alright :P

If CoreCodec's support site is back up by now, you should be able to grab it from there.

Thanks for the hint. From this thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1536908#post1536908), I see there is still some confusion about newer HMS releases and where to find them.

I will check out the 1.11.288.0 release to be included in the next AVStoDVD release. As said before, any feedback by you users is very appreciated.

I'm surprised this issue hasn't come up before actually - maybe no-one realised there was a conflict!

I guess:
- 100% newbies simply go ahead with installation
- 95% expert users have HMS installed properly since they usually do not like codecs packs
- 5% expert users just uncheck the Haali option, knowing that CCCP has registered Haali as dshow splitter but not fully installed it.

Anyway thanks for reporting this issue.

;)

Bye