AVStoDVD Support Thread

[MrC]

@netmask

see Help/FAQ/Subtitles/Q5.7 :sorry:

@Fishman0919

good point, FFmpeg is making big improvements in latest releases. Does Hank have to be worried? ;)

What about adding an easter egg (a registry subkey under AVStoDVD main key) to swap HCenc 2-pass with FFmpeg 2-pass? Encoding profile label will remain HCenc 2-pass, but FFmpeg will be launch instead.

;)

Bye

[Fishman0919]

@netmask

see Help/FAQ/Subtitles/Q5.7 :sorry:

@Fishman0919

good point, FFmpeg is making big improvements in latest releases. Does Hank have to be worried? ;)

What about adding an easter egg (a registry subkey under AVStoDVD main key) to swap HCenc 2-pass with FFmpeg 2-pass? Encoding profile label will remain HCenc 2-pass, but FFmpeg will be launch instead.

;)

Bye


Sure.

I like ffmpeg for long...... movies. 2 1/2 hrs where the bitrate can get down to around 3500k or lower.... ffmpeg seems to do well when/where HC may not.

[MrC]

Release 2.7.3 Alpha 131108 is out (https://sourceforge.net/projects/avstodvd/files/avstodvd_alpha_beta/AVStoDVD%202.7.3%20Alpha%20131108/). For testing purpose only!

Change log:

- Some bugs fixed
- Added 'Preferred DirectShow Codecs Setup' section
- Added SetACL 2.0.3.0 (LGPL by Helge Klein) to AVStoDVD package

Feedbacks on Codecs selection new section (for Win7/8) are very appreciated.

;)

Bye

[manolito]

Tested the 2.7.3 Alpha version a little bit under WinXP (I know this will not help you a lot...) just to see if there are any incompatibilities.

Clicking every option on the new DirectShow Codecs selection page resulted in the expected error messages. But so far no damage was done, FilMerit cannot find any inconsistencies in my DS Filter chain. Very cool...

At the bottom of this codec selection page there is a link to the Win7 filter tweaker tool. This link is hardcoded to use IE. Bad... Could you change this to use whichever browser is defined as the default browser?

One minor cosmetic thing:
Somehow you must have reduced the width for this item in the main program window:
140020 AviSynth FrameServing-Test des Titels zur Laufzeit ausführen
The translated text does not fit any more, a line break is introduced. Peanuts...



Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

@manolito

thanks for the quick feedback! Very appreciated, as usual. The retro compliance with XP is very important. I still have a XP Virtual Machine, but a regularly used OS is a different stuff. ;)

About the default browser, I check the following reg key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.htm\OpenWithList

On my systems (both Win7 and XP) that key returns FIREFOX.EXE. If the read routine fails for any reasons, it falls back to IEXPLORE.EXE.

About the checkbox label width, I will enlarge it again.

;)

Bye

[manolito]

About the default browser, I check the following reg key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.htm\OpenWithList

On my systems (both Win7 and XP) that key returns FIREFOX.EXE. If the read routine fails for any reasons, it falls back to IEXPLORE.EXE.


I think you are using the wrong reg key. On my computer I have SRWare Iron set as my default browser, but the reg key you are checking will return IE.

IMO you should check this key instead:
"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open\command"
The "Default" entry contains the default browser (at least on my XP SP3 machine).


Cheers
manolito


//Edit//
Maybe this key is more "correct" for a multi-user OS:
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\http\shell\open\command"

[Fishman0919]

Release 2.7.3 Alpha 131108 is out (https://sourceforge.net/projects/avstodvd/files/avstodvd_alpha_beta/AVStoDVD%202.7.3%20Alpha%20131108/). For testing purpose only!

Change log:

- Some bugs fixed
- Added 'Preferred DirectShow Codecs Setup' section
- Added SetACL 2.0.3.0 (LGPL by Helge Klein) to AVStoDVD package

Feedbacks on Codecs selection new section (for Win7/8) are very appreciated.

;)

Bye

On Win 8.1 Pro I get an endless loop when trying to change mpeg1 support from "Microsoft" to "ffshow".

Click "ffshow", "change yes or no" then error... back to "change yes or no" and continues to repeats no matter what I pick.

http://i467.photobucket.com/albums/rr37/fishman0919/test_zpse8d210d9.jpg (http://s467.photobucket.com/user/fishman0919/media/test_zpse8d210d9.jpg.html)

[MrC]

@manolito

good point, I will add that key as primary check, the currently used as backup.

@Fishman0919

thanks for the loop bug report. Easy to fix.

Does the error 'Preferred Codec NOT updated' happen only on mpeg1 codec or on all codecs?

;)

Bye

[Fishman0919]

@manolito

good point, I will add that key as primary check, the currently used as backup.

@Fishman0919

thanks for the loop bug report. Easy to fix.

Does the error 'Preferred Codec NOT updated' happen only on mpeg1 codec or on all codecs?

;)

Bye

All of them.

[MrC]

All of them.

I assume you are administrator of your Win8 system, aren't you?

;)

Bye

[Fishman0919]

I assume you are administrator of your Win8 system, aren't you?

;)

Bye

Yes ;)

But if I right click on "AVStoDVD.exe" and run as admin.... it does works fine

[MrC]

Yes ;)

But if I right click on "AVStoDVD.exe" and run as admin.... it does works fine

Noted. Thanks for the feedback.

;)

Bye

[manolito]

There is a regression in AVStoDVD which started with version 2.71... :eek:

I remember that v. 2.70 had a bug that an edited AviSynth script was shown in red, but was not actually used. This was fixed in v. 2.71, but obviously this fix broke another feature.

Starting with v. 2.71 it is no longer possible to trim the source visually by using the preview. The trim points show up in the script window, but they do not get added to the script.

http://i39.tinypic.com/6j0eo5.png

The only workaround I found is to note down the trim points, uncheck trimming and check it again using the noted trim points.


Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

@manolito

thanks for the bug report. You know: 3 steps forward, 2 steps backword... that's the hard path of one-man programming. My luck is to have you all as great supporters.

Hotfix (https://sites.google.com/site/avstodvdmain/AVStoDVD_273Alpha131119_exe_only.7z)

;)

Bye

[manolito]

Beautiful, thanks so much...:thanks:

Did two short tests using the hotfix, and everything works perfectly. Trimming using the preview works, and the old bug that the edited AviSynth script was not used did not come back either. Perfect!

So this is 2 steps forward, 0 steps backward. :D


Thanks again
manolito

[manolito]

Hi MrC,

I hope you are fine and not too stressed from preparations for Xmas...:D

This time I have a feature request for AVStoDVD: I would like to have an alternative routine for frame rate conversions.

Let me explain...
Right now I do a couple of DVDs from Live Music shows (YouTube). Many of these clips are 29.97fps, sometimes 30fps, and they are progressive. Even if my DVD player can play NTSC, I prefer to create PAL DVDs (better quality with my setup).

For this frame rate conversion to 25fps AVStoDVD uses ChangeFPS(25), and this method skips whole frames. The result is that parts with horizontal motion look very juddery.

Of course I could just treat the source as interlaced, in this case AVStoDVD uses LeakKernelDeint to bob deinterlace the clip. The result looks fine, but using a bobber makes this method slow. For a progressive source a script like this is faster:
Video = Video.ConvertToYV12()
Video = Video.AssumeTFF()
Video = Video.Spline36Resize(720,576)
Video = Video.ChangeFPS(50)
Video = Video.SeparateFields()
Video = Video.SelectEvery(4,0,3)
Video = Video.Weave()

Of course the result will be interlaced, so a little more bitrate is required, and the encoder must be set to interlaced. But horizontal motion is much smoother.

I use this method manually, and I like the results. It would be real nice if AVStoDVD could offer this frame rate conversion method as an alternative to the plain ChangeFPS() method.



Cheers
manolito

[harrylentil]

Hello MrC, first time user and newbie here.

I am having no luck creating DVDs with subtitles, on any software I try, DEVEDE, DVDflick, AVI2DVD or AVS2DVD. I have tried with about five subtitled movies. Here is an example where AVS2DVD authored the file structure, finished, no errors. The project had the .SRT file in it, definitely. But there's no subs on the movie (.VOB) played with a software player (VLC Player, PotPlayer, subs on) or burned onto disk and played on my Sony DVD player, and if I drop the 1st .VOB file into a new project in AVS2DVD, there's only video and audio found. The .SRT files have the proper structure and are in ASCII (opened and saved with Notepad), or in UTF-8 and are in English anyway, so no >Ascii127 characters. I opened this last .SRT file in SubtitleCreator no problems. MkvToolNix is installed. I am using Windows XP SP 3.
First I was using ver 1.5.1, now 2.7.2. The job created 2 log files, DVD_0.log:


<11/12/2013 11:37:49>
Log file created by AVStoDVD Release 2.7.2


and that is all there is in there. DVD_1.log is:


<11/12/2013 11:38:04>
START PROCESS
<>


<11/12/2013 11:38:04>
PROJECT SETTINGS


DVD Video Standard: PAL
DVD Titles number: 1
DVD Size: 4449/4450 MB (100%)
DVD Output Setup: DVD Folder
DVD Label: DVD
DVD Menu: No Menu
Output Folder: C:\movie
Delete Temp Assets Files: No
Delete Temp Working Files: No
Edit Command Parameters: No
Post Process Task: Show Progress Status window


PREFERENCES


MultiThread: 1
AVS Video Source Filter: A2DSource
AVS Audio Source Filter: A2DSource
AVS UpSize/DownSize Filter: Lanczos4Resize/Spline16Resize
Frame Adjust Strategy: 1
PAL SpeedUp: 0
Video Resolution: 0
Video BitRate Min: 2500
Video BitRate Level 1: 2500
Video Profile Level 2: 2500
Video BitRate Max: 8500
Keep DVD Compliant Video: 1
AC3 Audio Encoder: 0
Force FFmpeg for Long Audio: 1
DVD Audio Format: 0
DVD Audio BitRate: 192
Keep DVD Compliant Audio: 1
Normalize Audio: 0
Auto Delay Audio: 1
DVD Audio Language (Primary): EN - English
DVD Audio Language (Secondary): EN - English
DVD Subs Language (Primary): EN - English
DVD Subs Language (Secondary): EN - English
DVD Subs Font: Tahoma 16pt (255,255,255)
Chapters Interval: 5
Use Source Chapters: 1
DVD Burning Drive: E: LITE-ON DVDRW SHW-160P6S PS01
DVD Burning Speed: 4x
Auto Erase DVD RW: 1
Unload ActiveMovie library: 0
Adjust ffdshow at runtime: 1
Save General Settings: 0
<>


<11/12/2013 11:38:04>
TITLE 1 SOURCE FILES
Video: G:\Movies\Borgen series 2 part 1.avi
Info: XviD - 1374 kbps - 720x320 - DAR 2.25 - 23.976 fps (CFR) - Progressive - 2:05:12 hours - 180120 frames
Audio 1: G:\Movies\Borgen series 2 part 1.avi
Info: MPEG-1 Audio layer 3 - 128 kbps - CBR - 2 ch - 48000 Hz - 2:05:12 hours (0 ms delay) - DANSK
Subs 1: G:\Movies\Borgen series 2 part 1.srt
Info: SubRip (SRT) - G:\Movies\Borgen series 2 part 1.srt
[MediaInfoLib - v0.7.61]
<>


<11/12/2013 11:38:04>
AVISYNTH SCRIPT
Import("C:\Program Files\AVStoDVD\Lib\A2DSource.avsi")


Video = A2DVideoSource("G:\Movies\Borgen series 2 part 1.avi", CacheFolder="C:\DOCUME~1\t\LOCALS~1\Temp", FrameRate=23.976, VFR=false)
Audio = A2DAudioSource("G:\Movies\Borgen series 2 part 1.avi", CacheFolder="C:\DOCUME~1\t\LOCALS~1\Temp")


Video = Video.ConvertToYV12()
Video = Video.AddBorders(0,42,0,42)
Video = Video.Lanczos4Resize(720,576)
#Using DGPulldown/HCenc to upsize FPS


AudioDub(Video, Audio)
<>


<11/12/2013 11:38:04>
START VIDEO ENCODING OPERATIONS
Encoding Profile: FFmpeg CBR 1-pass
Target Video FileSize: 4148.5 MB
Encoding Parameters: -i "C:\DOCUME~1\t\LOCALS~1\Temp\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1_1.avs" -threads 1 -aspect 16:9 -c:v mpeg2video -b:v 4632k -minrate 4632k -maxrate 4632k -bufsize 2000k -dc 9 -y "C:\movie\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1.m2v"
<>


<11/12/2013 13:20:13>
END VIDEO ENCODING OPERATIONS
Video Source Filter: A2DSource (AVISource)
Created File: C:\movie\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1.m2v (4148.2 MB)
OUTPUT VIDEO INFO: MPEG-2 Video - 4632 kbps - 720x576 - DAR 1.778 - 23.976 fps (CFR) - Progressive - 2:05:05 hours - 179940 frames
<>


<11/12/2013 13:20:13>
START PULLDOWN OPERATIONS
DGPulldown Parameters: "C:\movie\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1.m2v" -srcfps 23.976 -destfps 25 -inplace -tff
<>


<11/12/2013 13:33:56>
END PULLDOWN OPERATIONS
DGPulldown executed on File: C:\movie\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1.m2v (4148.2 MB)
OUTPUT VIDEO INFO: MPEG-2 Video - 4632 kbps - 720x576 - DAR 1.778 - 24 fps (CFR) - Progressive (2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:3 Pulldown) - 2:05:12 hours - 180300 frames
<>


<11/12/2013 13:33:56>
START AUDIO ENCODING OPERATIONS (Track 1)
Wavi+Aften Parameters: "C:\DOCUME~1\t\LOCALS~1\Temp\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1_1.avs" - | "C:\Program Files\AVStoDVD\Aften\aften.exe" -b 192 -pad 0 -dynrng 5 -bwfilter 0 - "C:\movie\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1_1.ac3"
<>


<11/12/2013 13:42:33>
END AUDIO ENCODING OPERATIONS (Track 1)
Audio Source Filter: A2DSource (DirectShowSource)
Created File: C:\movie\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1_1.ac3 (171.9 MB)
OUTPUT AUDIO INFO: AC3 - 192 kbps - CBR - 2 ch - 48000 Hz - 16 bit - 2:05:12 hours (0 ms delay)
<>


<11/12/2013 13:42:53>
START SUBS ENCODING OPERATIONS (Track 1)
SRT fixing routine applied (0 lines fixed).
SubtitleCreator Parameters: "C:\DOCUME~1\t\LOCALS~1\Temp\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1.srt" -p2 -i"C:\Program Files\AVStoDVD\SubtitleCreator\Examples\VTS_01_1.I FO"
<>


<11/12/2013 13:43:23>
END SUBS ENCODING OPERATIONS (Track 1)
Created File: C:\movie\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1_1.sup (2.17 MB)
<>


<11/12/2013 13:43:23>
START DVD AUTHORING OPERATIONS
BatchMux Parameters: -arglist "C:\DOCUME~1\t\LOCALS~1\Temp\DVD_1_BatchMux.in i"
BatchMux ini file:
-d "C:\movie\DVD_1\VIDEO_TS"
-mxp "C:\DOCUME~1\t\LOCALS~1\Temp\DVD_1_MuxMan.mxp"
-l "C:\DOCUME~1\t\LOCALS~1\Temp\DVD_1_MuxMan.log"
-muxman "C:\Program Files\AVStoDVD\MuxMan"
-prio LOW
-palette "C:\DOCUME~1\t\LOCALS~1\Temp\DVD_1_Palette.txt "
-v "C:\movie\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1.m2v"
-vidmode LB
-a1 "C:\movie\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1_1.ac3"
-a1lang en
-s1 "C:\movie\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1_1.sup"
-s1lang en
-s1ext 1
-cellfr "C:\movie\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1_Chapters.txt"
-progfr "C:\movie\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1_Chapters.txt"
-chapfr "C:\movie\DVD_1_Borgen series 2 part 1_Chapters.txt"


<>


<11/12/2013 13:57:37>
END DVD AUTHORING OPERATIONS
Created Folder: C:\movie\DVD_1 (4428 MB)


CHECK DVD SIZE
DVD Folder (actual) Size: 4428 MB
vs Estimated Size: 4449 MB -> 0.5% undersize
vs Assets Size: 4322.3 MB -> Warning!
<>


<11/12/2013 13:57:37>
Log file created by AVStoDVD Release 2.7.2
<>

[manolito]

I just had an annoying issue with a source file with a width of 854. It was a regular MP4 file with AVC video and AAC audio. The a2dsource.avsi picked DirectShowSource as expected, there was no error message, but the output was total garbage.

I use ffdshow and Haali splitter, the versions are those which jdobbs endorses for BD-Rebuilder. I tested 4 different versions of AviSynth and DirectShowSource.dll, but this did not change anything.

Using ffms2 or DSS2 as source filters fixed the problem. But since DirectShowSource does not throw an error it is impossible for a2dsource.avsi to fall back on a different source filter automatically.

I posted the problem in the AviSynth thread, see here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1658354#post1658354


Any ideas?


Cheers
manolito

[manolito]

Here is my own idea...

This issue only happens if the source has a width which is not divisible by 4 AND if DirectShowSource is used as the source filter. (The problem has nothing to do with ffdshow, it also happens with CoreAVC as the decoder).

It should be possible to modify a2dsource.avsi to test if the source width is mod4 or not, and if it is not mod4 then just skip trying DirectShowSource and jump directly to ffmpegsource2 instead.

Does this make sense?

Maybe this approach is too radical, though. So far I had this problem only with AVC video, maybe other source formats do not require a workaround. I will do some more tests...


Cheers
manolito


//Edit//
I did a few more tests, see the results here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1658658#post1658658
I will try to modify a2dsource.avsi to skip DirectShowSource if the source clip is not MOD4, I am just not so sure if my AviSynth scripting skills will be sufficient...

[MrC]

Hi MrC,

I hope you are fine and not too stressed from preparations for Xmas...:D

This time I have a feature request for AVStoDVD: I would like to have an alternative routine for frame rate conversions.

Let me explain...
Right now I do a couple of DVDs from Live Music shows (YouTube). Many of these clips are 29.97fps, sometimes 30fps, and they are progressive. Even if my DVD player can play NTSC, I prefer to create PAL DVDs (better quality with my setup).

For this frame rate conversion to 25fps AVStoDVD uses ChangeFPS(25), and this method skips whole frames. The result is that parts with horizontal motion look very juddery.

Of course I could just treat the source as interlaced, in this case AVStoDVD uses LeakKernelDeint to bob deinterlace the clip. The result looks fine, but using a bobber makes this method slow. For a progressive source a script like this is faster:
Video = Video.ConvertToYV12()
Video = Video.AssumeTFF()
Video = Video.Spline36Resize(720,576)
Video = Video.ChangeFPS(50)
Video = Video.SeparateFields()
Video = Video.SelectEvery(4,0,3)
Video = Video.Weave()

Of course the result will be interlaced, so a little more bitrate is required, and the encoder must be set to interlaced. But horizontal motion is much smoother.

I use this method manually, and I like the results. It would be real nice if AVStoDVD could offer this frame rate conversion method as an alternative to the plain ChangeFPS() method.


Hi manolito,

surely less stress from Xmas than from my job... end of the year is awful...

The NTSC to PAL alternative conversion routine is very interesting. The only drawback, as you already pointed out, is the interlaced output. Anyway it is worth to be implemented as an option, maybe off by default.

I hope to come back to AVStoDVD in January. An alpha release has to become final since ages.

;)

Bye

[MrC]

Hello MrC, first time user and newbie here.

I am having no luck creating DVDs with subtitles, on any software I try, DEVEDE, DVDflick, AVI2DVD or AVS2DVD. I have tried with about five subtitled movies. Here is an example where AVS2DVD authored the file structure, finished, no errors. The project had the .SRT file in it, definitely. But there's no subs on the movie (.VOB) played with a software player (VLC Player, PotPlayer, subs on) or burned onto disk and played on my Sony DVD player, and if I drop the 1st .VOB file into a new project in AVS2DVD, there's only video and audio found. The .SRT files have the proper structure and are in ASCII (opened and saved with Notepad), or in UTF-8 and are in English anyway, so no >Ascii127 characters. I opened this last .SRT file in SubtitleCreator no problems. MkvToolNix is installed. I am using Windows XP SP 3.


The log file is ok, the subs should be at their place.

Take note that, by default, subs are not on, you have to activate them either with your soft player or with the DVD remote controller.

;)

Bye

[MrC]

I just had an annoying issue with a source file with a width of 854. It was a regular MP4 file with AVC video and AAC audio. The a2dsource.avsi picked DirectShowSource as expected, there was no error message, but the output was total garbage.

I use ffdshow and Haali splitter, the versions are those which jdobbs endorses for BD-Rebuilder. I tested 4 different versions of AviSynth and DirectShowSource.dll, but this did not change anything.

Using ffms2 or DSS2 as source filters fixed the problem. But since DirectShowSource does not throw an error it is impossible for a2dsource.avsi to fall back on a different source filter automatically.

I posted the problem in the AviSynth thread, see here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1658354#post1658354


Quickly tested the mp4 file. Win7 64bit system with AviSynth 2.5.8 and ffdshow 1.3.4500.

DSS + ffdshow = garbage
DSS + MS DTV-DVD Video Decoder = no garbage
FFMS2 + ffdshow = no garbage

First time that MS garbage is not responsible of more garbage... I have not tried CoreAVC.

There must be a nasty combination of DSS and ffdshow when width is not mod4. Fortunately "not mod4" is very rare and I think it can be handled by implementing the check in A2DSource.avsi you have proposed.

Thanks for the continuous and valid support to our vintage AVStoDVD.

;)

Bye

[manolito]

Hi MrC,

no rush for a final release, you sure deserve a little relaxing after the end of year job stress...

Fortunately "not mod4" is very rare
Not so rare here... Of my last 5 YouTube downloads 3 had a frame size of 854x480.

(In case someone has an issue with "YouTube downloads", I did ask in the "The Rules Explained" thread, and it should be OK to discuss YouTube downloads here once they have been online for some time. See here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1658338#post1658338 )

In the meantime I just had to get the modified version of a2dsource.avsi ready. Works nicely on my computer now, but I could sure use some feedback...;)

Link:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/vj9l01

I made two modded versions of the script. The first version just skips DirectShowSource if the source is not MOD4 and jumps directly to ffmpegsource2. The second version adds the DSS2 source filter to the script. Requires that the Haali splitter is installed and that avss.dll is copied from the Haali folder to the AVS2DVD\lib folder.

I am not sure yet if DSS2 or ffmpegsource2 has the edge. With ffms2 the indexing takes some time, but the actual linear decoding seems to be a little faster on my machine than DSS2.

For both versions of the script I left the AVISource part unmodified. I have AviSynth 2.57 installed (any newer version is not compatible with DVD2SVCD which I still use all the time). And with this AviSynth version AVISource does decode NON-MOD4 AVI files without problems. But when I had installed the latest AviSynth 2.60 alpha version, AVISource would also garble NON-MOD4 AVI files.

So I have included a NON-MOD4 AVI file in the download, and I would appreciate some feedback from other AVS2DVD users. Does AVStoDVD handle this source file without problems or not, and which Windows version and AviSynth version are you using? It might be necessary to also branch from AVISource to a different source filter if the source is NON-MOD4.


The implementation of the changes did cause some headaches for me, mainly because I am not too experienced with AviSynth scripting. The thing which is not very elegant is that in order to determine the width of the source clip within an AviSynth script, I have to load the source clip first. This means invoking DirectShowSource early in the script and possibly disregarding it later. But I have not found a way to access the MediaInfo information about the clip properties from within the AVS script. Something for the AviSynth gurus...


Alright, Happy Holidays for everybody, Merry Xmas and all my best wishes for the new year...


Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

Hi manolito

the script works (good job!), there is just a coding "inelegance" when invoking DSS at the beginning to find out the clip's width: if the clip cannot be opened by DSS, then MOD4 variable will be always 0

DirectShowSource(VideoSource)
MOD4 = width() % 4


It is true that if DSS cannot open the clip, we do not care about the mod2 issue, and FFMS2 will be returned. ;)

A more "elegant" way would be to test every time the Video.width property and, if fails mod4, to jump to the next source filter. Not sure if the integration with the Try...Catch control structure is easy (or even possible).

I'm thinking about handling the issue within AVStoDVD (in the AVS script generation routine) where I have all the Mediainfo properties available: if the width is not mod4, then skip A2DSource and go directly with FFMpegSource.

[manolito]

Thanks MrC for the kind words...

I knew my solution was not too elegant, but your hints were right on the money (as usual). So here is my latest effort, and this is as elegant as it can possibly get. It requires just 1 additional line in the a2dsource.avsi.

The DSS section now looks like this:
Try {
SourceStr = "A2DVideoSource: DirectShowSource"
Video = DirectShowSource(VideoSource, fps = FrameRate, convertfps = VFR, audio = false)
Video = (Width(Video) % 4 == 0) ? Video : Error
}

What did the trick was setting the "Video" variable to "Error" in case of a non-mod4 source. I had tried setting it to "0" before, but that did not work. This was pure trial and error (or call it intuition), I did not find anything about the "Try...Catch" details in the AviSynth documentation.

Whatever, this version works perfectly on my computer.
I'm thinking about handling the issue within AVStoDVD (in the AVS script generation routine)
I don't think that this would be necessary, and just modifying the a2d source script has the additional advantage that users can add their own preferred source filters to the script. (I really like DSS2...)

BTW did you have a chance to test if the non-mod4 AVI works on your system using AVISource?

Anyways, I promise I won't bug you any more before next year... :D


Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

No bugging, this is support! ;)

The version #2 is brilliant and elegant, just one more code line. Beautiful! I would add the 'Video = (Width(Video) % 4 == 0) ? Video : Error' line also in the AVISource section because, on my system, it outputs the same garbage as DSS.

I agree that, with the solution you proposed to A2DSource.avsi, I do not need to change the AVStoDVD routines.

Thanks again and have a nice Xmas and all the best for 2014

;)

Bye

[yab_tater]

Happy holidays!

I was curious if any progress had been made regarding adding the ability to choose the outline color of text in the Menu Editor? I know your to-do list is long, so its all good either way. :)

[yab_tater]

I thought I would be fancy for my current project and set custom chapter breaks in my DVDs. I counted out the frames using Avidemux and Vitualdub, unchecked "Use Source Chapter List" in my preferences, set the Chapter Interval to 999, and then opened my View/Edit Title Settings, went to Chapters, deleted any previous auto generated chapter breaks, and added new breaks with my frame counts. Unfortunately, the frame values were resulting in bad (too short) times. In one example a chapter break at frame 31893 corresponded to a time stamp of 0:22:10.205 in Virtualdub, but in the custom chapters window of AVStoDVD, frame 31893 was showing a time stamp of 00:17:44.164. Obviously, this mistiming is thoroughly throwing off my chapter breaks when I play the DVD. Not surprisingly, the automatically generated chapter breaks have similarly messed up timing, for example the auto generated chapter break for frame 18000 shows a time stamp of 10:00.601 where in my source videos, frame 18000 corresponds to a time stamp of 12:30.751. And if you are at this point wondering, my source material clocks in at 23.976 fps.

Aside from whatever is the root cause of this issue, it seems entering custom chapter breaks via time stamp (something, for example DVD Styler can do) would be a straightforward way of sidestepping the issue. It would also allow an easy way to add "close enough" chapter break values without having to open up a specialized application in order to count frames.

Thanks for your attention. :)

PS -- After working on this some more this morning, the problem is indeed caused by my source material being 24fps where AVStoDVD is assuming it is 30fps. I can work around the problem to a certain extent by taking my frame count and multiplying it by 1.25. This stops working if I try to put a chapter break near the end of a video as my multiplication can produce a number of frames larger than contained in the file, and the too large value gets flagged as an invalid figure. So, there you are.

[MrC]

@yab_tater

unfortunately no progress so far on text outline color in DVD Menu. But do not give up hope...

About chapters position when source is NTSC-film based (23.976 fps), you have to consider that the output will be at 29.97 fps (2:3 pulldown), hence the output frames "seen" by Muxman will be more than the source frames. This effect is considered in AVStoDVD. If you want a chapter flag at 10:00 minutes, put 18000 fps and you will have it in the output DVD. I suggest you to use the 'Preview Clip' option, you will have the possibility to easily insert the chapters flags using a proper button in a visual context. AVStoDVD will take care to do all the timestamps-to-frames conversions.

I may agree with you that switching from frames to timestamps in the manual insert routine would be less confusing. Another item in the ToDo list.

;)

Bye

[yab_tater]

@yab_tater

unfortunately no progress so far on text outline color in DVD Menu. But do not give up hope...


Oh well, something to look forward to in the future.

About chapters position when source is NTSC-film based (23.976 fps), you have to consider that the output will be at 29.97 fps (2:3 pulldown), hence the output frames "seen" by Muxman will be more than the source frames. This effect is considered in AVStoDVD.

This is a puzzling statement as the working bits of AVStoDVD are very happy taking 24p as input and outputting the same. My ISO files/DVDs are still in 24p, there is no 2:3 pulldown to 30fps. This was in fact the reason I stopped using DVD Styler as it always outputs at 29.97fps and I wanted to retain 24p. Perhaps this is the problem, the custom chapter code is taking into account 2:3 pulldown when it is not taking place.

If you want a chapter flag at 10:00 minutes, put 18000 fps and you will have it in the output DVD. I suggest you to use the 'Preview Clip' option, you will have the possibility to easily insert the chapters flags using a proper button in a visual context. AVStoDVD will take care to do all the timestamps-to-frames conversions.

I am sorry I was not clear in describing my problem, which is that, to use your example, putting in 18,000 frames does not result in a break at 10:00 in my DVDs, but one at 8:00. To get a chapter break at 10:00, I would need to enter a frame count of 22,500. Interestingly, the frame counter of the AVStoDVD preview window shows the correct fps in relation to time, so this may be another work around to the problem.

I may agree with you that switching from frames to timestamps in the manual insert routine would be less confusing. Another item in the ToDo list.

It is good to have things with which to stay busy. ;)

[manolito]

This is a puzzling statement as the working bits of AVStoDVD are very happy taking 24p as input and outputting the same. My ISO files/DVDs are still in 24p, there is no 2:3 pulldown to 30fps.

There is no HARD pulldown in your output, but there certainly is SOFT pulldown via setting the RF flag accordingly. 24 fps is not DVD compliant. You should have a look at this thread:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1654796#post1654796

You have to differentiate between encoded frames and presentation frames. The presentation frames include the repeated fields, and the chapter frame numbers always relate to the presentation frames.

There is a nice little tool called ChapterGen which lets you convert between different chapter formats. It can also automatically convert the chapter positions between different frame rates.

http://i40.tinypic.com/2hchoqf.jpg

You can export your chapters from here into a "CellTimes.txt" file which you can then import into AVStoDVD.


Good luck
manolito

[MrC]

In addition to what manolito wrote:


I am sorry I was not clear in describing my problem, which is that, to use your example, putting in 18,000 frames does not result in a break at 10:00 in my DVDs, but one at 8:00. To get a chapter break at 10:00, I would need to enter a frame count of 22,500

This is puzzling: 22500 frames at 10:00 means the framerate would be 37.5 fps... are you really sure that AVStoDVD is doing that in the 'Add Chapter' routine? If my source title is 23.976 fps (output NTSC) and if I manually add a chapter flag @22500 frame, the related timestamp is 12:30.751

Please double check

;)

Bye

[manolito]

Re Non-Mod4 issue:

Just to let you know that hello_hello came up with another nice workaround for the problem. Have a look here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1659686#post1659686

I think that the modified a2dsource.avsi has the edge, mainly because it does not require that ffdshow is used as the decoder, and because switching to ffmpegsource2 is faster. But I do like his approach. And AVStoDVD probably could make the necessary ffdshow settings at runtime.


Happy new year to everybody...

Cheers
manolito

[rs008f]

Is it possible to change the number of titles per page on the DVD menu?

I got this error during DVD authoring of 52 MKV files. It happened on title #33 which means on the third DVD menu page. Too many files?

Segment memory resources --> RELEASED
Local Stack memory --> RELEASED
File i/o structures --> DEALLOCATED

[MrC]

@manolito

yes I do prefer your solution within A2DSource.avsi. It will be published with 2.7.3 final. ;)

@rs008f

please avoid double posting here and at videohelp.com

;)

Bye

[manolito]

More findings about these non-mod4 sources:

After getting rid of ffdshow and Haali and installing the current LAV filters, all of the problematic non-mod4 source files suddenly worked...:confused:

See here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1660292#post1660292

The LAV audio filters gave me some problems within AVStoDVD. For an MPEG2 source with MPEG audio (MP2) I did not get any audio at all. I was unable to fix this via the LAV settings, so I switched to a combination of ffdshow and LAV filters.
//EDIT// Please ignore this. The source file was broken.

My winning combination looks like this:
I installed ffdshow first, but disabled the video decoders completely. Then I installed the LAV filters, but only selected the splitter and the video decoders. So far after about a dozen test conversions everything looks good...


This is probably not for the average AVStoDVD user, setting up this stuff is a little complicated. But it sure is interesting.



Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

@manolito

thanks for the new feedback. Do you know if LAV Filter settings are stored in the win registry, such as ffdshow? If yes, I may add the adjustments at runtime also for LAV Filter.

I'm sending you the 2.7.3 English.lang.ini to update the German.lang.ini. Thanks in advance :)

;)

Bye

[qyot27]

Do you know if LAV Filter settings are stored in the win registry, such as ffdshow? If yes, I may add the adjustments at runtime also for LAV Filter.
It would appear so:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/LAV

with separate areas for 'Audio', 'Video', and 'Splitter'.

[MrC]

@qyot27

thanks, good to know. What is your opinion about LAV Filter? Is it still a "promise" or already a full alternative to ffdshow?

;)

Bye

[manolito]

Alright, here is yet another workaround for the non-mod4 issue.

In the AviSynth thread Wilbert recommended to add the Pixel_Type value YUY2 to the DirectShowSource command, and this workaround (while not elegant) did indeed work.

You can get the same result by modifying the ffdshow video decoder output settings:
http://i39.tinypic.com/1zchg09.jpg

Disabling the YV12 output effectively makes these non-mod4 sources work.

So why do the LAV video filters work out of the box? Do they automatically detect problems with YV12 output and switch to YUY2? All of this is a big mystery to me...:confused:



Cheers
manolito

[qyot27]

@qyot27

thanks, good to know. What is your opinion about LAV Filter? Is it still a "promise" or already a full alternative to ffdshow?

;)

Bye
A 'full' alternative? LAV has no VFW component, but for everything else, yes (or LAV is better). And if you need the VFW component, it's not like ffdshow's can't be used in tandem with it (unless you're using the 64-bit version of ffdshow - that complaint has been getting tossed around lately in the ffdshow dev thread since either the VFW interface gets disabled in all the 64 bit builds of ffdshow, or only under Win8...something like that).

ffdshow's development has almost halted, and on top of that, it relies on an internal copy of the libav* libraries, whereas LAV Filters doesn't. So basically, LAV is actively maintained and uses much more up-to-date versions of avcodec, avformat, etc. It's also capable of playing both HEVC and Opus - ffdshow can't (and unless there's been a recent update, Haali can't deal with Opus streams in MKV, despite Opus-in-MKV being finalized back in July).

So why do the LAV video filters work out of the box? Do they automatically detect problems with YV12 output and switch to YUY2? All of this is a big mystery to me...
It could be a bug in swscale that got fixed in the newer versions that LAV Filters links to. Or a fix that was specific to FFmpeg, since ffdshow took sides with Libav.

Or maybe it is a difference in the underlying DirectShow-related bits, but I know even less about that.

[manolito]

Alright, I took the plunge...:)

I uninstalled ffdshow, Haali and the FLVSplitter completely and installed the latest LAV filter package (0.59.1), all settings at their defaults.

No problems so far, decoding non-mod4 width sources works each and every time. One minor glitch in AVStoDVD: For MPEG2 source files with MPEG audio (MP2), I do not get any sound in the preview. The actual conversion does work, though, and playing the file in a DirectShow based player also works. So this is most likely a AVStoDVD issue.

//EDIT//
It did work after enabling 32bit floating point output which was disabled by default
http://picload.org/image/lgdwogp/lav_audio.jpg


But I do have a couple of questions:
In ffdshow there is a setting for raw sources, and it should be set to "All Supported". LAV filters do not have such a setting. Is it unnecessary, or could the absence of this setting cause trouble?

My other question is about the audio mixer. In ffdshow it is enabled by default, and AVStoDVD modifies its settings at runtime to ensure proper channel mapping for multichannel sources.

For LAV filters the audio mixer is disabled by default. Will this result in a false channel mapping for multichannel sources (i.e. is it necessary for AVStoDVD to modify the mixer settings), or will the LAV audio filters deliver a correct channel mapping without activating the mixer?

Since I do not have a multichannel configuration in my system, I have no way to test this. But so far the LAV filters look very promising to me...



Cheers
manolito

[qyot27]

In ffdshow there is a setting for raw sources, and it should be set to "All Supported". LAV filters do not have such a setting. Is it unnecessary, or could the absence of this setting cause trouble?
It seems it can handle raw video, but I've not tested extensively. The 'rawvideo' and 'rawaudio' options are actually in the Splitter's formats list.

[manolito]

Thanks qyot27 for the information...:thanks:

So I'd say it is up to MrC now to test the LAV filters. Especially if the audio channel mapping works correctly out of the box, or if the mapping must be corrected like with ffdshow.


Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

I'm currently in the process to finalize 2.7.3 release (cosmetics and help file update). After publishing it, I will give a try to LAV Filters and check all the runtime adjustment needed. With ffdshow, AVStoDVD adjusts:

- Raw Video and Audio "on" when previewing output using ActiveMovie DShow class (quartz.dll)

- Audio mixer when encoding audio with DirectShow approach

- Preferred filters merit with the new tool introduced with 2.7.3 alpha releases

;)

Bye

[Sparktank]

Wonderful progress!

Can't wait to show my friends this program. They've been looking for something to back up their BD's so their kids don't ruin them.
They got Windows 8.1, and not much internet.

When they get it up and running, I'll check on them and see how things are going and report back on 8.1 progress.

It's been awhile since I've given this a go (or even updated lol).
Looking forward to the updates and checking things out, MrC. :)

[manolito]

More interesting findings about non-mod4 sources and LAV Filters:

(This applies to using ffdshow and Haali)
I came across some MPEG1 and MPEG2 files which ffmpegsource2 cannot handle. This is the error message:
http://i42.tinypic.com/ztte0z.png

This means that my workaround for a2dsource.avsi does not work for these sources. I found another workaround which forces DirectShowSource to output YUY2 in such cases. Maybe this one should be used generally instead of the old one. The DirectShowSource commands look like this now:

Video = DirectShowSource(VideoSource, fps = FrameRate, convertfps = VFR, audio = false)
Video = (Video.Width % 4 ==0) ? Video : DirectShowSource(VideoSource, fps = FrameRate, convertfps = VFR, audio = false, \
pixel_type = "YUY2")

I uploaded two offending files plus the modified a2dsource.avsi here:
http://www27.zippyshare.com/v/95856523/file.html


When using LAV Filters instead of ffdshow and Haali the offending files are handled by ffmpegsource2 without problems. This means that the LAV splitter works better in combination with ffmpegsource2 than Haali. Kind of funny because the ffms2 documentation states that in order to decode OGG and MPEG streams correctly the Haali splitter must be installed. But using ffmpegsource2 is not even necessary for these files with the LAV filters, DirectShowSource handles them just fine.

Overall I am quite happy with the LAV filters so far. Raw sources indeed do not seem to be a problem, the AVS2DVD preview works with all kinds of source formats. Remains the audio mixer and the preferred filters merit...


Cheers
manolito

[qyot27]

When using LAV Filters instead of ffdshow and Haali the offending files are handled by ffmpegsource2 without problems. This means that the LAV splitter works better in combination with ffmpegsource2 than Haali. Kind of funny because the ffms2 documentation states that in order to decode OGG and MPEG streams correctly the Haali splitter must be installed. But using ffmpegsource2 is not even necessary for these files with the LAV filters, DirectShowSource handles them just fine.
The docs say that to seek in them reliably, that you need Haali. It doesn't say it requires it for decoding. If Haali's not installed (or if FFMS2 has been built with anything other than the Professional version of MSVC), it falls back to libavformat's demuxer - there's no way for it to see, let alone use, LAV Filters (nor would it be necessary, considering that LAV Filters uses libavformat too). The key point there is that that blurb in the docs has probably not changed in the several years since FFMS2 was first released, and in the meanwhile, libavformat's demuxers have gotten a lot better, even if MPEG-2 Transport Streams are still something of a sore spot.

You'd probably have gotten the same behavior if, when Haali was still installed, you used either the C plugin version of FFMS2 or used the demuxer=lavf option.

[manolito]

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated...


Cheers
manolito

[Kangiten]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to AVS2DVD. After some trial-and-error attempts, I've managed to get pretty much everything working.

I still have a little question pertaining to chapters. So I have a Blu-ray which I want to convert to DVD9. Although I'm in a PAL country (and therefore not used to NTSC encoding), the Blu-ray is 23,976 fps. When converting, AVS2DVD logically suggested I should encode in NTSC. After the encoding, I checked the .vob files with GSpot, which indicated a frame rate of 29,97 fps (which, if I understand correctly, means that AVS2DVD performed pulldown).

Now, after encoding, I realized that I forgot to include the original chapters. So I extracted the original chapter list. Now, my understanding is that I have to correct this chapter list so they adjust to the new frame rate. I found out that I could do just that with Chapter Grabber. Now, the thing is when I open the *.vob files in Ifoedit, it reports a frame rate of 30 fps next to the chapters (and not the 29,97 fps that I expected).

So my question is: should I use 29,97 fps or 30 fps as the basis for chapter conversion? I don't know if the difference matters all that much, but if you do things, you might as well do them properly :)

Thanks for any input.