AVStoDVD Support Thread

[Mister XY]

Hello, i'm using your software avs2dvd since 2 or 3 years. It is a great software. for me better than convertxtodvd. But i have problem with pulldown. If i using 23,976 fps movies, it's convert to 25 fps via asumefps. But if i using 24 fps movies, it did not convert to 25 fps and the movies stutter.

[manolito]

Hi Mister XY, and welcome to the forum...

You are right, AVStoDVD only uses PAL speedup (assumepfs(25)) only for 23.976fps sources and not for 24fps. I brought this up a while ago, see this post:
And at last one (probably stupid) question:
PAL Speedup only works for 23.976 fps sources. Why doesn't it also work for 24 fps sources?
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1624536#post1624536


Cheers
manolito

[Mister XY]

Ok thanks, but i dont really find a solution.

[manolito]

Oh, that's pretty easy, AVStoDVD is a lot more versatile than one might see on the first looks... :cool:

1. Load your 24fps source into AVStoDVD
2. In the "Title" menue select "Edit Source Title Info" and click on "Video Frame Rate".
3. Change the value from 24 to 23.976
4. Click on "View/Edit Title Settings" and go to the "AviSynth" tab.
5. Uncheck "Auto AviSynth Script" and in the line for the video source filter (second from above) change the frame rate back to the "real" value of 24.


Steps #4 and #5 are probably not even necessary, in a couple of tests I got perfect audio sync even without specifying the correct source frame rate in the source filter.


Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

@manolito

very good suggestion, that's exactly the workaround I would have suggested to Mr XY. :)

Step 4 and 5 are necessary if the source is VFR and DSS needs some more hints about the avg framerate.

Have you tried using MotionProtectedFPS for direct 23.976 / 24 fps to 25 fps conversions? Without DGPulldown, I mean.

;)

Bye

[manolito]

Have you tried using MotionProtectedFPS for direct 23.976 / 24 fps to 25 fps conversions? Without DGPulldown, I mean.

Hi MrC,

thanks for giving my workaround your official blessings... :)

And yes, I have done a lot more tests with fps conversions based on motion compensation.

23.976 / 24 fps to 25 fps using MotionProtectedFPS works nicely. For natural content I have a hard time detecting any warped edges, even looking at stills. I also tried both of the MVTools based fps converters (MVFlowFPS and MVFlowFPS2), but I did not see any advantage compared to MotionProtectedFPS. Both MVTools based methods are way slower, and they had a tendency to produce more artifacts. And these artifacts were more visible when watching clips (not stills). The same goes for salFPS3. IMO MotionProtectedFPS is the best compromise if you want to use motion-compensated fps conversion.

The real torture test I ran with MotionProtectedFPS was using an NTSC DVD which is true interlaced 29.97 (not telecined). The DVD is Prince - The Hits Collection, the different videos are quite demanding. Converting it to PAL in the usual way (bob deinterlace, use changefps for fps conversion, resize and reinterlace) results in a very acceptable PAL DVD, but of course the dropped fields are visible if you concentrate on it.

What I did next was a conversion where I first applied a fast same rate deinterlacer (Yadif) and then used MotionProtectedFPS to get a progressive 25fps file. Very smooth motion, a few artifacts but not terrible at all, and the speed was quite fast. Only the vertically scrolling end credits did not look too good.


Cheers
manolito

[SuLyMaN]

About the vertical menu, same can be done, but I have to go in the menu and move the generated thumbnails of videos manually. Else it will be horizontally displayed.
.

Newb post. The menu renders well and no clipping of text whatsoever. I was clicking 'edit' and this is why I was seeing issues when there was none!

Works well. Enjoy the simple plain black menu!

[MrC]

AVStoDVD release 2.7.5 Alpha 140714 is available (https://sourceforge.net/projects/avstodvd/files/avstodvd_alpha_beta/AVStoDVD%202.7.5%20Alpha%20140714/)

Change log:

- Some bugs fixed
- Added MotionProtectedFPS, Motion_12Dec05 and MaskTools libraries to implement Motion Compensation FPS change
- Replaced ChangeFPS/ConvertFPS with MotionProtectedFPS in AviSynth script generation routine
- MediaInfo updated to release 0.7.69

;)

Bye

[SuLyMaN]

One thing, Should I always uninstall before installing or can I install on the old version?

[MrC]

One thing, Should I always uninstall before installing or can I install on the old version?

Yes, as explained in Help/FAQ/General/Q1.7

;)

Bye

[manolito]

Anyone interested in testing a plugin which allows to use SoX or DynamicAudioNormalizer for normalizing audio (instead of the built-in AviSynth normalizing function) ?

The reason I wrote this plugin was that I had some issues with AviSynth normalizing:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1685231#post1685231

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1677270#post1677270


As an additional bonus the plugin handles huge non-standard temp WAV files > 4GB.


Download:

// Link Removed - New version here: //
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1693124#post1693124

Note:
The plugin requires patching of the main AVStoDVD executable. If you are not comfortable with this, please do not use the plugin.


Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

Hi manolito, it looks promising in several aspects.

I'm currently in vacation with no PC and limited web access (smartphone). Next week, coming back, I will give a try for sure.

Thanks for expanding once more A2D capabilities.

;)

Bye

[SuLyMaN]

Thanks for the update! Should reinstall AVS2DVD today. Had a HDD crash. What a PITA to get windows up and running with all your previous settings/softwares...

[manolito]

Maybe now you might want to use a good imaging backup software regularly... :devil:


Cheers
manolito

[SuLyMaN]

@manolito: I paid the price once at start of this year :( I already had backup! This is a 2nd failure on me but the damage was more of lost time and hassles than anything else :)

@everybody else: I was doing some searches on the net about dvd conversion softwares etc and came across an interesting read.
http://forums.vso-software.fr/encoding-q-a-t17855.html
Now, I'm a firm believer of VBR based encodes (been a DVD rebuilder/HCenc user) for years but in FAQ 3. they say that a CBR is better than VBR. I know that you are free and do not need to answer for 'them' but I am wondering why are they making such a bold claim. For all I know from being there for many years reading much contents, it is agreed that re-encoders such as CCE, HCEnc etc yield the best quality.

[SuLyMaN]

Latest version is not working :( HCEnc keeps crashing before first pass ends....Tried different files.
Crashes...

[manolito]

... but in FAQ 3. they say that a CBR is better than VBR.

You misunderstood them completely. They are not talking about CBR, they are talking about CQ (Constant Quantizer). This is something completely different.

You probably can have endless discussions if multi-pass VBR or CQ gives you better quality. I would say that both have their merits. HC for example does not offer CBR, but it does have CQ based encoding, and the modified CQ version called CQ_MaxBitrate which observes the DVD maximum allowed bitrate gives you excellent quality encodes.


Lately there have been a couple of reports that HC crashes under Win 8 or Win 8.1. Sometimes it was false alarm and it turned out that some Antivirus software caused the crashes. If you absolutely cannot get HC to work, you should probably have a look at the ffmpeg VBR plugin (available at the AVStoDVD SourceForge page under Addons).



Cheers
manolito

[MrC]

@Sulyman

any update on your issue?

May I ask you if you had the same problem with older AVStoDVD releases together with the same OS? Do you get the same problem with FFmpeg or only with HCenc?

;)

Bye

[SuLyMaN]

@MrC: 2.7.4 was working awesome. I had a HDD crash and reinstalled Windows + all my other softwares (same as pre-crash). I do not know why it is crashing but it appears to stall and close before HCenc finishes the first pass encode (right before it completes it)

I have not had time to trouble shoot the problem as the first step I wanted to try is on another computer and see if I get the same problem. I will thus be able to figure out if its a software (avstodvd) issue or an issue on my PC. I intend to test it at latest tomorrow though. I am setting up a PC for a friend and it is one of the softwares that I will pre install. I will report back if it crashes on another PC also.

[MrC]

I will report back if it crashes on another PC also.

Thanks. Please report also the system configuration (OS, directshow filters, involved codecs). The project log file would help too.

;)

Bye

[SuLyMaN]

I have good news and bad news :P

The good news is that AVS2DVD 2.7.5 is working perfectly on the other PC I tested.
The bad news is that I have to figure out why it is not working on my PC!
I will try to reinstall with the default settings. If it fails, I will post back the log.
Thanks!

[MrC]

The good news is that AVS2DVD 2.7.5 is working perfectly on the other PC I tested.
The bad news is that I have to figure out why it is not working on my PC!
I will try to reinstall with the default settings. If it fails, I will post back the log.
Thanks!

What are the differences between the 2 PC? Operating system? 32/64 bit? Codecs?

;)

Bye

[MrC]

Anyone interested in testing a plugin which allows to use SoX or DynamicAudioNormalizer for normalizing audio (instead of the built-in AviSynth normalizing function) ?

Just tested. Config:

- mkv clip > 2h
- 2 audio tracks: 1st AC3 6ch (DSS) and 2nd AAC 2ch (FFS2)
- used default option 1
- used the modded AVStoDVD.exe from the Patch folder
- LAV Filters as DS decoders

Worked nicely, no failures, good normalization, big wav properly burped. Just minor cosmetics for the warning messages from Aften window.

Really a nice job, manolito. :cool:

When you are confident to give the add-on the "1.0 release" tag, if you agree, I will publish it on SourceForge.

;)

Bye

[SuLyMaN]

What are the differences between the 2 PC? Operating system? 32/64 bit? Codecs?

;)

Bye

Both running Windows 7 Pro 32 bits, 4GB RAM. Codecs on the new system had none installed. On the old system, AFAIK, I never install codecs as I use potplayer for my viewing needs...

Downloading a youtube vid (720p mp4) for testing purposes. Will reinstall AVS2DVD and give it a try.

[SuLyMaN]

I tested it again today (reinstalled) It is working properly....Thanks for helping. I still have no clue what went wrong...

[manolito]

Hi MrC,

welcome back to the "old continent". And thanks for testing my plugin... :cool:

Good to know that it seems to work under Win7 because I only tested it under XP. If you have the time maybe you could also give DynamicAudioNormalizer (Mode = 2) a test run. I like it very much for DVD video content. It does bring up quieter parts, but without destroying the dynamic characteristics of the source.

When I wrote the plugin I really tried hard to make it work without patching the AVStoDVD.exe file. After more than 2 days I finally gave up, CMD.exe always evaluates the pipe character which made all my efforts useless. I tried all dirty batch file tricks I found (running aften.bat in a new instance of CMD.exe, using delayed variable expansion, escaping the pipe character), nothing worked.

I have no idea if SoX delivers a better normalization quality than AviSynth, but after what I was reading SoX does use the highest quality algorithms. The Aften parameter "readtoeof 1" which is always used in the plugin does no harm with shorter files except causing wrong values in the progress indicator. I think it should always get used.

LoRd_MuldeR just sent me a new version of his DynamicAudioNormalizer which features a new compression method. The threshold is no longer dependent on the input volume which should make pre-normalizing unnecessary (Mode = 3). I need to do a lot of testing and then probably update the plugin, even if using real compression within AVStoDVD is not all that useful. So it will take a little more time until the plugin will be 1.0 :D


Cheers
manolito

[manolito]

I just finished a new version of the plugin...

Changes:

Added Upmixing stereo to 6-ch pseudo surround
Fixed a stupid bug
Cosmetics


Download here:

http://www76.zippyshare.com/v/13534542/file.html


Cheers
manolito


//Edit: Cosmetics, release candidate, please redownload //

[SuLyMaN]

Hi manolito. What does the plugin do?
How to use it?
Thanks!

[manolito]

Hi SuLyMaN,

from the plugin documentation:
This small utility allows using SoX and DynamicAudioNormalizer instead of
AviSynth Normalizing under AVStoDVD. It also removes the 4 GB limit for
temporary WAV files.
The main reason for writing this plugin was that the built-in AviSynth Normalizing
caused a few issues for me. When using ffmpeg as the video encoder, audio
normalizing was always executed twice. And more importantly I sometimes got
audio sync problems when using DirectShowSource as the audio source filter
together with AviSynth Normalizing.
This plugin remedies these issues by using SoX for regular normalizing, plus it can
use the DynamicAudioNormalizer by LoRd_MuldeR.


The plugin can be used for traditional normalizing, normalizing with DynamicAudioNormalizer ( http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=170980 ), and it can use all the other capabilities of SoX and DynamicAudioNormalizer. Currently available are a compression mode and upmix from stereo to 6-ch pseudo surround.



Cheers
manolito

[Mister XY]

Hello, if i'm using the plugin which allows to use SoX or DynamicAudioNormalizer for normalizing audio, i get an error "WARNING: Failed to parse unsigned integral value "--input-rate"
ERROT: Invalid or incomplete commando-line argument have been detected.

[manolito]

Hi Mister XY,

first of all make sure that you installed the plugin correctly. Have you really renamed the original wavi.exe to _wavi.exe? And then extracted wavi.exe.mod from the plugin archive to the wavi folder and renamed it to wavi.exe?

After the correct installation of the plugin the content of the AVStoDVD\Wavi folder should look exactly like this:
http://i61.tinypic.com/11cfswm.jpg

Your error comes from DynamicAudioNormalizer. Are you using the included version, or did you replace it with a newer version? If you replaced it, please go back to the included version.

Are you using Mode=2 or Mode=3 ?

The plugin sets the value for "--input-rate" to 48000, because only this value is DVD compliant, and AVStoDVD always converts different rates to 48000 within AviSynth.

To debug this error, please edit the file "Wavi_mod.bat" and disable the following command under : DynNorm and/or :Compress

IF EXIST "%TempPath%wavi.txt" DEL "%TempPath%wavi.txt"
(Just add a REM in front of it)

Do another conversion, after the error you should have a file "wavi.txt" in your AVStoDVD temp folder. Please post the content of this file.


Cheers
manolito

[Mister XY]

Hello, i'm using your version. And through and after the conversion, the wavi.txt is empty (with IF EXIST "%TempPath%wavi.txt" DEL "%TempPath%wavi.txt"). and after many minutes, aften crashed.
And i have 2 Directorys more in my avi directory.
DynamicAudioNormalizer
SoX

And it only cashed with DynamicAudioNormalize. Sox runs very well.

[manolito]

And i have 2 Directorys more in my avi directory.
DynamicAudioNormalizer
SoX


Very strange. The plugin does not create any new directories. This must have happened when you installed the plugin.

During the installation you only have to extract the files in the root folder of the plugin archive into the "AVStoDVD\Wavi" folder. If you extracted the whole archive then you will have these subfolders under the "Wavi" folder. (I guess "avi directory" was a typo.)
Actually - you should also get a third subfolder called "Patch".
These 3 folders do not do any harm, they only contain the original distributions of SoX and DynamicAudioNormalizer and instructions for patchin AVStoDVD.exe. You can safely delete them.


What do you mean by "wavi.txt is empty" ? Is the file not there, or is it there but contains no text? To keep this file you have to disable (rem out) the line in the batch file. The line must be:
REM IF EXIST "%TempPath%wavi.txt" DEL "%TempPath%wavi.txt"
After this the "wavi.txt" file should be in the AVStoDVD temp folder. You can configure where this temp folder should be in the AVStoDVD preferences.


I need the content of "wavi.txt" because my plugin determines the number of channels from this text file. DynamicAudioNormalizer needs the number of channels as a commandline argument, and I use _wavi.exe (the original but now renamed wavi.exe) to analyze the source audio. And this somehow seems to fail on your computer.

As an alternative you could specify the number of channels manually and try another conversion. Use this DynNorm script version for a source with 2-ch audio:

:DynNorm
IF EXIST "%TempPath%$temp.wav" DEL "%TempPath%$temp.wav"
_wavi.exe %source% - | dynamicaudionormalizercli.exe -i - --input-bits 16 --input-chan 2 --input-rate 48000 -o "%TempPath%$temp.wav" -b
SET aften_input=%TempPath%$temp.wav
CALL SET aften_cmd=%%aften_cmd: - "= "%aften_input%" "%%
%aften_cmd%
IF EXIST "%TempPath%$temp.wav" DEL "%TempPath%$temp.wav"
GOTO :EOF

Copy and paste this into the "wavi_mod.bat" file and delete the original DynNorm section.


Good luck
manolito

[Mister XY]

Yes, the wave.txt contains no text.
I have disabled via REM but the wavi.txt consist no text, it was an empty file.

[manolito]

OK, we are getting closer...

This line in the script:
_wavi.exe %source% 2>"%TempPath%wavi.txt"

calls the original (now renamed) wavi.exe with just the source AVS as a parameter. This will display some info about the source audio, which is then redirected to the file "wavi.txt".

There could be several reasons why it does not work on your machine, but before I send you a debug version of the batch file, please try the DynNorm part from my previous post. (it is for 2-ch audio, if your audio has 6 channels, replace --input-chan 2 with --input-chan 6. If this works then I know where I have to look.

BTW which operating system are you using, and is it 32-bit or 64-bit?



Cheers
manolito

[Mister XY]

Yes, it is work very well with the change (--input 2 and 6 runs very good).
And i have Windows 7 64bit.

[manolito]

Sounds good...

Here is the debug version of the DynNorm section:

:DynNorm
c:
md a2d_debug
%WAVI_DRIVE%
CD "%WAVI_PATH%"
_wavi.exe %source% 2>c:\a2d_debug\wavi.txt"
FOR /F "usebackq tokens=4" %%a IN ("c:\a2d_debug\wavi.txt") DO SET channels=%%a
IF EXIST "%TempPath%$temp.wav" DEL "%TempPath%$temp.wav"
echo Wavi Drive: %WAVI_DRIVE% >>c:\a2d_debug\wavi.txt
echo Wavi Path: %WAVI_PATH% >>c:\a2d_debug\wavi.txt
echo Temp Path: %TempPath% >>c:\a2d_debug\wavi.txt
echo Source AVS: %source% >>c:\a2d_debug\wavi.txt
echo Channels: %channels% >>c:\a2d_debug\wavi.txt
_wavi.exe %source% - | dynamicaudionormalizercli.exe -i - --input-bits 16 --input-chan %channels% --input-rate 48000 -o "%TempPath%$temp.wav" -b
SET aften_input=%TempPath%$temp.wav
echo Aften Input: %aften_input% >>c:\a2d_debug\wavi.txt
CALL SET aften_cmd=%%aften_cmd: - "= "%aften_input%" "%%
echo Aften Command: %aften_cmd% >>c:\a2d_debug\wavi.txt
%aften_cmd%
IF EXIST "%TempPath%$temp.wav" DEL "%TempPath%$temp.wav"
GOTO :EOF

Replace the original DynNorm section in the batch file with this version. Make sure Mode is set to 2.

With this debug version a new folder on your C: drive with the name "a2d_debug" will be created. All plugin variables will be written to "wavi.txt" in this new folder. And I need the content of "wavi.txt"


Cheers
manolito

[Mister XY]

I have start it and get only errors and dynamicaudionormalizercli.exe crashed and i have no folder and no wavi.txt

OK here is the file content

Wavi Drive: C:
Wavi Path: \Program Files (x86)\AVStoDVD\Wavi\
Temp Path: E:\DVD\Temp\
Source AVS: "E:\DVD\Temp\DVD 6 Kanal_2_Movie.avs"
Channels:
Aften Input: E:\DVD\Temp\$temp.wav
Aften Command: "C:\Program Files (x86)\AVStoDVD\Aften\aften.exe" -readtoeof 1 -b 448 -pad 0 -dynrng 5 -bwfilter 0 "E:\DVD\Temp\$temp.wav" "E:\DVD\DVD 6 Kanal_2_Movie.ac3"



OK i think, i have found the error, in avs2dvd was the lav filter active. I have resetet to "Voreinstellungen" and now, the wavi.txt have the real channels in.


Found PCM audio: 6 channels, 48000 Hz, 16 bits, 5903.646687 seconds.
Wavi Drive: C:
Wavi Path: \Program Files (x86)\AVStoDVD\Wavi\
Temp Path: E:\DVD\Temp\
Source AVS: "E:\DVD\Temp\DVD_3_Movie.avs"
Channels: 6

[manolito]

OK i think, i have found the error, in avs2dvd was the lav filter active. I have resetet to "Voreinstellungen" and now, the wavi.txt have the real channels in.

Great, that's it. But you need to tell me more (since I only have WinXP installed, the Preferred DirectShow Codecs Setup section is not working for me). So I need you as my Win7 Beta tester... :D

Do you have the LAV audio mixer enabled? And if so, which channel configuration is active?

Background:
When DirectShow is used as the audio source filter, audio will be imported into AviSynth using the audio mixer of the active codec. For ffdshow the mixer settings are adjusted at runtime by AVStoDVD, so there should be no problems. For LAVFilters the audio mixer is disabled by default after the installation. This means that the audio is imported into AviSynth "as is", no downmixing will be applied.

In your case the problem is that Wavi is unable to detect the audio properties. This means that the audio source filter (LAV in your case) is doing something wrong. I have no idea what the reason might be. Are you using the current LAV version 0.62? I would like to reproduce the problem, so any hints about what you have changed in your settings will be helpful.


Thanks a lot for testing...


Cheers
manolito

[Mister XY]

Hello, yes, the Audio mixer is enabled an it set to "Stereo". I use LAV via K-Lite and is it the newest one (0,62).
And i have send you my settings.

[manolito]

Hello, yes, the Audio mixer is enabled an it set to "Stereo". I use LAV via K-Lite and is it the newest one (0,62).


Alright, wrong answer... :eek:
Your chances to get any help with DirectShow filter problems are not too good if you mention that you use codec packs like K-Lite.

I made some tests using LAVFilters for audio, and it always worked no matter if the mixer was enabled or disabled. I guess that the problems is not with LAVFilters, but has something to do with the codec pack.

Could you change your settings again to the one which caused the crash with DynamicAudioNormalizer, and then go to "Codecs -> Build DirectShow Filters Graph". Make a screenshot of the graph and post it here. I bet there are some other filters in the graph instead of LAVFilters.


With the current version of AVStoDVD LAVFilters do work, but they are not yet fully supported. You have to take care of the LAV mixer settings yourself. Let's say you have a source with 6-ch audio and you want to keep the 6 audio channels. With LAV as your audio source filter the 6-ch setting in AVStoDVD will have no effect at all. If your LAV mixer is enabled and set to stereo, you will end up with 2-ch audio.

For the next version MrC has planned full LAVFilters support, so this current mixing issue will be resolved. In the meantime you can avoid all trouble by specifying FFMpegSource as your audio source filter (under Preferences -> AviSynth). This will not use DirectShowSource and take care of downmixing using AviSynth functions.



Cheers
manolito

[Mister XY]

If i'm using the ffmpegsource in avysinth, the mixer settings was equal. But with directshow, i must change the mixer settings in LAV or FFdshow. But since yesterday, i cant use the ffmpegsource, very often hcenc and ffmpeg will be chrashed.

OK the error is far far away ;-).
Now it's run with the ffmpegsource. Bevor, it's crashed by mkv and avi.

ah, wavi and aften crashed, if the titles from movie has "ä,ö,ü" in the titlename.

And when it is possible that subtitles also convert from 23,976 fps to 25 fps?

[Big Vern]

Mr C. I know have asked you before, and you replied.."I like my DVDs too much, but you never know".

So, time has moved on, and I will pester you only once more. Please, is there any chance of making a blu-ray version of your software? AVStoDVD is so damn easy to use, a blu-ray version would wipe the floor with the competition overnight, and I would pay/donate good money for this ;)

This will be the last time I will ask, as I don't wanna become a right pest. If the answer is no, then I will have bite the bullet and get either TMPGEnc Authoring Works 5 or ConvertXtoHD.

[manolito]

If i'm using the ffmpegsource in avysinth, the mixer settings was equal.
When using ffmpegsource for audio, the mixer settings you made for LAVFilters or ffdshow do not matter, they will not be used. Downmixing is done by using a downmix function from "Downmix.avsi" in the "AVStoDVD\lib" folder.

But with directshow, i must change the mixer settings in LAV or FFdshow.

You do not have to change mixer settings for ffdshow (as long as the mixer is enabled). AVStoDVD will do that for you automatically, if this option is activated under "Preferences\Misc"

For LAvFilters you do have to change mixer settings yourself at the moment, but this will change in the next versions of AVStoDVD.

It is generally a good idea to avoid "Umlaute" in file names, I have no idea if it is Wavi or Aften which chokes on those file names.

And you cannot ask me anything about subtitles, I never use subs, they destroy my visual experience.


Cheers
manolito


//Edit
Did a couple of tests to determine which application it is that chokes on extended ASCII characters. It is Wavi.exe. It has nothing to do with my plugin at all. I could probably modify the plugin to use ffmpeg instead of Wavi, but I think it is not worth the trouble. Just don't use extended characters in file names.

//Edit 2
Found a nice little app which automatically removes extended characters from all file names in a given directory:
http://dimitar.me/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/RenameFiles2.3b.exe

[MrC]

And when it is possible that subtitles also convert from 23,976 fps to 25 fps?

You have to use SubtitleCreator. Select from menu: 'Synchronize'/'Convert Frame Rate'.

Mr C. I know have asked you before, and you replied.."I like my DVDs too much, but you never know".

So, time has moved on, and I will pester you only once more. Please, is there any chance of making a blu-ray version of your software? AVStoDVD is so damn easy to use, a blu-ray version would wipe the floor with the competition overnight, and I would pay/donate good money for this ;)

This will be the last time I will ask, as I don't wanna become a right pest. If the answer is no, then I will have bite the bullet and get either TMPGEnc Authoring Works 5 or ConvertXtoHD.

Thanks Big Vern for the consideration. Unfortunately the today answer is not different from the past one.

When I started A2D project I was actually younger and with much much more free time. Now, with 2 brisk kids and some more responsability with my job, the free time is really narrowing day by day. I just can give a limited support (many many thanks to manolito for helping me in this task ;) ) and get some minor updates to A2D.

Nevertheless, you never know what life will deserve. If one day I will find some good free time, I will for sure consider the idea to upgrade AVStoDVD to AVStoBD (or AVStoHD, or AVStoAVCHD, or whatever).

You know, the source code is there, a willing user may start to look inside it, laugh a bit to my humble programming, and upgrade...

;)

Bye

[manolito]

AVStoDVD is so damn easy to use, a blu-ray version would wipe the floor with the competition overnight, and I would pay/donate good money for this ;)


There are several reasons why I am not so sure about that.

First of all nobody I know burns HD content to Blu-Ray blanks any more. Hard drive space today is much cheaper than space on optical disks so it is much more economical to put your videos on an external hard drive. Either the TV has a built-in media player which plays HD content without any conversion from an external drive, or people use a media server box like WD TV (or serve it from a NAS).

IMO converting HD sources to a Blu-Ray structure only makes sense if you want a menu. And even then what's wrong with existing free software like MultiAVCHD or AVCHDCoder?



Cheers
manolito

[manolito]

Did a couple of tests to determine which application it is that chokes on extended ASCII characters. It is Wavi.exe. It has nothing to do with my plugin at all. I could probably modify the plugin to use ffmpeg instead of Wavi, but I think it is not worth the trouble. Just don't use extended characters in file names.


Sorry, this statement is completely wrong... :eek:
It has nothing to do with Wavi.exe, it is AVStoDVD itself.

Explanation:
AVStoDVD as a Windows application uses the ANSI character set while console applications often require the ASCII character set. Wavi is such a software, and when it is called by AVStoDVD it is fed with file names in the ANSI format. This is alright as long no extended characters are used, but if a file name contains such characters (above 127) Wavi will choke on it.

I believe this should be fixed within AVStoDVD itself, because such file names are not that rare. AVStoDVD issues a warning when it encounters such a source file, but it would be nice if this was fixed.

For my Wavi_Mod plugin I have already implemented a fix. I just use a simple ANSI to ASCII converter to modify the file names in the parameter list of the Wavi call. Fast and easy.
I will do some more tests and update the documentation, and later tonight I will upload the new version.

I have no idea if the same issue is present for some other helper applications which AVStoDVD uses, so my plugin might not fix the problem generally. All I can say is that ffmpeg.exe does not show this issue, and my plugin fixes it for Wavi.


Cheers
manolito


//EDIT
Is it possible that this character set issue only happens when the helper application is called from a batch file invoking a new instance of CMD.EXE (as opposed to calling the application directly from within VB) ?

[Groucho2004]

AVStoDVD as a Windows application uses the ANSI character set while console applications often require the ASCII character set. Wavi is such a software, and when it is called by AVStoDVD it is fed with file names in the ANSI format. This is alright as long no extended characters are used, but if a file name contains such characters (above 127) Wavi will choke on it.

I believe this should be fixed within AVStoDVD itself, because such file names are not that rare. AVStoDVD issues a warning when it encounters such a source file, but it would be nice if this was fixed.

For my Wavi_Mod plugin I have already implemented a fix. I just use a simple ANSI to ASCII converter to modify the file names in the parameter list of the Wavi call. Fast and easy.
I will do some more tests and update the documentation, and later tonight I will upload the new version.

I have no idea if the same issue is present for some other helper applications which AVStoDVD uses, so my plugin might not fix the problem generally. All I can say is that ffmpeg.exe does not show this issue, and my plugin fixes it for Wavi.


Cheers
manolito


//EDIT
Is it possible that this character set issue only happens when the helper application is called from a batch file invoking a new instance of CMD.EXE (as opposed to calling the application directly from within VB) ?

This has nothing to do with ANSI/ASCII but ANSI and OEM characters sets.
When you create a batch file that contains file names with characters > 127 and save it in Notepad, it will inevitably fail. The characters have to be converted to the OEM character set which means that they will look weird in Notepad but the batch file will work.
Decent text editors like Ultraedit, EM Editor or Notepad+ can save the files in the correct encoding.

As for AvstoDVD, I guess all that's missing is that conversion, the Win32 API has functions for that (CharToOem(), for example).

WAVI can handle these characters in file names fine, I only noticed that it won't convert the console output properly (it's using the ANSI string which of course looks weird in a console), see screen shot below.

http://s28.postimg.org/bnsx670fh/image.png

[manolito]

Thanks Groucho for chiming in... :thanks:

you are of course right, converting the intercepted file names from ANSI to ASCII only works for lower case German Umlaute (ä, ö, ü), but not for uppercase Umlaute and the "ß" character. Looks like the converter is meant for a different code page. I still use code page 437 which is identical to the OEM code page, so for me ASCII and OEM are the same.

It looks like I will have to either find a CLI ANSI to OEM converter, or I will have to modify the ANSI to ASCII converter myself, I have the source code.


Cheers
manolito

[Groucho2004]

I still use code page 437 which is identical to the OEM code page, so for me ASCII and OEM are the same.
You should use 850. 437 is ancient and does not support all ISO 8859-1 characters.
Also, ASCII does not support any characters beyond 127 and is irrelevant for this discussion. It's a 7 bit encoding scheme, not a Windows code page.

It looks like I will have to either find a CLI ANSI to OEM converter, or I will have to modify the ANSI to ASCII converter myself, I have the source code.
You could use the "CHCP" internal command (example for CP1252):

chcp 1252
wavi script.avs out.wav
chcp 850


Here is a link (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964653) to the MS reference documentation for code pages.

Edit:
Writing an universal converter that can deal with all languages for ANSI->OEM is pretty simple, if you're stuck I will consider it.