multiAVCHD - author Blu-ray/AVCHD (Blu-ray players, camcoders, Viera TV) + (HD) DVD [Archive] - Page 128

MrVideo

10th August 2010, 03:09

I've discovered a way to cause mAVCHD to consistantly hang/freeze.

Preview a menu. Bring up another program so that it is on top of the menu preview. In my case, it has been Photoshop, as I was doing a screen grab and then cropping the image.

After finishing with Photoshop and closing it, mAVCHD is now unresponsive. It has to be killed.

I've not been able to cause mAVCHD to go into "not responding" any other way.

Windblows XP-SP2

MrVideo

10th August 2010, 03:11

Somehow I missed it, it's approved now.

Is that the normal mode on Doom9, i.e., do all attachments require moderator approval?

MrVideo

10th August 2010, 03:24

Who can free the attachment from "Pending approval" purgatory? I wanna see.

In case anyone is kinda wondering why the hell I am even doing this project in the first place, considering that the first season has been released on DVD and the second season is forthcoming, is because of the fact and the idiots at ABC Studios/Disney have decided not to release the series on Blu-ray. Along with the fact that my captures are not from low-bitrate OTA broadcasts (only SD upconverts in my market), as I have 30 Mbps MPEG-2 1080i to work with. The 1080p/23.976 x264 encodings are just stunning (20 Mbps).

It pains me that ABC Studios/Disney are not going after the Blu-ray owners considering that it is a series that was extremely well photographed and post-produced.

To be on-topic, the mAVCHD program was the tool I needed to be able to simply author the show (after the hiccups of figuring out how mAVCHD worked and I've still got a lot to learn).

deank

10th August 2010, 10:54

Weird. After seeing your posting about the PLAYMARK fix, I started mAVCHD and it downloaded 763+. I then tested it and it returned to default after saving and then loading the project. That is why I did the posting.

It is okay now. Sorry - update with multiUPDATE.exe.

deank

10th August 2010, 10:55

I've discovered a way to cause mAVCHD to consistantly hang/freeze.

I happens sometimes on my Vista PC. However, I can't do anything about it.

laserfan

10th August 2010, 13:40

OK, here is my not-so sexy menu (http://vidiot.com/images/mAVCHD-Sample-Project-Menu.png).

In case anyone is kinda wondering why the hell I am even doing this project in the first place...I record OTA HDTV in a variety of ways and like to archive episodes to BD-format DVDs and BDs. My menus are absolutely as simple as yours, and IMO mAVCHD is just too difficult to get-to-where-you got. Further, I don't like the "program info" it adds (res, audio, sub, duration, etc). All I want is a background image, and then a numbered list e.g. for the TV series ER, Season 2 I have a pretty background picture and a simple list, made-up from a font & size & attributes & color that I select. I then move them around on the background image until they are aesthetically pleasing:

201 - Welcome Back, Carter!

202 - Summer Run

203 - Do One, Teach One, Kill One

The numbers are for Season 2, Episode 01 and so forth. No other info needed (or wanted). MF6+ allows me to easily type-in anything I want for each episode title. Along with a background, it further allows me to select an audiotrack of, say, 45 seconds and then it will create a menu-with-music that loops for 45 seconds around this track.

So making a menu in MF6+ is as easy as: Select episodes, select background pic, select background audio, create/position episode titles, export to BDMV, done. If mAVCHD allowed me to (easily) create same, I would use it. :)

Capsbackup

10th August 2010, 15:30

I record OTA HDTV in a variety of ways and like to archive episodes to BD-format DVDs and BDs. My menus are absolutely as simple as yours, and IMO mAVCHD is just too difficult to get-to-where-you got. Further, I don't like the "program info" it adds (res, audio, sub, duration, etc). All I want is a background image, and then a numbered list e.g. for the TV series ER, Season 2 I have a pretty background picture and a simple list, made-up from a font & size & attributes & color that I select. I then move them around on the background image until they are aesthetically pleasing:

201 - Welcome Back, Carter!

202 - Summer Run

203 - Do One, Teach One, Kill One

The numbers are for Season 2, Episode 01 and so forth. No other info needed (or wanted). MF6+ allows me to easily type-in anything I want for each episode title. Along with a background, it further allows me to select an audiotrack of, say, 45 seconds and then it will create a menu-with-music that loops for 45 seconds around this track.

So making a menu in MF6+ is as easy as: Select episodes, select background pic, select background audio, create/position episode titles, export to BDMV, done. If mAVCHD allowed me to (easily) create same, I would use it. :)

After experimenting with multiAVCHD, learning its many capabilities, I am able to do this same simple menu too. :)
You do not have to have all the text that is displayed by MrVideo, it is easily removed or edited to one's liking. I can select my backround audio, change positions of the buttons to accomodate my menu picture, etc...
It may take a little more effort to understand how to do all these features, but the features are there!
I have also used MF6 and Ulead ( Corel ) Videostudio, and both are good software.
I guess I get more enjoyment exploring and learning the many softwares available here at Doom9, and supporting their authors any way I can, be it bug reports or just sharing my experience and giving one users perspective. Watching and using as the software and their authors evolve, knowing I have made an effort to contribute, though sometimes ever so slightly,:p, does bring some satisfaction.
My backups work, and though maybe aren't the sexiest or creative, still bring me joy in the creation. ;)

laserfan

10th August 2010, 16:47

I am able to do this same simple menu too. You do not have to have all the text that is displayed...maybe aren't the sexiest or creativeNeither am I into "sexiest or creative", I only want to easily get-at the program! I am amazed that so many here want to make such elaborate menus! Who cares! ;)

If you can outline how you do it, or if MrVideo figures it out, well I'm all ears. But I've tried several times in the past to make EZ menus w/mAVCHD and failed miserably... :o

Avisynth_challenged

10th August 2010, 17:43

I record OTA HDTV in a variety of ways and like to archive episodes to BD-format DVDs and BDs.
.
.
.
So making a menu in MF6+ is as easy as: Select episodes, select background pic, select background audio, create/position episode titles, export to BDMV, done. If mAVCHD allowed me to (easily) create same, I would use it. :)

I am in the midst of processing a mountain of OTA caps recorded over the last four TV seasons. I'm not quite yet ready to author menus for BD yet, but I have to ask: what is MF6+? Is it (Ulead) MovieFactory, version 6? Did that program come free with your Blu-ray burner? Thanks.

To end this post on-topic... I am using multiAVCHD to take trimmed OTA content and port it to SDHC (Panasonic Blu-ray output mode), keeping the original 1080i MPEG2 video, Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, and creating .sup subtitles from the Closed Caption data. MultiAVCHD works great for this purpose, which has no menu. But perhaps "easy menu" creation for Blu-ray will be available when I'm ready to dive into that phase of my archiving work :)

bluesin

10th August 2010, 17:46

I posted a while back about the audio not syncing and still have had no response to the issue... could someone please point me in the right direction to resolve the issues

setarip_old

10th August 2010, 18:00

Perhaps "deank" can offer/provide a stripped down version of the simplest of the multiAVCHD menuing capabilities as a standalone tool...

laserfan

10th August 2010, 18:20

I am in the midst of processing a mountain of OTA caps recorded over the last four TV seasons. I'm not quite yet ready to author menus for BD yet, but I have to ask: what is MF6+? Is it (Ulead) MovieFactory, version 6? Did that program come free with your Blu-ray burner?No, it is payware--I might have paid $40 plus $20 for the BD plugin. :eek:

...perhaps "easy menu" creation for Blu-ray will be available when I'm ready to dive into that phase of my archiving work.To my knowledge, when it comes to freeware/shareware BD authoring (menu-making, that is), multiAVCHD is the only game in town. Altho MF6+ is "relatively cheapware" I'm sure Dean would love to get even $20 bucks from every mAVCHD user, much less $60. But I can't recommend to anyone to buy MF6+ w/plugin cuz it has its own frailties, especially that it wants to re-encode most everything that didn't originate in a personal video camera.

MrVideo

10th August 2010, 18:48

The ability to create a simple menu is not within the capability of mAVCHD. As I mentioned in a previous posting, there should be and it should be added as a fourth menu type (Simple/XMB/Slider/Carousel).

It would create as many lines as there are titles. The button naming would be no different than it is now, i.e., done in the properties for the title. The location would be the upper-left offset for the start of the list. There would be an option for the line spacing. The colored play box would be set to the left of the first item in the list, unless it is set in the title property in order to make it the first selectable title. Same font setting capability as now, but to keep it simple, the font family, pixel size and color would apply to all items in the list. There would also be about 4-5 freeform text items available as well.

The use of the XMB menu creation comes close, but it is indeed not right for simple menu creation. The reason that I left all of the details in the menu is that if they are turned off, there is a big gaping hole between titles. That really looks crappy.

Something else I discovered that needs to be fixed is that the font outline can't be turned off. There are times where I do not want to use an outline. It should not be there by default.

As others have pointed out, doing a simple compilation Blu-ray disc is not simple with mAVCHD, as a fancy menu must be used and a fancy menu is not necessary when creating these types of compilations. Again, the KISS principle needs to be applied.

MrVideo

10th August 2010, 19:18

It is okay now. Sorry - update with multiUPDATE.exe.

I did so over lunch and it worked. I guess the setting was always in the project file, just wasn't populated into the program setting. When I loaded my project, the setting was there.

:thanks:

MrVideo

10th August 2010, 19:21

I happens sometimes on my Vista PC. However, I can't do anything about it.

OK, at least you know about it. Must be within the handler of the program you are using to create mAVCHD.

I guess a bug report needs to be sent to those guys, since it isn't just Vista and is easily duplicated.

In any event, I know how to get around it.

MrVideo

10th August 2010, 19:26

You do not have to have all the text that is displayed by MrVideo, it is easily removed or edited to one's liking.

I don't know where to edit the text that gives the video type, subtitles and audio. What is there is fine. The problem is that it is there. Turning it off doesn't close the gap between titles. The space is there as if the text was being displayed.

Hence the reason for a simple menu build option, as described in the above posting.

deank

10th August 2010, 19:51

To my knowledge, when it comes to freeware/shareware BD authoring (menu-making, that is), multiAVCHD is the only game in town.

AVCHD Coder supports menu (preset templates) which allows user to create a menu style similar to multiAVCHD ver.3 simplest 'classic' menu. No BG audio, but simple enough. Or one can simply use ver 3 and get classic and 'thumbnail' menu styles.

http://multiavchd.deanbg.com/snapshot20090122163427.jpg

http://multiavchd.deanbg.com/titles.jpg

Dean

MrVideo

10th August 2010, 21:38

AVCHD Coder supports menu (preset templates) which allows user to create a menu style similar to multiAVCHD ver.3 simplest 'classic' menu.

http://multiavchd.deanbg.com/snapshot20090122163427.jpg

And just how does someone create a menu that looks like that? Are there instructions someplace on how to do that and load that template into mAVCHD?

I prefer to use version 4 for all of the other enhancements.

ADDITIONAL: How about making that simple menu capability standard for 4.x? We may seem like dummies for not knowing that the capability is there, but it seems that users who have been here a while didn't even know that the capability exists. As a new user, I certainly didn't know that. Just because I now know it exists, I still don't know how to implement it.

Capsbackup

11th August 2010, 02:48

deank, I have been trying to make a BD5 backup of 4 separate OTA captures, reencoded to 1080P .ts files, using XMB static menu with my custom bmp picture. I have title one set to hidden, since it is a short intro, then upon finish go to the main menu.
I notice that the menu preview still shows the hidden title.
I have skip top menu playback checked, since I want to play the intro and then go to the menu. This does not happen though. After intro is played, it proceeds to the next title, and then the next two titles before going to the menu. I do not have Play All (sequential playback) checked!
Also, from the main menu if I select to play one title, upon completion of that title, it goes to the next two titles before the menu.
I have set for the three titles, after playback go to menu. It does not though!
I uninstalled multiAVCHD, deleted the folder and downloaded a fresh new version, 763, installed and tried again but still get the same results! :confused:

MrVideo

11th August 2010, 03:00

AVCHD Coder supports menu (preset templates) which allows user to create a menu style similar to multiAVCHD ver.3 simplest 'classic' menu.

Just what exactly do you mean by "similar"? The use of that word just caught my eye.

I went digging into the template folder and from what I can gather, which can obviously be way off-base since I do not know how the program works, it seems that there are only two types of menu displays: xmb or slide

All of the other information fills in the selections in the menu dialogs.

This is the kind of simple menu that I would like, and I believe, what others would like:

http://vidiot.com/images/LotS-Simple-Menu-01.jpg

And when the BD viewer presses the down button, this is what the menu would look like:

http://vidiot.com/images/LotS-Simple-Menu-02.jpg

The PLAY icon moves, not the text.

MrVideo

11th August 2010, 03:27

deank, I have been trying to make a BD5 backup of 4 separate OTA captures, reencoded to 1080P .ts files, using XMB static menu with my custom bmp picture. I have title one set to hidden, since it is a short intro, then upon finish go to the main menu.

In the DVD authoring world, this would be a perfect "first play" item. It is a configurable item, meaning that it does not have to be there. That means it goes to the "main menu".

In mAVCHD, I guessing that it would fit the Welcome item that is there, but unfortunately, I noticed that it can't be configured to play a title.

Sounds like a great enhancement, i.e., allowing the Welcome to be an item from the title list, and if set as the Welcome title, would not appear on any menu.

Capsbackup

11th August 2010, 03:49

The hidden intro is not present on the completed backup's menu, only the multiAVCHD working projects menu preview. Just wanted to point this out, since the menu preview displays this hidden title, which can be confusing, but the finished backup is correct.
This has worked for me very recently, where I have used as many as 4 hidden intros/trailers, and they all played first and at their conclusion it went to the main menu. But for some reason now the titles are playing consecutively instead of going to the menu. I have tried several times now, with the same results though.

deank

11th August 2010, 07:40

You can check with BDEdit what's in index/movieobject. I did no changes in the playback-logic part of multiAVCHD for few months and I wonder why it is not working...

JoeH

11th August 2010, 08:18

I posted a while back about the audio not syncing and still have had no response to the issue... could someone please point me in the right direction to resolve the issues

From what I have seen in the past this type of error is usually caused by some codec / decoder being in use that is not compatible or is wrongly configured.

If I were you what I would try is to uninstall all your codecs, and then install KLite Codec Pack Full, with default options. Select the option to fix all your messed up codecs and always answer yes if KLite tells you there are problems and asks you if you want it to fix them for you.

Then try again.

I know some may not like KLite - I use it and think its great, and I suggest it here because I know for sure that it works just fine with MultiAVCHD and all other Blu-ray programs I have seen.

pio011

11th August 2010, 11:20

Hi Deank,

thanks again for the great update. I have a problem with the new (?) Version, that I have never encountered yet: I have importet three movies directly from bluray structure (on HD) to create a compilation with mAVCHD. All had several audio and subtitle tracks to remove. I wanted to end up with only two audio tracks (english and foreign language) and had set to re-encode HD-Audio to AC3. Also I reencoded the videotracks to fit on one bluray disc. I have done this several times before, all perfect! But this time, everything seemed fine again, but for one thing: All movies had two audio tracks - like I wanted - , but both tracks were the same language!!, e.g. movie 1: both tracks in english, movie 2: both tracks foreign.

Why? Was it because I have imported the tracks directly from the "BDMV/STREAM-folder" instead of importing the mpls file? also: when I opended the properties of the movies, mulitAVCHD could not examine the language of the audio tracks, I had to do this by hand. (I re-checked this with TS-Muxer - there were the language-ids shown!!).
What is wrong? Thanks!

Edit
Something more: If I ad an other Audiotrack in HD-Audio multiAVCHD crashes! If I ad an SD-Audio Track, everything is fine. I tried this with an older version (build 755) it is no problem to ad an HD-Audio Track. :-(

Capsbackup

11th August 2010, 12:05

You can check with BDEdit what's in index/movieobject. I did no changes in the playback-logic part of multiAVCHD for few months and I wonder why it is not working...

Unfortunate for me I am not familiar with BDEdit and its procedures, as I rely / depend upon multiAVCHD to do it all. :(

deank

11th August 2010, 14:38

@pio011: Please use the playlists from PLAYLIST folder and not M2TS files directly. Mark for [full mode] processing and all should be okay.

@Caps: Will you please send me the log so I can try to replicate the problem? In BDEdit it is as simple as changing an object from "Jump Title #" to "Jump Title 0".

Capsbackup

11th August 2010, 15:01

@Caps: Will you please send me the log so I can try to replicate the problem? In BDEdit it is as simple as changing an object from "Jump Title #" to "Jump Title 0".

Log sent via PM. :)

Capsbackup

11th August 2010, 15:35

Dean, I checked with BDEdit, :o , and it appears multiAVCHD did not honor the command return to menu, and after changing the setting for title 1 to "Jump Title 0", it then went to the menu!
So I tried the same for each title number, since they were all set to jump to the next title number, and two of the three now correctly jump to the menu, while title 3, (two if you don't count title 1 hidden), hangs at the very end of play. :confused:

deank

11th August 2010, 16:09

Capsbackup

11th August 2010, 16:54

There must be a problem (again because of the hidden title).

I'll try to replicate it and will try to fix it. Either way, you can set Jump Title 0 (menu) for all titles and it should be okay... may be in the last title/object - first line - you'll have to set a different value for gpr to

MOVE GPR1, 304 (for the last 4th title). It makes the player to execute menu page #4 (playlist 00304.mpls) after it completes the playback of title #4 (playlist 00003.mpls).

I have run the project again, with the same results.(plays all titles consecutively) However, this time after the BDEdit changes, all titles return to the main menu and work correctly. :)
Thank you for the BDEdit tutorial! :p I still prefer multiAVCHD as the " One Do All " ;)
I appreciate your help, and will test any updates to confirm a fix.

deank

11th August 2010, 16:57

Are you sure that in [properties] you have the correct "Action after playback"?

Will you check if all titles (except the 1st hidden one) are set to "Go to menu"? May be something got wrong along the whole importing/retrying. The setting in [properties] will override the [default] one in AUTHOR tab (Play all).

Dean

Capsbackup

11th August 2010, 17:32

Yes, I checked diligently before reporting this time! I tried two different ways, go to menu and default action, but both were the same.

deank

11th August 2010, 17:34

:devil::devil::devil:

:p Thanks... I'll try to fix it later this week along with the 32 second limit for SLI/CAR styles.

Dean

Capsbackup

11th August 2010, 17:43

I just ran it again, rechecked all settings, confirmed all titles were set to return to menu, but no change in the outcome.
Note: I am using XMB menu style for this project with a still static .bmp picture for the menu, no title thumbnails, just a simple text display of the three main titles.

EDIT:
Later I will try this same project on my XP Pro setup rather than the current Win 7 Pro, just to make sure on my end. You never know! :p :)

deank

11th August 2010, 17:49

Capsbackup

11th August 2010, 22:46

:)

Menu style should not affect anything... If you want to waste some more time you can try it without HIDING the 1st title. I'm sorry to ask so much, but I really have no time to test all at the moment.

The lastest compilations I did always had 'return to menu' working. In fact this is the default for all of my compilations. I admit that I've never used hidden titles. :)

I can now confirm the same problem on my XP Pro PC!
( Sorry Dean, it's not me this time! :rolleyes: :p)
If I remove the hidden intro title, the menu is the first to start, so it appears your assumption is correct. Interesting that I used the hidden title feature recently on a backup using Carousel menu, and it worked perfectly. Not sure if it was 2-3 versions ago though.
I reported it here, so this was the time frame, from post # 6163:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=143744&page=309

By the way, you are not asking much, and my time to waste will be made up for by your improvements and enhancements!! So, any time! :)

pio011

12th August 2010, 09:20

Deank, recently I get these errors, that is probably the reason for my problem posted yesterday:

[03:19:40] Converting DTS-HRA, DTS-MA audio to Dolby AC3 (eac3to), bitrate used: 640...
[03:19:46] eac3to refused to convert audio!
[03:19:46] Trying to demux it...
[03:23:28] Trying to convert DTS-HRA, DTS-MA again with eac3to, bitrate used: 640...
[03:23:30] All attempts failed. Will use original audio track!

Why is that? Thanks!

MrVideo

12th August 2010, 19:59

@Dean:

Any comment on the simple menu enhancement request?

If there is the possibility of it happening relatively soon, I'll stop doing more projects with the current XMB menu. I'll just keep on working getting the videos re-encoded to x264 and get chapter locations.

:thanks:

Beatnut

13th August 2010, 09:49

Hi dean, When trying to make a BD-R in Mavchd with motion title and background image i get an error when creating the 2/2 title image, here is the error:

[10:44:33] Preparing menu pages...

[10:44:34] Encoding motion SLI menu page [1/2] [Motion title thumbnail].
[10:46:53] Encoding motion SLI menu page [1/2]: Chapter page [1/1].
[10:47:01] Encoding motion SLI menu page [1/2]: Setup page (audio/subtitle).

[10:47:09] Encoding motion SLI menu page [2/2] [Motion title thumbnail].
[10:47:24] Error encoding main menu page #2!

also a message pops up about a problem with the avs file in the temp folder, it then asks for debugg and reporting to the author.

what could be the problem?

MrVideo

14th August 2010, 04:22

I sent a copy of what I recently did to a TV station engineer friend out west and got back a very unexpected report.

He said that the disc played just fine in his computer. But both Panasonic players (DMP-BD30 & DMP-BD60) would not out-and-out reject the disc, but would only go into stop mode. He also has a Sony and it played with no problems.

Firmware is uo-to-date.

Anyone heard of issues playing mAVCHD Blu-ray authored discs on Panasonic players (other than what I am reporting here)?

Music Fan

14th August 2010, 08:54

Yes, you have to chose Strict mode for Panasonic players. If it was done, the problem is maybe the video file (a problem of H264 encoding for example).

MrVideo

14th August 2010, 15:16

Yes, you have to chose Strict mode for Panasonic players. If it was done, the problem is maybe the video file (a problem of H264 encoding for example).

I'll check the strick mode. It won't be the video's x264 encoding as the players won't even display the menu.

chompy

14th August 2010, 20:00

Hi deank,

in re-author mode after remuxing m2ts files with ATC_delta_entries in their clipinf, they lose this data and I don't know if it's related to this or not, but those files are in a seamless branching structure and after re-author one playlist in branching plays fine, but the other has a very small gap in audio between m2ts files.

Greetings

Edit: the problem isn't whit the second playlist, it's the second audio stream, because when I select it the first playlist the gap is also shown. I've kept the DTS core and changed it's order... I'll do some more tests

MrVideo

14th August 2010, 22:24

Yes, you have to chose Strict mode for Panasonic players. If it was done, the problem is maybe the video file (a problem of H264 encoding for example).

In the Author -> General section, the "Stricter AVCHD file format" was checked, so the BD was built with it set.

Music Fan

14th August 2010, 22:33

Ok but you have to chose Strict mode when you export the project.

MrVideo

15th August 2010, 00:06

Ok but you have to chose Strict mode when you export the project.

Where? When I hit the Start button, my next option is to chose the BD-R type.

UPDATE: I think you mean during x264 encoding. If so, then yes, --b-pyramid is set to strict. That said, as I posted, he doesn't even get a chance to play anything, as the menu doesn't even appear.

Music Fan

15th August 2010, 10:21

What is the message of your player when you insert the disc ?
Don't check "Skip top menu playback" in the author tab to be sure that you will see at least the menu, even if the player cannot play the videos.
When you hit the start button, you have to chose "AVCHD strict" if you wanna burn your project on a dvd. If you burn it on a BD, you chose Blu-ray (only one choice for this support).
Panasonic players are exigent with AVCHD, not with BD that they will play even with animated menus (logical for a BD).
Of course, you have to burn it in UDF 2.50 mode. It's easier to do if you let MultiAVCHD launch ImgBurn (that you have to install separately).
Check "use ImgBurn with Dvd/BD" in MultiAVCHD's settings.
Other possible reason of problem : the media itself. Some brands are not readable by all players, and it's impossible to know before testing it, except if you find a list of problematic discs on your player made by someone who tested it.