A tip for DVD Jacket picture...

[TRILIGHT]

I've been doing this lately but wasn't sure who all was aware so I thought I'd share. For those that don't know, the DVD Jacket picture is what is displayed on the TV screen when the player is in a stop/resume mode. Not all movies have them and some movies have crappy ones. I personally like to make my own.

If you are re-authoring a movie in DVD Maestro, simply go to the properties of your project and click on the button there to add a DVD Jacket picture. Make sure the picture you are using is 720x480 to match the video source.

You can also add a DVD Jacket picture to DVD's that do not have one and you may not have had to re-author. Simply create a "fake" project in Maestro and add a jacket picture as usual. Compile the project and you will have the JACKET_P folder created for you. You can add this folder to the burn project along with the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders you have from the original. No editing of IFO's is necessary. The JACKET_P folder is accessed independantly of them.

Anyway, I find it useful and thought someone else might too. :)

[CorkSucker]

Thanks trilight, i was wondering why some dvd's had the jacket_p folder, and what that button in Maestro was.

Great tip,

Corky

[Scoobydeux]

Will Prassi PrimoDVD recognize the JACKET_P folder? I guess I'll try and see!

[brett]

Does anybody know of any region 1 titles that have jacket pictures? I've got a lot of DVD's, and I've never noticed any having that folder. I had just assumed none of my players supported it, but maybe it's just that none of my DVD's have it.

[nlphillips]

These R1 films have jacket pictures....

Leon - The Professional (Uncut International Version)
Me Myself & Irene
Used Cars

Can't remember about some of my other films... "friends" have borrowed and not returned them. Grrrr. :mad:

[sTEP nEG]

I would I go about addind a jacket to a dvd without out using DVD Maestro?

[TRILIGHT]

Originally posted by sTEP nEG
I would I go about addind a jacket to a dvd without out using DVD Maestro?
You would have to use some sort of software to at least convert your pictures into the proper (I think it's .mp2?) format. Once the pictures are compiled into the proper format, you can drop them into your JACKET_P folder and burn.

[nlphillips]

According to Scenarist, Jacket pictures exist in three sizes (Small, Medium and Large) and if any Jacket picture is to be included, then all three sizes of files must be provided.

The Jacket picture dimensions are:
Large, NTSC - 720x480
Medium, NTSC - 176x112
Small, NTSC - 96x64

Large, PAL - 720x576
Medium, PAL - 176x144
Small, PAL - 96x80

I haven't got any experience with any other authoring programmes... so do other authoring progs, (such as Maestro), require all three files as well? :confused:

[Scoobydeux]

Maestro asks for the picture 3 times, then (as far as I can tell, due to the file sizes) it automatically resizes what you give it to match the appropriate size... I put in a 720x480 picture for all 3 files, and got 3 mp2 files of 3 escalating sizes (sm to lg).

[McPoodle]

There is a downloadable tutorial on creating Jacket Pictures without DVDMaestro or Scenarist at http://www.tfdvd.com/public/department44.cfm. Looking it over, I believe the process described is needlessly complicated. It says to convert your stills to AVI files before importing into TMPGenc, but TMPGenc will accept graphics files in the Video source, so I think you can go from creating the bitmap to encoding it to MPEG-2.

A more pertinent question might be: does anyone out there have a DVD player or DVD software that displays the jacket picture when in the Stop state? The tutorial mentions the Sony NS900V. I looked through one or two sites selling DVD players, and none stated they supported them. A handful of players (mostly multi-disk changers) stated they supported DVD Text, so I guess they might do jacket pictures, too.

[nlphillips]

I've got an old Sony 725 (modified by Techtronics)... it displays jackets ok when you press stop on the remote... Except for the Jacket on Me, Myself & Irene (R1). That one is pretty blocky and corrupted for some reason.

[sTEP nEG]

I had a look for that tutorial and couldn't see it?

Would I be right in thinking that I could just read in 3 different sized BMP files according to thoses sizes described by nlphillips and converting to mpeg2? Then dump these files into the JACKET_P folder.

:stupid:

As far as players go I have a Sony DVP-S336 and there is a setting to turn on either jacket display or the Sony DVD logo in the stopped state.

[Scoobydeux]

Sony DVP-530D does display jackets (I have only seen the large, I don't know where the medium and small ones fit in to the scheme).

[McPoodle]

The medium jacket pictures are used in 5-disc DVD players to allow you to select which DVD you want to play. I assume the small pictures are used in 50-disc players for the same purpose.

For those that can't download the tutorial, here is the condensed version:

[list=1]
Create three images. For NTSC, they should be 720x480, 176x112, and 96x64, while PAL uses 720x576, 176x144, and 96x80. All the rules for creating DVD images apply: create in a 4:3 ratio and re-size to get undistorted images, use the correct RGB color ranges for NTSC, and put the content you want seen within the 5% title-safe area (this last rule probably doesn't apply to the medium and small images).
Use TMPGenc or some other MPEG encoder to convert the images into MP2 files (use your normal DVD encoding parameters).
Give the files the following names for NTSC: J00___5L.MP2 for the large image, J00___5M.MP2 for the medium image, and J00___5S.MP2 for the small image. For PAL, the names are J00___6L.MP2 for large, J00___6M.MP2 for medium, and J00___6S.MP2 for small. Be sure to use zeroes (not capital O's) and to put three underscores in each name. The names are also case-sensitive.
Create a JACKET_P directory off of the root of the DVD (at the same level as AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS) and put the three MP2 files in it.
[/list=1]

I'd still like to know if there are any PC DVD-players that display jacket pictures, so those of us without Sony DVD settops can see them. I know for a fact that PowerDVD, WinDVD, and CineMaster's DVD Player all show black screens or their own logos when stopped.

[Scoobydeux]

GREAT POST! Thanks for the info, your post is now printed and in my "DVD-Burning Bible of Justice".

Here is McPoodle's link, just had an extra period at the end. This one worked fine. Thanks, McPoodle for pointing us in that direction:

http://www.tfdvd.com/public/department44.cfm

Cheers!

[McPoodle]

OK, I corrected my earlier post so anyone reading this thread in the future won't get too frustrated, then added this explanation so your correction would still make sense ;)

[bobrap]

I have a Toshiba SD-2800 that displays the picture during screen saver mode.

[kspratt]

I just recently purchased the new Sony DVP-CX875P and I am attempting to move my old home videos to DVD. The Sony player does take advantage of the jacket pictures but when I follow the information from the link above the Disk Explorer (Sony's way to navigate through the 300 potential disks in the player) colors start getting skewed up whenever my home made disk is listed on the screen. I also have seen this happen with one store bought title. I am not sure what I am missing in the authoring process that would cause this issue. Any ideas?

[DL]

I have a similar problem. When I setup the jackets photos they some times duplicate in the player on other disk that are backups. However they never show up on the pressed dvd's only on the backup. so it appears as though I have made 2 and 3 backups of the same disk.

DL

[TRILIGHT]

Must be some sort of caching mechanism causing the problem in those changers. I have a Sony single-disc player and it's never failed to display the correct jacket picture as intended.

[DL]

i think your right. I remembered I had to remove all the disc once to retrieve a disk that was stuck. I must have got our of order and that is why some show up in other places. I had it rescan the entire library and now all is correct.

Thanks for the imput.

DL

[geffroman]

You don't need to hassle with jacket picture creation with a Sony DVP-CX875P... All you do is find a screen shot in the movie you like and click the Picture Memory Button on the remote... It creates the Jacket Image for you and stores it in memory... Takes 2 seconds...

[kspratt]

That is what I have done up till now. I just wanted to take advantage of the feature so I did not need to perform that step when I add new DVDs.

[Sargondvd]

Since a few on this thread know the sony cx-875 , i find that the player's disk explorer does not pickup the DVD titles on my backups ( including a lot of orginals) any sugestions why this is , and how it is overcome so it picks it up from the dvd

Have not started on jackets for the explorer , shall be next


Regards :( :p

[geffroman]

If there is no DVD Text Info in the main video manager IFO file it will not be displayed... I have found no one and no software to add such code as of yet though I post this question about once a month...

[Sargondvd]

you say it is in the video manager ifo - that being VIDEO_TS.IFO , and now that i look i find that the section VMG_TXTDT_MG ( Text Data Manager Information) has this information. (using Ifoedit)if it is there, was on two DVD's out of 50)

I can generate the information in Maestro , by selecting TextData in the properties of the project , renaming the "movie1 " to the title of the dvd , and compliling ( making the Jacket info as well)

Can check it using IFoedit , however i cant seem to merge this information into the orginal VIDEO_TS , Merging menu's (option under Ifoedit) from orginal to Video_TS created from Maestro does not work.

Will try a few other idea's any help, comments , always welcome

Regards
:p

[geffroman]

I have never use Maestro or merged menus... I use IFOEDIT daily and cannot seem to make it edit the DVD TEXT code even in HEX mode...

If you find a solution I would greatly appreciate it if you posted back here...

I sure would like to have this info on all my backups...

[TRILIGHT]

Your comments really should be in a "DVD Text" thread instead of this one about a DVD jacket picture. They are not related in any way. Do a search and you will find info on DVD Text stuff.

Incidentally, I brought this up to Derrow a very long time ago. I am not sure how much time he devoted to it. Ultimately, he said that it could not be done because he could not "inject" information into an IFO when there was not space for it to begin with. In other words, while he might be able to figure out a way to alter information that is already in the DVD Text location in the IFO, there was not a way to add it without screwing the entire IFO up. The last I looked, it was still not possible at all to do what you want.

[geffroman]

Ultimately, he said that it could not be done because he could not "inject" information into an IFO when there was not space for it to begin with. In other words, while he might be able to figure out a way to alter information that is already in the DVD Text location in the IFO, there was not a way to add it without screwing the entire IFO up. The last I looked, it was still not possible at all to do what you want. [/B]

Thanks... I can easily edit the text if it exists with IFOEDIT now... I guess until more people have the need for the text no tools will exist to make it happen...

[kilikili]

I tried several ways to get dvdmaestro to read my images. It's interesting to note that it would look for .bmp, .psd, .tif, .jpg, or .tga filetypes. I tried the method below; using a single size image for all. No go. I tried the various sized images, no go. I keep getting invalid frame rate errors once it starts to create the jackets. Do the images have to be the mp2 format before going into maestro?

I eventually would want maestro to premaster and include the jacket_p folder on to DLT.

-kilikili

Originally posted by Scoobydeux
Maestro asks for the picture 3 times, then (as far as I can tell, due to the file sizes) it automatically resizes what you give it to match the appropriate size... I put in a 720x480 picture for all 3 files, and got 3 mp2 files of 3 escalating sizes (sm to lg).

[Sargondvd]

do a check for "invalid frame rate errors " i found cos i have dual processors , that the affinity must be set on Meastro to only 1 processor when i compile , else this error will often occur - hope it may help

regards

[kilikili]

Originally posted by Sargondvd
do a check for "invalid frame rate errors " i found cos i have dual processors , that the affinity must be set on Meastro to only 1 processor when i compile , else this error will often occur - hope it may help

regards

HEY!!! It WORKED!!! I too have dual processors running WinXP, and setting the affinity to 1 on DVDMaestro made the JACKET_P folders! The best part is I used the same big .jpg image for all three sizes and it converted it to the proper MP2 formats! Thanks to the post from earlier in the thread.

Kilikili

[daehkcid]

What is jacket picture?

[McPoodle]

A jacket picture is an image that is displayed by the DVD player to identify the disk. Usually, it's just a copy of the front cover of the DVD case. The jacket picture is only used by a few of the standalone DVD players (and none of the software DVD players). There are three sizes: the large one is displayed full-screen when the DVD player is stopped, while the medium and small ones are used by DVD-changers to create a selection screen where the user can select a disk by its thumbnail.

[Chowskie]

Hey all,

I've just successfully created the still pictures MP2's in a JACKET_P folder, included the folder along with VIDEO_TS, AUDIO_TS, and ORIG_n_PROCESS (a folder contains the original video_ts.ifo and a txt file describing the steps involved to burn the DVD movie), made an ISO image of all these, then burned the ISO to a disk using DVDDecrypter. And it works! The still picture showed up when my standalone player (an APEX) is in stop mode. :)

I found out that the MP2's created using the guide downloaded from the link (http://www.tfdvd.com/public/department44.cfm) introduced in this thread blink/flash when previewed in Media Player. I checked the MP2's in some DVD movies (Panic Room, Snatch, etc.), they don't blink.

So, instead of followed exactly all the steps in the guide, I went directly to TMPGEnc Plus. I downloaded, modified and saved the image (720x480 JPG) to be used for the DVD movie I'm working on. Then opened TMPGEnc Plus, use the JPG file as source instead of using a AVI file as directed by the guide. I actually did this without the Wizard. Also, I used 1fps for the frame rate in the video setting window.

[noobie937]

Question...

I know it says to use 720X480 176X112 and 96X64. But I was wondering why all my dvd's here when playing these mp2 files back all say they are in 640x480, 149x112, and 85x64 when viewing properties in media player.

I have yet to find one that is actually 720X480 in my collection.

Trying my 2nd round on creating one now. Hopefully will go alright.

Here was my steps in doing this though.

1. Open tmpgenc
2. File -> New Project to start fresh
3. Click on Setting button
4. Change stream type to "MPEG-2 Video"
5. Change Size to "720" by "480"
6. Click OK
7. Click "Browse" for video source and select my self made 720X480 jpeg image.
8. Click "Browse" for output file name and type in "J00___5L.MP2"
9. Click Start and it will create the file.

I've just been repeating those steps for the other two sizes.

That sound correct? I tried it last night and it didn't work on my dvd player. Trying now with the same sizes i found on my other discs. Perhaps i'll have better luck this go round.

[Dimmer]

@noobie937
720x480 becomes 640x480 on computer screen due to the fact that the pixels on TV screen are rectangular and the pixels on computer monitor are square. Alternatively, software players may display picture size 720x540. For example, PowerDVD allows you to choose for screenshot capture between original "squished" 720x480 and screen video size 720x540. (We're talking about 4:3 NTSC here.)

Anyway, here's a method to create jacket pictures TMPGEnc:

1. Ctrl+N
2. Click Load button and load DVD (NTSC) template, then unlock.mcf template.
3. Load your 720x480 picture as Video source.
4. Change stream type to System (Video Only).
5. Click Run.

Repeat the last three steps changing picture size in settings to 176x112 and 96x64.

[noobie937]

Thanks! Worked perfectly.

Any advantage of moving the framerate down on these?

[Dimmer]

Since there is only one frame, I don't see how framerate can make a difference.

You can bring bitrate up to 9.8Mbps if you wish to increase image quality a little bit.

[noobie937]

Another quick question. I noticed lately when i have been using high res images for the input it drasticly lowers the quality after i encode. the images start to blur and pixelate after i click the start button.

Anyway to keep the quality level up the same as the jpg after encoding?

[Dimmer]

Originally posted by noobie937
the images start to blur and pixelate after i click the start button.[/B] Do you mean they blur only in TMPGEnc, or actually on TV screen? Because you will see blurring in TMPGEnc preview window when encoding medium and small size images since they have low resolution.

If you have poor results on TV screen, first try to find your images in a loseless format like BMP. JPEG is a lossy encoding format, which means you already lost some details, and it's going to get worse after second encoding by TMPGEnc. The settings that work very well for me based on standard DVD template are Rate CBR 9800kbps and Non-Interlace selected in both Video and Advanced tabs.

You can try to experiment by setting Profile&Level to 422@ML and YUV format to 4:2:2, which supposed to preserve the colors better. However, it's outside DVD standards, so I can't promise it'll work on every player.

[noobie937]

When i initially select the image to use for the encoding it looks fine in the preview window. As soon as I encode it and click the start button the preview window image gets a little blurry and pixelized. It shows on the dvd player the same as well.

Perhaps it is just the origin of the jpg's i'm getting. But the strange thing about it is they all look fine in the preview window until i encode them. It is doing it on the large image as well as the smaller ones. Not that big of a deal, but I would like the images to be the best quality obviously. :)

[Dimmer]

Check the size of your original image - it should be 720x480, at least for J00___5L.MP2. That blurring in TMPGEnc happens when you scale down an image, and you are likely to see it when you encode medium and small jacket pictures. Before encoding, you see the picture in the original resolution, but afterwards it shows the small output image enlarged to fit the window, hence the pixelation.

[geffroman]

I saw a guide on the internet where it was suggested that you should convert BMP to AVI then use AVI to create your M2V.

Was this guy just misinformed or does his method achieve better quality and less loss in the final image?

[Dimmer]

Originally posted by geffroman
I saw a guide on the internet where it was suggested that you should convert BMP to AVI then use AVI to create your M2V.

Was this guy just misinformed or does his method achieve better quality and less loss in the final image?I suppose whoever wrote that guide didn't have tools to convert BMP directly to MPEG. That method certainly cannot improve the results since with each encoding you might lose quality. At best, the results will be the same provided he uses loseless conversion to AVI.

[geffroman]

Originally posted by dimmer
I suppose whoever wrote that guide didn't have tools to convert BMP directly to MPEG. That method certainly cannot improve the results since with each encoding you might lose quality. At best, the results will be the same provided he uses loseless conversion to AVI.

In fact his guide said to use TMPGEnc to convert the AVI. But he started with a BMP to AVI conversion. This I did not understand as I always just use the BMP as my source with TMPGEnc.

I just want to make sure I am getting the best conversion. I am not impressed with the result I am getting. So I wondered if TMPGEnc produced better results with AVI as the source rather than BMP.

Maybe the GUIDE Author just doesn't know TMPGEnc will use his BMP files.

[Dimmer]

Was it a guide by NJ for a MAC-based system? I read that one and also was surprised that they're using an extra AVI conversion. However, there is one good idea there that you can take a video file and select only one frame from it for your jacket picture.

Anyways, I made dozens of jacket picture with the method I described above with consistently good results. I often use one or more screenshots of the movie and combine them and clean them up in Photoshop. I suppose the main reason for the poor results would be low quality and/or resolution of the original picture.

[geffroman]

Originally posted by dimmer
I often use one or more screenshots of the movie and combine them and clean them up in Photoshop. I suppose the main reason for the poor results would be low quality and/or resolution of the original picture.

Actually the quality of the original has nothing to do with it. TMPGEnc just trashes the quality of BMP or JPG images when making the conversion. The more complex the image the worse the degradation.

For example, if I create a NEW graphic in Photoshop that is PERFECT and it is a simple black background and white text the resulting video clip created by TMPGEnc is fine.

However, if I where to add a texture to the background or emboss the text the resulting video clip in TMPGEnc will be horrible.

I must be very very selective about the original image and text I use but all my images are PRINT quality to start.

I guess I'll just have to try some AVI files to see if TMPGEnc handles the conversion better from AVI than it does BMP.

Any one know what the best tool for BMP to AVI is?

[Dimmer]

Originally posted by geffroman
The more complex the image the worse the degradation.You right about that, this is the nature of MPEG encoding. Don't forget that TV screen has the worst possible quality and resolution in comparison with any PC monitor. So you can forget about textures and embossing because they'll get noticeably degraded twice: during encoding and then when displayed on TV.

There is a whole bunch of recommendations you can find about making an image look good on TV. That includes avoiding certain colors and/or color combinations, using bold sans serif fonts at least 14 points size, avoiding fine lines, and so on. In Photoshop, there is a filter NTSC Colors in Filters - Video, which will adjust your colors to the TV-safe palette. After you look at the results, you are likely to be so disappointed that you decide to use another image. Probably the reason why I consistently get good jacket pictures out of the movie screenshots is because these images are already made to look good on TV.

Anyway, post back your findings about the quality of BMP - AVI - MPEG conversion. The first tool that comes to mind for AVI conversion is VirtualDub.

[geffroman]

Originally posted by dimmer
Anyway, post back your findings about the quality of BMP - AVI - MPEG conversion. The first tool that comes to mind for AVI conversion is VirtualDub.

Thanks dimmer