I-Author 1.0, where to find ???

[GDK]

I tried to find this program all over the internet, but cannot find it. Is it possible at all ???

Direction are appreciated.
:confused:

Thx
GDK

[htc10825]

read the post of htc10825 in this thread:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36993

[GDK]

I needed I-Author to make an mpeg5.1 svcd and read that I-author is the program to use.
Is it possible to use VCDeasy to make an mpeg5.1 compliant svcd ???

Thx
GDK

[Doom9]

I-author is only sold in far eastern countries. Your best shot at finding a copy is probably e-bay, or use google.

To my knowledge VCDEasy can't create SVCDs with 5.1 audio. Though, the number of players capable of properly handling that format (not to forget the receiver with the appropriate decoder) is rather low. Maybe it's time you upgraded to DVD±R, there 5.1 audio is no problem whatsoever.

[htc10825]

I needed I-Author to make an mpeg5.1 svcd and read that I-author is the program to use. Is it possible to use VCDeasy to make an mpeg5.1 compliant svcd ???
Yeap! But makeing of mpeg5.1 svcd is the problem of audio encoding and A/V-multiplexing, not the problem of VCDeasy(I-Autho) which is a autoring software. So you can do it(=author it) with with any authoring/burning software just like Nero, WinOnCd, also vcdimage.
For more info about mpeg audio 5.1, see the thread
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35186
or goto the author's homepage directly:
http://hypercube.is.dreaming.org/
or goto the "how to make 5.1 svcd page" directly:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/hypercube/html/how_to_make_5_1__svcd.html
or goto the "Hardware compliant database" page:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/hypercube/html/database_results.php
So I hope that enough for the begining.

@Doom9:To my knowledge VCDEasy can't create SVCDs with 5.1 audio.see the answer for GDK above.

[lonewolf454]

I personally wouldnt recommend I-Author becuase it does a poor job of Synchronizing a/v sequences and complain all the time. And I had trouble with its PBC not correct.

Can you use vcdx-build?

[htc10825]

I personally wouldnt recommend I-Author becuase it does a poor job of Synchronizing a/v sequences I cannt share your oppining. In my case it gives me allways correct syncroned av-stream.And I had trouble with its PBC not correctThe PBC of I-Author is OK(=not wrong). But it's concept of building PBC is discussable. I-Author and TSCV build PBC by using of "Playlists", VCDEasy and VCDWizard use "Selections", which can be defined with the item "Timeout" but "Playlists" can not. So for a movie-rip with chapters the "Playlists" are a bad choice because at the end of movie following the chapter2 instead of showing "VIDEO END" or "Disc change". But if your movie has 2 languages or more than one subtitles, the solution with "Playlists" has advantage: when you select the 2nd language or 2nd/3dr/4th subtitle, after press the next/prev button(for next chapter), the selected language/subtitle will keep the setting and you can continue enjoy the movie but the solution with "Selections" will "forget" the settings and the language/subtitle will be reset to 1st language/1st subtitle, you have to press the "AUDIO"/"SUB" buttons to recover the settings, and this must be done at every manually chapter change!
But the solution with "Selections"(=VCDEasy) is a overall better solution(the multi ligual movie rips are not often, under them you will mostly only view the 1st language/sub)

Now to your question: VCDx-Build is only a tool to build the disc image out of the XML file. In the XML file you can use both the "Playlists" and "Selections" - so only useing the vcdxbuild utility cannt avoid the evil. There is no perfect solution jet - at least for vcd/svcd. The only way out is to upgrade your compilation - build DVD instead of VCD!

[lonewolf454]

Yeah if everyone was rich we would probably all have dvd burners, or better yet, be fully funding the MPAA. Unfortunately, we are not and still stuck burning 2-3 discs for a two hour movie. And, in regards to TSCV, I have used it to add "Change Disc" at end of disc one, but it does playback differnetly, but is possible. I-Author will not do this option, so there is a differnece in that respect.

This will be my last reply to tis question because we are straying away from the actual question/problem this guy is having. I just wanted to clear up the confusion. Stick with vcdxbuild if you can.

Signed, Still stuck in the svcd world.

[htc10825]

if everyone was rich we would probably all have dvd burnersthe Toshiba DVD burnner costs only 230 EUR/USD. In year 1994 I have bought a YAMAHA CD-Recorder(4x-speed) for 5000 USD! The DVD burnners are now cheaper, but I've never made it as geeral recommedation. I meened only, if you dont want to live with the limit of VCD/SVCD authoring, then buy a dvd burnner for just 2.4 time higher price(than a usual cd-r/w burnner).Unfortunately, we are not and still stuck burning 2-3 discs for a two hour movie.What? 3 cd-r for a two hour movie? That is a losing deal! Definitively! Why? If you burn 2 movies on cd-r, then the costs of cd-rs are 2USD, but if you burn the 2 movies on one dvd-r(surely you can put 2 movies on a dvd-r with 4.7GB), then it costs ONLY 1.5 USD!(someone in forum reported he bought the dvd-r for just 1 USD). But I still burn svcd on cd-r! Because I make only 1CD-rip! Some examples:
Movie "Minority Report" 140min, SVCD(CVD) 1CD-rip in good quality.
Movie "007 - Die Another Day" 123min, SVCD(CVD) 1CD-rip in good quality.
DVD "The Lord of the Rings 1" 180min, xVCD 1CD-rip(PAL 1.85:1 AR, with german subs) in very good quality.
DVD "The Storm Riders" 127min, SVCD 1CD-rip in good quality.

Thus, I made the losing deal to a profitable deal! By the way, with the 1CD-rip you can access all the chapters and enjoy the whole movie without disk change.in regards to TSCV, I have used it to add "Change Disc" at end of disc one, but it does playback differnetly, but is possible. I-Author will not do this option, so there is a differnece in that respectI repeat, I-Author and TSCV using the same authoring concept: "Playlist". In both program, if you define the control option "next" of every chapter to menu "plz change disk", there is no problem(=the still image "plz change.." will always apear at the end of disk). But it is not good for chapter-navigation in movie. So you define the control option "next" to the real next chapter, the navigation is good, but the menu "plz chage disk" only apears at the end of disk when 1: you direct access the last chapter, or 2: you press the "next" button till the last chapter and view the movie, or 3: you press the "next" button over the last chapter.

I hope that you've got enough information and your life would be easier later.

[jsoto]

Definitively, you do not need I-Author for this job

You can use directly dvd2svcd with bbmpeg for muxing and vcxbuild for authoring (both included in the bundle). It works fine, although the vcxbuild log says it is writing a stereo track...

Probably your problems will come when you try to reproduce it. There are only a few decoders in the market (Philips, Pioneer..).
See the database of hypercube

http://hypercube.is.dreaming.org/

But, be careful, there are two configurations:
A) DVD player stand alone with the decoder integrated
B) DVD player + external decoder& amplifier digitally connected

In the case B, I think there are a lot of players which could be "compliant"

Results of hypercube do not specify the configuration. I own a Yukay 560 (which is in the list of "compliant") and I am not able to get 5.1 sound in MPEG2 using configuration A. (I have test the CD in a friend´s player: Thomson 4200, and it works..)


jsoto.

[htc10825]

@jsoto
I think there is no "fool's day" in January. But perhaps daylight dreamer. I've discussed and posted the same links (and many more!) monthes before in this thread. One should not chew the gum which was spited out by the others.
The DVD players Mustek/Yukai 560 do not have the Logo "MPEG Audio MultiChannel", so it is absolute logical that the build-in decoder cannot decode 5.1 mpeg audio. Otherwise the producer have to pay the licence fee to Phlips, whith would make such low-cost player unprofitable.

[jsoto]

@htc10825
OK, there are a lot of threads about this topic.
Sorry.

[htc10825]

So let's go back to the important topic: Authoring software and their limitations. Here my recommendation:

1. If you author (S)VCDs without chapters, then I-Author and TSCV are the better choice because you can save the (authoring)project and later load it for modifying etc. VCDEasy cannot save the project(jet) so every time you must start for the begining.

2. If you author (S)VCDs with chapters, then in most cases the VCDEasy is the betterchoice except your compilation has more than 2 launguages or 2 subtiltes AND you hear and view the 2nd launguage/sub VERY OFTEN.

Once again: VCDx-Build is only a tool to build the disc image out of the XML file. The VCDEasy offers a very good GUI for VCDx-Build and so makes you life easier.

[jsoto]

The following document:

http://www.vcdimager.org/guides/pdf/chaptering.pdf

shows graphicaly what htc10825 is saying about the navigation differences between selections and playlists (it also makes a comparation with DVD).

Hope it helps

[htc10825]

But the pages in vcdimager have not point out the issue of "selection" when you have 2nd language or 2nd Subtitle - So far I am the first contributor for the COMPLETE topic "Comparison of Authoring Concept - Selection VS. Playlist" worldwide. It is also important to point out, which authoring software apply which concept - so far I've also never seen before.

But we do hope the author of VCDEasy improves his work so we can save and load project files at last.

[jsoto]

The link was only to clarify what are you saying (it's easier with a figure, isn't it?)

selection issue:
I rarely use 2 languages/subtitles, but be sure I will keep it in my mind. I think it was unknown for most of the users (at least for me, it was). Thanks for point it out.

authoring SW:
I agree 100% with your recommendation, but although I've used I-Author, I'm a "xml addict" (using VCDEasy or dvd2svcd). I was trying to find some time to test TSCV, but now, after your clarifications, I will not try. Thanks again.

Let me to give a last suggestion: It is not so difficult to manually edit (obviously, to do minor changes) a xml file (generated with whatever gui) with an ASCII editor. I usually do it to include additional files, like the covers, in EXTRA folder, modify chapters (this takes a little more time but using copy and paste..), and so on. After that, you only have to lauch an easy script (it can be copied directly from dvd2svcd log file if it is the case).

jsoto

[htc10825]

Aha, another "XML addict"!
Thou I've learned the xml syntax for vcd authoring very eary I was a "I-Author addict" till april 2001. But the I-Author has many, many bugs and the annoying limitation of max. 50 still images(more still images cause a invalid cd image) and I finally left I-Author and goto VCDEasy(the former version of vcdeasy was not capable to create menu and chapters). Even in the "I-Author times" I've already used a text editor to edit the project file of I-Author, which is very, very similar to the xml file of vcdimage. With the function "search & replace" in a text editor you can make many global changes at one stroke and save me thousand clicks in program. Also the modifiying of chapter points. With the xml files produced by vcdeasy I have more possibility to edit. Except adding of iso-9660 files I can adding the mouse/pointer/click support for the VCD/SVCD-menus! So since that and till now every music SVCDs/VCDs I've made have the capability of navigation via mouse on computer!

The best text editor for such work(also for programmer/web coder) is "Textpad" which is a shareware without limitation. It is small but extremely strong in useful functions: regular expresions, colume editing, multiline search and replace...
the line# display helps very much for debugging the large amount modified/added xml lines...

But for newbie I cannt recommend first to learn the xml syntax and then start to build vcd.

[jsoto]

@hc10825
I repeat, I-Author and TSCV using the same authoring concept: "Playlist". In both program,
I´ve just installed TSVC 0.84 (I had already downloaded it) and it uses selections :confused: (I only just started it, but I didn`t find any control to choose between selections and playlists). May be in past releases it was using playlists. At first view it is very similar to VCDEasy and also uses vcdxbuild (xml file).

Also, following your indications, I downloaded Textpad from www.textpad.com, but although it has no limitation it is not freeware:

There is no charge for the download, but you must pay for the software if you decide to keep it. A single user license costs only $27 US dollars.

Regards.

Edited to fix some typografic errors

[htc10825]

the last time I've used TSCV was in Dez. 2001. But the structure of its xml file should not have been changed.
So you must see the session of chapters, not menus. all still images or motion menus are "selections". But chapters in a movie should be "playlist" in TSCV. There was(are) still a very annoying limitation - every menu has max. 9 sub-selections(which can be sub menus). Also a bug: the re-load/re-open of project files works not precision - esp. for komplex projects.(can give you more detail if you need it)

Textpad is shareware - I've mentioned it in my post above. If you are to lazy to register it you can use it forever - but it is worth the 27$.

[jsoto]

@htc10825
TSVC: Thanks for your clarifications. Seems now it is using selections also for movie’s chapters, but I will continue using VCDEasy, it’s a good GUI and I’m used to work with it.

Textpad: You are right. It is a well featured ASCII editor and 27$ is not so much…

jsoto