Muxman - simple DVD authoring

[mpucoder]

Two years ago (or was it three?) I set about gathering information so that I could write an authoring program. But a couple things got in the way, and all the world got was the information I had gathered.
Now things are finally back to normal. Yes, the crackhead girlfriend is finally gone (my apologies to Germany, where she decided to go next).
Anyway, the centerpiece of any authoring program is its multiplexer, so I wrote that first and designed a simple authoring program to test it. It is available at www.mpucoder.com/Muxman

My plans are to further develope this into a program rivaling Scenarist. Such a program, however, would not be free. But this program, along with bugfixes and some later improvements, will continue to be available and free. At some point there will be two, or maybe more, versions ranging from free on up.

[lark]

The product of Muxman is virtually identical to that of Scenarist, and far superior to any mplex based authoring program.

sounds too good to be true!

regards
t :)

[mpucoder]

For the sceptics I published the verification results. See the link on the page.

[Trahald]

Excellent.. great work mpucoder.

Originally posted by mpucoder
... Yes, the crackhead girlfriend is finally gone (my apologies to Germany, where she decided to go next).LOL!

[Trahald]

I demuxed one of the features from The Two Towers extended.. disk 4 appendices (the feature that goes into the premiers for TTT) powerdvd plays it fine except for right before the london premier where Billy boyd is talking (about the 2:20 minute mark) it glitches there and you cant rewind over it. Windvd and IFOEdits player both can barely play the output( the video stutters behind the audio the whole way). This is a NTSC (almost pure 29.97) video right off the dvd. Just to parallel i muxed it in scenarist and was fine.

[mpucoder]

Were there any errors reported? Look in c:\muxman.log

[Trahald]

Opened video file D:\TWO_TOWERS_EXT_D4\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1 - 0xE0 - Video - MPEG-2 - 720x480 (NTSC) - 16~9 - Letterboxed.M2V, 275750255 bytes.
Opened audio 1 file D:\TWO_TOWERS_EXT_D4\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1 - 0x80 - Audio - AC3 - 2ch - 48kHz - DRC - English - DELAY -66ms_fixed.ac3.
AC3 audio, frame size = 0x300.
10:33:29 Begin multiplex.
SeqEnd at 106F880A.
SeqEnd at 106F9D6B.
Bytes remaining in buffer = 0.
10:34:27 End multiplex.
Fields: 34046, VOBU: 1362, Sectors: 145013.

[mpucoder]

The 2 SeqEnd is probably the cause of the problem with this video. There is one part of Muxman that didn't make it for this week that deals with short VOBU's. And SeqEnd can, and usually does, create a short VOBU. Here's what happens: A SeqEnd marks the end of encoding, and also forces the multiplexer to end the current VOBU. If that VOBU is less than 0.4 seconds long it should be merged with the VOBU prior to it. But since Muxman is a single pass multiplexer it doesn't know about this until after it has happened. I'm still working on the process of backing up to join them together. The cases I ran into didn't have SeqEnd close together, so the player was able to recover.

Just bad luck, I hope, on your choice of material. But it is something I'm aware of and working on.

I also noticed a negative audio delay. This is something I'm going to be writting about on my website, as it has really gotten out of hand. The bottom line is if you need a negative audio delay something is wrong with the software you are using. I believe it all started with dvd2avi not handling closed GOPs properly, and has persisted like a bad urban legend ever since. Donald Graft (neuron2) has written a corrected version of the program, you can get it here (http://neuron2.net/fixd2v/decodefix.html)
Another source of negative delay is demuxing by VobID. This would be a great idea if implemented properly, but it isn't by any program I tried. What goes wrong? In a seamless VOB joint, like those found within a title, some audio for the first VOB is multiplexed into the second. But during demux all the programs start and stop on the VOB boundary, leaving out the tail end of the audio and grabbing extra at the beginning.

But, IF you demux and never pass the video through dvd2avi or avisynth, AND this starts with the first VobID of the title, negative audio delay is not possible, and should not be "corrected" for.

[Trahald]

OK.. I encoded video from the file and remuxed.. now plays perfect on powerdvd.. but the video still stutters on ifoeditplayer and windvd (the audio plays through w/out problems or pause)
here is the new log
Opened video file D:\TWO_TOWERS_EXT_D4\VIDEO_TS\reencode.mpv, 428434548 bytes.
Opened audio 1 file D:\TWO_TOWERS_EXT_D4\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1 - 0x80 - Audio - AC3 - 2ch - 48kHz - DRC - English - DELAY -66ms_fixed.ac3.
AC3 audio, frame size = 0x300.
13:04:24 Begin multiplex.
SeqEnd at 19896470.
Bytes remaining in buffer = 0.
13:06:03 End multiplex.
Fields: 34045, VOBU: 1418, Sectors: 220459.im going to totally reencode the audio and remux and see what happens

[LigH]

One of the users in the german board, who is not so good in English, asked me to report the following:

This tool does not work well with still menus with audio streams. If there is one video frame, and several "frames" of audio below an beyond, you shall stuff the video stream with NAV packs, as some kind of padding to ensure a consecutively advancing timecode.

[Matthew]

Good luck :)

Shame it doesn't have command-line support though :( Otherwise I would use it instead of DVDAuthor when doing scripted avi->DVD-Video. For the moment, if I want a GUI I'll use maestro :/

[mpucoder]

Originally posted by LigH
One of the users in the german board, who is not so good in English, asked me to report the following:

This tool does not work well with still menus with audio streams. If there is one video frame, and several "frames" of audio below an beyond, you shall stuff the video stream with NAV packs, as some kind of padding to ensure a consecutively advancing timecode.
It is not intended to work with stills and menues yet.

[mpucoder]

Originally posted by Matthew
Good luck :)

Shame it doesn't have command-line support though :( Otherwise I would use it instead of DVDAuthor when doing scripted avi->DVD-Video. For the moment, if I want a GUI I'll use maestro :/
It will have a CLI once the use of project files is working.

[lark]

i tried muxman briefly yesterday and discovered following:

- cannot select subpictures before video is seleted => crashes (perhaps the same for audio, but i didn't test)
- if destination folder doesn't exist, muxman seems to work correctly (muxes), but there's neither any output (at least i couldn't find) nor error messages

- not quite sure if 2 subs works, i tried, but at least powerdvd listed only 1

regards
t :)

[mpucoder]

Both of the first 2 are fixed in the next release.

The second subpicture is mapped wrong. Regardless of aspect ratio sub 1 is the 4:3 and sub 2 is LB, which is total nonsense. In order to really fix it more dialog is needed for 16:9 to select the wide, LB, and PS versions of a language (not to mention set the language and extension). So that will take a little time.

I hadn't planned to release every day anyway, but to fix as many problems as possible each week.

[jptheripper]

look forward to using

not sure if you are familiar with subtitle workshop. If you are, I will be loading an sst file into to do some editing and need to know what format to export the subs in.

Ifo-edit isnt a format but almost everything else is

[mean]

There is one thing i did not get
The comparison is that muxman get almost the same output as scenarist while mplex output is different.

But how does it make it better or worse ?

[mpucoder]

The problem I ran into with subs was the huge number of formats and lack of documentation for them. Using the IfoEdit format is admittedly, a hack to add the same functionality as IfoEdit (and therefore get its users to try Muxman). I also ran into many utilities to convert amongst the formats, but that, too, is not a solution.

I believe .sst is a must to support, Maestro's format an option. I just need a good document on the format, or even a good informal explanation.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Lovely tool mpucoder... many thanks!


Cheers

[Malcolm]

hi mpucoder,
great work! Thanks!

Unfortunately it seems that muxman has some problems with mp2 files. muxman always says 'audio type not recognized' and it refuses to add the mp2 file. this happens with all of my mp2 files that come from digital DVB capture (Germany, PAL). the mp2 files are demuxed from the captured DVB mpg file using ProjectX and then cut using Cuttermaran. i have no problems using these mp2 files with other programs (Winamp, BeSweet, IfoEdit, Media Player Classic, etc. pp.) if i try to use other mp2 files that i have produced myself with BeSweet by reencoding the original mp2 file from DVB, then Muxman accepts them.

i have added the first 100 kB from a mp2 file that does not work with Muxman. (DVB -> ProjectX -> Cuttermaran)
Here's the link: http://tinyurl.com/47ef6

greetings,
Malcolm

[mpucoder]

@mean - most of the differences represent non-compliance. For example the first GOP of the test clip contains 3 frames. That is too short for a VOBU and should be combined with another GOP. But mplex does not do that. Subpictures should have pointers in the SRI area back to the VOBU where the data resides if they span more than one VOBU. Again, mplex does not do that. And there are more, but I'd be giving away free help to mplex by listing them all :)

@SeeMore - thanks. It's just the start.

[mpucoder]

The file contains a CRC. There was some confusion as to whether or not this was allowed. But since Scenarist accepted it (I tried) I'll change that in the next release to allow a CRC. While I'm at it, I should give a reason for rejecting the file if possible. With mp2 files the first 2 bytes tell a lot, but Muxman just uses a few signature bytes to identify the file type rather than rely on the extension. 0xFF 0xFD is what it wants for mpeg audio. This means "mpeg-1 layer 2 no protection (CRC)"

[Guest]

Cool work!

Tested it with my DVDslideshowGUI (http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=245071) - muxman works fine with m2v and ac3.

Just two things:
720x576(pal) doesn't seem to be supported?
If the export folder doesn't exist it won't render.

Looking forward to cli. :)

Tin2tin

[mpucoder]

All PAL resolutions are supported, but the picture rate must be 25fps.
Did you get an error message, or is there some other reason you believe PAL is not working?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by mpucoder
All PAL resolutions are supported, but the picture rate must be 25fps.
Did you get an error message, or is there some other reason you believe PAL is not working? PAL works here!

I've only tried very, very short encodes/muxes though!


Cheers

[Guest]

Sorry my bad. Used a 1:1 m2v pal file - works fine with 4:3 pal.
Tin2tin

[jsoto]

Amazing!
Many, many, thanks!!
The GUI can be improved ;), but the important thing is the machine inside. We know the author, and sure it will become a fantastic tool.

First try:
- One video + 2audios + 2subs
I've noticed that the output files are a little bit higher than 1 GB. But they grow at the end of the process :confused: May be a second pass to mux the subs?

EDIT: Ooops, something went wrong.
I've three VOB files, the first and second are 1 GB of zeroes + some packs (seems only video and corrupted). The third VOB file (600 MB aprox) plays well in powerDVD
I'll do more tests and report back, but in the meantime here is the log

Opened video file F:\DVDSHR2\Encoded_Video_CCE_PAL.mpv, 2211711360 bytes.
Opened audio 1 file F:\DVDSHR2\Encoded_audio_1.ac3.
AC3 audio, frame size = 0x700.
Opened audio 2 file F:\DVDSHR2\Encoded_audio_2.ac3.
AC3 audio, frame size = 0x600.
Opened sub 1 file F:\DVDSHR2\DVD\TEMP\SUBS\VTS_01_1.20.sup.
Opened sub 2 file F:\DVDSHR2\DVD\TEMP\SUBS\VTS_01_1.21.sup.
16:59:13 Begin multiplex.
SeqEnd at 83D4097C.
Bytes remaining in buffer = 0.
17:05:18 End multiplex.
Fields: 265937, VOBU: 11024, Sectors: 1388237.


BTW, the same mux job took a little bit more than 10 minutes in IFOedit (6 minutes in MuxMan). Obviously in the same PC, same conditions of disk drives, etc.

mdvdauth: Starting muxing at time: 06:29:05
mdvdauth: Finished IfoEdit at time: 06:39:42

jsoto

[jsoto]

Sorry, I'm unable to get a correct VTS higher than 1 GB.
The same material (previously cutted) works fine if the resulting VTS is only one file (lower than 1 GB, of course).

jsoto

[mpucoder]

You are absolutely right, there is something wrong with >1GB titlesets. I think I found the cause, and am testing it now. This bug is big enough to warrant a new release.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Bugger!

I've just tried MuxMan to re-mux 1no 4000MB approx .m2v video stream and an 300MB approx .AC3 audio stream (ripped using DVDdecrypter in IFO mode, around 12 months ago)... and got this: -

http://img66.exs.cx/img66/9273/muxman010bz.gif

The trouble is... it won't play!

Well, to be correct... only the 563,424KB file will play :(


Cheers

[mpucoder]

Another victim of copy/paste from the samples!
OK, new version (www.mpucoder.com/Muxman) available that fixes several problems, including the >1GB mess.

04/12/08 added display options (4:3 from 16:9) radio buttons
fixed lseek bug in backfill operation
released as ver 0.2

04/12/07 fixed crash when opening .sup file prior to video
added check for destination folder, create option
accept mp2 files with CRCs
added language and extension pulldown menus for subpictures and audio

[jsoto]

Yep, it works now!. Final VOB files are just one sector below 1 GB, as they used to be.

Good work.

Err...
- More audios and subs are foreseen?.
- What about delays in audio?

jsoto

EDIT: I've found the application icon quite similar (but inverted) to PgcDemux one. Funny. Yours has more colors.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Yep... it works for me now too!

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/5748/muxman025qo.gif

Great stuff and many thanks :D

[Uruk-hai]

I tried the version 0.2 but the result was negative:(
I prepared 2 subtitles .sup by srt2sup. The output seemed normal but none of the subtitles appeared when playing back in PowerDVD.
Here is the log:

Opened video file E:\TMPGEnc\0 - moive.mpv, 3685285888 bytes.
Opened audio 1 file E:\TMPGEnc\0 - moive.mp2.
MP2 audio, frame size = 0x2A0.
Opened sub 1 file Z:\moive\moive.cht.sup.
Opened sub 2 file Z:\moive\moive.eng.sup.
22:26:25 Begin multiplex.
End of video file
Bytes remaining in buffer = 0.
22:36:28 End multiplex.
Fields: 362403, VOBU: 11942, Sectors: 1923641.

SubRemap did not detect any subtitles in the output either. What's happening?

[mrslacker]

I muxed a ~2.1Gb m2v with an ac3 and the results were good! I'm excited about a quality oriented approach, but I could use an additional element of flexibility: No authoring, just muxing. I have two large m2v files that need to be part of the same pgc. Using dvdauthor, I could list the several MuxMan vobs from the different source files in the same pgc, but I'd rather have just two files. I would be happy to test MuxMan more if it could just make a large vob or mpeg with NAV packets. Even better would be concatenation of multiple inputs! :D I'm wary about implementing the obvious solution: joining the source before using MuxMan. I suspect most programs just do a 'cat-like' operation, ignoring the headers, and fudge the integrity of the stream. In any case, I'd like to keep testing the MuxMan engine. I like the idea of an mplex alternative.

typo

[SeeMoreDigital]

Any thoughts about the possibility of being able to "manually add" chapter time points!

I quite often receive Mpeg2 DVD "Show Reels" that have been weirdly authored. Typically they don't need (or have) to contain an on screen menu. But they really should contain chapter seeking!

The total DVD content very rarely exceeds 1GB but they often contain several separate VOB's (one VOB for each clip).

What I would like to do is to, load the original DVD into say, DVDdecrypter. Rip and de-mux the streams into separate but continuous .m2v and .ac3 streams. And then use your MuxMan to re-mux the streams into one VOB... And add my own chapter points!

....Does that make sense?


Cheers

[jsoto]

@Uruk-hai
I've succesfully muxed two audios and two subs (obtained with
VobSub+subTosup).
So please check with VobEdit to see if the subs are there. May be the problem is in the colour palette

@SeeMoreDigital
Chapters:
You can do it now!. Look in "File" menu, you have the option to add a Celltimes.txt file with the chapter frame numbers (one per row)

jsoto

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by jsoto
@SeeMoreDigital
Chapters:
You can do it now!. Look in "File" menu, you have the option to add a Celltimes.txt file with the chapter frame numbers (one per row) Bugger... I missed that feature!

Can you post a typical layout style of a "Celltimes.txt" file?


Many thanks

[bourtzovlakas]

Can you post a typical layout style of a "Celltimes.txt" file?

650
5830
11870
21105
30795
31646
45530
59170
59791
64690
74611
86205
90341
103165
111230
115156
121230
130060
131865
133760
148031
151696
164035
170515
176580
179075
191281
202201
217331
222105
222192

[SeeMoreDigital]

Thanks bourtzovlakas,

May I ask... what do the figures you've posted represent. Are they "seconds"?


Cheers

[mrslacker]

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
May I ask... what do the figures you've posted represent. Are they "seconds"?

Frame numbers.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by mrslacker
Frame numbers. Okay.. I understand.

In the past I've been used to creating "bookmark" files, to represent chapter points, that look like this: - <bookmarks>
<bookmark time="00:00:00"/>
<bookmark time="00:03:06"/>
<bookmark time="00:04:33"/>
<bookmark time="00:07:19"/>
<bookmark time="00:11:03"/>
<bookmark time="00:13:03"/>
<bookmark time="00:16:11"/>
<bookmark time="00:22:20"/>
<bookmark time="00:24:41"/>
<bookmark time="00:27:27"/>
<bookmark time="00:29:44"/>
<bookmark time="00:35:27"/>
<bookmark time="00:40:25"/>
<bookmark time="00:41:20"/>
<bookmark time="00:44:43"/>
<bookmark time="00:47:09"/>
<bookmark time="00:53:03"/>
<bookmark time="00:55:08"/>
<bookmark time="00:57:20"/>
<bookmark time="00:59:19"/>
<bookmark time="01:00:41"/>
</bookmarks>



Or even this: -

<bookmarks>
<bookmark time="00:00:00" name="01 Credits And Foreword"/>
<bookmark time="00:03:06" name="02 Eye On The Sky"/>
<bookmark time="00:04:33" name="03 Leons Emotional Response"/>
<bookmark time="00:07:19" name="04 Street Scene"/>
<bookmark time="00:11:03" name="05 The Old Blade Runner Magic"/>
<bookmark time="00:13:03" name="06 The Replicants In Question"/>
<bookmark time="00:16:11" name="07 Rachael: The Voigt-Kampff Test"/>
<bookmark time="00:22:20" name="08 Leon's Apartment"/>
<bookmark time="00:24:41" name="09 Chew's Visitors"/>
<bookmark time="00:27:27" name="10 If Only I could See..."/>
<bookmark time="00:29:44" name="11 A Visitor with Someone Else's Memories"/>
<bookmark time="00:35:27" name="12 Pris Meets Sebastian"/>
<bookmark time="00:40:25" name="13 Deckards Dream"/>
<bookmark time="00:41:20" name="14 Computer Photo Scan"/>
<bookmark time="00:44:43" name="15 Manufactured Skin"/>
<bookmark time="00:47:09" name="16 Miss Salome's Dressing Room"/>
<bookmark time="00:53:03" name="17 Pursuing Zhora"/>
<bookmark time="00:55:08" name="18 Retirement... Witnessed"/>
<bookmark time="00:57:20" name="19 How Many To Go"/>
<bookmark time="00:59:19" name="20 Wake Up. Time To Die"/>
<bookmark time="01:00:41" name="21 I Am The Business. I Owe You One"/>
</bookmarks>But I reckon I can get used to frame numbers instead :)


Many thanks

[Uruk-hai]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jsoto
[B]@Uruk-hai
So please check with VobEdit to see if the subs are there. May be the problem is in the colour palette
QUOTE]

Subs are there and the color palette looks ok but still no subs when playing back:

Title Set (Movie) attributes:
Video: MPEG-2 704x480 (NTSC) (NTSC 525/60) (4:3) (not specified perm.display)
Audio 1: English (Mpeg-1 ) 2ch 48Kbps 16bps normal (ID: 0xc0)
SubPicture 1: Chinese (2-bit rle ) (ID: 0x20)
SubPicture 2: English (2-bit rle ) (ID: 0x21)
PG Playback mode = sequential
[000000a3] Still time in seconds 0 [00]
[000000a5] Color 0 Y Cr CB 40 109 240 [28 6d f0 ]
[000000a9] Color 1 Y Cr CB 81 240 90 [51 f0 5a ]
[000000ad] Color 2 Y Cr CB 16 128 128 [10 80 80 ]
[000000b1] Color 3 Y Cr CB 234 128 128 [ea 80 80 ]
[000000b5] Color 4 Y Cr CB 144 34 53 [90 22 35 ]
[000000b9] Color 5 Y Cr CB 106 221 202 [6a dd ca ]
[000000bd] Color 6 Y Cr CB 210 146 16 [d2 92 10 ]
[000000c1] Color 7 Y Cr CB 91 73 146 [5b 49 92 ]
[000000c5] Color 8 Y Cr CB 123 128 128 [7b 80 80 ]
[000000c9] Color 9 Y Cr CB 209 128 128 [d1 80 80 ]
[000000cd] Color 10 Y Cr CB 48 182 109 [30 b6 6d ]
[000000d1] Color 11 Y Cr CB 79 81 91 [4f 51 5b ]
[000000d5] Color 12 Y Cr CB 28 119 182 [1c 77 b6 ]
[000000d9] Color 13 Y Cr CB 97 207 207 [61 cf cf ]
[000000dd] Color 14 Y Cr CB 205 149 81 [cd 95 51 ]
[000000e1] Color 15 Y Cr CB 60 174 164 [3c ae a4 ]

[jsoto]

@Uruk-hai
Sorry, I'm lost. But I can confirm your palete is the same than mine. My subs play fine and I see them red in powerDVD.

@SeeMoreDigital
If you are backing up a DVD you can get the original frame numbers in a "Celltimes.txt" file using IFOedit. Just select the PGC and from Menu Tools->Save Celltimes to a file

jsoto

[mpucoder]

The colors are a default set of colors, since there is no color information in a .sup file.

I tried a Chinese and English set of subs, and on one player the Chinese played, as it was first. On another the English played, as it is my "preffered subtitle language", but I had to turn subtitles on.
Unless they are forced subpictures you may have to enable subs, Muxman adds no PGC commands to select a stream.

[Uruk-hai]

Originally posted by mpucoder
Unless they are forced subpictures you may have to enable subs, Muxman adds no PGC commands to select a stream.

I had selected the subs, both Chinese & English in PowerDVD but still nothing appeared before I posted my problem here,

The video stream came from CCE without closing the GOP. Does it matter? In the UI, I selected normal for sub1 & sub2.

[MvB]

Hi,

that's a nice tool you've written there.
Couldn't test it because it crashes all the time when muxing.
It seems to crash when loosing focus and it does not respond after the green bar has reached 100%.
After killing it some time later there where all the files i needed except video_ts.ifo and video_ts.bup.
Recreated them whith ifoedit, but the muxed video seems to have problems at the beginning of cells. My DVD-Standalone stops there for about a second and continues to play after that. Strange.

I have a dual processor machine, could that cause the problem with muxman?

Thanks
MvB

[mpucoder]

Don't stop it, it's not hung (which is what I assume you mean, rather than crash). Even though the progress bar is at 100% there is still more work to do. I'll be changing the progress bar to acknowledge that work as well. What Muxman is doing is backfilling all the NAV pointers. After that it creates the ifo files. If you interrupt it the vob files will be non-spec.

As for losing focus and then trying to regain it - Muxman doesn't periodically check for Windows messages while multiplexing, so it will not repaint its area.

[mrslacker]

Any chance of multiple inputs in MuxMan? Or at least a recommendation for a quality joining program? Can I just "copy /B file1+file2 output" because m2v has no container? I've read the forums but most solutions feel like hacks. Sorry if I am getting off topic. I like to do things the right way. Thanks for helping a rookie!

Think I'll just join the vobs with VobEdit or the like. Also, all MuxMan vobs from my CCE encodes have worked in my standalone.

[mpucoder]

New version 0.3 is available here (http://www.mpucoder.com/Muxman/)

Added another sub file and the buttons needed to assign 16:9 subs to their track and display mode.
The "short VOBU" has been fixed, although this should not have bothered very many people.

A hint for those using 16:9 subs - start with the first file. As you assign sub streams/files to tracks and display modes the streams/files below will have buttons greyed out to prevent double assignment. It is possible to assign a higher file/stream to a track/display mode combination used by a lower file, in which case the button of the lower file will be pushed but greyed. This is OK, the first file has precedence and took its place.