I-frame only m2v file for DVD-Video - is this even possible?

[neil wilkes]

I have absolutely no idea if this can even be done, but earlier today I was musing on Scenarist SD, why I stopped using it and whether or not to get up to date with the latest version when it occurred to me that unless I can make an I-frame MPEG-2 file in a very specific manner there would be no point.
Let me try to explain.
In Scenarist it is not possible to create a slideshow consisting of multiple songs with a single image per song and have scene markers in it )or Chapter Markers, as other tools call them) simply because Scenarist uses the wrong level to do this in slideshows, and the long & short of it means I cannot put markers that can be accessed from, say, a menu in the VTS.
The only way around this is to use a low bitrate M2V file instead. This is unsatisfactory as the file size is simply way, way larger than the same sequence created in my other authoring application where I can have one still image (as a bmp file) per song, using markers for the songs that can be addressed from the menu system.

Question:
Is there a way to create an M2V file consisting of one image per song that only takes up the same space as a still menu would?

[Emulgator]

Hi Neil, greetings to London !
I guess with the other authoring app you mean DVDLabPro2.
Why not use that ? I did so, and it worked beautifully.
Besides, you still may use DLP's still encoder, or muxman's still encoder for that.
The discussion of the encoding restrictions can be found back, I hope.
Some 232kB for that single frame hover around in my mind.
Or do you mean with "M2V file consisting of one image per song" that audio should be muxed in ?
That would be a PS, and again DLP2 does that already, and muxes such VOBs, and you should be able to reuse these.

[kolak]

Fact that you can do some things is only half of he success as there are players which won't support them
Whole idea of Scenarist been so picky is that you have more guarantee that discs will play on "all" players. Same goes to encoders for DVD. Carbon Coder was way better for interlaced source than Cinemacraft, but thee were cases where some players did not like video from it (some players did not play files with GOPs without B frames for example).
After authoring 5K+ DVDs which of 50% went through Testronic QC (they had something like 20+ most picky players) I can tell you that combination of Scenarist+Cinemacraft produced far more reliable discs than all other tools.
Maybe current DVD/BD players are more reliable (or rather less picky), but in the past you had to be carful as no one wants to recall 100K or even 10K DVDs out the the market.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by neil wilkes

In Scenarist it is not possible to create a slideshow consisting of multiple songs with a single image per song and have scene markers in it )or Chapter Markers, as other tools call them) simply because Scenarist uses the wrong level to do this in slideshows, and the long & short of it means I cannot put markers that can be accessed from, say, a menu in the VTS.

Although it's pretty old, I seem to remember MuxMan being able to import .bmp images and set a duration.

[benwaggoner]

A MPEG-2 still image should be around the size of a JPEG of the same quality; they are quite similar under the hood. The challenge is that a DVD GOP can't be longer than 0.6 seconds, so that's a whole lot of repeats if you want one the duration of a song. Making it a 1 frame .m2v used to work, I think?

It's been a long time since I made a DVD. I actually encoded and burned the first DVD ever made on a PC, as a project for Intel in...late 1997 or early 1998. After I'd taken the first ever DVD authoring class at the Vancouver Film School, using a beta of Scenarist running on SGI O2 workstations. They could do a 320x240 real-time preview of the video! They'd loaned us one of the only three DVD-R burners in North America for it, which had only a 60% failure rate as long as we cleared the floor to reduce vibrations.

It's funny how we now can deliver 24x more pixels at 1.25x more bit depth, and in the astoundingly better HDR, at the same bitrates as DVD. Yet streaming still hasn't matched DVD-level interactive features.

[pandy]

In theory pulldown to achieve such functionality can be used, old TMPEGENC in advanced editor allow to manually select frame type and beside to common I,P,B there is also if i recall correctly possibility to use D type - repeat previous frame - so i can imagine stream with I and D type frames. Decoder in DVD player probably expect monotonically increasing timestamps so everything satisfying this should be OK.

[benwaggoner]

Originally Posted by pandy

In theory pulldown to achieve such functionality can be used, old TMPEGENC in advanced editor allow to manually select frame type and beside to common I,P,B there is also if i recall correctly possibility to use D type - repeat previous frame - so i can imagine stream with I and D type frames. Decoder in DVD player probably expect monotonically increasing timestamps so everything satisfying this should be OK.

You'd still have the I-frame every 0.6 seconds requirement, though, right?

[pandy]

Originally Posted by benwaggoner

You'd still have the I-frame every 0.6 seconds requirement, though, right?

This is not HW requirement - not sure how strict are authoring tools on this but i bet that DVD with longer GOP will be fine from DVD player perspective.
My experience with STB decoders (same |HW decoder as in DVD) shows that this is not a problem. It may be a problem for quality (MPEG-2 quality for longer GOP's is worse) and navigation (as only I frame can act as RAP in MPEG-2).

[Emulgator]

Much simpler. It is called a menu still and is around since 1995.
Just one frame in the buffer, and played out indefinitely, or along with Menu Audio.
Has to work in menu domain, and does so also in VTS domain.

Just fired up Muxman 1.4.4 and muxed one NTSC still frame 720x480@29,97fps with 5:57min PCM Audio

Examination of that DVD folder:
PGCEdit: PTT1 PG1 Cell1 Type flags (2 0) Angle none, Cell still Time 0, Cell Cmd 0
VOB Edit: 1 NAV Pack, 95 Video Packs, then 35045 (LPCM Audio Packs interleaved with NAV Packs).

DLP2 can do that too.