Howto author AVI->DVD with menus using Linux only !

[shiznix]

This howto is written in the attempt to help those reading to:
1) Accomplish transferring a video media file (.avi, .mpg, .wmv, .mov, etc.) to DVD media in a format that will allow it to be played on a standalone DVD player.
2) Create professional style menus with audio to allow selection of Titles, Chapters and other menus.

Tools needed:

• Mjpegtools 1.8.0
• Latest ffmpeg 0.4.9_* (masked)**
• Latest transcode 1.0.2
• Latest dvd+rw-tools 7.0
• Sox 12.17.9
• Mencoder (comes with the mplayer package), 'USE="encode" emerge mplayer'
• The GIMP Image Manipulation Program
• Dvdauthor 0.6.11

Note:
If upgrading you should also do:

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emerge gentoolkit
revdep-rebuild -p

To check any library dependency issues that may need fixing afterwards.

** Some of the package versions listed above are labelled 'masked'.
This means they have not yet moved out of Gentoo's developer testing phase, and so must be specifically 'unmasked' by the user before the version can be installed.
All of the above masked packages are masked by KEYWORD ~arch (or soft masked).
Example to unmask a masked package that is masked by KEYWORD ~arch:

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mkdir /etc/portage
echo "media-video/transcode ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
emerge -av transcode

For further details, see 'man portage'.

Tools optional:

• Xine - to test DVD menus before burning, 'emerge xine-ui'
• Normalize - to normalise volume on audio .pcm/.wav files

To make things easier to read, I will be using some real filenames, always keeping them and any created files in the same directory.
For the purpose of the exercise I have chosen 2 video files I have downloaded for free from www.matrix-xp.com and renamed them to 'matrix.avi' and 'outtakes.avi'.
I will also be using the THX theme at the start of the DVD and have named this 'thx.mpg'
Note any copyright issues for your location if you intend to use these for anything other than private use.

Encoding the movies
Know or find out what TV format you will be using.
For most of Europe and Australia, use PAL.
For America, use NTSC.
Here is a full listing of TV formats used in different countries around the world -> http://mightylegends.zapto.org/dvd/tv_standards.html

*For those in a hurry to get on with it, the following package automates this entire page -> http://sourceforge.net/projects/any2dvd/

For PAL:

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transcode -i matrix.avi -y ffmpeg --export_prof dvd-pal --export_asr 3 -o matrix -D0 -b224 -N 0x2000 -m matrix.ac3 -J modfps=clonetype=3 --export_fps 25

transcode -i outtakes.avi -y ffmpeg --export_prof dvd-pal --export_asr 3 -o outtakes -D0 -b224 -N 0x2000 -m outtakes.ac3 -J modfps=clonetype=3 --export_fps 25

transcode -i thx.mpg -y ffmpeg --export_prof dvd-pal --export_asr 3 -o thx -D0 -b224 -N 0x2000 -m thx.ac3 -J modfps=clonetype=3 --export_fps 25

For NTSC:

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transcode -i matrix.avi -y ffmpeg --export_prof dvd-ntsc --export_asr 3 -o matrix -D0 -b224 -N 0x2000 -m matrix.ac3 -J modfps=clonetype=3 --export_fps 29.97

transcode -i outtakes.avi -y ffmpeg --export_prof dvd-ntsc --export_asr 3 -o outtakes -D0 -b224 -N 0x2000 -m outtakes.ac3 -J modfps=clonetype=3 --export_fps 29.97

transcode -i thx.mpg -y ffmpeg --export_prof dvd-ntsc --export_asr 3 -o thx -D0 -b224 -N 0x2000 -m thx.ac3 -J modfps=clonetype=3 --export_fps 29.97

The above will produce 6 files 'matrix.m2v/matrix.ac3', 'outtakes.m2v/outtakes.ac3' and thx.m2v/thx.ac3' which have been split from the original into video and audio files. The video(.m2v) has now been re-encoded into a DVD compliant mpeg2 format and the audio(.ac3) has been encoded into an AC3 DVD audio stream.

Aspect Ratio
The above transcode lines will convert and encode to an aspect ratio of 16:9. If an aspect ratio of 4:3 is desired then replace '--export_asr 3' with '--export_asr 2' in your transcode line. Dvdauthor will only work correctly on files with aspect ratios of either 4:3 or 16:9.

Convert 2-channel stereo audio track to 5.1 surround sound (optional)
Using the above transcode lines will result in a 2-channel stereo audio track.
Depending on the brand of 5.1 surround sound entertainment system, this may result in the audio only being present on the centre and sub channels.
Find out if the original .avi/.mpg file already contains a 5.1 AC3 audio track:

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mplayer -vo null -ao null -frames 1 -msglevel all=4:decaudio=6 original.avi 2> /dev/null | grep "5.1 ("

A positive output would look something like:

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AC3: 5.1 (3f+2r+lfe) 48000 Hz 384.0 kbit/s

If it does, then extract it using 'tcextract' (part of the transcode package) and use it in your mplex line below instead. In this way, front to rear panning will not be lost on true 5.1 audio tracks, and no added conversion is necessary:

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tcextract -d2 -i matrix.avi -a0 -x ac3 | tcextract -d2 -x ac3 -t raw > matrix.ac3

If it doesn't, then using the existing 2-channel audio track, it is possible to create a 5.1 surround sound track so that the audio will be present on all 6 channels (front to rear panning is lost).
See here -> http://mightylegends.zapto.org/dvd/dvda ... round.html


Combine the new audio and video files into one DVD mpg

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mplex -f 8 -o matrix_dvd.mpg matrix.m2v matrix.ac3
mplex -f 8 -o outtakes_dvd.mpg outtakes.m2v outtakes.ac3
mplex -f 8 -o thx_dvd.mpg thx.m2v thx.ac3

Test the files in mplayer or xine. eg. 'mplayer -vo xv matrix_dvd.mpg'


Adding subtitles
Add subtitles using a subtitle file.
There are many different subtitle file formats (.sub, .srt, .ssa, .smi, .rt, .txt, .aqt, .jss, .js, .ass), for this exercise we'll be using the .srt format.
The .srt format has the following syntax:

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1
00:00:04,700 --> 00:00:06,736
The weather is nice today

2
00:00:06,900 --> 00:00:09,494
Yes it is
but not as nice as yesterday

It represents a time span in 'hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds' to show the subtitle text.
Here is one created for matrix.avi -> http://mightylegends.zapto.org/dvd/matrix.srt

Make a directory in your home directory called '.spumux/', then copy the Vera.ttf font from your xorg/xfree fontpath to ~/.spumux/
Font does not have to be Vera.ttf, can be any other TrueType Font (.ttf), if the font is changed then also edit the subtitle.xml file below.

Use spumux to merge the subtitle text into the DVD video.
Spumux is part of the dvdauthor package. It is configured via an .xml file. Here is the xml config file we will use, save it as 'subtitle.xml':

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<subpictures>
  <stream>
    <textsub filename="matrix.srt" characterset="ISO8859-1"
         fontsize="18.0" font="Vera.ttf" horizontal-alignment="center"
         vertical-alignment="bottom" left-margin="60" right-margin="60"
         top-margin="20" bottom-margin="30" subtitle-fps="25"
         movie-fps="25" movie-width="720" movie-height="570"/>
  </stream>
</subpictures>

Specified 'subtitle-fps', 'movie-fps', 'movie-width' and 'movie-height' are important.
If you are using NTSC, then it will be 'subtitle-fps="29.97" movie-fps="29.97" movie-width="720" movie-height="472"'

Merge the subtitles into the DVD video:

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spumux -s0 subtitle.xml < matrix_dvd.mpg > matrix_dvd.mpg.temp
mv matrix_dvd.mpg.temp matrix_dvd.mpg

If multiple subtitles are needed, then for each subtitle stream, increment spumux's '-s' value by 1
(eg. 'spumux -s3 subtitle.xml < matrix_dvd.mpg > matrix_dvd.mpg.temp' to add the 4th subtitle stream).

If different subtitle colours other than the default grey are desired, then it is necessary to patch the dvdauthor-0.6.11 source and re-compile.
Patch available here -> http://mightylegends.zapto.org/dvd/dvda ... lours.diff

Apply the patch:
cd /path/to/dvdauthor-0.6.11 patch -p1 < /path/to/dvdauthor-0.6.11_subtitle_colours.diff
Then re-compile dvdauthor.

Create a colour palette file called palette.rgb, specifying the text outline and text colours in RGB hex:

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000000
ffff00

The first hex code is the text outline colour (black), the second hex code is the text colour (yellow).
A full list of supported colours and their relevant RGB hex codes can be found in /usr/share/doc/ImageMagick-<version>/www/color.html

Adjust the dvdauthor.xml file mentioned below like so:

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    <titles>
      <subpicture lang="en"/>
      <pgc palette="palette.rgb">
        <vob file="matrix_dvd.mpg" chapters="0,0:30,1:00,1:30,2:30,3:00,3:30,4:00"/>

Notes

• The 'movie-height=' value is slightly less than the full screen height (576 or 480) to bring the subtitles up off the bottom of the screen. The lower the number, the higher on the screen the subtitles will appear.
• Do not use lower resolutions such as 352x288 and 352x240 for 'movie-width' and 'movie-height' if you intend on viewing the subtitles on a television. The only reason these low resolutions can be used in the video encoding is that DVD players will scale the video, but do not scale the seperate subtitle streams. So using low resolutions for 'movie-width' and 'movie-height' will result in the subtitles appearing somewhere in the middle of the screen when viewed on a television.
• Using lower resolutions for video encoding also has another effect on the display of subtitles when subtitle 'movie-width="720" movie-height="(570 or 472)"'. The subtitles will not be visible at all when playing back on a software DVD player on a PC as they are overlayed outside the non-scaled field of 352x288/240.
• So in summary, if you intend to use lower video encoding resolutions, use a subtitle config of 'movie-width="720" movie-height="(570 or 472)"' if you intend to playback the content on a television. Or use a subtitle config of 'movie-width="352" movie-height="(288 or 240)"' if you intend to playback the content on a software DVD player on a PC.
• Or if you want the best of both worlds, be really tricky and create two subtitle streams, one for PC and one for television
• The subtitle formats listed above are of a text format only, another commonly used alternative is the graphical based Vobsub (.sub/.idx) format.
  
  DVDAuthor supports both textual and graphical forms of subtitles, but if using a graphical format, the process becomes more involved.
  The user must first extract and prepare the subtitle images for each dialog using a tool such as 'vobsub2pgm' that is contained in the 'subtitleripper' suite of tools, located here -> http://subtitleripper.sf.net
  
  Then create an spumux.xml file that looks something like this:
  In this example, 'Matrix0001.png' is an image of the dialog "The weather is nice today", and 'Matrix0002.png' is an image of the dialog "Yes it is, but not as nice as yesterday", the xoffset/yoffset tags are used to position where the image will be placed on the 720x576/480 TV canvas.

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  <subpicture> 
     <stream> 
       <spu image="Matrix0001.png" start="00:00:4.7" end="00:00:6.7" xoffset="178" yoffset="480" /> 
       <spu image="Matrix0002.png" start="00:00:6.9" end="00:00:9.5" xoffset="178" yoffset="480" /> 
     </stream> 
   </subpicture>

  To make things easier, here is a script that automates the extraction of the subtitle images (using 'vobsub2pgm') and creates an spumux.xml file with the images, timestamps and offsets -> http://mightylegends.zapto.org/dvd/vobsub2spumux.sh

File types other than AVI or MPEG
For file types other than .avi/.mpeg, such as .wmv,.mov,.asf, .mkv, .ogm and .bin (S)VCD etc. it's necessary to first encode the movie to .avi with mencoder, like this:
For PAL:

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mencoder -o output_file.avi -ovc lavc -lavcopts vbitrate=5000:vhq -ffourcc DX50 -oac pcm -srate 48000 -ofps 25 your_movie.mov

For NTSC:

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mencoder -o output_file.avi -ovc lavc -lavcopts vbitrate=5000:vhq -ffourcc DX50 -oac pcm -srate 48000 -ofps 29.97 your_movie.mov

Then proceed as normal with the above transcode line.


Notes

• If transcode errors out and refuses to encode your file, use mplayer to feed the file to transcode like this:

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  transcode -i matrix.avi -x mplayer,mplayer -y ffmpeg --export_prof dvd-pal --export_asr 2 -o matrix -D0 -b224 -N 0x2000 -m matrix.ac3 -J modfps --export_fps 25

  *If it still errors out or can't encode properly (eg. 'Unknown' video/audio formats), run the file through the mencoder line mentioned above first.
• Remember that you can preview the .m2v file with mplayer or xine while it is still being encoded with transcode. No need to wait until encoding is completely finished before seeing the result, handy for very large movies.
  Alternatively, transcode has a preview option available so that the movie can be watched (video only) as it's being encoded by adding 'pv=cache=30' to the -J option, like so (note that this will incur a slight performance hit and encoding will be slower as a result):

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  -J modfps,pv=cache=30 --export_fps 25

• To preview whether AV sync is going to be correct, only encode a small amount of the movie by adding '-c 0-00:05:00' to the end of your transcode line. This will encode just the first 5 minutes of the movie, then you will need to merge(mux) the two AV streams as mentioned below using mplex

Tweakage (optional)

• Halve the encoding times by reducing the DVD resolution (720x576 for PAL, 720x480 for NTSC) down to a VCD resolution (352x288 for PAL, 352x240 for NTSC). See the 'Notes' under the 'Adding subtitles' section if you intend to do this and also add subtitles.
• Halve the encoded file output size by reducing the video bitrate to 1800 kbits/s ('--export_prof dvd-*' defaults to 5000 kbits/s). On average, this means that instead of being able to fit only 1-2 full length 90min. movie(s) on one 4.7GB DVD, you can fit 3-4.

The video quality does suffer, but not in a visually noticeable way. Quality will always be subjective, but for my eyes I can only really see a difference when viewing on a PC while TV playback quality is still superb (your mileage may vary, depends greatly on the quality of the original file).

As --export_prof is not used, some ffmpeg options need to be manually set, save the settings in a file called 'ffmpeg.cfg':

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[mpeg2video] 
 vrc_minrate=0 
 vrc_maxrate = 7000 
 vrc_buf_size = 1792

The following transcode lines do both, reduce the resolution and video bitrate (by not using '--export_prof dvd-*', transcode's video bitrate defaults to 1800 kbits/s).
For PAL:

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transcode -i matrix.avi -y ffmpeg -F mpeg2 -Z 352x288 --export_asr 2 --encode_fields t -o matrix -D0 -E 48000,16,2 -b 224 -N 0x2000 -m matrix.ac3 -J modfps --export_fps 25

For NTSC:

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transcode -i matrix.avi -y ffmpeg -F mpeg2 -Z 352x240 --export_asr 2 --encode_fields b -o matrix -D0 -E 48000,16,2 -b 224 -N 0x2000 -m matrix.ac3 -J modfps --export_fps 29.97

Set the video bitrate manually by using '-w', eg. add '-w3000' to your transcode line if a video bitrate of 3000 kbits/s is desired.

One major drawback of using this method is that transcode's '--export_prof' option cannot be used, so if an aspect ratio conversion is necessary, we lose the benefits of auto clip/zoom which '--export_prof' provides.
You will know an aspect ratio conversion is necessary if the encoded output file's video is squashed/stretched using the above transcode lines.
An easy way around this is to do a dummy run using '--export_prof' on the input file and let transcode do the calculations, like so:

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transcode -i matrix.avi -y ffmpeg --export_prof dvd --export_asr 2 -c 0-00:00:00 2>&1 | grep "pre clip frame"

An example output would look something like:

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[transcode] V: pre clip frame | 592x450 (-106,0,-104,0)

It is the '--pre_clip' values in brackets that we need. Using those we can now also do the aspect ratio conversion like this:
For PAL:

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transcode -i matrix.avi -y ffmpeg -F mpeg2 -Z 352x288 --export_asr 2 --encode_fields t --pre_clip=-106,0,-104,0 -o matrix -D0 -E 48000,16,2 -b 224 -N 0x2000 -m matrix.ac3 -J modfps --export_fps 25

For NTSC:

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transcode -i matrix.avi -y ffmpeg -F mpeg2 -Z 352x240 --export_asr 2 --encode_fields b --pre_clip=-106,0,-104,0 -o matrix -D0 -E 48000,16,2 -b 224 -N 0x2000 -m matrix.ac3 -J modfps --export_fps 29.97

Creating the menus
For PAL:
Open up The Gimp and make a new image of size 720x576, with a resolution of 75dpi in the x-axis and 80dpi in the y-axis.

For NTSC:
Make a new image of size 720x480, with a resolution of 81dpi in the x-axis and 72dpi in the y-axis.

Open up the 'Layers, Channels and Paths' dialog box by selecting menu File -> Dialogs -> Layers.
Create a layer called 'button_highlight' by right clicking on the background layer in the 'Layers ..' dialog box and selecting 'New Layer'.
Add an alpha channel to the layer by selecting the 'Layer Fill Type' to be 'Transparency', or by right clicking on the layer in the 'Layers ..' dialog box and select 'Add Alpha Channel'.

Create a layer called 'button_select' using the same steps used to create the 'button_highlight' layer.
Select the background layer and draw the menu background.

I chose to use the matrix 'green data dribble' as the background, which I downloaded from a free wallpaper website.
Scaled the image to the correct 720x576, right click image -> Image -> Scale Image and set. Then copy/pasted it into the background layer of my new image.
Here is the image -> http://mightylegends.zapto.org/dvd_images/matrix.jpg

I wanted to have selectable snapshots of each movie in the menu.
Snapshots were taken using xine, images were scaled using gimp, then pasted into the background layer.
Here is the image -> http://mightylegends.zapto.org/dvd_imag ... ground.jpg

Select the button_highlight layer and draw the button outlines. To see howto draw perfect rectangles, squares and circles in the gimp, see here ->
http://mightylegends.zapto.org/dvd/gimp ... uares.html
Here is the image -> http://mightylegends.zapto.org/dvd_imag ... hlight.png

Hide the button_highlight layer & save the background layer.
Do this by selecting the button_highlight layer and using the Opacity slider in the 'Layers, Channels & Paths' dialog box to make it disappear.
Click on the background layer, right click on the image, select File -> Save as
Save background layer as 'matrix_menu_background.jpg' (can be almost any image format).

Save the button_highlight layer in the same way. Use the opacity slider to bring the button_highlight layer back up, and hide the background layer.
Click on the button_highlight layer, right click on the image, select File -> Save as
Save button_highlight layer as 'matrix_menu_highlight.png'.
(NOTE - Button layer MUST be a .png)

Select the button_select layer and draw the button outlines exactly the same as button_highlight, but in a different colour.
An easier way to do this is to open matrix_menu_highlight.png, right click image, select menu Colors -> Map -> Rotate Colors, set the colour to something different, but that will still be visible against the menu background colour.
(Users of Gimp-1.x versions can find this by selecting menu Colors -> Color map rotation)
Save new colour image as 'matrix_menu_select.png'.
(NOTE - MUST also be a .png)

Here is the image -> http://mightylegends.zapto.org/dvd_imag ... select.png

Putting it all together
Convert the menu background into a DVD .mpg.
For PAL:

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convert matrix_menu_background.jpg ppm:- | ppmtoy4m -n50 -F25:1 -A59:54 -I p -r -S 420mpeg2 | mpeg2enc -n p -f8 -b5000 -a3 -o matrix_menu_background.m2v

For NTSC:

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convert matrix_menu_background.jpg ppm:- | ppmtoy4m -n50 -F30000:1001 -A10:11 -I p -r -S 420mpeg2 | mpeg2enc -n n -f8 -b5000 -a3 -o matrix_menu_background.m2v

• The above lines will encode to an aspect ratio of 16:9. If an aspect ratio of 4:3 is desired then replace '-a3' with '-a2'.
• For mjpegtools versions smaller than 1.8.0, use '-S 420_mpeg2' instead of '-S 420mpeg2' in your 'ppmtoy4m' line.

Create some background audio for the menu:

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ffmpeg -i your_music_file.mp3 -f wav menu_audio.wav

Use 'normalize' to make audio softer/louder if necessary:

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normalize -a -10dB menu_audio.wav

Convert to AC3 audio:

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ffmpeg -i menu_audio.wav -ab 224 -ar 48000 menu_audio.ac3

If you do not want any audio present in your menu, it is still necessary to create a silent audio file for mplex so the DVD menus will work correctly. Like this:

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dd if=/dev/zero bs=4 count=99999 | sox -t raw -wsr 48000 - -t wav -r 48000 - | ffmpeg -i - -ab 224 -ar 48000 -ac 2 menu_audio.ac3

Note

• In later versions of FFmpeg, the option to specify audio bitrate has changed. Depending on the version of FFmpeg installed you may need to specify '-ab 224k' instead of '-ab 224'.

Merge background menu video/audio:

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 mplex -f 8 -o matrix_menu.mpg matrix_menu_background.m2v menu_audio.ac3

Use spumux to merge button_highlight & button_select images into the menu video.
Spumux is part of the dvdauthor package. It is configured via an .xml file. Here is the xml config file we will use, save it as 'spumux.xml':

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<subpictures>
  <stream>
    <spu start="00:00:00.0" end="00:00:00.0"
         highlight="matrix_menu_highlight.png"
         select="matrix_menu_select.png"
         autooutline="infer"
         autoorder="rows"/>
  </stream>
</subpictures>

Create final menu .mpg:

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spumux spumux.xml < matrix_menu.mpg > matrix_menu_final.mpg

A successful output should look something like this:

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INFO: Picture had 2 colors
INFO: Converting filenames to ANSI_X3.4-1968
INFO: Picture had 2 colors INFO: Picture had 2 colors
INFO: Constructing blank img
INFO: Autodetect 0 = 0x0-720x576
INFO: Pickbuttongroups, success with 1 groups, useimg=1
INFO: Found EOF in .sub file.
INFO: Max_sub_size=4456 WARN: Read 0, expected 4
INFO: 1 subtitles added, 0 subtitles skipped, stream: 32, offset: 0.18

Authoring the DVD
Dvdauthor is configured via a .xml file. Here is the .xml config file we will use, save it as 'dvdauthor.xml':

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<dvdauthor dest="DVD">

  <vmgm>
    <menus>
      <video widescreen="nopanscan" />
      <pgc>
        <vob file="thx_dvd.mpg"/>
          <post> jump titleset 1 menu; </post>
      </pgc>
    </menus>
  </vmgm>

  <titleset>
    <menus>
      <video widescreen="nopanscan" />
      <pgc>
        <button> jump title 1; </button>
        <button> jump title 2; </button>
        <vob file="matrix_menu_final.mpg"/>
        <post> jump cell 1; </post>
      </pgc>
    </menus>

    <titles>
      <video widescreen="nopanscan" />
      <pgc>
        <vob file="matrix_dvd.mpg" chapters="0,0:30,1:00,1:30,2:30,3:00,3:30,4:00"/>
          <post> call menu; </post>
      </pgc>

      <pgc>
        <vob file="outtakes_dvd.mpg" chapters="0,0:30,1:00,1:30,2:30,3:00,3:30,4:00,4:30,5:00"/>
          <post> call menu; </post>
      </pgc>
    </titles>

  </titleset>

</dvdauthor>

Note

• Later versions of dvdauthor will not accept the presence of <video widescreen="nopanscan" /> if the vob file in question has been encoded at a 4:3 aspect ratio, remove this line from the XML file if that is the case.
  For an explanation on what 'panscan' is, see here -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_&_scan

Authoring with no menus
To create a more simple DVD with no menus or THX intro, then use the dvdauthor.xml config below:

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<dvdauthor dest="DVD">
  <vmgm /> 
   <titleset> 
     <titles>
       <video widescreen="nopanscan" />
       <pgc> 
         <vob file="matrix_dvd.mpg" chapters="0,0:30,1:00,1:30,2:30,3:00,3:30,4:00"/> 
       </pgc> 
       <pgc> 
         <vob file="outtakes_dvd.mpg" chapters="0,0:30,1:00,1:30,2:30,3:00,3:30,4:00,4:30,5:00"/> 
       </pgc> 
     </titles> 
   </titleset> 
 </dvdauthor>

Create a directory named 'DVD'.
Create the DVD file structure with:

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dvdauthor -x dvdauthor.xml

Test the new menus in xine before burning:

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xine dvd:/full/path/to/DVD/VIDEO_TS/

Xine should play from the folder as though it's playing from a DVD.

Understanding the hierarchical structure of a DVD
VMGM
VMGM (or Root Menu) is the highest level of structure within a video DVD.
TitleSet
Every DVD has at least 1 titleset. All the files associated with a given titleset start with VTS_nn where nn is the titleset number (starting from 1).
Title
Each titleset contains 1 or more titles. Each title is effectively a standalone movie. If you start xine and just tell it to play a dvd, and that dvd doesn't have a top-level menu, then it will just play the first title of the first titleset and then stop.
Chapter
Titles are subdivided into chapters. Chapters provide entry points to the movie, but when the player reaches the end of a chapter it will continue to the next chapter.

Menus can be associated with either the whole disk (VMGM=Video Manager Menu) or with a titleset (VTSM=Video Titleset Menu), there can be more than one menu of either type.
VMGM menus are typically used when selection of more than one VTSM in a different Titleset is required, as one VTSM cannot jump to another VTSM in a different Titleset.

Limitations on the targets of navigation menus:
A VMGM menu can only jump to:

• Another VMGM menu.
• The first VTSM of a titleset.
• The start of a titleset.

A VTSM menu can only jump to:

• Another VTSM in the same titleset.
• A title or chapter within the titleset.
• The first VMGM of the disk.

Note:
My DVD player (and others?) defaults to the first VTSM when pressing the 'Disc' button on the remote. If this is the case, and you want to setup menu access to different VTSMs at the VMGM level, then you may need to setup the first VTSM like so:

Code: Select all

  <titleset>
    <menus>
      <pgc>
        <post> jump vmgm menu; </post>
      </pgc>
    </menus>
    <titles>....

So that pressing 'Disc' will take you to the VMGM Menu.

Create the DVD image and burn it
Use growisofs, part of the dvd+rw-tools package.

Code: Select all

growisofs -Z /dev/dvd -dvd-video DVD/

Jerky video and skipping audio
This shouldn't happen, but here are some possible causes:

• The standalone DVD player cannot handle high bitrates.
  DVD video is of a variable bitrate, while the audio is fixed. The two combined must not exceed 10.08Mbit at any time, but for some DVD players that limit is sometimes a great deal lower.
  If you notice the problem to be worse in high motion scenes (peak video bitrate), then this is maybe what is happening.
  Solution: Encode the video using a lower bitrate and avoid encoding the audio at anything higher than 448kbits/sec
  An example ffmpeg.cfg to encode video at a lower bitrate:

  Code: Select all

  [mpeg2video] 
  vrc_minrate=0 
  vrc_maxrate = 7000
  vrc_bufsize=1792

  This will set an average video bitrate of 5000kbits/sec (using Transcode's default) but set a bitrate ceiling of 7000 kbits/sec (Transcode defaults to 9000kbits/sec).
• Encoding up from a lower framerate (eg. 23.976 to 29.97 frames per second), modfps has cloned some frames to achieve the new framerate.
  Solution: Experiment with different clonetypes, more details in /usr/share/doc/transcode/README.filter.modfps.
• Some cheap DVD media incorrectly reports it's optimal write speed, which can result in data being written to the DVD too fast.
  Solution: Add '-speed=1' to the above growisofs command line.
• The media is damaged or poor.
  Solution: Burn to a new disc or change brands of disc.

Final Notes
Hopefully the DVD worked
Here is a flow-chart diagram to aid in getting an overall view of the processes -> http://mightylegends.zapto.org/dvd_imag ... _howto.png
More sophisticated menus can be generated by having menus within menus within menus - this is a kickstart guide only, using 2 titles with chapters every 30 seconds.
It may seem complex and time consuming first time through, but once it's been done a couple of times it becomes very quick and easy.
Some nice progress is also currently being made on a complete GUI based DVD authoring tool for Linux.
Some that stand out are:

• KDE DVDAuthor Wizard -> http://pingwing.xs4all.nl/view.php/page/DVDAuthor
• DVDStyler -> http://dvdstyler.sourceforge.net
• QDVDAuthor -> http://qdvdauthor.sourceforge.net/
• KMediaFactory -> http://susku.pyhaselka.fi/damu/software/kmediafactory/

Credits
Scott T. Smith - creator of dvdauthor
Thomas Oestrich and Tilmann Bitterberg - creators of transcode
The ffmpeg team
The mjpeg team
Wolfgang Wershofen - for precise and detailed help
Ian Pointer - for his article at linuxjournal.com, Issue# 116
James A. Pattie - for his 'DVDs under Linux' presentation
James Tappin - for his dvdauthor tutorial
Erik Slagter - for his dvdauthor colour palette patch
David A. Norris - for his flow-chart diagram of the whole process

Links

• Wolfgang Wershofen has done some interesting work on different xml configs and a set of scripts to automate the whole menu making process. They can be found here ->
  http://www.wershofen.de/downloads/dvdauthor.xml
  http://www.wershofen.de/downloads/dvdau ... ple.tar.gz
  http://dvdwizard.sf.net
• http://www.linuxjournal.com - An interesting article on DVD authoring under Linux
• http://www.pcxperience.org/james/dvd/presentations/ - James Pattie's DVD presentations
• http://www.tappin.me.uk/Linux/dvd.html - James Tappin's dvdauthor tutorial (recommended reading for those transferring DV to DVD)

Shiznix

PS> Check out Anterion's post on Page 2 for howto create animated menus. Highly recommended reading.

[BonezTheGoon]

That has got to be the very best first post I have ever seen on these forums!!!! I love it! I was just about to embark on the journey of trying to learn all this, I cannot thank you enough for gathering it all into one place and documenting it so well!

Great guide!!!!!

Regards,
BonezTheGoon

[viperlin]

That has got to be the very best first post I have ever seen on these forums!!!! I love it! I was just about to embark on the journey of trying to learn all this, I cannot thank you enough for gathering it all into one place and documenting it so well!

Great guide!!!!!

Regards,
BonezTheGoon

i agree, AMAZING guide and welcome to the gentoo forums

[shiznix]

Thanx for the positive feedback guys !

Gives me that warm fuzzy feeling knowing that it's helped someone.

Shiznix

[gleno]

Again, to reiterate! Well done

I've most definitely have avoided this because of the confusion, which you have removed.

[viperlin]

I will also be using the THX theme at the start of the DVD & have named this 'thx.mpg'

what is the THX theme? where's it got from

[paulisdead]

I've never worked with xml before, so I'm wondering, if I wanted to make this without the thx.mpg file, the xml file would look like this?

Code: Select all

<dvdauthor dest="DVD">

   <titleset>
    <menus>
      <pgc>
        <button> jump title 1; </button>
        <button> jump title 2; </button>
        <vob file="matrix_menu_final.mpg" pause="inf"/>
      </pgc>
    </menus>

    <titles>
      <pgc>
        <vob file="matrix_dvd.mpg"/>
          <post>
            call menu;
          </post>
      </pgc>
    </titles>

    <titles>
      <pgc>
        <vob file="outtakes_dvd.mpg" />
          <post>
            call menu;
          </post>
      </pgc>
    </titles>

  </titleset>

</dvdauthor>

[shiznix]

I will also be using the THX theme at the start of the DVD & have named this 'thx.mpg'

what is the THX theme? where's it got from

The THX theme is the small 'The audience is listening' introduction they play at the start of some movies in cinemas to test the speaker system.

I'm currently using a Simpsons parody of it, which I got off a p2p network. But it's freely available on the web. Just type 'THX' or 'THX.mpg' into google & see what pops up.

Using the above dvdauthor .xml file, the THX theme would play only once the disc is inserted into the DVD player. Then it would default to the titleset menu thereafter.

[shiznix]

I've never worked with xml before, so I'm wondering, if I wanted to make this without the thx.mpg file, the xml file would look like this?

Code: Select all

<dvdauthor dest="DVD">

   <titleset>
    <menus>
      <pgc>
        <button> jump title 1; </button>
        <button> jump title 2; </button>
        <vob file="matrix_menu_final.mpg" pause="inf"/>
      </pgc>
    </menus>

    <titles>
      <pgc>
        <vob file="matrix_dvd.mpg"/>
          <post>
            call menu;
          </post>
      </pgc>
    </titles>

    <titles>
      <pgc>
        <vob file="outtakes_dvd.mpg" />
          <post>
            call menu;
          </post>
      </pgc>
    </titles>

  </titleset>

</dvdauthor>

Almost, you still need to create the <vmgm> root menu tag. Just leave it blank, like this:

Code: Select all

<dvdauthor dest="DVD">

<vmgm />

   <titleset>
    <menus>
      <pgc>
        <button> jump title 1; </button>
        <button> jump title 2; </button>
        <vob file="matrix_menu_final.mpg" pause="inf"/>
      </pgc>
    </menus>

    <titles>
      <pgc>
        <vob file="matrix_dvd.mpg"/>
          <post>
            call menu;
          </post>
      </pgc>
    </titles>

    <titles>
      <pgc>
        <vob file="outtakes_dvd.mpg" />
          <post>
            call menu;
          </post>
      </pgc>
    </titles>

  </titleset>

</dvdauthor>

[BonezTheGoon]

UPDATE!!!

Latest dvdauthor 0.6.8 - Not yet in portage, though the ebuild is avaliable from here -> http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36103
set 'PORTDIR_OVERLAY=/usr/local/portage' & uncomment it in /etc/make.conf
Create a directory /usr/local/portage/media-video/dvdauthor/ & place the ebuild in it, then from that directory, run:
Code:
ebuild dvdauthor-0.6.8.ebuild digest
emerge sync
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge dvdauthor

The ebuild is now available in portage -- you will still need to ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" given it is 'unstable' however there is no need to manually download it or do a portage_overlay. You might want to update the how-to.

Thanks again for this thread! I am emerging as we speak!

Regards,
BonezTheGoon

[viperlin]

drat i just used overlay too

[malloc]

well i can only say thank you shiznix 'cause you just gave us one hell of a howto. props to you and a big thanks

[ajayrockrock]

I just got my plextor dvd writer and was reading up on all this. Thanks for writing out this step by step guide, it's really going to help me out!!!

later,
ajay

PS. One very small suggestion, you may want to put 'normalize' in your list of tools.

[paulisdead]

Excellent, I've gotten it all to work on a set of mpegs. I did run into a problem getting AVIs converted, though.

Code: Select all

paulisdead@deepthought dvd $ mencoder -o video.avi -ovc lavc -oac lavc video.mpg
MEncoder 1.0pre3-3.3.2 (C) 2000-2003 MPlayer Team

CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon MP/XP/XP-M Barton 2450 MHz (Family: 6, Stepping: 0)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
MMX supported but disabled
MMX2 supported but disabled
SSE supported but disabled
3DNow supported but disabled
3DNowExt supported but disabled
CPUflags: Type: 6 MMX: 0 MMX2: 0 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions:

Reading /home/paulisdead//.mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/home/paulisdead//.mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory
Reading /usr/share/mplayer/codecs.conf: 61 audio & 169 video codecs
File not found: 'frameno.avi'
Failed to open frameno.avi
Reading config file /home/paulisdead//.mplayer/mencoder: No such file or directory
font: can't open file: /home/paulisdead//.mplayer/font/font.desc
Font /usr/share/mplayer/font/font.desc loaded successfully! (206 chars)
File not found: 'video.mpg'
Failed to open video.mpg
Cannot open file/device.
Exiting...

[shiznix]

UPDATE!!!

The ebuild is now available in portage -- you will still need to ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" given it is 'unstable' however there is no need to manually download it or do a portage_overlay. You might want to update the how-to.

I can't see dvdauthor-0.6.8 in portage yet, even after syncing with a few US mirrors to be sure.
Bonez, can you 'emerge sync' & confirm that it resides in /usr/portage/media-video/dvdauthor/ and comment out PORTDIR_OVERLAY in /etc/make.conf & see if it still emerges 0.6.8 ?

I may be unluckily syncing with not yet up to date mirrors.

Thanx

[shiznix]

PS. One very small suggestion, you may want to put 'normalize' in your list of tools.

Done & thanx for the heads up !

[shiznix]

Excellent, I've gotten it all to work on a set of mpegs. I did run into a problem getting AVIs converted, though.

Code: Select all

paulisdead@deepthought dvd $ mencoder -o video.avi -ovc lavc -oac lavc video.mpg
MEncoder 1.0pre3-3.3.2 (C) 2000-2003 MPlayer Team

CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon MP/XP/XP-M Barton 2450 MHz (Family: 6, Stepping: 0)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
MMX supported but disabled
MMX2 supported but disabled
SSE supported but disabled
3DNow supported but disabled
3DNowExt supported but disabled
CPUflags: Type: 6 MMX: 0 MMX2: 0 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions:

Reading /home/paulisdead//.mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/home/paulisdead//.mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory
Reading /usr/share/mplayer/codecs.conf: 61 audio & 169 video codecs
File not found: 'frameno.avi'
Failed to open frameno.avi
Reading config file /home/paulisdead//.mplayer/mencoder: No such file or directory
font: can't open file: /home/paulisdead//.mplayer/font/font.desc
Font /usr/share/mplayer/font/font.desc loaded successfully! (206 chars)
File not found: 'video.mpg'
Failed to open video.mpg
Cannot open file/device.
Exiting...

Most excellent !

The mencoder line above should work, providing you have included the right directory path to video.mpg & video.mpg actually exists.
The errors on 'frameno.avi' can be ignored, they are normal & non-fatal.

Cheers

[viperlin]

ok whats a rought guess at the amount of time to encode the simpsons THX mpg (3.7MB) with

transcode -i thx.mpg -V -y mpeg -F d,1 -E 48000 -b 224 -o thx

2.084GHz CPU, 256MB RAM

[shiznix]

Remote embeddable images have been disabled, the original post has been edited to reflect this.

Just click on the URL links for image examples, thanks

[shiznix]

ok whats a rought guess at the amount of time to encode the simpsons THX mpg (3.7MB) with

transcode -i thx.mpg -V -y mpeg -F d,1 -E 48000 -b 224 -o thx

2.084GHz CPU, 256MB RAM

From an XP 1800+, 512MB RAM - THX mpg (5.3MB)

Code: Select all

time transcode -i thx.mpg -V -y mpeg -F d,1 -E 48000 -b 224 -o thx
transcode v0.6.11 (C) 2001-2003 Thomas Oestreich, 2003 T. Bitterberg
[transcode] (probe) suggested AV correction -D 0 (0 ms) | AV 0 ms | 0 ms
[transcode] auto-probing source thx.mpg (ok)
[transcode] V: import format    | MPEG    (V=mpeg2|A=mp3)
[transcode] V: AV demux/sync    | (0) sync AV at PTS start - demuxer disabled
[transcode] V: import frame     | 352x240  1.47:1  encoded @ 4:3
[transcode] V: bits/pixel       | 0.711
[transcode] V: decoding fps,frc | 29.970,4
[transcode] V: Y'CbCr           | YV12/I420
[transcode] A: import format    | 0x50    MPEG layer-2 [44100,16,2]  224 kbps
[transcode] A: export format    | 0x50    MPEG layer-2 [48000,16,2]  224 kbps
[transcode] V: encoding fps,frc | 29.970,4
[transcode] A: bytes per frame  | 5884 (5885.880000)
[transcode] A: adjustment       | 1880@1000
[transcode] V: IA32 accel mode  | 3dnow (3dnow mmxext mmx asm)
[transcode] V: video buffer     | 10 @ 352x240
[import_mp3.so] v0.1.4 (2003-08-04) (audio) MPEG
[import_mpeg2.so] v0.4.0 (2003-10-02) (video) MPEG2
[export_mpeg.so] v1.2.3 (2003-08-21) (video) MPEG 1/2 | (audio) MPEG 1 Layer II
[import_mp3.so] MP3->PCM
[import_mp3.so] tcextract -a 0 -i "thx.mpg" -x mp2 -d 0 | tcdecode -x mp2 -d 0 -z 0
[import_mpeg2.so] tcextract -x mpeg2 -i "thx.mpg" -d 0 | tcdecode -x mpeg2 -d 0 -y yv12

INFO: using reference profile (DVD)
INFO: profile type is (NTSC)
INFO: resize from w/h (352/240) to (w/h) (352/288)
encoding frames [000000-000933],  33.87 fps, EMT: 0:00:31, ( 0| 0| 9)
INFO:    Min bitrate of any one frame = 1293 bits
INFO:    Max bitrate of any one frame = 220558 bits
INFO:    Min bitrate over any one second = 77200 bps
INFO:    Avg bitrate over any one second = 1932774 bps
INFO:    Max bitrate over any one second = 3538088 bps
INFO:    Total time: 28 seconds (00:00:28), 33.32 frames/sec, 0.030 sec/frame.

clean up | frame threads | unload modules | cancel signal | internal threads | done
[transcode] encoded 934 frames (0 dropped, 0 cloned), clip length  31.16 s

real    0m28.097s
user    0m26.110s
sys     0m0.840s

Roughly, 30 seconds.

[viperlin]

hmm, by the way could you please help me get the official THX video as all the ones i get are the simpsons one (very lol!)

(it takes ages to do thx for me.)

Code: Select all

transcode v0.6.10 (C) 2001-2003 Thomas Oestreich
tcprobe: error while loading shared libraries: libMagick-5.5.6-Q16.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
[transcode] auto-probing source thx.mpg (failed)
[transcode] V: import format    | unknown  (V=(null)|A=(null))
[transcode] warning : no option -x found, option -i ignored, reading from "/dev/zero"
[transcode] V: import frame     | 720x576  1.25:1  
[transcode] V: bits/pixel       | 0.174
[transcode] V: decoding fps,frc | 25.000,0
[transcode] V: Y'CbCr           | YV12/I420
[transcode] A: import format    | 0x2001  AC3/A52      [48000,16,2]
[transcode] A: export format    | 0x50    MPEG layer-2 [48000,16,2]  224 kbps
[transcode] V: encoding fps,frc | 25.000,3
[transcode] A: bytes per frame  | 7680 (7680.000000)
[transcode] A: adjustment       | 0@1000
[transcode] V: IA32 accel mode  | 3dnow (3dnow mmxext mmx asm)
[transcode] V: video buffer     | 10 @ 720x576
[import_null.so] v0.2.0 (2002-01-19) (video) null | (audio) null
[export_mpeg.so] v1.2.3 (2003-08-21) (video) MPEG 1/2 | (audio) MPEG 1 Layer II

INFO: using reference profile (DVD)
INFO: profile type is (PAL)
INFO: resize from w/h (720/576) to (w/h) (352/288)
encoding frames [000000-006165],  53.14 fps, EMT: 0:04:06, ( 0| 0| 9)

[shiznix]

hmm, by the way could you please help me get the official THX video as all the ones i get are the simpsons one (very lol!)

(it takes ages to do thx for me.)

Code: Select all

transcode v0.6.10 (C) 2001-2003 Thomas Oestreich
tcprobe: error while loading shared libraries: libMagick-5.5.6-Q16.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
[transcode] auto-probing source thx.mpg (failed)
[transcode] V: import format    | unknown  (V=(null)|A=(null))
[transcode] warning : no option -x found, option -i ignored, reading from "/dev/zero"
[transcode] V: import frame     | 720x576  1.25:1  
[transcode] V: bits/pixel       | 0.174
[transcode] V: decoding fps,frc | 25.000,0
[transcode] V: Y'CbCr           | YV12/I420
[transcode] A: import format    | 0x2001  AC3/A52      [48000,16,2]
[transcode] A: export format    | 0x50    MPEG layer-2 [48000,16,2]  224 kbps
[transcode] V: encoding fps,frc | 25.000,3
[transcode] A: bytes per frame  | 7680 (7680.000000)
[transcode] A: adjustment       | 0@1000
[transcode] V: IA32 accel mode  | 3dnow (3dnow mmxext mmx asm)
[transcode] V: video buffer     | 10 @ 720x576
[import_null.so] v0.2.0 (2002-01-19) (video) null | (audio) null
[export_mpeg.so] v1.2.3 (2003-08-21) (video) MPEG 1/2 | (audio) MPEG 1 Layer II

INFO: using reference profile (DVD)
INFO: profile type is (PAL)
INFO: resize from w/h (720/576) to (w/h) (352/288)
encoding frames [000000-006165],  53.14 fps, EMT: 0:04:06, ( 0| 0| 9)

I seem to have misplaced my original classic THX video in one of my great hard drive clean-out binges.
However you should be able to find many different ones on any p2p network, including the original.

As far as slow encode times go, try upgrading transcode to 0.6.11.
You'll need to re-emerge transcode anyway, as the dvdauthor-0.6.8 ebuild upgrades ImageMagick & your transcode is now looking for the old ImageMagick libraries, which of course aren't there.

Code: Select all

tcprobe: error while loading shared libraries: libMagick-5.5.6-Q16.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Better yet, & an even more thorough option is to:

Code: Select all

emerge gentoolkit
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" revdep-rebuild

Original post edited to point this out.

[viperlin]

yeh kida figured that one out i could have sworn i'd updated to loatest version :-\, musta forgot accept keywords or something...

[Angrybob]

Damn! with a tutorial that good it allmost makes me feel bad I dont have any dvds that need menus added

[Anterion]

Hi folks...

I'm currently experimenting with transcode, gimp and imagemagick to see if I can get the DVD menus to have an animated background using the following idea...

• Choose video to use as background
  Use Transcode to convert it into a series of enumerated JPGs.
  Use Gimp to create the menu with a transparent background and saving it as PNG with alpha channel.
  Using Imagemagick to "merge" the JPGs and the PNG as a batch job.
  Using transcode (or mjpegtools) to create the m2v for the menu.

That's basically my plan. Any comments on it? Once I've succeeded, I'll be doing a HOWTO on that as well.. (or at least I hope so )

See ya,

Anterion