6 Scenarist (SD DVD) mysteries decode 11-13-2011 Update

 

11-13-2011 Update – adds 16:9 subpicture mapping bug workaround.

0. 16:9 subpicture mapping bug – how to avoid?

When you have a 16:9 widescreen project, your subpicture mapping will get screwed. Subpicture may not show in widescreen or letterbox mode. This is a well known bug in Scenarist. Here is the workaround.

In the mean movie, you need to specify the subpicture for widescreen and letterbox by pressing down the W or L button. The default is always W button. Normally you would have to supply two separate subpicture streams for both W and L. But now with the decreasing number of CRT sets out there, a quick way to do this is to supply one widescreen correct rendered stream for both W and L. This is achieved by just pressing both W and L for the same stream.

Now select the VTS in Scenario Editor. In the “Subpicture Availability Flag Policy”, change it to to “Custom”. Now the available subpicture streams will be shown. In the example, there are two subpicture streams, one for English, one for Chinese.

 

Select the PGC of the main movie. Double click “Subpicture Attribute”. Here there are two items listed corresponding to the streams previously set in VTS. Double click the first “PGC Sub-Picture Attr” item. For Decoding Stream Number for Widescreen, check 0 English (wide & Letter); For Decoding Stream Number for Letterbox, check 0 English (wide & Letter). This will map the subpictures 1 to both widescreen and letterbox mode. This means when you view the disc on widescreen TV, the subpicture for the widescreen mode will be picked up; when you view the disc on 4:3 Letterbox CRT TV, the subpicture for the letterbox mode will be picked up. Do the same thing to the second “PGC Sub-picture Attr” item, but change the subpicture to Chinese ones.

After muxing, you’ll see the results.

This is the quick way to do, but if you want  to follow the 16:9 corrected subpicture for 16:9 mode and 4:3 corrected subpicture for 4:3 mode rigorously, you have to supply two subpicture streams and map them correctly.

 

1. Audio/Subtitle Language Code Extension – how to?

Sometimes when you play a DVD in software players (PowerDVD, winDVD, etc), you’ll notice that the audio has more than the regular information (AC3, DTS, etc), the audio also shows if it’s a auido commentary, or a captions, etc. The same goes for subtitles. So how do you do this?

The painful way is to edit the *.scp project file, to get *.scp file, you need to export the project first…

 

ENLARGE

 

The easy way is to edit in scenario editor. Click on the VTS, in Property Browser, you’ll see "Audio language code extension” and “Subtitle language code extension”, double click those, you’ll get to see those settings via drop down menu.

Note: this editing affects all the titles under VTS. So if you don’t want other titles to have these properties, you’ll need put those under a different VTS.

 

2. Push the disc’s size boundary, where’s my layer break?

Once your project size is over 8GB, scenarist starts to go “red” on layer 0 and layer 1. It’s more of estimation, you can ignore the reds, and still add stuff. But each layer has to be around 4.20GB, that’s the limit of layers. If you go over 4.20GB on each layer, your project is over size. If you choose OTP, then Layer 0 must be bigger than Layer 1. But how much bigger? Scenarist will give you a wrong impression that as long as Layer 0 is bigger than Layer 1, that’s OK. But in reality, to get a valid layer break, Layer 0 need to be at least 0.04GB bigger than Layer 1 to be safe, also when you use lots of still images, the estimation is extremely inaccurate, still images (browseable slides usually take less space then the estimation)

The real layer break can be seen easily using Rom Formatter.

Per the Imgburn, an empty Verbatim 2.4X DVD+R DL will have 2,086,912 sectors on each layer. When you compile the project, scenarist will give you the correct layer size (in information Browser - Build) as sectors as well. Add 16 sectors on top of that (Imgburn does the 32K padding to ifo/bup automatically), that’s your real layer break in Imgburn. In this case as shown above, scenarist indicates layer 1 starts 2084144, add 16, you get 2084160, that’s your real layer break which is still under the maximum 2086912, so that you can burn with no worry.

 

3. How to put PC files on the same disc?

The DVD file system is actually more complicated than Blu-ray’s UDF 2.5, UDF 2.6. The added Joliet supports foreign characters, also characters longer than 8.

 

4. Wrong button mapping although previews fine in simulator window

so this new problem is the most recent one that I’ve discovered. I’ve been scratching my head about this weird issue. This seems to be only happening on my new authoring machine (dual core), I’ve never had this problem on my old notebook (single core).
Finally I was able to pinpoint the problem last night.

This issue arises from when modifying couple projects demuxed by DVD Reauthor Pro, while the original discs are compiled using DVDMaestro. Using scenarist, while the menus previewed fine, the compiled projects have messed up button mapping. Above picture as viewed in PGCEdit. The left column, from top to bottom, supposed to be 1,2,3,4, but the last button now is #6! Also the button routing information is messed up.

So in scenarist, you can choose to view the button properties.

The normal buttons have the same coordinates.



But the troubled buttons will have different coordinates for three highlight areas.
This is where it’s causing problems. Apparently the compiled projects will set the Highlight area 2&3, instead of the supposed Area 1.

The solution to solve this problem is to delete the highlight entirely, and do it from scratch.

Correction 10-03-2009:

Looking more into this issue, I think it’s not related to DVDMaestro->Scenarist conversion, but a rather button group problem. The hightlight area seems to corresponds to the button group. DVD allows three button groups, so each highlight area links to each button group. The problem arises when after making the button highlight coordinates, if you drag the area around, it will mess up, because dragging  the area seems always changing only the highlight area No.1. So if your button group is assigned to 2, the corresponding highlight area No.2 is still the original coordinates!

The EASIEST solution to solve this problem is to delete the highlight entirely, and do it from scratch, and DO NOT change anything thereafter.

5. Multiangle - the non-seamless way

This is more like encoding guideline for Canopus Procoder. I used to just use CCE to do any multi-angle encodes. Later I had success with Sonic CineVision with their guideline. But I've never tried using Procoder. So finally I took some time and played around with it.

The basic things for multi-angle encoding is to use closed GOP, CBR, disable scene detection, and make the angles same picture structure.

CCE has a multi-angle template:

Procoder settings:

 

Non-seamless angle in Scenarist:

The only thing different from the seamless angle (default) is to click on scenes, and pick Non-seamless drop down in property browser. By doing this, now you can add different audio and subtitle tracks to different angles, as long as the corresponding audio and subtitle has the exact parameter. The final result is when switching the angle, the audio and subtitle also switch automatically. Blu-ray has this non-seamless property by default.

 

6. Random, shuffle PGCs

 

To make PGCs random or shuffle is not that hard, but this is my first time to deal with it. So I just need to mention a few important points. First the term “Repeat Times” here is very confusing, what is really means is how many programs you want this PGC to play. PGCEdit actually got the same term as what I think the best.

 

 

Note that the number of programs you want to random or shuffle needs to be “+1” if you want a complete loop (that is to cover every program to play once in shuffle mode) So say if you got 62 programs and you want all programs to play at least once in shuffle mode, you need to put in 63 (62+1) in the “Repeat Times” field.

 

 

During my authoring, I got this error message "The first Program must be set as a Chapter if the PGC is in random or shuffle mode.” For some reason, my PGC was messed up with no chapter number (the little number 1, 2, 3 as shown in the upper part of the picture). But for a valid random, shuffle PGC, it needs one chapter number on the first program as seen in the lower part of the image. The rest Programs don’t have numbers! My solution to solve the error was to completely remove all programs, and add them back. Thankfully the setting retains.

To be continued…?

Epson Artisan 725 Color Inkjet All-In-One Review – 062811 Update

 

06282011 Upadte: Adding troubleshooting for cannot find scanner issue at the back.

So Office Depot is offering a trade-in special on this EPSON Artisan 725 Color Inkjet AIO. I picked it up for $50 after turning in my ancient Lexmark AIO (which is still functioning I believe, but they don’t care if the printer is in working condition).

 

I picked up this model because I want to print CD/DVD labels with those direct printable surface. Also I want to print covers for the keep case. Plus the reviews on Amazon seems overall positive. After owning it for a week, printing a dozen labels/photos, I have to say that I’m impressed with the printing quality from this printer with its 6 color HD ink system. Also the network function exceeds my expectations. I have previously owned EPSON CX4400, CX7700, CX8400 AIOs (I so miss those great days where you can buy a cheap $10 camera and get these AIOs for free. Well, more like for free ink), but I wasn’t able to get much from those models. But this Artisan 725 packed with so much advanced features which made it worth the money.

 

 

First impression is that the printer is heavy and large, it takes up a lot of spaces! But I do like the top is flat unlike the previous CX8400. Initial setup was pretty easy. For connections, You can choose between USB, wireless, wired network. I opted for wired network installation since my desktop doesn’t have wireless and I want to have printing/scanning on all of my computers. So my particular setup was router –> 8 port switch –> printer. 2 laptops connected to the router wirelessly and then the printer, then 1 desktop connected to the switch then the printer. All computers can now access to the printer’s card reader, printer, and scanner. The card reader is mapped as a connected network device, on 32bit system, it seems to use up a drive letter Z, on a 64bit system, it shows up as a network device which didn’t use a drive letter. I’m not sure if it’s the normal behavior, personally I prefer as the latter since I’m running out of drive letters on my desktop!

 

 

 

Software consists of printer driver, scanning software (no OCR), network manager. There’s not much change between the driver and scanning software interface since those CX series. I never liked the scanning software, but I can live with it. It seems adding an office mode aside from auto, home, and professional from the CX series. The only thing I’m missing is ADF automatic document feeder but since this is an entry level model, they didn’t equip it. The scanning speed has improved dramatically. Either from lamp warming up to scanning, it’s really fast compared to the CX series. I can now scanning at 600dpi within minute, this took ridiculously long before on the CX8400. And the image is instantly available across a lousy slow wireless g network, even for images that are saved as *.bmp which could take up to 90MB easily (600dpi).

 

 

 

Another note for the network setup is that I wasn’t able to use the default WSD port for the scanner to work. But adding a standard TCP/IP port works. The only problem is the ink level checking no longer works. But you can still check the ink using the web interface by typing in the IP address: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/PRESENTATION/

 

 

The screenshot reflects the ink level after printing ONLY a total of 6 DVD labels AND 8 keep case covers. So yes, this is another ink guzzling machine as expected… At this rate, I guess the yield is gonna be less than 100 paper… I’m not sure how they could claim 500 yield on draft mode… But this is not too surprising…

 

One thing that changes quite dramatically is the paper tray. It’s a 2-layer design where the large sized paper going the bottom, and small sized photo paper going the top. Some people on Amazon mentioned the printer has trouble grabbing two pieces of paper at a time, I only had this problem with some really thin copy paper supposedly used for laserjet, but that was not supposed to be used for inkjet…

Another tray is the CD/DVD tray for printing labels. It’s built-in unlike the previous models. You have to tilt the touch panel all the way up to see this tray. There’s a button on the touch panel to eject and close the tray, otherwise I don’t find such a button in the CD Printing software. It feels more like burning a CD/DVD now. The tray emulates a full size A4 or letter size paper. And it’s printing the image upside down. I have to mention this because the Verbatim BD-R DLs I got have letters on the disc where you cannot print over, so I have to adjust the orientation to avoid the letters covering on the important part of the images. The provided sample Memorex (oops!) CD-R does have white printable surface edge to edge without any letters. However, the printable Verbatim DVD-R/+Rs I got a while back has large non-printable center hub… So the discs really vary from model to model.

Another change is the addition of duplex module at the back. Double sided printing seems pretty standard nowadays, but I really don’t see much use on an inkjet. The module is large, and sticking out too much IMO. While it is removable, it leaves a large opening at the back, and EPSON didn’t provide a cover.

Printing, I’m very satisfied with the performance. It could easily compete with any local photo labs, if not better. The only problem I had initially was disabling color profile in EPSON’s driver so that it converts the colors twice, which causing the colors to be smeared and appears magenta… After reading this article on Adobe’s web, I was able to print photos very close to what I see on the screen even without any calibrations.

So basically you have to choose EPSON’s profiles in PS, then disable the ICM color adjustment in the printer driver:

From PS:

From driver:

Other neat features include operating without using computer. You can copy documents, even CD/DVD labels directly using the printer. You can also scan images directly onto memory cards. Then the images are shared across the network! Operating with computer, you can use the touch panel to scan pictures, open email application on the computer without using the software on the computer. (It would be cool to be able to send images as email attachments directly without computer) Also the USB port supports charging USB devices which I haven’t tried yet.

Lastly, this is the CD/DVD template for PS. This let you print labels directly inside PS, instead of using the included CD printing software which doesn’t have much flexibility… It’s from CDfreak, although it says it’s for Artisan 810, it works for my Artisan 725.

Recently my router broke, so I have to swap it. The problem is that the IP address changes, can the replacement one doesn’t have a fixed IP feature like the old one. Therefore the IP address of all my network devices changed, which of course includes this printer/scanner. The issue is with the the scanning software – Epson Scan cannot be started. So I looked into this, found that you have to enter the IP address manually in EPSON Scan Setting.

You might want to delete the original scanner, since it’s no longer useful. Clicking the Edit button only allows you to edit the name, so it’s useless. So just delete it, and add as a new.

Now the automatic search doesn’t work for me, so I have to enter my network address manually. The IP address can be found inside the router. This should solve the scanner problem.

Subtitle Software Bundle Part II - Two subtitle software for getting subs from the original DVD or fansub Ver.2 (03072011 update)

 

(This article is strictly used for hobby and video backup purpose, it would be unethical and illegal to use the software for a profit.)

03072011 update, now includes changing vobsub path under win7 x64.

08242010 update, now includes matching audio that is of different length from original audio (mainly gaps).

06162009 update, now includes multi-angle subtitle decrypting using VOBSUB.

06152009 update, now includes updated easier tutorials on how to sync audios from different editions of DVDs, this method also gives more accurate results.

04182009 update, now includes detailed tutorials on how to sync subtitles and audios from different editions of DVDs.

 

So here are the two more subtitle software... Both of them try to get the subs from the original material, so don't use them for commercial purpose... First software is vobsub (or vsfilter), second is esrXP. Vobsub is used for decrypting subtitles from DVD, it can save as idx+sub file or save as sst/son in conjunction with a bunch of bmp/tiff pictures. idx+sub can be viewed on computer or be embeded into divx files viewed on a divx certified player; sst+scanned bmp/tiff can be used to reauthor DVD. esrXP is used for grabbing the hard-burned subtitles, particularly for Asian language.

Vobsub is designed to show subtitle on computers, but here I am using it to decrypt subtitles from DVD. (There are other software such as Subrip (has more advantage in OCR since it supports italic/bold tag which preserves the DVD typesetting as much as possible), a tool functions the same as vobsub and further more can ocr the pictures back to text or extract menu highlights; or the automation tool, but vobsub has been working fine since day 1 I started to use it, so I never bothered to find other ways to decrypt DVD subtitle. Manual decrypting is good if you want to vastly change the DVD structure such as putting several episodes onto the same disc, if you just want to add subtitle, the easy way is to use automation tools...)

Playstation 3 does NOT support DVD SPRM4 register !!!

 

OK, this was discovered few hours ago. As I’ve doing some DVD modifying projects lately, my DVDs always have some issues with Playstation 3. While these issues are not critical, but they are certainly annoying. What I’ve found is that Playstation 3 does NOT read SPRM4 register at ALL! This is verified on the US fw 2.70, with my recent project which has the scripts entirely depending on SPRM4 reading. SPRM4 is supposedly to read the title number being played, but Playstation 3 does NOT read it at ALL!!! However, SPRM7, which reads the chapter (PTT) number (another more common register) is being read correctly. The other two, SPRM5, title number in VTS and SPRM6, PGC number, I never use them, so I can’t confirm if they work or not.

    

Left is the troubled code, right is the modified codes to comply the “PS3 standards”. Now as I look back to my previous projects, all of them got the Mov GPRM4, SPRM4 statement somewhere, so this explains some weird behavior in PS3! 

Here is the scenarist project files, ORGUSS_V1_old.scn is the one with SPRM4 codes, ORGUSS_V1 mod.scn is the new codes without SPRM4, corresponding *.scp files also provided just in case for lower versions. The new codes works perfectly on PS3 now.

Subtitle Software Bundle Part I - Four subtitle software I've been using for original creation/modifying ((09052010 update)

Subtitle Software Bundle Part I - Three subtitle software I've been using for original creation/modifying

(I originally intended to just introduce the software here, but looks like I have some more to add, so this will be Part I then...)
09052010 update: Introduction of avs2bdnxml v1.13
06152009 update: Some settings of Aegisub is provided
So here are four subtitle software I've been using: Subtitle workshop, Aegisub, maestroSBT and avs2bdnxml v1.13. All of them are freeware.


Subtitle workshop:
It is the easiest and simplest subtitle tool around, everything is just so intuitive for this software. The latest version is 4 which supports rendering subpictures for high definition media (HD-DVD/Blu-ray). But I'm still stick with v2.51 which released way back in 2005... This tool mainly targets DVD production, it doesn't support advanced SSA/ASS karaoke function. Actually it destroys all the fancy karaoke function in the original SSA/ASS script once you load the subtitle... This is the reason I keep looking for another good subtitle software until I found the Aegisub which I'll talk about later. Subtitle workshop also works best in conjunction with maestroSBT since it outputs the most compliant SSA v.4 style scripts.
show/hide

The great feature stands out from other subtitle softwares being the following:
1. Easy timing, ctrl+c for start, ctrl+v for stop, yes it's that easy
2. Can change the FPS on the fly, this is a very essential function for DVD production
3. Easy delay adjustment
4. Has a video player supports quite a few video/audio formats including mkv
5. Error detection such as long sentences, time collision, etc...
6. Vast subtitle formats output, almost any DVD authoring tool, you name it!
There are also three major shorcomings:
1. Only supports ANSI codes, no unicode support
2. Doesn't support advanced SSA/ASS script such as karaoke, and truncate any of those codes when importing!
3. Can not show subtitles with time collison, only the first one will show
Here is a screenshot for subtitle workshop:

Bottom line:
If you intend to produce home-brew DVDs, this is a must have! (in conjunction with maestroSBT)
Aegisub:

This is a relatively new tool, but it's already been widely used by Fansub groups (but not so popular in China since people got another tool called popsub, originally developed by kuti from popgo forum - a forum dedicated for fansubbing, probably one of the biggest fansubbing distributor in China). Back to Aegisub, it's really powerful, and more oriented towards fansubbing (specifically ASS as what the faq said) since its outstanding supports for SSA/ASS advanced scripts. I have only been playing around this tool recently, and start to like it more and more, most importantly it has all the essential functions from subtitle workshop.
It has the following features which I liked:
1. Can read subtitles directly from mkv file
2. Can extract sound from mkv file and show the waveform for easier timing, also has supports for a few video/audio formats
3. It can convert framerate as export to a new file, not as convenient as subtitle workshop, but it's there...
4. Unicode support
5. Has internal spell checking
Again there are cons:
1. Supports ASS format exclusively, no other format output...
2. Very powerful, but not as intuitive, has a bit learning curve
3. No on-the-fly framerate change
Here is a screenshot for Aegisub:

Here is a screenshot for Aegisub with wav spectrum read directly from mkv file:

Here is the exporting menu, framerate can be changed here only:

Bottom line:
A powerful software designed for fansubbing, not the easist to use, great support for mkv and ASS.
 
Well, here are some simple settings that will speed up the syncing process a bit:

So basically I mapped the most used keys from F1 to F5. F1 go back a line, F2 play the current line, F3 go next line, F4 commit change and stay current line, F5 play last 500ms. The tradeoff to this settings is that I’m currently losing “2” on the big keyboard area, but it’s still accessible on keypad.

Next is to set the highlight line in yellow, which makes current line stands out better than the original lake bluish color.

MaestroSBT:

This is not really a subtitle timing tool, but rather a subtitle rendering tool. So the timing part has to be done in other sofrware. The development has been halt for 2 years, the last build is 2.6.0.0 released back in 2005. It is designed for advanced DVD authoring tool such as DVDMaestro or scenarist, but can also be used for free tools such as muxman.
It has the following great features:
1. Supports unicode and ANSI (can save files with foreign character with unicode though)
2. Supports multiple styles, thus can have different fonts/colors (colors are limited at three at the same time if no boarder, two at the same time if has boarder due to the limitation of DVD spec)
3. Supports subtitles with time collision (reported bug used with muxman though)
4. Supports 16:9 subtitles with aspect ratio corrected (even on some commercial DVDs we still see squashed subtitles!)
5. Supports Frame input and output for NTSC non-drop frame
6. Multiple resolution support, can even custom resolution
There are also two cons:
1. As a great software for DVD, it is a bit outdated for rendering high definition subtitles although doable but only with awfully four colors... This software hasn't been updated for more than two years now!
2. Need to set files, timing every time loaded, a liitle bit inconvenience...
Here is a screenshot for MaestroSBT:

The software supports both unicode and ANSI, but when dealing with scripts with foreign characters from subtitle workshop (ANSI), have to convert the file to unicode, or MaestroSBT will just report save failure... For pure English characters, unicode and ANSI both work fine. It takes me a while to figure out this useful feature(button)...

It can output different resolution, and has fix for 16:9 widescreen DVDs, normally you have to render two different subtitles for widescreen DVDs, one for 4:3, one for 16:9. If only one is done, the subtitle will look ugly squashed either in a 16:9 TV or a 4:3 CRT TV depends which one is missing...

Framerate input and output control, for NTSC non-drop frame, the input is always 29.97 and output is 30, or the subtitle won't match the video/audio; if dropped frame, input and output should both be 29.97.

This is where the software really shines, multiple styles and time collisions make the DVD subtitle look actually a bit like SSA/ASS on computers, no karaoke support though.

This is how the new file (2.ssa) compares with the old file (1.ssa), even all the position info are saved (not in the screenshot):

Bottom line:
Must have software if you want to have a professional looking DVD! Hope there will be some updates (better rendering quality) when the high definition authoring are more adopted to the public.
Avs2bdnxml v1.13 

This tool was written by ps-auxw from doom9. It took us almost a year to fix all the bug and add some advanced features that no where to be found on even some of the commercial software. So here is the final version v1.13 which is the first version that can generate very decent Blu-ray pictures without much bug as far as my testing goes. Where it shines is its support for ssa/ass format. Unlike MaestroSBT, this tool uses vsfilter to generate its subs, so there’s no conversion. Everything from the ssa/ass side is preserved. But this is also where the problem occurs since Blu-ray doesn’t have big enough decoding buffer (4MB) to accommodate the pictures it generate. This tool generates pictures by detecting any changes from the vsfilter, so if there’s constantly rapid changing of color or position, it will generate picture frame by frame which Blu-ray don’t like.
It has the following great features:
1. Supports 8bit 256 color png or 32bit true color png.
2. Supports non-drop time frame automatically, does NOT support drop time frames.
3. Can do picture cropping and dual window slicing which are very important features for Blu-ray buffer optimization.
4. Can do splitting to specified frames to improve video time searching (only found on Japanese releases).
5. Works extremely well with Aegisub and Sonic Scenarist BD.
Cons:
1. The ssa/ass format pragmatic approach is NOT very compatible for Blu-ray, so users have to be aware of the limitations in order to not overflowing the buffer.
2. Dos only, no GUI.
3. Deank’s easySUP trying to integrate this with BDSup2Sub which the latter CANNOT generate Blu-ray subpictures correctly. But unfortunately very few people know the true limitation of BDSup2Sub. It’s a big disservice to avs2bdnxml with good intention.
4. Cannot generate *.sup which also hinders its usage (not everyone is using or willing to learn how to use Scenarist BD…)
Final thoughts:

So here are the FOUR software I've been using, they are all great software thanks to the authors.