Problems with dvdauthor - please help.

[George]

Hi,

Has anyone been able to author DVD's in Linux? I've been trying to
do it for quite some time and am on the verge of giving up! :(

I have an MPEG2 video I'd like to burn onto a DVD and have this video
divided up into "chapters" and perhaps even a menu, but the menu isn't
as important.

I have bee able to successfully make a DVD with KLVEmkdvd. However, it
is one huge track. i.e. I can't jump to different sections of the video
without having to scan through it from the beginning.

I tried qdvdauther, which uses dvdauthor, but it fails. The last thing
qdvdauthor does is execute the following:

/usr/bin/dvdauthor -x "/home/george/tmp/GCFirstDVD/dvdauthor.xml"

After that, I see the following:

DVDAuthor::dvdauthor, version 0.6.10.
Build options: gnugetopt magick iconv freetype fribidi
Send bugs to <dvdauthor-***@lists.sourceforge.net>

INFO: Locale=en_US
INFO: Converting filenames to ISO-8859-1
INFO: dvdauthor creating VTS
STAT: Picking VTS 01

STAT: Processing /home/george/CC605_apple_ii_forever.mpg...
WARN: System header found, but PCI/DSI information is not where expected
(make sure your system header is 18 bytes!)
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
.
.
.


The warning "WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU..." is then
repeated for a long time until. eventually, a segmentation fault occurs.
It looks as though there is something wrong with some header information
in the mpeg video. What is the 18 bytes of header information supposed
to be (as mentioned in the warning)? Why doesn't KLVEmkdvd, or any other
media players I use complain about this header information in the video?

Here is information about the software I'm using:
Linux version: Mandrake Linux 10.1 (Official)
dvdauthor: version 0.6.10
qdvdauthor: version 0.0.8-1


Any help would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks!
George

[Wiseguy]

Post by George
Hi,
Has anyone been able to author DVD's in Linux? I've been trying to
do it for quite some time and am on the verge of giving up! :(
I have an MPEG2 video I'd like to burn onto a DVD and have this video
divided up into "chapters" and perhaps even a menu, but the menu isn't
as important.
I have bee able to successfully make a DVD with KLVEmkdvd. However, it
is one huge track. i.e. I can't jump to different sections of the video
without having to scan through it from the beginning.
I tried qdvdauther, which uses dvdauthor, but it fails. The last thing
/usr/bin/dvdauthor -x "/home/george/tmp/GCFirstDVD/dvdauthor.xml"
DVDAuthor::dvdauthor, version 0.6.10.
Build options: gnugetopt magick iconv freetype fribidi
INFO: Locale=en_US
INFO: Converting filenames to ISO-8859-1
INFO: dvdauthor creating VTS
STAT: Picking VTS 01
STAT: Processing /home/george/CC605_apple_ii_forever.mpg...
WARN: System header found, but PCI/DSI information is not where expected
(make sure your system header is 18 bytes!)
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...

this tells me that your mpg file isn't in VOB format (required when
making a standards conforming DVD). use ffmpeg or mplex to transcode
the mpg file into DVD/VOB format before attempting to use dvdauthor.


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[Peter "Shaggy" Haywood]

Groovy hepcat George was jivin' on Tue, 21 Dec 2004 17:36:53 -0500 in
comp.os.linux.setup.
Problems with dvdauthor - please help.'s a cool scene! Dig it!

Post by George
Has anyone been able to author DVD's in Linux? I've been trying to
do it for quite some time and am on the verge of giving up! :(

I've been doing it successfully without too many problems.

Post by George
I have an MPEG2 video I'd like to burn onto a DVD and have this video
divided up into "chapters" and perhaps even a menu, but the menu isn't
as important.
I have bee able to successfully make a DVD with KLVEmkdvd. However, it
is one huge track. i.e. I can't jump to different sections of the video
without having to scan through it from the beginning.
I tried qdvdauther, which uses dvdauthor, but it fails. The last thing
/usr/bin/dvdauthor -x "/home/george/tmp/GCFirstDVD/dvdauthor.xml"
DVDAuthor::dvdauthor, version 0.6.10.
Build options: gnugetopt magick iconv freetype fribidi
INFO: Locale=en_US
INFO: Converting filenames to ISO-8859-1
INFO: dvdauthor creating VTS
STAT: Picking VTS 01
STAT: Processing /home/george/CC605_apple_ii_forever.mpg...
WARN: System header found, but PCI/DSI information is not where expected
(make sure your system header is 18 bytes!)
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...

Looks like your MPEG file is not DVD compliant or is corrupt or
something. How are you encoding it? Are you using transcode for this?
What is the exact command line you're using?

Post by George
The warning "WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU..." is then
repeated for a long time until. eventually, a segmentation fault occurs.
It looks as though there is something wrong with some header information
in the mpeg video. What is the 18 bytes of header information supposed
to be (as mentioned in the warning)? Why doesn't KLVEmkdvd, or any other
media players I use complain about this header information in the video?

Perhaps KLVEmkdvd reencodes the video or something. Or perhaps it
simply is more relaxed about DVD compliance or is more forgiving about
corrupt video files. I haven't used it, so I don't know.

Post by George
Linux version: Mandrake Linux 10.1 (Official)
dvdauthor: version 0.6.10
qdvdauthor: version 0.0.8-1

You need to tell us what you're using to encode the video. That's
where the problem lies, not in dvdauthor.

[George]

Hi all,

It looks like the video I was trying to write to a DVD did not have
some information in it required by dvdauthor. I looked at the man page
for "mpeg2enc" and the "-f" option states the following:

-f|--format 8
- DVD MPEG-2 for 'dvdauthor'
This version adds special dummy navigation packets into the output
stream that the dvdauthor tool fills in to make a proper .VOB for
authoring. Bit-rate defaults to 7500kbps, buffer sizes to the maximum
permitted by the DVD specification.

This is what was missing in my mpeg file.

I used the "tovid" tool to properly convert my mpeg and it worked! I was
able to successfully get qdvdauthor to make a dvd for me. (mind you,
there were some other big bugs in the qdvdauthor tool that I figured out
how to avoid. :))

However, there was a big drop in quality from the original MPEG video
using "tovid". It reads the mpeg and modifies it. I'm sure I could
optimize all of the settings for mpeg2enc but there are so many and I
know very little about mpeg files.

What I'd like to know is what the "special dummy navigation packets" in
the mpeg file are? If I knew this, I could add them myself without
having to re-process the mpeg file again (and decrease the video quality).



Thanks!
George

P.S. Thank you noi, Wiseguy, and Peter for your help! I really
appreciate it! :)

Post by Peter "Shaggy" Haywood
Groovy hepcat George was jivin' on Tue, 21 Dec 2004 17:36:53 -0500 in
comp.os.linux.setup.
Problems with dvdauthor - please help.'s a cool scene! Dig it!

Post by George
Has anyone been able to author DVD's in Linux? I've been trying to
do it for quite some time and am on the verge of giving up! :(

I've been doing it successfully without too many problems.

Post by George
I have an MPEG2 video I'd like to burn onto a DVD and have this video
divided up into "chapters" and perhaps even a menu, but the menu isn't
as important.
I have bee able to successfully make a DVD with KLVEmkdvd. However, it
is one huge track. i.e. I can't jump to different sections of the video
without having to scan through it from the beginning.
I tried qdvdauther, which uses dvdauthor, but it fails. The last thing
/usr/bin/dvdauthor -x "/home/george/tmp/GCFirstDVD/dvdauthor.xml"
DVDAuthor::dvdauthor, version 0.6.10.
Build options: gnugetopt magick iconv freetype fribidi
INFO: Locale=en_US
INFO: Converting filenames to ISO-8859-1
INFO: dvdauthor creating VTS
STAT: Picking VTS 01
STAT: Processing /home/george/CC605_apple_ii_forever.mpg...
WARN: System header found, but PCI/DSI information is not where expected
(make sure your system header is 18 bytes!)
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...
WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...

Looks like your MPEG file is not DVD compliant or is corrupt or
something. How are you encoding it? Are you using transcode for this?
What is the exact command line you're using?

Post by George
The warning "WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU..." is then
repeated for a long time until. eventually, a segmentation fault occurs.
It looks as though there is something wrong with some header information
in the mpeg video. What is the 18 bytes of header information supposed
to be (as mentioned in the warning)? Why doesn't KLVEmkdvd, or any other
media players I use complain about this header information in the video?

Perhaps KLVEmkdvd reencodes the video or something. Or perhaps it
simply is more relaxed about DVD compliance or is more forgiving about
corrupt video files. I haven't used it, so I don't know.

Post by George
Linux version: Mandrake Linux 10.1 (Official)
dvdauthor: version 0.6.10
qdvdauthor: version 0.0.8-1

You need to tell us what you're using to encode the video. That's
where the problem lies, not in dvdauthor.

[Peter "Shaggy" Haywood]

Groovy hepcat George was jivin' on Tue, 28 Dec 2004 00:58:39 -0500 in
comp.os.linux.setup.
Re: Problems with dvdauthor - please help.'s a cool scene! Dig it!

Post by George
Hi all,

Howdy! And sorry for taking so long to get back to you!

Post by George
It looks like the video I was trying to write to a DVD did not have
some information in it required by dvdauthor. I looked at the man page
-f|--format 8
- DVD MPEG-2 for 'dvdauthor'
This version adds special dummy navigation packets into the output
stream that the dvdauthor tool fills in to make a proper .VOB for
authoring. Bit-rate defaults to 7500kbps, buffer sizes to the maximum
permitted by the DVD specification.
This is what was missing in my mpeg file.
I used the "tovid" tool to properly convert my mpeg and it worked! I was
able to successfully get qdvdauthor to make a dvd for me. (mind you,
there were some other big bugs in the qdvdauthor tool that I figured out
how to avoid. :))
However, there was a big drop in quality from the original MPEG video
using "tovid". It reads the mpeg and modifies it. I'm sure I could
optimize all of the settings for mpeg2enc but there are so many and I
know very little about mpeg files.

I've not used tovid, so i can't help you with it. But maybe there's
a way of specifying the bit rate. I use transcode, and although it
uses mpeg2enc to do the actual conversion, it has a different default
bit rate to that specified above. I have to specify the bit rate
explicitly to get any decent quality. Maybe you need to do the same
with tovid.

Post by George
What I'd like to know is what the "special dummy navigation packets" in
the mpeg file are? If I knew this, I could add them myself without
having to re-process the mpeg file again (and decrease the video quality).

I can't help you with that, i'm afraid.

Post by George
P.S. Thank you noi, Wiseguy, and Peter for your help! I really
appreciate it! :)

No problem. :)

[Bill Davidsen]

Post by Peter "Shaggy" Haywood
Groovy hepcat George was jivin' on Tue, 28 Dec 2004 00:58:39 -0500 in
comp.os.linux.setup.
Re: Problems with dvdauthor - please help.'s a cool scene! Dig it!

Post by George
Hi all,

Howdy! And sorry for taking so long to get back to you!

Post by George
It looks like the video I was trying to write to a DVD did not have
some information in it required by dvdauthor. I looked at the man page
-f|--format 8
- DVD MPEG-2 for 'dvdauthor'
This version adds special dummy navigation packets into the output
stream that the dvdauthor tool fills in to make a proper .VOB for
authoring. Bit-rate defaults to 7500kbps, buffer sizes to the maximum
permitted by the DVD specification.
This is what was missing in my mpeg file.
I used the "tovid" tool to properly convert my mpeg and it worked! I was
able to successfully get qdvdauthor to make a dvd for me. (mind you,
there were some other big bugs in the qdvdauthor tool that I figured out
how to avoid. :))
However, there was a big drop in quality from the original MPEG video
using "tovid". It reads the mpeg and modifies it. I'm sure I could
optimize all of the settings for mpeg2enc but there are so many and I
know very little about mpeg files.

I've not used tovid, so i can't help you with it. But maybe there's
a way of specifying the bit rate. I use transcode, and although it
uses mpeg2enc to do the actual conversion, it has a different default
bit rate to that specified above. I have to specify the bit rate
explicitly to get any decent quality. Maybe you need to do the same
with tovid.

I was asked to create a DVD with some various clips people has assembled
on a particular topic. Unfortunately some are recorded, some are pulled
from the net, and they are in various .avi, .wmv, .rm, .mpg etc formats,
and some were taken with clip recordings on still cameras and are
downsize 320x200 or something larger but not 640x480.

The desired result is a DVD with an intro (to be recorded with whatever
a Sony DV camera generates) and then a menu of clips to view. The small
format clips really should be upsized to some standard size for NTSC
viewing, since they are clips of solving problems in the field. I have
tools to resize still images without serious artifact, I assume there
are similar video programs and/or methods.

Can someone point me to the the tools needed and a description of the
steps to create such a menu and DVD? Preferably somewhere between a set
of steps to follow blindly and hope (although I would try that) and a
discussion of the meaning of individual bits in headers, which is only
useful if you want to write your own application from scratch.

If this is simply more than can be reasonably done with Linux, tell me
now before I say I can do it ;-)

[Peter "Shaggy" Haywood]

Groovy hepcat Bill Davidsen was jivin' on Fri, 07 Jan 2005 19:01:26
GMT in comp.os.linux.setup.
Re: Problems with dvdauthor - please help.'s a cool scene! Dig it!

Post by Bill Davidsen
I was asked to create a DVD with some various clips people has assembled
on a particular topic. Unfortunately some are recorded, some are pulled
from the net, and they are in various .avi, .wmv, .rm, .mpg etc formats,
and some were taken with clip recordings on still cameras and are
downsize 320x200 or something larger but not 640x480.

You can use transcode (with other tools) to resize and convert video
to the required format. For stills, you can use gimp to do the same. I
find the following transcode command line very useful for creating DVD
compliant MPEG (in PAL format - for NTSC make necessary adjustments):

transcode -V -x mplayer, raw --export_prof dvd_pal --export_par 2 -F
"8,-H -92" -w 6000 -y mpeg2enc,mp2enc -E 48000 -i your_input_video.avi
-o your_output_prefix

You can adjust the quality & size by changing the video bit rate (-w
option).

Post by Bill Davidsen
The desired result is a DVD with an intro (to be recorded with whatever
a Sony DV camera generates) and then a menu of clips to view. The small
format clips really should be upsized to some standard size for NTSC
viewing, since they are clips of solving problems in the field. I have
tools to resize still images without serious artifact, I assume there
are similar video programs and/or methods.

Like I said, transcode can do that. So can mencoder. No doubt there
are others.

Post by Bill Davidsen
Can someone point me to the the tools needed and a description of the
steps to create such a menu and DVD? Preferably somewhere between a set
of steps to follow blindly and hope (although I would try that) and a
discussion of the meaning of individual bits in headers, which is only
useful if you want to write your own application from scratch.
If this is simply more than can be reasonably done with Linux, tell me
now before I say I can do it ;-)

It's easily done, though can be a little involved and sometimes
painstaking. Go to the following URL for a very good guide and
discussion of the topic:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=117709

[Peter "Shaggy" Haywood]

Groovy hepcat Peter "Shaggy" Haywood was jivin' on Tue, 11 Jan 2005
00:32:58 GMT in comp.os.linux.setup.
Re: Problems with dvdauthor - please help.'s a cool scene! Dig it!

Post by Peter "Shaggy" Haywood
Groovy hepcat Bill Davidsen was jivin' on Fri, 07 Jan 2005 19:01:26
GMT in comp.os.linux.setup.
Re: Problems with dvdauthor - please help.'s a cool scene! Dig it!
I
find the following transcode command line very useful for creating DVD
transcode -V -x mplayer, raw --export_prof dvd_pal --export_par 2 -F
"8,-H -92" -w 6000 -y mpeg2enc,mp2enc -E 48000 -i your_input_video.avi
-o your_output_prefix

Oh, I forgot to mention that this will create two output streams,
one video and one audio, with filenames your_output_prefix.m2v and
your_output_prefix.mpa respectively. You then use mplex to multiplex
them into a single MPEG file. See transcode and mplex man pages for
more information.