BTV2DVD Automated chapter cut and archive/burn to disk - from within ViewScape

[Keith]

Create DVDs that will play in PC and home DVD players from within ViewScape Recordings screen
I put together a program that uses several command line processes in one program and allows to configure
and store settings and burn recordings to DVD media that will play from most DVD players. This started
inspired by _Shorty's findings. I started it based on replacing the batch file and helping with path issues with
his process and added some fluff.

Highlights:
*Disks will play in regular home or PC DVD players.
*Dynamic DVD menus for single or mutli-titles.
*Burn WMV and AVI files to disk as DVD playable - Very CPU intensive!
*Settings screen to allow for easy and saved configuration changes.
*Chapter cutting processing - using SmartSkip xml file and automated or editor with IGCutter. - Thank you IGx89 for including my mod request!
*Option to enable menu creation - single title autoplay disk if not enabled
*Option to show the processing windows or hide them.
*Option to erase media prior to burning.
*Option whether to eject the disk and/or notify on completion.
*Option to show the settings window when submitting jobs to verify or change settings.
*Option to show the next command prior to processing for debugging settings.

Todo list:
Research on adding to existing disk.
Verify CD media handling.
Add option to burn data or video disk.

Current efforts: - items marked done are currently only in beta release
Adding a shrink process to handle oversize recordings - working but researching Bug

Additional Software Needed: *Nero is now optional with added iso burning support*
Required - DVDAuthor from sourceforge.net - http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net - find win32 binaries
Optional - IGCutter version v0.6x for chapter cutting - IGCutter v0.6 beta released
Optional if Nero installed - DVDDecrypter to burn ISOs - You will need to search for it now that it was axed
Optional - Nero software version 5? and up I am using 5.5 - http://www.nero.com
Optional - these for wmv and avi support - http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=434
Optional - RatDVD - http://www.ratdvd.dk/download.htm

Instructions:
If previously installed, delete your current settings.ini file
Download all files. Install IGCutter and DVDDecrypter or Nero. Add dvdauthor and base files to a directory
like C:\BTV2DVD. Add either the stable or beta BTV2DVD.exe Then add C:\BTV2DVD\BTV2DVD.exe to the
'Archive to CD or DVD' line within the web admin page http://localhost:8129/SetupMisc.aspx. You can get
to the settings page of this program by running BTV2DVD.exe or it will open on the first archive process.
There is a file param_file.txt that holds the nerocmd parameters, this will allow you to make changes to the
command line inputs. I found I had to comment out the --dvdvideo_cmpt line for version 5.5.

Beta:
Makes .ratDVD files
Queuing process for multi-titles
Details sub menu with SS metadata
Added systray icon with notification from there (hopefully less intrusive)
Added more logging and error handling
Fixed bug in menu creation - make sure that outlinewidth is at 12 in settings

FYI - If using previous version you may get a error, delete settings.ini file first and reset settings.

Screenshot:

[wihtpc]

Keith- Great tool but I'm having an error when nerocmd runs? I've attached the screen I get, any ideas? I'm using Nero 5.5.9.17 could that be the problem?

Thanks

[steam23]

Nice plugin here! worked very smoothly on my system, was even able to watch something else while burning.

How can I tweak the quality? Is that something to look at in how I record or is there a setting I can play with in the script? By default my systemis set to record at 720x480 VBR (5750-7000), which looks great played off the computer but not so much with the dvd. Anyway, great plug, but the tweaker in me want to know what to fiddle with.

Cheers,
Steam

[winclk]

where is the "parm_file.txt" line located? and what do u mean by "Comment out the line "


winclk

[T-Man]

Will this work with Nero 6.6? there are some sweet deals on dual-layer burners!

[ejb]

Have you considered DVD Decryptor as an alternative to Nero? A person using Meedio has developed a DVD Burner plug-in for Meedio using DVD Decryptor.

[ejb]

Yes - DVD Decryptor has command line input and can be used without charge. I have used the Meedio plugin (see the Meedio MAID library for the MpgII2DVD plug-in) and it seems to work well.

[not_Shorty]

multi-session discs of the DVD-ROM type are supposedly/technically possible, although I couldn't get them to work in my tests. That could be a limitation of my burner though. I sincerely doubt that multi-session discs of the DVD Video type will be possible though. There is some discussion in Nero's SDK documentation concerning multi-session capabilities of DVD-ROM discs if I'm not mistaken, and there are some commands in nerocmd.exe to support them. In fact I think I have an example in one of the previous batch files I had.

@Echo Off
echo Checking for existing session(s) and adding a new one as necessary...
echo.
"C:\Program Files\Ahead\Nero\nerocmd.exe" --write --real --iso BTV --no_user_interaction --drivename F --underrun_prot --dvd --import_vms_session --close_session "%*"
if errorlevel 28 goto end
if errorlevel 26 goto newsession
goto end
:newsession
echo.
echo No existing session found. Starting over with a new DVD session...
echo.
"C:\Program Files\Ahead\Nero\nerocmd.exe" --write --real --iso BTV --no_user_interaction --drivename F --underrun_prot --dvd --close_session "%*"
:end

edit - AHA! I just noticed an error in my thought process when I originally wrote that batch file. For some reason when reading the description of the --import_vms_session flag I failed to notice that this only applies to DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM discs! So I imagine this should mean that DVD-R/DVD+R discs support multi-sessioning (nice word) just like CDs do. I still don't think this in any way impacts DVD-Video discs, but at least now I know I can modify this batch file so it will work properly with multi-session DVD-R/DVD+R data discs. I believe this one as-is will work just fine with multi-session DVD-RW/DVD+RW discs for creating new data disc sessions and adding supplementary sessions later.

This is what I have for creating/adding-to multi-session CDs already:

@Echo Off
echo Checking for existing session(s) and adding a new one as necessary...
echo.
"C:\Program Files\Ahead\Nero\nerocmd.exe" --write --real --iso BTV --no_user_interaction --drivename F --underrun_prot --import --close_session "%*"
if errorlevel 28 goto end
if errorlevel 26 goto newsession
goto end
:newsession
echo.
echo No existing session found. Starting over with a new CD session...
echo.
"C:\Program Files\Ahead\Nero\nerocmd.exe" --write --real --iso BTV --no_user_interaction --drivename F --underrun_prot --close_session "%*"
:end
rem exit
pause

And I imagine in order to alter this to make data DVDs you'd just have to add --dvd to the command. Possibly using --import_udf, and/or --create_udf_fs too. I'll have to do some experimenting to see exactly what's what.

I've also noticed one other thing that might be impacting DVD player compatibility for the DVD-Video disc method, depending on your particular burner. My BenQ DW1620 automatically makes the booktype for discs DVD-ROM to increase playback compatibility, so the discs have a better chance of playing properly or even being recognized at all by a larger variety of DVD player brand/model. If you're having trouble with playing discs from this method, or my original stripped down one, you might try adding the --booktype_dvdrom flag to your burn command line. This simple switch could mean a world of difference between an unplayable disc and a perfect one, depending on your burner and your playback device.

[balsack]

Nice Plugin.

I notice that it can burn to CD as well. Is this a VCD or SVCD, or does it just store DVD files on a CDR?

[not_Shorty]

my guess, not having tried it, is that it just burns a data CD which would be good for storing smaller WMV files. At least that's what I had it doing before I found the DVD authoring stuff that this is based off of.

[ejb]

Keith -

Fantastic job! BTW - I have Nero v6.3 and I still had to comment out that line in the parameter file to get nerocmd to work. But once I commented out the line it does marvelously. How is your development of the shrinking SW going? It would be great to be able to record in the best fidelity and then shrink it onto a regular DVD.

Great bit of work.

ejb

[Xiadix]

Will multi-session DVD play in a normal DVD player? I was pimping BTV to some of my co-workers by sharing a show they missed on DVD and bragging about what I could do and that question was brought up. I didn't have the answer. I will try to test it this weekend, but I figured I was ask to see if someone already has tried...since I I have to work Sat AND Sunday, I might not get the chance.

KevG

[not_Shorty]

as I said, my bet is that there is probably no way to make a multi-session "DVD-Video" disc that plays in DVD players, but you can make multi-session data DVDs no problem. A regular data DVD just containing the video file, be it mpg or wmv, definitely not a "DVD-Video" DVD that plays in DVD players. The reason being, you have to author a DVD so that it has pointers to all the video files that it'll contain, versus simply adding more files to an existing data disc.

[mmmesq]

For multiple recordings on a single disk, a good starting point might be to look at what TiVo has already done. There are some screens in the guide for the Humax model that does this. See http://www.humaxusa.com/downloads/DRT-800_M.pdf

It lets you select recordings and displays disk usage on the DVD blank.

I believe it then creates a DVD with a menu that looks just like in Tivo with show names and descriptions. If that was done to create a DVD with a BTV interface for viewing multiple shows on the DVD in a regular DVD player that would be S-W-E-E-T.

[not_Shorty]

Keith, have you thought about using BTV's smartchapter info for generating DVD chapters? Pretty sure it would be a relatively simple thing to do, I just don't have the time to figure out how to parse xml and generate what dvdauthor requires. Just to avoid the step of editing, either manually or automatically. So you could have a completely automated solution with the ability to quickly skip commercials, but they wouldn't be cut out just in case the smartchapters were wrong.