DVDAUTHOR(1) DVDAuthor Man Pages DVDAUTHOR(1)NAMEdvdauthor - assembles multiple mpeg program streams into a suitable DVD
filesystem
SYNOPSISdvdauthor [ -o output-dir ] -x xml-config-file
dvdauthor [ -o output-dir ] [ -j | --jumppad | -g | --allgprm ] [ -T |
--toc ] [ menu or title options ]
DVD BACKGROUND
At a high level, a DVD is a collection of menus and titles. Conceptu‐
ally, a menu contains buttons which can be assigned actions and pro‐
vides a list of choices to the end user, while a title contains the
main content of the DVD. However, in reality many of the features
available in menus (including buttons, pausing, and looping) are also
available in titles.
The menus and titles are divided into titlesets and the VMGM menu set.
A titleset can contain a number of menus and titles which are meant to
act together. The "menu", "audio", "subtitle", and "angle" buttons on
the DVD player's remote control will all access menus in the same
titleset as the title which is being played. All the titles and menus
of a given titleset have the same video, audio, and subtitle settings
(the definitions for the menus are independent from the definitions for
the titles), so if you want to have different settings (for example
widescreen vs standard aspect ratios), then you need separate title‐
sets. Titlesets are not meant to jump to one another, so the VMGM menu
domain is used. It is a collection of menus (no titles) that can
access the menus and titles of all the titlesets.
One of the most frusterating things when deciding how to author a DVD
is that there are often many ways to accomplish the same task. For
example, you must decide whether to locate menus at the VMGM level or
the titleset level. A typical setup is to locate the high level menus
at the VMGM level, and the low level configuration menus (scene / audio
/ subtitle selection) at the titleset. If there are DVD extras, per‐
haps with a lower quality audio track and a 4:3 aspect ratio, then they
would be in a separate titleset with a menu to select among the extras
located at the titleset level.
DVDAUTHOR DESCRIPTIONdvdauthor works in discrete operations. It authors each titleset one
at a time, and then finally authors the VMGM to complete the disc. At
that point the contents can be written out to a DVD. If you are con‐
trolling dvdauthor with command line arguments, then each step will
occur independently; however if you are using the XML configuration
file, then you have the option of combining some or all the steps into
one.
The VOBs passed to dvdauthor must have DVD NAV (VOBU) packets multi‐
plexed in at the correct locations. Many tools can do this, including
mplex from mjpegtools 1.6.0 or later. dvdauthor will then fill these
packets in with the correct data. Special care has been taken to
ensure dvdauthor is fifo compliant; that is every source VOB can be the
output of another program (such as mplex). This can make execution
faster on many systems by avoiding extra filesystem accesses.
COMMAND LINE DESCRIPTION-o output-dir
The destination directory to store the DVD-Video file structure
in.
-j
--jumppad
foo
-g
--allgprm
Enable the use of all 16 general purpose registers. Prohibits
the use of jumppad and some complex expressions that require
temporary registers.
-T Creates the table of contents file instead of a titleset. If
this option is used, it should be listed first, and you may not
specify any titles.
-m Creates a menu.
-t Creates a title.
-v video-opts
--video=video-opts
A plus (+) separated list of video options. Dvdauthor will try
to infer any unspecified options. pal, ntsc, 4:3, 16:9,
720xfull, 720x576, 720x480, 704xfull, 704x576, 704x480,
352xfull, 352x576, 352x480, 352xhalf, 352x288, 352x240, nopan‐
scan, noletterbox, crop. Default is ntsc, 4:3, 720xfull
-a audio-opts
--audio=audio-opts
A plus (+) separated list of options for an audio track, with
each track separated by a comma (,). For example -a
ac3+en,mp2+de specifies two audio tracks: the first is an Eng‐
lish track encoded in AC3, the second is a German track encoded
using MPEG-1 layer 2 compression. ac3, mp2, pcm, dts, 16bps,
20bps, 24bps, drc, surround, nolang, 1ch, 2ch, 3ch, 4ch, 5ch,
6ch, 7ch, 8ch, and any two letter ISO 639 language abbreviation.
Default is 1 track, mp2, 20bps, nolang, 2ch. 'ac3' implies drc,
6ch.
-s subpicture-opts
--subpictures=subpicture-opts
A plus (+) separated list of options for a subpicture track,
with each track separated by a comma (,). nolang and any two
letter language abbreviation (see -a) Default is no subpicture
tracks.
-eentry(s)
--entry=entry(s)
Makes the current menu the default for certain circumstances. It
is a comma separated list of any of:
for TOC menus: title
for VTS menus: root, ptt, audio, subtitle, angle
-p palette-file
--palette=palette-file
Specifies where to get the subpicture palette. Settable per
title and per menu. If the filename ends in .rgb (case insensi‐
tive) then it is assumed to be RGB, otherwise it is YUV. Entries
should be 6 hexadecimal digits. FILE defaults to xste-pal‐
ette.dat
-c chapterpts
--chapters=chapterpts
Specifies a comma (,) separated list of chapter markers. Each
marker is of the form [[h:]mm:]ss[.frac] and is relative to the
SCR of the next file listed (independent of any timestamp trans‐
posing that occurs within dvdauthor). The chapter markers ONLY
apply to the next file listed. Defaults to 0.
-f mpeg-file
--file=mpeg-file
mpeg-file
Specifies either a file, a pipe, or a shell command ending in |
which supplies an MPEG-2 system stream with VOB sectors inserted
in the appropriate places (using mplex -f 8 to generate)
-b buttondef
--button=X1xY1-X2xY2,commandlist
creates a button of the specified size. See LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION
for a description of commandlist.
-i [pre|post]=commandlist
--instructions=[pre|post]=commandlist
Executes the commandlist instructions either before or at the
end of the menu/title. See LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION for the format
of commandlist.
XML DESCRIPTION
Here is the basic structure of the configuration file:
<dvdauthor [dest="output-dir"] [jumppad="1|on|yes" | allgprm="1|on|yes"]>
<vmgm>
[<fpc>commands;</fpc>]
<menus [lang="language-code"] >
<video [format="ntsc|pal"] [aspect="4:3|16:9"]
[resolution="XxY"] [caption="field1|field2"]
[widescreen="nopanscan|noletterbox|crop"] />
<audio [format="mp2|ac3|dts|pcm"] [channels="numchannels"]
[quant="16bps|20bps|24bps|drc"] [dolby="surround"]
[samplerate="48khz|96khz"] [lang="language"] />
[<audio ... />]
<subpicture lang="language" />
<pgc [entry="title"] [palette="yuvfile|rgbfile"]
[pause="seconds|inf"]>
<pre> commands; </pre>
<vob file="file.mpg" [chapters="chapter-list"]
[pause="seconds|inf"] />
[<vob ... />]
<button [name="buttonname"]> commands; </button>
[<button ... />]
<post> commands; </post>
</pgc>
[<pgc ... />]
</menus>
</vmgm>
<titleset>
<menus>
[<video ... />]
[<audio ... />]
<pgc [entry="entries"]
[palette="yuvfile|rgbfile"] [pause="seconds|inf"]>
[...]
</pgc>
[<pgc ... />]
</menus>
<titles>
[<video ... />]
[<audio ... />]
<pgc [palette="yuvfile|rgbfile"] [pause="seconds|inf"]>
[...]
</pgc>
[<pgc ... />]
</titles>
</titleset>
[<titleset ... />]
</dvdauthor>
A breakdown of the config file:
<dvdauthor [dest="output-dir"] [jumppad="1|on|yes" | all‐
gprm="1|on|yes"]>
Initiates dvdauthor. dest denotes the directory where dvdauthor
will write the files. It overrides the -o option. Contains up
to one <vmgm> tag and any number of <titleset>'s.
<vmgm>
<titleset>
Constructs of a VMGM level menu set or a title set. Contains up
to one <menus> tag and if a titleset, up to one <titles> tag.
<menus [lang="language-code"] >
<titles>
Marks the list of menus or titles for this VMGM menu set or
titleset, called in dvdauthor terminology a "pgcgroup." Con‐
tains up to one <video> tag, up to eight <audio> tags, up to 32
<subpicture> tags, and any number of <pgc> tags.
<video [format="ntsc|pal"] [aspect="4:3|16:9"] [resolution="XxY"] [cap‐
tion="field1|field2"] [widescreen="nopanscan|noletterbox|crop"] />
Manually configures the video parameters for this pgcgroup. If
any of these are not set, then they will be inferred from the
source stream. Note that the DVD format only specifically sup‐
ports 720x480, 704x480, 352x480, and 352x240 resolutions for
NTSC, and 720x576, 704x576, 352x576, and 352x288 resolutions for
PAL, but DVD author will accept a wider range of inputs and
round up to the nearest size.
<audio [format="mp2|ac3|dts|pcm"] [channels="numchannels"] [dolby="sur‐
round"] [quant="16bps|20bps|24bps|drc"] [samplerate="48khz|96khz"]
[lang="language"] />
Manually configures an audio channel for this pgcgroup. List
once for each channel. Most parameters are inferred automati‐
cally from the source VOBs except for PCM parameters. However,
language must be manually specified. Note that it is possible
to just list the language attribute and let dvdauthor fill in
the rest.
<subpicture lang="language" />
foo
<pgc [entry="entries"] [palette="yuvfile|rgbfile"] [pause="sec‐
onds|inf"]>
A PGC is just a fancy term for either a menu or a title. It has
a special meaning in the DVD spec so I have retained its use
here. PGC's can have commands that get executed before they
start playing or after they finish; see pre and post tags below.
If the PGC is a menu, you can specify one or more entries for
it. This means that if you press the corresponding button on
your DVD remote, then it will go to this menu. For a VMGM level
menu, the only choice is title, which on my remote corresponds
to the top menu button. For a titleset level menu, you can use
root, subtitle, audio, angle, and ptt. If you want more than
one, separate them by a space or a comma. Note that root entry
is meant for commands that jump from a VMGM level menu to a
titleset menu.
All button and menu masks and all subtitles within a PGC must
share the same 16 color palette. If you use spumux to generate
the subtitle/subpicture packets, then the color information will
be automatically passed to dvdauthor; however, if you use
another subtitler or want to have more control over the palette,
you can manually specify it with the palette attribute. The
first 16 entries of the file should be the 16 colors of the pal‐
ette, listed as 6 digit hexadecimal numbers representing either
the RGB breakdown (if the filename ends in .rgb or the YUV
breakdown (if the filename does not end in .rgb. After that,
the button group information can be listed as pairs of 8 digit
hexadecimal numbers; up to three button groups may be specified.
If you have a short video sequence or just want the video to
pause at the end, you can use the pause attribute to set the
number of seconds (as an integer) from 1 to 254. If you want
the video to pause indefinitely, use inf.
<pre> commands; </pre>
<post> commands; </post>
Sets the commands to execute before or after a PGC plays. It
can be used to loop the current video (by having a <post> jump
... </post> sequence), or to conditionally skip certain chapters
if a flag has been set.
<fpc> commands; </fpc>
Sets the commands to execute when the disk is first put in the
player (FPC = First Program Chain). It can be used to jump to a
particular menu or initialize registers on startup. If not
specified, an implicit one will be created that jumps to the
first menu found, or if there is no menu it will jump to the
first title..
<vob file="file.mpg" [chapters="chapter-list"] [pause="seconds|inf"] />
foo
<cell [start="timestamp"] [end="timestamp"] [chapter="1|on|yes" | pro‐
gram="1|on|yes"] [pause="seconds|inf"] />
foo
<button [name="buttonname"]> commands; </button>
foo
LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION
The language is quite simple and roughly looks like C.
· Statements are terminated with a semicolon.
· Statements can span multiple lines.
· Multiple statements can appear on one line.
· Whitespace (space, tab, newlines) are not important, except to sepa‐
rate keywords and identifiers.
VARIABLES
The DVD virtual machine processes 16 bit values. It supports up to 16
general purpose registers; however dvdauthor reserves 3 for internal
use. Thus register 0-12 are avaialable for use and are referred to as
g0 through g12.
There are also 24 system registers, which can be referred to as s0
through s23. Not all of these can be set. Many of these have
pseodonyms.
audio (s1, rw)
Denotes the audio channel, ranging from 0-7.
subtitle (s2, rw)
The subtitle track, ranging from 0-31. If you want the subtitle
to always be displayed, then you should add 64 (i.e. choose
64-95). Simply selecting the track (0-31) means that only the
forced subtitles will be displayed, whereas enabling the track
(64-95) means that all the subtitles will be displayed. This
allows you to have forced subtitles only for the parts of the
movie where the actors are speaking a foreign (to the viewer)
language, but still have normal subtitles for the hearing
impaired. The hearing impaired viewers would enable the track
(64-95) while the other viewers would just select the track
(0-31) they would be able to share the track.
angle (s3, rw)
Selects the angle (currently untested).
button (s8, rw)
Denotes the currently highlighted button. Note that the value
is multiplied by 1024, so the first button is 1024, the second
is 2048, etc.
EXPRESSIONS
Expressions follow typical C syntax except that booleans are not con‐
vertible to integers and vice versa. Operators and comparisons are:
==, !=, >=, >, <=, <, &&, ||, !, eq, ne, ge, gt, le, lt, and, or, xor,
not, +, -, *, /, %, &, |, ^
Since the code is encapsulated in XML, the parser will catch any
unescaped < characters, thus alphabetic mnemonics have been provided
for all comparison operators for consistency.
There is also a numerical function:
random(EXPRESSION)
Computes a psuedo-random number, between 1 and the supplied num‐
ber, inclusively.
BLOCKS
Blocks are either a single statement (terminated by a semicolon), or a
group of statements wrapped in curly braces. For example:
·
g3=s7;
·
{
audio=1;
subtitle=65;
jump vmgm menu 3;
}
STATEMENTS
The statements supported are fairly simple at the moment.
VARIABLE=EXPRESSION;
Sets a variable equal to the result of an equation.
if (EXPRESSION) BLOCK;
if (EXPRESSION) BLOCK; else BLOCK;
Calculates the expression; if true, then it executes the block
of code.
jump TARGET;
call TARGET [resume CELL];
resume;
Jumps to a particular title or menu, or calls a particular menu,
or returns to the calling title. You can only execute a call
from a title to a menu; all other forms are illegal. The pur‐
pose of using call instead of jump (besides the fact that they
support a mutually exclusive list of targets) is to allow the
menu to return to the point in the title where the call origi‐
nated using resume. You can manually specify the return cell by
using the resume keyword, however if you do not specify one and
you use the command in a post instruction block, then it will
presume cell 1.
The following are possible targets:
[vmgm | titleset X] menu
[vmgm | titleset X] menu Y
[vmgm | titleset X] menu entry Z
Targets either the default menu, a menu number Y, or the
menu denoted as the entry for Z. The menu is in either
the VMGM or titleset domain. If you wish to target a
menu in the current domain then you can omit the domain
moniker.
[vmgm | titleset X] title Y [chapter Z]
Targets a title, or a chapter in a title. Numbering
starts at 1. All of the titles on the disc are accessi‐
ble in the VMGM domain, or you can access them by title‐
set instead.
chapter Z
program Z
cell Z Targets a chapter, program, or cell in the current title
or menu (note that menus do not have chapters). You can
use this to create looping menus: jump cell 1;
13 January 2007 DVDAUTHOR(1)
