SurroundByUs.com

If you want to make a Music DVD (without menus), then the easiest way possible is to use AudioMuxer to achieve this.

Alternatively you can use other freeware to obtain a similar result (DVD-only, no menus), but with a bit of more work. This article here below is kept for completeness reasons, and the reader is encouraged to have a look first to AudioMuxer before going this alternative route.

Do not be discouraged by the length of this article since the process is quite easy to follow. You will also need some basic Excel spreadsheet skills for this guide (should you want a DVD with chapter points).

This guide will cover the following sections:

• Software Needed
• Preparation Audio
• Preparation Spreadsheet
• Creation Video File (black image without song titles)
• Creation Video File (different images with song titles)
• Making the DVD
• Comments, Feedback and Discussion

Software Needed

• Download DVD Slideshow GUI and run the installer. If some of the components (AviSynth, ImgBurn, ffmpeg, ...) necessary for the application are already installed then deselect them in the installer window. After the installation, go to “C:\Program Files\DVD slideshow GUI” and edit the “HC.ini” file whereby you change the line
  Code:
  “*PROFILE       BEST”
  into
  Code:
  “*PROFILE       FAST”
  and you save it.
• Download MuxMan and unzip the package to a directory of your choice.
• Download Eac3to and unzip the package to a directory of your choice. Used only for a specific part of this guide. Check first if needed. In the batch files (see further) it is assumed that Eac3to is unzipped in the directory “C:\Program Files\eac3to”. Update these batch files should you unzip Eac3to to another directory.
• Download MediaInfo and run the installer. Used only for a specific part of this guide. Check first if needed.
• Download Foobar2000 and install it. Used only for a specific part of this guide. Check first if needed.
  
  Attachment:
  Make.DVD.Package.rar
• Unrar this package to the directory that contains the audio files for the DVD, except for the “Audio Duration and Name.csv” file, which should be copied to the Custom format directory of MediaInfo (default “C:\Program Files\MediaInfo\Plugin\Custom”). The following files are in the package.
  
  • Audio Duration and Name.csv : Custom format file for MediaInfo. Copy to “C:\Program Files\MediaInfo\Plugin\Custom”.
  • DVD.0PadRemoved.DTS.bat : Batch file using Eac3to to remove the zero-padding from DTS files created with Surcode DVD DTS.
  • DVD.Black.Frame.NTSC.jpg : Black frame 720x480 (NTSC)
  • DVD.Black.Frame.PAL.jpg : Black frame 720x756 (PAL)
  • DVD.Chapters.xls : Excel spreadsheet to calculate the chapter points and length of the slides.
  • DVD.Make.AC3.bat : Batch file using Eac3to to convert multi-channel wav files in 448kbps AC3 format.
  • DVD.Make.DTS.bat : Batch file using Eac3to to convert multi-channel wav files in 1536kbps DTS format. The Surcode DVD DTS encoder needs to be installed for this to work.
  • DVD.Make.NTSC.Frames.bat : Batch file creating black NTSC images files using the file names found in the DVD.Tracklist.txt file.
  • DVD.Make.PAL.Frames.bat : Batch file creating black PAL images files using the file names found in the DVD.Tracklist.txt file.
  • DVD.TrackList.txt : Text file containing the file names for the image files that will be used as slides in the DVD Slideshow GUI application.

Back to the Top
Back to the Wiki Index

Preparation Audio
Make sure that all of your Audio files for a DVD are at a sample rate of 48kHz (96kHz will not be discussed here).

• If you have already your list of AC3 files then go to the next section.

• If you have already your list of DTS files created with Surcode DVD DTS, double-click in Windows Explorer the batch file “DVD.0PadRemoved.DTS.bat” to remove the zero-padding from these DTS files such that MuxMan can correctly handle them. New files will be created, prefixed with “0PadRemoved.”.
  
  • (one-time event) Before executing the batch file, edit the location of the Eac3to.exe application should this be different from “C:\Program Files\eac3to” and save the batch file. Go to the next section.

• If you have a list of multi-channel wav files resulting from a Plogue stereo-to-surround process, then there are 2 batch files that will convert these files automatically to AC3 or DTS for DVD-Video.
  
  • Convert to AC3 Files:
    Double-click in Windows Explorer the batch file “DVD.Make.AC3.bat”. For each of the multi-channel wav files a file will be created with the same name and an AC3 extension. The AC3 files are generated with a bit rate of 448kbps (the highest rate possible within the DVD-Video standard).
    
    • (one-time event) Before executing the batch file, edit the location of the Eac3to.exe application should this be different from “C:\Program Files\eac3to” and save the batch file.
  • Convert to DTS Files:
    (Make sure that the Surcode DVD DTS Encoder is installed, otherwise this batch file will not work)
    Double-click in Windows Explorer the batch file “DVD.Make.DTS.bat”. For each of the multi-channel wav files a file will be created with the same name and a DTS extension. All DTS files have a bit rate of 1536kbps and the zero-padding is removed.
    
    • (one-time event) Before executing the batch file, edit the location of the Eac3to.exe application should this be different from “C:\Program Files\eac3to” and save the batch file.

Back to the Top
Back to the Wiki Index

Preparation Spreadsheet
Make sure that before you open the spreadsheet that you have Macros enabled in Excel.

• If you have AC3 or DTS Files for each individual song track
  
  • Open MediaInfo to extract the duration for each of the tracks.
    
    • (one-time event) Go to "Options/Preferences/Custom" and choose “Audio Duration and Name” as custom list and click on "OK".
      
      
  • Select "File/Open Folder" and open the folder containing these individual AC3/DTS audio files.
    
  • Click on "View/Custom".
    
  • Select all lines and copy them (Right-click with the mouse and select "Copy" from the menu).
    
  • Go to the “From MediaInfo” tab of the “DVD.Chapters.xls” spreadsheet,
    
  • right-click on cell A2, choose "Paste Special" from the menu and select "Text".
    
• If you do not have individual tracks for each of the songs because you have converted a complete album in one go
  
  • Open the CUE sheet of the album in Notepad. Select all lines and copy them (right-click mouse and select "Copy"). Go to the “From CUE” tab of the “DVD.Chapters.xls” spreadsheet, right-click on cell A2, choose "Paste Special" from the menu and select "Text".
    
  • Hit also the “Retrieve Track List” button before continuing.
    
  • The length of the last track cannot be calculated from the information in the CUE sheet, for that reason,
    
    • Open the CUE sheet in Foobar2000 (with "Add Files"),
      
    • right-click on the selection, select "Properties" from the menu
      
    • and go then to the Properties tab (2nd tab). Right-click on the Duration keyword in the General section and select "Copy".
      
    • In the spreadsheet, right-click on cell H3 (see 1.), choose "Paste Special" from the menu and select "Text". Also choose the Sample rate in cell H4 (see 2.) in accordance with the sample rate shown in the Foobar2000 Properties tab.
      
  • Go to the cell D1 (Chapter Points column), right-click it and select "Sort/Sort A to Z" from the menu.
    

Back to the Top
Back to the Wiki Index

Creation Video File (black image – no song titles)

• In the spreadsheet, select in cell H1 the frames per second for the video file, i.e. 25fps for PAL and 29.97fps for NTSC.
  
• Open DVD Slideshow GUI.
  
  • (one-time event) Go to "Slideshow/Project Settings",
    
  • choose NTSC or PAL (4:3 or 16:9). For info, you can also choose a 720p or 1080p format for Blu-ray (but this is not covered in this guide).
  • Change the background to the black frame (NTSC or PAL) provided in this package. Put the default Transition to “Dissolve.avs” and “Nothing” for Subs. Leave the Slide duration of 100 frames and change the Transition duration to "3" frames (lowest possible positive value).
    
  • Hit "Okay".
• Go to "Slideshow/Add Slides and Videos".
  
• Select the black frame (NTSC or PAL) provided in this package. Since DVD Slideshow GUI needs minimal 2 slides, select again the same black frame. You should now have 2 slides in the list, both with a Slide Duration of 100 frames and a Transition Duration of 3 frames.
  
• Right-click on slide 1 and in the Duration field copy/paste the value from cell H5 (Duration) of the spreadsheet and hit "Okay".
  
  
• Right-click on slide 2 and in the Duration Field enter 3 (lowest value possible) and hit Okay. The list should now look like the one here below.
  
• Go to "File/Export Slideshow",
  
• select as type “*.m2v” and provide a name for the video file. Hit the "Save" button and the rendering will start.
  

Back to the Top
Back to the Wiki Index

Creation Video File (different images – with song titles)
It is assumed that you have already read the Creation Video File (black image without song titles) section.

• In the spreadsheet, select in cell H1 the frames per second for the video file, i.e. 25fps for PAL and 29.97fps for NTSC.
  
• Copy/Paste from the spreadsheet the list of track titles (or make your own list) in the file “DVD.TrackList.txt”.
  
• Double-click on the “DVD.Make.NTSC.Frames.bat” (for NTSC) or “DVD.Make.PAL.Frames.bat” (for PAL) batch file to create black image jpg files using the names provided in the “DVD.Tracklist.txt” file. These file names will be used as subtitles later on.
  
  • From this moment you can continue or you can use your favourite image/photo application, load some images in there and save them each time under the same name as one of the black image jpg files (Normally: Save As - Point to one of the black image jpg files - Yes to Replace the file).
• Open DVD Slideshow GUI.
  
  • (one-time event) Go to "Slideshow/Project Settings", choose NTSC or PAL (4:3 or 16:9).
    
  • If you want your images to be cropped within the Safe area then keep the Safe area option selected, otherwise the full area will be used. See below.
    
  • Change the background to the black frame (NTSC or PAL) provided in this package or leave it to the default “background_golden.jpg” or choose your own. Put the default Transition to “Dissolve.avs” (or another one of your choice). Choose “File Name” for Subs and verify that the Subtitles option is selected and change, if needed, the font with the "Font" button. Keep the Slide duration of 100 frames and change the Transition duration to "3" frames (lowest possible positive value. Remind that if you want a longer Transition duration that also the cell H7 in the spreadsheet needs to be updated with that new value).
  • Hit "Okay".
• Go to "Slideshow/Add Slides and Videos". Select all the image files. Resize both the spreadsheet and DVD Slideshow GUI window a bit such that they can be put next to each other.
  
• Copy from column E in the spreadsheet the slide length for the first track, right-click on slide 1 in DVD Slideshow GUI and paste that value in the Duration field. Repeat that for each of the other tracks & slides. The list will look like the one here below.
  
  
  • As you can see, each of the slides will be rendered with a subtitle using the file name of the image file. You can add extra lines in the subtitle field by putting each time a “\N” at the end. In the “From CUE” tab of the spreadsheet you’ll see in cell L9 an example of the Artist & Album information extracted from the CUE sheet. See example here below.
    
• Go to "File/Export Slideshow", select as type “*.m2v” and provide a name for the video file. Hit the "Save" button and the rendering will start.

Making the DVD

• First export the chapter list (in frames) from the spreadsheet.
  Go to the column D (Chapter Points) and select all values as of cell D2 downwards. Copy/Paste them in Notepad and save them as a “chapters.txt” file, or any other name, but the extension has to be “.txt”.
  
• Open MuxMan
• Click on the “...” button for the Video part and select the .m2v video file created in one of the previous steps. Hit the "Close" button to close the dialog.
  
• Click on the “...” button for the Audio part
  
• and select all AC3 or DTS tracks.
  
  • In the Dialog box that follows you can use the "Add" button to add other tracks to the list and you can use the "Up" and "Dn" buttons to change the track order. Hit the "Close" button to close the dialog.
  • Do not mix AC3 and DTS tracks together. If you start with AC3 tracks, then continue with adding other AC3 tracks. And likewise, if you start with DTS tracks, only add DTS tracks from then onwards.
• Go to "File/Import Chapter" and select the “chapters.txt” file (or another name) created previously.
  
• Select a Destination folder, hit the "Start" button and the DVD will be created (quite fast).
• Remarks:
  
  • The DVD does not contain a menu and will automatically start playing. Navigate through the chapters to select a specific song. Displaying the name of the song on the screen is therefore quite useful in that respect.
  • You can play the result with your favourite DVD player or with ImgBurn you can burn it to DVD (choose Write file/folders to disc) or to an ISO (choose Create image file from file/folders), add then the VIDEO_TS folder to the list and hit the "Write/Build" button in ImgBurn.

Back to the Top
Back to the Wiki Index

Click Here for Comments, Feedback and Discussion

History
2009-09-14 : Initial Version published in Wiki (Pl4yitLOUD)
2010-08-01 : Reference added to AudioMuxer (Pl4yitLOUD)

This guide is Copyrighted © 2009-2010, SurroundByUs.com