NAME
todisc - Create a DVD with animated menus
DESCRIPTION
todisc is a command-line script for creating a DVD file-system with
animated thumbnail menus, from a list of multimedia video files and
their titles. It supports sub-menus for chapter breaks, configurable
menu style, animated backgrounds and transparency effects. It can
automatically convert non-compliant input files to the target format.
USAGE
todisc [OPTIONS] \
-files <file list> -titles <title list>
-out OUT_PREFIX
For example:
$ todisc -files File1.mpg File2.mpg File3.mpg \
-titles "Episode 1" "Episode 2" "Episode 3" \
-out Season_one
The number of -files and -titles must be equal. If the input files are
not mpeg, you will have the option to auto-encode them with tovid.
At present there are 2 display arrangements or "templates":
A. (Default)
Thumbs will be centred, and as large as space restraints allow.
B. -showcase IMAGE|VIDEO
Produces an arrangement with small buttons on the side and the
showcase image/video in the centre. If no IMAGE or VIDEO
argument is supplied, the central thumb will be omitted.
Note: -textmenu, -quick-menu and -switched-menus are all types
of showcase style menus. See their descriptions under Menu
style section.
The -titles arguments should be double or single quoted, or have the
spaces backslash-escaped. Special characters (like ", !, *, &, ?) may
need to be backslash-escaped. To include a quoted string within a
title, backslash-escape the quotes. These titles are used for
labelling thumbnails on the main menu, and for the submenu title for
that video. ( see also -submenu-titles )
The -showcase styles can use longer titles than the default
arrangement. With a showcase style, use: -showcase-titles-align west
to give more space for the title, or use -showcase-titles-align east to
allow titles of more than one line.
The default style can only show about 16 characters (depending on the
number of thumbs, and what -thumb-font and -thumb-fontsize is being
used). If your titles are too long to fit in the label area, you may
try using sub-menus, which can display longer titles, for example:
$ todisc -submenus \
-files file1.mpg file2.mpg ... \
-titles "Short 1" "Short 2" \
-submenu-titles "Long Title One" "Long Title Two" \
-out foo
The -align argument will position both titles and thumbs either south,
north east, west, southwest, northwest, southeast, northeast, subject
to certain constraints of each arrangement.
TITLESETS
A word should be mentioned here about titlesets. You need to use
titlesets, for example, if you have videos of different resolutions.
If you want to have titlesets you need to put all the options for each
titleset menu you would like to have between -titleset and
-end-titleset options.
Additionally, for the main menu (the opening menu that will let you
jump to each titleset), you need to put options between -vmgm and
-end-vmgm. You do not use -files for the opening menu options (-vmgm),
but you will need as many TITLES after -titles as you have menus.
Any options outside the -titleset -end-titleset and -vmgm -end-vmgm
areas will be general options applying to every titleset. If an
general option is duplicated inside a -titleset or -vmgm area, the
general option will be overridden.
Example of using todisc with titlesets:
$ todisc -static -out MY_DVD \
\
-titleset -files 1.mpg 2.mpg 3.mpg \
-titles "Title One" "Title Two" "Title Three" \
-end-titleset \
\
-titleset -files 4.mpg 5.mpg \
-titles "Title Four" "Title Five" \
-background foo.jpg \
-showcase bar.png \
-end-titleset \
\
-vmgm \
-titles "Season One" "Season Two" \
-background bg.jpg \
-bgaudio foo.mp3 \
-thumb-fontsize 20 \
-end-vmgm
See also -titleset and -vmgm
OPTIONS
-keepfiles
Keep all intermediate/temporary files (helps with debugging)
-dvd DVD-compatible output (default)
-svcd Super Video-CD-compatible output: *this is currently disabled
for -showcase-* styles
-ntsc 720x480 output, compatible with NTSC standard (default)
-pal 720x576 output, compatible with PAL standard
-submenus
Create a sub-menu with chapters for each video (default: no
sub-menus)
-ani-submenus
Create an animated sub-menu with chapters for each video
(default: not animated)
MENU STYLE
-showcase IMAGE|VIDEO (without an argument, use showcase style with no
central thumb)
A different arrangement of images for the menu: small thumbnails
go at left (and right) side of screen, with a larger image in
the centre. Maximum of 10 videos If the provided argument is a
video file, the central thumb will be animated. Pick a file of
correct aspect ratio: i.e. it should still look good when
resized to 720x480 (PAL 720x576), then resized to proper aspect
ratio.
-textmenu, -text-menu NUM ( without an argument, create a textmenu out
of the supplied titles
The optional argument specifies how many titles are in the 1st
column, i.e. giving 4 titles and using "-textmenu 2" would make
2 columns of 2 titles. The default is to put all titles up to 13
in the first column before starting a second title. Maximum, 2
columns and 26 titles. If no video files for either -background
or -showcase are supplied, the menu will be static.
-quick-menu
This will make a very quick '-showcase IMAGE|VIDEO' style menu
by using ffmpeg instead of imagemagick. There are no fancy
effects like -wave or -rotate available for it, but it is
extremely fast. It will be a text-menu style of menu, with no
video thumbs, and a central showcase
IMAGE(static)|VIDEO(animated). ( see -pad-color if you are not
using a -background and want to change the default black )
Specifying the IMAGE|VIDEO argument to -showcase is mandatory
for this style of menu, unless used in conjunction with
-switched-menus in which case the videos passed with -files
automatically become the showcase videos. If this is used in
combination with -switched-menus it can really speed up an
otherwise time comsuming process. On my athlon 2900+ system it
makes a 4 video switched menu of 30 seconds length (each) in
about 4 minutes ( !! ).
Example:
-quick-menu -showcase /home/robert/showcase.mpg
See -switched-menus for example of making switched menus with
-quick-menu
-pad-color | -pad-colour
The color to use as background for a -quick-menu menu. (default:
ntsc-safe black)
-use-makemenu
This will call the other tovid menu script, "makemenu" on the
titles supplied.
-static
Main menu will just be static thumbs (not animated) (default:
animated)
-background IMAGE|VIDEO
Menu background. This can be a image file or an video file. If
it is a video file the background will be animated. Pick a file
of correct aspect ratio: i.e. it should still look good when
resized to 720x480 (PAL 720x576)
-menu-title
Title for the root menu - may be longer than thumbnail labels
Also if you use \n in the title, you can use multi line titles,
but you would need to adjust -menu-fontsize to something smaller
than default for example:
$ todisc ... -menu-title "A\nMultilined\nTitle" -menu-fontsize 24
-menu-font FONT
Font to use for titles, either by ImageMagick font name (ex.,
"Arial") or explicit pathname (ex., "/full/path/to/arial.ttf").
To see a complete list of acceptable ImageMagick font names, run
convert -list type, and refer to the leftmost column
-menu-fontsize
Font size for main menu - best to -preview if you use this
-menu-fade
Fade the menu in and out The background will fade in first, then
title (and mist if called for), then the menu thumbs. The
fadeout is in reverse order
-bgaudio
An audio file for the main menu background
-submenu-audio FILE(S)
List of files for sub-menu backgrounds. If one file is given,
then it will be used for all sub-menus. Else the number given
must equal the number of submenus, though the keyword "none" in
this list may be used for silence.
-titleset . . . -end-titleset
If you have more than one titleset, put the options for each
titleset between -titleset and -end-titleset. A separate menu
will be created that can be accessed from the main menu (VMGM).
You can create this main menu using the -vmgm -end-vmgm options.
See -vmgm below and TITLESET paragraph opening Usage section.
-vmgm . . . -end-vmgm
The VMGM menu is the root menu when you use titlesets. Put your
VMGM menu options between -vmgm and -end-vmgm. You only need
-titles "Titleset One title" "Titleset Two title" . . . , and
not -files. Any other options can be used, but the menu will
be a textmenu style by default. Hint: use -showcase IMAGE/VIDEO
to create a fancier VMGM menu.
-switched-menus
This will make a "switched menu": there will be a central image
where the showcase image would go, and text menu titles along
the menu edge where textmenu titles go. As you select a video
title with the down or up arrow on your DVD remote, the image in
the centre will change to the image or video made from that
selected video. Do not use -showcase IMAGE/VIDEO with this
option.
This can be a time consuming process for making animated menus
as you need to make a separate menu for each video provided with
-files. The process can be greatly sped up by using -quick-menu
in conjunction with this, though you will lose fancy options
like -rotate and -wave.
Example for using with -quick-menu:
-switched-menus -quick-menu
THUMBNAIL STYLE
-thumb-shape [normal|oval|plectrum|egg]
Apply a shaped transparency mask to thumbnail videos The default
is to have a rectangular semi-transparent misted background for
each thumb - to disable this mist use -thumb-mist-color none.
-3dthumbs
This will give an illusion of 3D to the thumbnails: dynamic
lighting on rounded thumbs, and a raised effect on rectangular
thumbs. Try it !
-thumb-font FONT
Display thumbnail titles in the given font
-thumb-fontsize POINTS
Font size to use for thumbnail titles
ADVANCED USAGE
OPTIONS
-menu-length
The desired animated main menu length in seconds
-submenu-stroke-color, -submenu-stroke-colour COLOR
The color for the sub-menu font outline (stroke)
-submenu-title-color, -submenu-title-colour
The fill color used for sub-menu title fonts
-submenu-titles
You can supple a list of titles here for sub-menus without the
length restrictions found in thumb titles. Must equal number of
videos
-chapters [ NUM | CHAPTER POINTS in HH:MM:SS ]
The number of chapters for each video (default: 6) OR the actual
chapter points in HH:MM:SS format. Chapter points will be used
for generating the submenu thumbs, and for seeking with your DVD
player. You can pass in just one value that will be used for
all videos, or supply a list of values (number of chapters) or
timecode strings.
If you just pass an integer for 'number of chapters', then
todisc will make the chapter points for you by dividing the
video length by the number you supply.
If passing HH:MM:SS format you need to pass the group of chapter
points for each video and each group should have comma separated
values. Additionally, the first chapter should always start at
00:00:00 as dvdauthor will add that if it is not there already.
To get your timecodes, you can play your videos in mplayer and
press 'o' to see them onscreen. I have found these to be very
accurate in my short tests. For absolute frame accuracy you
could load the file in avidemux and find the time codes for the
frames you want.
If passing grouped chapters you need to join the chapters from
all the videos in a group with a '+' seperator. If you want to
skip a video in the group use '0' for its chapters.
Example for passing just number of chapters ( 4 videos ):
-chapters 5 2 4 8
Example of passing chapter points ( 4 videos ):
-chapters 00:00:00,00:05:34.41,00:12:54,00:20:45 \
00:00:00,00:04:25.623,00:09:12,00:15:51 \
00:00:00,00:05:10,00:13:41,00:18:13.033 \
00:00:00,00:15:23.342,00:26:42.523
Example of passing grouped chapters using the '+' seperator:
-chapters \
00:00:00,00:05:34.41,00:12:54,00:20:45+00:04:23,00:09:35 \
00:00:00...etc
-seek NUM | "NUM1 NUM2 NUM3 . . ."
Seek to NUM seconds before generating thumbnails (default: 2.0
seconds) If a quoted string of values matching the number of
videos is used, then each video can use a different seek value
If using switched menus, the -seek value(s) will be used to
generate the showcase image that displays on switching to
another video choice with the up/down arrow keys.
-showcase-seek NUM
Seek to NUM seconds before generating thumbnails for showcase
video (default: 2.0 seconds)
-bgvideo-seek NUM
Seek to NUM seconds before generating images for background
video (default: 2.0 seconds)
-bgaudio-seek NUM
Seek to NUM seconds before generating audio for bgaudio
(default: 2.0 seconds)
-group N VIDEO1 VIDEO2 . . .
Allow grouping videos in dvdauthor.xml, so they will play
sequentially as a group. The videos passed in after the 'N'
will be grouped with the 'Nth' video. Example:
-group 2 2.mpg 3.mpg 4.mpg
will group these 3 videos with the 2nd video given with -files,
so that they will play sequentially as one title. Only one
thumbnail and/or title will appear on the menu for the group: it
will be made from the 1st video in the group. In the above
example if you passed:
-files foo.mpg bar.mpg baz.mpg -group 2 2.mpg 3.mpg 4.mpg
then the group will consist of bar.mpg 2.mpg, 3.mpg and 4.mpg,
and only the title and/or thumbnail for bar.mpg will appear in
the menu. You can use -group more than once if you have more
than one group you are making. Be sure to quote video filenames
if they contain spaces.
-noask, -no-ask
Skip all interactive questions. No preview, automatic
re-encoding with tovid if needed, no interactive option to use
background video for bgaudio.
-nowarn, -no-warn
Don't pause after outputing warning messages
-tovidopts "OPTIONS"
Pass the given string of options to 'tovid', if it is called
upon to re-encode your non-compliant videos. Be sure to include
the double-quotes around your list of options!
MENU STYLE
-menu-title-geo north|south|east|west|center [south]
The position of the menu title.
-menu-title-offset OFFSET (+X+Y)
Move menu title by this offset from its N|S|E|W|Center position.
-button-style rect|text|line|text-rect
The style of button that you will see when you play the DVD.
"rect" draws a rectangle around the thumb when you select it in
the DVD player. "text" highlights the thumb title text, "line"
underlines the title, and "text-rect" draws a rectangle around
the title text. If you have multiline titles, use "text-rect"
or "line".
-title-color, -title-colour COLOR
Color to use for the main menu title. For list of supported
colors do: convert -list color. HTML notation may be used:
"#ff0000". See: http://www.imagemagick.org/script/color.php
-stroke-color, -stroke-colour COLOR
Outline color for the main menu font. Use "none" for transparent
outline (see title-color)
-highlight-color, -highlight-colour
Color to use for the menu buttons that your dvd remote uses to
navigate
-select-color, -select-colour
Color to use for the menu buttons that your dvd remote uses to
select
-text-mist
Put a semi-transparent misted background behind the title text,
just slightly larger than the text area
-text-mist-color, -text-mist-colour COLOR
Color of the mist behind the menu text (see title-color)
-text-mist-opacity
Opacity of the mist behind the menu text - see -opacity
-submenu-audio-length
The length of the background audio for a static submenu. The
default is to use the full length of the supplied audio (
-bgaudio ).
-menu-audio-fade
Number of sec to fade given menu audio in and out (default: 1.0
seconds) If you use -menu-audio-fade 0 then the audio will not
be faded.
-submenu-audio-fade
Number of sec to fade given sub-menu audio in and out (default:
1.0 seconds) See -menu-audio-fade
-intro VIDEO
Use a introductory video that will play before the main menu.
At present this must be a DVD compatible video at the correct
resolution etc. Only 4:3 aspect is supported: 16:9 will give
unexpected results.
MENU STYLE OPTIONS SPECIFIC TO SHOWCASE AND TEXTMENU ARRANGEMENTS
-text-start N
This option is for -textmenu menus. The titles will start at
the Nth pixel from the top of the menu ( Y axis ).
-title-gap N
This option is for -textmenu menus. The gap is the space
between titles vertically ( Y axis ).
-rotate DEGREES
Rotate the showcase image|video clockwise by DEGREES. (default:
if used without options, the rotate will be 5 degrees)
-showcase-geo GEOMETRY
The position of the showcase image. ( XxY position )
-wave default|GEOMETRY
Wave effect for showcase image|video. Alters thumbs along a
sine wave using GEOMETRY. (default: no wave) "default" will
produce a wave arg of -20x556, which produces a gentle wave with
a small amount of distortion. See:
http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/distorts/#wave if you want to
try other values
-showcase-framestyle none|glass
For -showcase-* style template only "none" will use the default
frame method, using "convert -frame . . ." "glass" will use
mplayer to make frames, which gives an interesting animated
effect to the frames, and can be much faster ( especially if you
don't use -rotate or -wave as thumbs will not need to be
processed again after mplayer spits them out Note: you need to
be using either -showcase IMAGE or -showcase VIDEO for this
"frame style" to work.
THUMBNAIL STYLE
-opacity [0-100] (default 100)
Opacity of thumbnail videos as a percentage (no percent sign)
Anything less than 100(%) is semi-transparent. Not recommended
with dark backgrounds
-blur NUM
The amount of feather blur to apply to the thumb-shape. Default
is 4.0 which will more or less keep the shape and produce
transparency at the edges Choose float or integer values between
0.1 and 5.0 Higher values are possible, but you may not like the
result, particularly when using "-thumb-mist-colour none" 3D
thumbs are automatically set to a negligible blur, so this
option has no effect
-align north|south
This will align thumbs/titles north or south. (if -align south
then menu title will align north)
-thumb-mist-color, -thumb-mist-colour
Color of mist behind thumbnails
-thumb-text-color, -thumb-text-colour COLOR
Color to use for the thumb titles (see -title-color)
-showcase-titles-align west|east (default: center [centre])
The default is to center the text above the thumbnails. This
option will align the titles either to the left (west) or right
(east). Aligning west gives more space to the titles. Aligning
east also does so, and as well will let you use \n in your
titles to achieve multi line titles.
-tile-3x1, -tile3x1
Use a montage tile of 3x1 instead of the usual 2x2 for 3 videos
ie. [movie1] [movie2] [movie3] instead of [movie1] [movie2]
[movie3] This option only comes into play if the number of
videos supplied equals 3 Otherwise it will be silently ignored.
Not used for -showcase-* style.
-tile-4x1, -tile4x1
Same as -tile-3x1 above, except use tile of 4x1. (one row of 4
videos)
-rotate-thumbs DEGREE LIST ( list of degrees, one for each thumb )
Rotate thumbs the given amount in degrees - can be positive or
negative. There must be one value for each file given with
-files. If the values are not the same distance from zero, the
thumbs will be of different sizes as images are necessarily
resized *after* rotating. With the default montage template -
this will also resize the titles; with the showcase template the
titles will remain the same size. Example:
-rotate-thumbs -10 10 -10 10 -10 (for 5 files)
**Note: this option does not work currently with shaped or 3d
thumbs (-thumb-shape SHAPE' or -3dthumbs ) unless using showcase
style.
DVDAUTHOR OPTIONS
-loop Pause in seconds at end of menu. Use "inf" if you wish
indefinite pause. (Note: you can not use inf with -menu-fade as
you will get a black screen at the end) (default: "inf" for
static menu, 10.0 seconds for animated)
-playall
This option will create a button on the main menu that will
allow going right to the 1st title and playing all videos in
succession before returning to the main menu
-chain-videos NUM | N1-NN
Without options this will chain all videos together so they play
sequentially without returning to the main menu, except for the
last, which will return. You can also specify which videos you
want to behave this way by number or by a range. ( ie.
-chain-videos 1 2 4-6 )
-subtitles "lang1 lang2 . . ."
This allows selectable subtitles in the DVD, assuming you have
optional subtitles muxed into your videos
-audio-lang "Video1_channel Video2_channel Video3_channel . . ."
"VideoN_channel" is the track number to use in a multitrack
(multi-language) mpeg Usually something like -audio-lang "1 0 1"
( 1st track is 0, 2nd is 1 . . . etc ) If the tracks are 0.
English 1.French, then the above would make French the audio
language on Video1 and Video3, and English the audio language on
Video2. You can check the mpeg with "mplayer -v . . ."
-aspect 4:3|16:9
This will output a <video aspect WIDTH:HEIGHT /> tag for the
dvdauthor xml file. It will affect all videos in the titleset.
Example:
-aspect 16:9
-widescreen nopanscan|noletterbox [nopanscan]
This will output a <video widescreen=nopanscan /> tag (for
example) for the dvdauthor xml file. It will affect all videos
in the titleset. Use in conjunction with -aspect if your dvd
player is cropping your videos. Example:
-aspect 16:9 -widescreen
-quick-nav
This option will allow navigation of a menu with more than one
titleset by using the left and right arrow keys of your DVD
remote. When you press this key the highlight will go the next
or previous title. If you are at the end of a titleset the
right key will go to the next titleset. If you are at the
beginning of a titleset, the left key will go to the previous
titleset. If no next or previous titleset it will cycle to the
end or beginning of the titlesets.
-outlinewidth, -outline-width WIDTH
For spumux outlinewidth variable. If there is a large gap
between words in a text button, this option may help.
SEE ALSO
idvid(1), makedvd(1), makemenu(1), makeslides(1), makevcd(1),
makexml(1), postproc(1), tovid(1), todisc(1)
CONTACT
For further assistance, contact information, forum and IRC links,
please refer to the tovid homepage (http://tovid.org/).
TODISC MANUAL(1)