This is the official FAQ for tovid. You are encouraged to read this before posting any questions in the tovid forum. For troubleshooting, please see common tovid problems.

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Contents 1 Encoding speed 2 Available fonts 3 Working with VOB files 4 Other Problems

Encoding speed Edit

Q. How long does it take to encode a video, and why is it so slow?

A. The default encoding method (using mplayer/mpeg2enc for video) is a fairly slow process. For DVD quality video, on an Athlon 1600 XP, encoding takes 4-5 times the length of the video (8-10 hours to encode a 2-hour movie).

Took 01:15:06 to encode a 01:44:56 video on Intel Celeron CPU 2.53GHz using ffmpeg.

(Table of encoding times needed for VCD/SVCD/DVD, for different CPU speeds--please help write one!)

tovid also supports ffmpeg encoding (see the '-ffmpeg' option in the tovid manual), which is much faster (only 1-2 hours per hour of video), but you may have trouble authoring the resulting MPEG, due to ffmpeg and/or dvdauthor limitations.

Available fonts Edit

Q. What fonts can I use in makemenu/todisc? (or, why do I have so few fonts to choose from when making menus from the GUI)

A. The argument given to '-font' must be one of the fonts listed by the command 'convert -list type'. (Note: if you have a very recent imagemagick the command is 'convert -list font'). Many of your installed fonts may not be available; if you want to maximize the number of fonts available to makemenu, download and run Anthony Thyssen's imagick_type_gen.pl script and run it like this:

$ chmod +x ./imagick_type_gen.pl
$ mkdir ~/.magick
$ ./imagick_type_gen.pl > ~/.magick/type.xml

If that doesn't work, try:

$ ./imagick_type_gen.pl > ~/.magick/type.mgk

Working with VOB files Edit

Q. I have a directory called VIDEO_TS filled with VOB files. Can I just burn that to a DVD?

A. Yes, if the VIDEO_TS also has .IFO and .BUP files in it as well. Use tovid's makedvd script to burn the directory. If your file folders look (something) like:

friedrij@savoy:~/tmp/demo$ tree
.
`-- tovid_demo_DVD
    |-- AUDIO_TS
    `-- VIDEO_TS
        |-- VIDEO_TS.BUP
        |-- VIDEO_TS.IFO
        |-- VTS_01_0.BUP
        |-- VTS_01_0.IFO
        |-- VTS_01_0.VOB
        `-- VTS_01_1.VOB

then you can burn your VOBs as a DVD with makedvd:

$ makedvd -burn ~/tmp/demo/tovid_demo_DVD

Notice that the parent directory is the one being passed as the one to be burned. This is because the root directory of a DVD must contain only two directories: AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. The VOBs live in the VIDEO_TS directory.

Other Problems Edit

Q. Why does the DVD I created not work as expected?

A. There are many issues that can affect the end result. You should test your authored disk before you commit it to disc. You can open the directory that contains the VIDEO_TS directory within gxine. (Be sure to include the trailing '/'.)

$ gxine dvd://tmp/demo/tovid_demo_DVD/

If clicking on menu buttons doesn't work in gxine, then use the 'DVD remote' emulator, called 'keypad' in gxine. (View->keypad , in the gxine menu under 'View".) You will especially need this for testing DVD slideshows.

If you don't have gxine installed, you can also test in vlc. Since multimedia apps are such a moving target, it is a good idea to test in vlc if gxine gives problems with it.

$ vlc /tmp/demo/tovid_demo_DVD/

You can also use relative paths with vlc, unlike gxine:

[foo@bar tmp] $ vlc tovid_demo_DVD/

As when burning any disc, the burn itself might actually fail, that is, if your computer is doing other things while you're burning a disc, the buffer may under-run and your burn fails. You may also be burning your disc too fast, use the '-speed' option in the makedvd manual to decrease the burn speed. The todisc script also has a -speed option for use with its -burn and -device options.

Finally, you may also run into compatibility issues between disc types and players. There are many types of DVD discs available, DVD+ and DVD-, R and RW, as well as RAM. Some players and discs don't work well together. Symptoms might include breaking up of video or audio, loss of sync between video and audio, stuttering and player errors.