home | help
dvd-slideshow(1)		  dvd-slideshow 		dvd-slideshow(1)

NAME
     dvd-slideshow  -  Creates a slideshow movie in DVD video format from a list
     of pictures and effects.

SYNOPSIS
     dvd-slideshow [-n <slideshow name>] [-o <output directory>] [-b <background
     jpeg>] [-a <audiofile1> -a <audiofile2> -a <audiofileN>] [-p] [-flv] [-mp4]
     [-s WxH] [-L] [-H] [-mp2]	[-r]  [-nosmp]	[-border  <bordersize>]  [-theme
     <themename>] [-f] <input text file>

DESCRIPTION
     Creates  a  video	from  a bunch of images. The default video format is de-
     signed to produce DVDs, but other formats can be created for the  web  also
     (.flv).   You  can add music on the command line or in the text input file.
     Supports several effects like fadein, fadeout, crossfade,	crop,  and  ken-
     burns.   dvd-slideshow  is  designed  to work with dvd-menu to create a dvd
     navigation menu that you can then burn onto a  dvd.  There  are  also  some
     helper  scripts  to convert a directory of pictures or your favorite online
     photo album to a dvd.

OPTIONS
     [-n <Slideshow name>]
	    The program uses this string as the filename  base	for  the  output
	    files  so  you can distinguish it from other slideshows that you can
	    send to the same output directory. If  not	specified,  the  default
	    value is the name of the input file.

     [-f] <Input text file>
	    See the INPUT FILE section.

     [-o <Output directory>]
	    Directory  where  the  final  .vob	and dvdauthor .xml files will be
	    written. Defaults to the current working directory.

     [-b <Background jpeg>]
	    Image to use for the background of the slideshow. All  of  the  pic-
	    tures  will  be overlaid on top of this background image. If no file
	    is specified, black will be used for the slideshow and a blue gradi-
	    ent for the title slide.

     [-a <Audio file>]
	    Audio file to play in background during the slideshow.  It	will  be
	    faded  out	at  the  end.  Supports mp3, ogg, or wav formats at this
	    point.  Multiple files will be joined. See also  the  more	flexible
	    text  file	input  method. To pass multiple files, use the -a switch
	    again.

     [-p]   Use PAL output video format instead of NTSC.

     [-mpeg2enc]
	    Force use of mpeg2enc with mp2 audio even if  ffmpeg  is  installed.
	    Use  this  if you have problems with ffmpeg.  Usually ffmpeg is much
	    faster at encoding video.

     [-mp2]
	    Use mp2 audio by default.  AC3 audio seems to be  more  stable  when
	    playing  in  dvd  hardware	players, but requires ffmpeg.  This will
	    over-ride the AC3 default and use the mp2 audio encoder.

     [-s WidthxHeight]
	    Use output size other than the standard DVD output size (720x480 for
	    NTSC).  Used when specifying alternate output formats with	-flv  or
	    -mp4

     [-flv]
	    Render  a  flash video instead of a mpeg2 .vob.  Default output size
	    is 320x240.

     [-mp4]
	    Render a mp4 video instead of a mpeg2 .vob.

     [-mpg]
	    Render a .mpg video instead of a mpeg2 .vob.  Allows  for  alternate
	    (non DVD compatible) sizing with -s

     [-vcd]
	    (alpha) Renders video in vcd-compatible output.

     [-svcd]
	    (alpha) Renders video in svcd-compatible output.

     [-L]   Render  a  low-quality  video  suitable for debugging. This sets the
	    resolution to 1/2 of full resolution and decreases	the  quality  of
	    fades/transitions.	 It  should  speed up the encoding process by at
	    least a factor of 4.

     [-H]   (Beta) Render a higher-quality video. This uses the default dvd res-
	    olution and keeps all other output parameters the same, but  enables
	    some  pixel-sampling methods that make the scroll effect look better
	    at very slow velocities. This will make dvd-slideshow take up to  4x
	    longer  to	process the scroll effect. Only applied when needed; the
	    output will explain if it is being used.

     [-theme <themefile>]
	    Use the given theme when setting  variables/colors/etc.  Themes  are
	    installed  in  /opt/dvd-slideshow/themes  or  in  a  local directory
	    ~/.dvd-slideshow/themes

     [-border N]
	    Make a border of N pixels around each image. Does not apply to title
	    slides.

     [-sharpen]
	    Sharpen images.

     [-r]   Autocrop images near the DVD output aspect ratio to fill  the  whole
	    window.

     [-w]   [alpha] Render widescreen (16:9) output instead of standard (4:3).

     [-nosmp]
	    Disable  multiple  threads	in some processes when possible.  If you
	    have little memory or a slow machine, this may help if  you  experi-
	    ence problems with disk memory caching.

     [-nocleanup]
	    Leave temporary files in the temporary directory.  Useful for debug-
	    ging.

     [-q]   Quiet output mode.	Reduce amount of information on screen, but keep
	    a progressbar indicator.

     [-V 1|2]
	    Increase  verbose debug output.  1 adds more than the default, and 2
	    adds a lot.

     -h     Prints help file (basically this manpage).

INPUT FILE
     Note: The -f is optional if the input filename is the last argument on the
     comand-line.

     The input file is a text file that acts like a timeline or storyboard for
     your slideshow.  In the most simple form, it is just a list of images.  See
     EXAMPLES for some simple examples of these text files. The input file also
     allows for many more special effects that are not available on the command
     line. Each line contains one image or effect. It uses the : character as a
     separator for the fields. Here is the syntax:

     [image.jpg|keyword]:duration:subtitle:effect:effect_params

     Duration can be specified in integer seconds like 5 or with up to three
     decimal points of accuracy, like 5.683.

     When passing a picture, you can optionally use the keyword "audio" instead
     of the duration in seconds.  What this does is force the duration of that
     image to be the length of the previous audio track.  This is useful for
     making a music video dvd.

     The subtitle field is optional, but if you are passing effects after the
     subtitle field, be sure to include all the colons :: in order for the
     parser to get the correct info.  You can escape a colon in subtitles with a
     backslash.

     NOTE: the effect parameters are separated by a semicolon ; instead of a
     colon :.

     KEYWORDS:
	    title:duration:title text
	    Makes a title slide with text centered in the screen.  Further  con-
	    trol  of  the  font,  size,  and  position	of the title text can be
	    achieved by setting variables (see the VARIABLES section).

	    titlebar:duration:Upper title text:Lower title text
	    Makes a title slide using <Upper title text> as a title at	the  top
	    of the screen, and <Lower title text> as a lower title, in a band at
	    the  bottom of the screen.	Each title is optional.  If one is miss-
	    ing, it will not be displayed. White ands are underlayed behind  the
	    text for better contrast. Further control of the font, size, and po-
	    sition  of	the title text can be achieved by setting variables (see
	    the VARIABLES section).

	    musictitle:duration:subtitle:Title:Artist;Album
	    Makes a black frame with the song info printed in  the  bottom  left
	    corner. Yes, that is a semicolon between Artist and Album.

	    background:duration:subtitle:image.jpg
	    Makes  a slide with the current background image (or black if no im-
	    age is passed).  If a new image name is passed, the background  will
	    be reset to that picture. Examples:
	    "background:2" will display the current background for 2 seconds.
	    "background:2::image.jpg"  will  set the background to image.jpg and
	    also display it for 2 seconds.
	    "background:0::image.jpg" will  set  the  background  image  to  im-
	    age.jpg, but will not use it until the next picture.
	    "black" or "white" can be used instead of an image name to display a
	    black or white background.

	    Transitions:
	    Transitions  do not add time to the overall slideshow, they just get
	    overlaid on top of the adjacent images.  Because of this, the  tran-
	    sition  duration  can not be greater than half of the adjacent image
	    duration.

	    fadein:duration:subtitle
	    Fades in to the next slide

	    fadeout:duration:subtitle
	    Fades out to the background

	    crossfade:duration:subtitle
	    Fades from one slide to the next.

	    wipe:duration:subtitle:[up|down|left|right]
	    Wipes from one picture to the next.  The direction is  optional  and
	    will default to left.

	    chapter
	    Force  manual  chapter  marker timing.  Chapter markers will only be
	    created where the "chapter" keyword occurs. The default  is  to  add
	    chapter markers at every slide.

	    include:includefile.txt
	    Other  input  files can be included in the input .txt file. The file
	    includefile.txt will be concatenated in the place where the line oc-
	    curs..

	    exit
	    Stops the slideshow at the current point as if  the  input.txt  file
	    ended at this point. Useful for debugging

     EFFECTS:
	    Effects  are  only	used with images, not keywords. In the following
	    effects, x0,y0 represents the top left corner of a defined box,  and
	    x1,y1 is the bottom right corner.
	    NOTE:  the	effect parameters are separated by a semicolon ; instead
	    of a colon :

	    crop
	    image.jpg:duration:subtitle:crop:x0,y0;x1,y1
	    Crops the image about the coordinates specified (in the original im-
	    age coordinate system).
	    Crop keyword description:
	    Because it is difficult to figure out the exact locations where  you
	    want  to  crop, it is possible to use special keywords for the loca-
	    tions where you want to crop the image.  The basic format is:
		 frame_size%;frame_location
	    where frame_size indicates the relative scale(%) in percent  of  the
	    final  dvd window width/height, and frame_location refers to the lo-
	    cation of the center point of the picture relative to the  dvd  win-
	    dow.
	    Frame_location can be any of the following keywords:
		 topleft	top	       topright
		 left		middle	       right
		 bottomleft	bottom	       bottomright
	    or
		 x%,y%
	    where % is a percentage of the window width,height starting from the
	    top left corner of the dvd window.
	    or
		 imagewidth | imageheight
	    where  the	image  width  or  height will be scaled to fill the full
	    width or height of the dvd screen.
	    Crop examples:
		 image.jpg:dur:sub:crop:651,390;1134,759
		 image.jpg:dur:sub:crop:30%;60%,60%
		 image.jpg:dur:sub:crop:50%;topleft
		 image.jpg:dur:sub:crop:imageheight;left

	    kenburns
	    image.jpg:duration:subtitle:kenburns:start_box;end_box
	    Where now we have starting (s) and ending (e) boxes, defined in  the
	    same  way as in the "crop" function, above. The kenburns effect will
	    crop/zoom from the start to the end for the given duration.
	    Full box description:
		 xs0,ys0;xs1,ys1;xe0,ye0;xe1,ye1
	    Specifies the top-left(0) and bottom-right(1) points.
	    Keyword description:
		 start_frame_size%;start_location;end_frame_size%;end_location
	    Kenburns examples:
		    image.jpg:5::kenburns:651,390;1134,759;372,330;1365,1089
		 image.jpg:5:sub:kenburns:30%;60%,60%;75%;40%,50%	     im-
	    age.jpg:5:sub:kenburns:50%;topleft;50%;bottomright		     im-
	    age.jpg:5:sub:kenburns:100%;left;0,0;720,480		     im-
	    age.jpg:5:sub:kenburns:100%;left;imageheight;left

	    scroll
	    image.jpg:duration:subtitle:scroll:left
	    image.jpg:duration:subtitle:scroll:right
	    image.jpg:duration:subtitle:scroll:up
	    image.jpg:duration:subtitle:scroll:down
	    This  is most useful for displaying panorama-style pictures that are
	    much wider than they are tall. For example, "scroll:right" will  au-
	    tomatically  resize the picture so that the image height is equal to
	    the video display height (480) before scrolling right.

	    Note that in high quality mode (-H), some calculations will be  made
	    to	see  how slow the scroll is, and if it is slow enough, sub-pixel
	    sampling will be used to make the scroll effect look much  smoother.
	    Sounds  good, right?  Well, it will take a LOT longer to process the
	    frames also!

     AUDIO:
	    Audio tracks can be inter-mixed with the video.  If an  audio  track
	    is	placed	between  two  different images/effects, that audio track
	    will begin playing at the start of the  second  image/effect.   When
	    placing audio, use the syntax:

	    audiofile:track:effect1:effect1_params:effect2:effect2_params

	    The audiofile can be a .ogg, .mp3, or .wav file.
	    Track is the resulting dvd audio track.

	    Audio  Effects  are  audio effects where you can specify things like
	    fadein and fadeout for the audio.  Example:

	    audiofile:1:fadein:3:fadeout:2

	    If you want to concatenate two audio  files,  just	place  them  one
	    right after another in the .txt file.

CONFIGURATION
     You  can specify lots of variables and options throughout the dvd-slideshow
     script.  Settings	can  be  passed  on  the  command  line,  in  a  default
     ~/.dvd-slideshow/dvd-slideshowrc  file, or within the input text file.  The
     order in which the script reads the settings is as follows:
     Default script settings -->  ~/.dvd-slideshow/dvd-slideshowrc  -->  command
     line --> input text file
     so each successive setting will over-ride the previous settings if they are
     already set.

     ~/.dvd-slideshow/dvd-slideshowrc:
	    With  the  syntax shown below, the following variables can be speci-
	    fied in the ~/.dvd-slideshowrc file.  All lines  are  optional,  and
	    everything after the # character is not read.

	    debug=1	   # 0 (low) to 3 (lots of info)
	    pal=0	   # 0=ntsc 1=pal
	    ac3=1	   # 0=mp2 1=ac3 audio
	    copy=0	   #  add copies of original images to the output direc-
	    tory
	    high_quality=0 # use high-quality mode (set to 1)
	    autocrop=1	   # autocrop images to fill full screen
	    border=0  # add border of N pixels between image and dvd edge
	    sharpen=0 # Enable image sharpening for all images
	    widescreen=0   # use widescreen mode (16:9) instead of 4:3

	    ## Default font:
	    font=/usr/share/fonts/default/Type1/n019004l.pfb #	Helvetical  bold
	    URW font

	    ##	Subtitle: subtitle_type="dvd"  # use "render" to force rendering
	    of text.
	    subtitle_font_size=24
	    subtitle_font='/usr/share/fonts/default/Type1/n019004l.pfb'  #  Hel-
	    vetical bold URW font
	    subtitle_color="white"
	    subtitle_outline_color="black"
	    subtitle_location="bottom"
	    subtitle_location_x=0
	    subtitle_location_y=105

	    ## Title:
	    title_font_size=48
	    title_font_color="black"  # or use hex "#RRGGBB"
	    title_font='/usr/share/fonts/default/Type1/n019004l.pfb'  # Helveti-
	    cal bold URW font

	    ## top title:
	    toptitle_font_size=48
	    toptitle_font_color="black"  # or use hex "#RRGGBB"
	    toptitle_bar_height=125  # 0 for no 50% white behind text
	    toptitle_text_location_x=80
	    toptitle_text_location_y=50

	    # bottom title:
	    bottomtitle_font_size=36
	    bottomtitle_font_color="black"  # or use hex "#RRGGBB"
	    bottomtitle_bar_location_y=156 # relative to bottom of image
	    bottomtitle_bar_height=55  # 0 for no 50% white behind text
	    bottomtitle_text_location_x=0
	    bottomtitle_text_location_y=155

	    # kenburns:
	    kenburns_acceleration=1  # seconds of slow acceleration for kenburns
	    # use 0 for no acceleration, or, use a percent of the effect time:
	    # kenburns_acceleration=25%  # will accelerate for the first 25%  of
	    the effect.

	    # logo:
	    logo=path/to/logofile.png	# will be overlaid on top of all frames.
	    Must be pre-sized manually.
	    logo_gravity=SouthEast   # Position of logo overlay. North | South |
	    East | West | NorthEast | NorthWest | SouthEast | SouthWest

     Input text file:
	    The same syntax used in ~/.dvd-slideshow/dvd-slideshowrc can be used
	    in the input text file.  This way, you could specify settings speci-
	    fit to the slideshow you are working on without  changing  your  de-
	    fault settings.

THEMES
     A	theme  is  just a file containing a list of configuration variables, and
     possibly also background images, fonts, or audio in the same directory.

     Any of the configuration variables can be placed in a  dvd-slideshow  theme
     file to control dvd-slideshow also..br

     This will be explained more later...

FILES
     dvd-slideshow
     dvd-menu
     dir2slideshow
     gallery1-to-slideshow
     jigl2slideshow

EXAMPLES
     There  are  a few heavily-commented examples available in the examples sec-
     tion   of	 the   dvd-slideshow   webpage,   which   you	can   find    at
     http://dvd-slideshow.sourceforge.net

AUTHORS
     Scott Dylewski <scott at dylewski dot com>
     http://dvd-slideshow.sourceforge.net/

SEE ALSO
     dvd-menu(1)

Scott Dylewski			      0.8.4			dvd-slideshow(1)

home | help