Hi,

I recently had the idea of a plugin, which would automatically read all the DVD information we normally enter manually in new DVD profiles (e.g. run time, format and order of audio tracks, language and order of subtitles, video aspect ratio, multi-angle, DVD-ROM content, ...)
All this information is available on the actual DVD and a program should be able to read/analyze it and add it automatically to the DVD profile...

However, I'm not a good developer, so won't be able to create something like this. Anybody to volunteer? 

BTW: I found this, which seems to go in the right direction by reading data from DVD...

Quoting Touti:

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I've started it a while ago as a standalone program and put it aside because I was waiting to see what would happen with DVD Profiler.

That's the project I had in mind when I requested access to the plugin development forum

We need results ! 

Interesting post Mark.

First off, it was never my intention to automatically populate the fields in DVD Profiler.  My idea is a plugin that will show all the information in a window.  Maybe a future version would allow the user to populate the database by clicking on the data but I doubt I will get that far because, for audio tracks for example, I wouldn't know wether he wants to add data or replace existing stuff.

As per the information, I bought the DVD Specifications and structures of the IFO files which contains all the information you need.  You just have to make sure you read it properly to get the physical address of the data table for the first title on the DVD. 

It is true that sometimes you see names of subtitles that aren't really there but you first need to check the field that tell you how many there is and what the address of the first entry in the table.  The you just have to get the info for the right number.

Aspect ratio seems a little tricky also because it doesn't seem to tell you clearly what's the ratio.

For audio tracks I will have the same problem other programs have, the tracks table gives their names, types and the number of channels but nothing tells you if it's surround or not.

So why am I doing this then ?  Simply to allow DVDP users to have all the information in 1 place.  I paid 40$ for DVD Audio Extractor and I still can't tell for sure wether a Mono track is 1 or 2 channels.  I also installed DVD Decryptor and VSO Inspector to be able to check the number of layers, sides etc.

When I audit a DVD, I need 4 programs (including Power DVD) to get all the information, if I can reduce that to 1, running within DVDP, maybe I can help make people life a little bit easier and keep the database a little cleaner.

I'm glad I'm not the only who looked into this, I know who I can ask when I have bugs and problems now

P.S: I haven't looked at TV Series discs yet so I really can't say anything about it.  I did however found that Canadian dvd authors have a strange way of doing things, they often create a title for every chapter 

I didn't actually bought the official specs which are surely a few thousand dollars.  I found someone who wrote his own and sells it at around 40$ (if memory serves).  Nice and well written document.

As for the aspect ratio, as I recall (been a while since I touched the program), it tells you if it's 16x9 or 4:3.  The problem is that you don't know if it's enhnaced or not, as 16x9 could have an original ratio of 1:78 which would make it widescreen but not "enhanced".  I have to look more into this though.

I've been fooling with IFO Edit for a while now.  Some time ago I used it to totally illegally make my own DVD's with movies I got from other sources.  It was more as a learning process actually and I destroyed all those discs a long time ago.

There are other things that I want to display that you don't find in the IFO files, all the things related to the disc itself such as number of sides, layers, media type etc.  I found some nice code on msdn for it.

I have pretty much all the documentation I need, I'm just waiting for the plugin SDK which we should get soon I think.

What are these other ideas you have for plugins ?

Quoting Touti:

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What are these other ideas you have for plugins ?

I thought I might start with a CSV export.  It seems like a pretty simple place to start.

Quoting skipnet50:

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Does yours read the Surround Flag (old DD3).

I don't recall of the top of my head.  I know it simply reports what's on the disc.  I can check something out if you give me a specific title to test.

Quoting Touti:

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As for the aspect ratio, as I recall (been a while since I touched the program), it tells you if it's 16x9 or 4:3.  The problem is that you don't know if it's enhnaced or not, as 16x9 could have an original ratio of 1:78 which would make it widescreen but not "enhanced".  I have to look more into this though.

If I remember rightly the IFO file will only tell you if the image is anamorphically enhanced or not. All the other aspect ratio information would have to come from a visual comparison.

Mark is correct. I am not likely to disagree with the cover, unless it's obvious. For example, I can visually tell the difference between, 1.85 and 2.35, I can't however visually tell the difference 2.35 and 2.40 or <gasp> 2.39. So if the case says it is two 2.35 and you are going to try and tell me it's 2.40 you had better back it up.

Skip