Comments on: Why is DVD authoring software so horrible?

By: The Edge Case Usability Conundrum « Software++

The Edge Case Usability Conundrum « Software++ — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:08:43 +0000

[...] Why is DVD authoring software so horrible? [...]

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:01:46 +0000

“I’d still like your opinion on the general state of DVD software and why it is so difficult to make it stable. ”

Me too..

By: johnfx

johnfx — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:57:18 +0000

Interesting. It does raise an interesting point about the darker side of code-reuse.

Maybe I should rename this post “When code re-use goes bad,” or “Go ahead and re-invent the wheel if you have a bum wheel”?

By: johnfx

johnfx — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:52:51 +0000

Thanks. I guess this proves that every problem is an opportunity in disguise. Mad props to the NCH support team for not only finding my complaint out on the net but taking the time to respond to my issue via the unorthodox means of commenting on a blog!

By: johnfx

johnfx — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:51:00 +0000

To wrap up this conversation, I think I have gotten to the bottom of the problem and it looks like a pedestrian bug, not a massive design oversight.

It turns out that going into the manage chapters screen from the right-click menu somehow disables the ability to move around the timeline by clicking on it. However, if I used the pull-down menu to access it the screen works normally. It also appears that opening the screen from the pulldown menu actually fixes it for the rest of the session of using the software, even if you use the shortcut menu.

I’ve reconfirmed this by trying every combination of using the two after restarting the app and it seems to be easily replicable. Sorry NCH guys, but I’d still like your opinion on the general state of DVD software and why it is so difficult to make it stable.

By: Non noob

Non noob — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:50:30 +0000

huh, don’t know then.
Could be the file your using, or the decoders on your computer i guess.
All i know is it works for me so I’m as happy as a pig playing in mud at the moment.

Good luck though on getting it sorted.

ronnie.

By: Tan

Tan — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:42:10 +0000

Hi,

I actually doing support for ExpressBurn myself – So I will try not to be as bias as possible.

The stability issue as you described in ExpressBurn and on other authoring software on the market can come down to a couple of factors:

- The DirectShow codecs installed on user machine: You would be surprise on how many “bad” video codecs out there that are installed on your computers. ExpressBurn or other video authoring software will open the video with the whatever DirectShow codec installed and if the codec itself crashes/hange, it bring down the application with it

- The video files that is actually corrupted: your video files are not as pretty/correct as you may think (truncated, computed frames, headers, etc…) . Video players like VLC can overlook these “hidden” broken points and still play your video file ok. However, an authoring software like Express Burn needs to access the video on precisely frame-by-frame basic – will struggle. And if the codec that you installed failed to “read” the file (hang, crashes) – So does the application

Express Burn itself has an option to use ffmpeg as the codec. You can turn it on by going to “File > Options > “Use FFMPEG first”
ffmpeg is known to be more reliable than most of the video codec out there on the market. But believe me, there’s no good enough codec out there that can handle everything thrown at it …

Hope that help…

By: johnfx

johnfx — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:33:16 +0000

Thanks for the tip, but after your first response I tried again on 3 different videos to re-confirm my facts. Same result every time. No difference with the FFmpeg option turned on. Clicking on the timeline does absolutely nothing. Right clicking it doesn’t show any jump-to option on the shortcut menu either. What version are you using? I’m on Express Burn Plus 4.26.

BTW: I checked and the help file claims you can click the timeline like you described, and I CAN do that when just playing it back. However, on the manage chapters dialog it doesn’t seem to work.

Even if the FFMpeg option worked, it only serves to reinforce my point about having to know the innards of a program to use it. I’m not implying the other packages are any better, in fact I don’t think they are. The point of my article was exploring why this particular type of software is so poorly executed and so full of leaky abstractions.

By: Non noob

Non noob — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:24:39 +0000

HAHAHA.
Did you even email the tech support guys about your chapter problem?
I just downloaded Express Burn, added a file, clicked on manage chapters under chapter, and you can click on the time line to jump to any area and add a chapter in. You don’t have to watch the whole movie. LOL.

If you have a look at their forums etc, you can see that Express Burn borrows the encoders from your computer to convert files for making a video. If you experience crashes doing this, they say you should tick an option in options to use an ffmpeg thing which fixes the crashes.

After using this software for 10 minutes after I read this post and checked the NCH forums, I have to say that I think this program is much easier to use than the bigger ones like nero etc

By: johnfx

johnfx — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:08:07 +0000

That was not my experience. I actually tried what you described which had the effect of executing random actions from hanging the app to zooming in/out on the timeline. After an hour of trying to use that method I gave up.