Although lplex has no gui, its basic operation is fairly simple, requiring just drag & drop and a plain-text editor:

That's it, as long as a one-title black-screen dvd with alphabetically-sorted input files is good enough. If not, using scripts or the command line will allow you to

• control the order of input files.
• add custom background images.
• define multiple titles.
• use different types of audio.
• add user-generated custom menus.
• extract audio to flac format.

Examples:

• Create a single-title NTSC dvd fileset from the contents of a folder:

  lplex --video=ntsc --create=dvd c:\myAudio
  



• Create a PAL dvd with 2 titles, each with different splicing and backgrounds:

  lplex -t pal discrete jpg=c:\a.jpg "c:\My Songs" ts seamless jpg=c:\b.jpg c:\myConcert



• Extract audio from a dvd disc in drive D to a specific folder at flac level 6:

  lplex --formatout=flac6 --dir="c:\My Flacs" d:



• See the Quick FAQ for more examples.

--dvdpath=C:\myDVDs\

dvdpath=C:\\myDVDs\\

video=pal

--video=pal

volid=$(basename "$dvdpath" | cut -b1-31)   # volume id must be < 32 characters
mkisofs -dvd-video -V "$volid" -udf -o "$volid.iso" "$dvdpath"

   L          M          S          XS*
720x480    704x480    352x480    352x240    NTSC
720x576    704x576    352x576    352x288     PAL

   "02 - From Hank to Hendrix.flac"                       #  103 MB    5:45
   "03 - Ambulance Blues.flac"                            #  173 MB    9:42
   "04 - Sad Movies.flac"                                 #   76 MB    4:17
   "05 - A Man Needs A Maid.flac"                         #   78 MB    4:22
   "06 - No One Seems To Know.flac"                       #   58 MB    3:15
   "07 - Harvest.flac"                                    #   67 MB    3:47

VIDEO_TS(.IFO .VOB .BUP)
VTS_**_0(.IFO .VOB .BUP)

VIDEO_TS.IFO    VTS_01_0.IFO    VTS_02_0.IFO
VIDEO_TS.VOB    VTS_01_0.VOB    VTS_02_0.VOB
VIDEO_TS.BUP    VTS_01_0.BUP    VTS_02_0.BUP

readonlypath=C:\\Documents and Settings\\buffy\\

Flags are "fall through" settings, applying only to subsequent files and only until the next instance, if any, of the same flag. For instance

lplex jpg=a.jpg x.wav y.wav jpg=b.jpg z.wav

will use a.jpg as the background for x.wav and y.wav, and b.jpg for z.wav.

lplex a1.flac a2.flac ts b1.flac b2.flac

lplex c:\folder1 ts c:\folder2 ts c:\folder3

lplex jpg=A.jpg a.wav jpg=B.jpg b.wav jpg=C.jpg c.wav

lplex jpgw=w1.jpg a.wav jpgw=w2.jpg b.wav

lplex -e .,p

lplex -n foo -e .

lplex scripts, or project files, are just a command line in the form of a text file, meant as

• an easier interface when commands become long and involved
• a simple way to preview the auto-generated dvd layout prior to burning.
• a way to create a script to package along with source files for later generation of a custom dvd, for example when sharing or storing.

QUICK HOW-TO

1. Open up any plain-text editor (e.g. Notepad) and save an empty text file as 'foo.lplex' in the folder containing your audio files, jpegs, etc. (these may be arranged in subfolders if you like).

2. Drop 'foo.lplex' onto lplex.exe and and then reopen it in notepad afterwards; it should look something like this:

      #!/usr/local/bin/lplex -P 1
   
      # lplex version 0.3 beta 
      # Project : foo_DVD 
      # Layout is roughly 54 MB (DVD+R/RW is 1% full) 
       
      # Settings: 
       
      --name=foo_DVD
      --md5aware=yes 
      --infofiles=yes 
      --splice=seamless  
      --shift=backward 
      --create=iso 
      --media=dvd+r 
      --cleanup=yes 
      --jpeg=black 
      --verbose=no 
      --editing=relative 
       
      # VIDEO_TS
       
      # Title 1 - (24 bit 96 khz 2 ch / 352x240  4:3)
       
      d1\a.wav 
      d1\b.flac 
      d2\c.flac 
      d2\d.wav 
       
      # XTRA - Info files
       
      img\blue.jpg 
      img\green.jpg 
      "img\red 2.jpg"
      info.txt 
      foo.lplex 
   

3. You now have a project called 'foo' with the current lplex settings and a list of the files in that folder; essentially a command line in the form of a text file with one difference: it's interspersed with some unix-style comments to make it more human-readable. The project effectively lists what would have been the result of dropping the parent folder onto lplex, except that the project takes its name from the script rather than the folder name as usual.

   The file is organized in 3 main sections representing the dvd's configuration and layout:

   # Settings:	Program options for this dvd.
   # VIDEO_TS	Audio files, menus, and flags describing the contents of the dvd's 'VIDEO_TS' folder, grouped by titleset.
   # XTRA - Info files	Files, if any, to be placed in the dvd's 'XTRA' folder.

   In this example you can see that lplex has found audio files in the subfolders 'd1' and 'd2', and jpegs in the subfolder 'img' (which by default it considers to be info files that go into the XTRA dvd folder).

4. Edit this file as desired. You can reorder or delete input files, change the settings, put in positional flags, and so on. In this example we'll split the dvd into two titlesets and define custom backgrounds for each file:

   Move the jpg files up into the list of audio files as desired, prefixing each with a 'jpg' or 'jpgw' flag as appropriate. For instance, in the excerpt below 'blue.jpg' will become the background for 'a.wav', 'green.jpg' for 'b.flac', etc. Note also the 'ts' flag added after 'b.flac' (line 4) to start a new titleset, and that this titleset uses 'jpgw' flags to denote widescreen (16:9) backgrounds:

      jpg=img\blue.jpg 
      d1\a.wav 
      jpg=img\green.jpg 
      d1\b.flac ts 
      jpgw="img\red 2.jpg" 
      d2\c.flac 
      jpgw=img\green.jpg 
      d2\d.wav 
   

5. Save the file, drop it onto lplex again, and reopen it. The edited area is rewritten, and you now have a 2-title dvd corresponding to the location of the 'ts' flag:

      # Title 1 - (24 bit 96 khz 2 ch / 352x240  4:3)
       
      jpg=img\blue.jpg 
      d1\a.wav 
      jpg=img\green.jpg 
      d1\b.flac 
       
      ts 
      # Title 2 - (24 bit 96 khz 2 ch / 720x480 16:9)
       
      jpgw="img\red 2.jpg" 
      d2\c.flac 
      jpgw=img\green.jpg 
      d2\d.wav 
   

6. Keep cycling through this process until you're satisfied with the layout. Once you're ready to create the dvd, you either delete the --editing=whatever line (at the top of the file, last item under 'settings'), or comment it out by placing a '#' at its beginning, or if you're feeling especially pedantic you can explicitly set the editing mode to 'no' as shown below:

      --editing=no 
   

   and rerun.

EDITING & SYNTAX

1. The two rules of editing a script are:
   • there must be some sort of whitespace separating the arguments, it doesn't matter what or how much.
   • anything between a '#' and the end of the same line is considered a comment and ignored. This is mainly to allow lplex's pretty printing. There isn't any point in writing your own comments while in editing mode, since you won't get them back. Only after your project is finalized and you set --editing=no will any added comments persist.

2. You can always insert more material by typing a valid file or folder path (relative or absolute, it makes no difference) somewhere and rerunning. If your path is a folder, its full listing is inserted wherever you typed it, and its info files, if any, are placed in the 'XTRA' section at the bottom.

3. You can switch at any time between '--editing=absolute' to see full file paths, or '--editing=relative' to see relative paths.

4. Using '--editing=relative' makes your project a portable package which can be shared or archived, allowing the identical dvd to be created anywhere. A typical package would be a set of source files and folders containing the various wavs, flacs, jpegs, menus, etc, with a script in the top folder. You can also share just a script by itself with fellow end-users of an existing file-shared set provided by others.

COMMAND LINE

5. The simplest way to start a project from the command line is, from the source directory, to type

   lplex -e.

   which means (-e) go into edit mode, and (.) scan the current directory, using its name as the project name. So in 'c:\myAudio' you will get a script called 'myAudio_DVD.lplex' which will in turn generate a dvd labeled 'myAudio_DVD'. Add the -n option if you want to control naming from the command line, e.g.

   lplex -n foo -e .

   which will give you 'foo.lplex' and use 'foo' as the dvd label. You can also change the dvd label by editing '--name' directly in the generated script, of course.

6. If you just want to preview the layout without editing, add ',p' to the -e argument, for example

   lplex -e .,p

   will print the current directory as a project to screen instead of writing a file.

   AUDIO

7. Audio characteristics must match within each titleset. In editing mode lplex performs a 'lax' scan of your input, meaning it will automatically start a new titleset (and warn you about it) anytime it finds an audio file with characteristics differing from the preceding one. This may or may not result in an acceptable layout, so be sure and review the results and rearrange as appropriate. Needless to say audio files must be dvd-compliant.

   VIDEO

8. Jpegs must be dvd-compliant, i.e. one of the acceptable sizes listed in the readme, and the sizes and aspect ratios (i.e. 'jpg' or 'jpgw' flags) must all match within each titleset.

9. Menuless projects are universal, meaning that the same script can be used to generate either an NTSC or PAL dvd, determined by the end-user's settings in lplex.ini. By default lplex omits the '--video' setting in a script so as to keep it neutral.

PADDING AND PLAYBACK GAPS

SEAMLESS PLAYBACK

     
         One second           = 90000 PTS ticks
         One lpcm audio frame =   150 PTS ticks
         One NTSC video frame =  3003 PTS ticks
         One PAL  video frame =  3600 PTS ticks

     
         NTSC: every 50 video frames = 1001 audio frames = 1.66 seconds
         PAL : every  1 video frame  =   24 audio frames = 0.04 seconds

     
         every 1200 NTSC frames = 1001 PAL frames = 24024 audio frames
            = 40.04 seconds

(THEORETICALLY) PERMITTED AUDIO

         Rate  Depth   :   Channels
         (khz) (bits)  :   1     2     5(+1)  8
         -------------------------------------------
         48       16   :   Yes+  Yes+  Yes+   Yes+
                  20   :   Yes   Yes   Yes    -
                  24   :   Yes+  Yes+  Yes+   -
         96       16   :   Yes+  Yes+  -      -
                  20   :   Yes   Yes   -      -
                  24   :   Yes+  Yes+  -      -

LPLEX TAGS DESCRIPTION

Lplex writes tags at two locations in every dvd program

• PCI.RECI field (offset 0x343) of first nav packet (only if the tag fits within the space 0x400-0x343)
• as a User Data field in first GOP of video

The tags consist of the following two contiguous pieces:

1. 42 byte flac header (STREAM, METADATA_BLOCK_HEADER and METADATA_BLOCK_STREAMINFO) describing the audio data extracted to wav-order from the dvd as-is. See flac documentation for header details.

2. Variable-length xml entity of the form

   <Lplex ver="*" path="*" id="*" shift="*" md5prev="*"/>
   

   where

   ver	version of lplex which wrote the tag.
   path	path and filename under root folder to use for output.
   id	index relative to all authored tracks present on the dvd.
   shift	number of audio bytes to shift (+)in/(-)out at track end to restore original pre-authored state.
   md5prev	32 byte text-form md5 signature for track after shift.

1. Install flac, libdvdread, mjpegtools, and dvdauthor from the official repos:

   sudo apt-get install libflac++-dev libdvdread-dev mjpegtools dvdauthor
   



2. Install an ansi (not unicode) build of wxwidgets 2.8.12 (not 2.9.x, which is currently incompatible), by either
   
   
   • Adding the repo at apt.wxwidgets.org (steps 1-3 as described here) and then

     sudo apt-get install wx2.8-i18n libwxgtk2.8-dev libwxgtk2.8-ansi-dev wx-common libgtk2.0-dev
     

   
   
   • Or building from source. To compile a static ansi version, from the top folder:

     mkdir wxgtk-ansi
     cd wxgtk-ansi
     ../configure --disable-shared
     make
     sudo make install
     



3. Build lplex in the usual way:

   ./configure
   make
   sudo make install
   

sudo ln /usr/bin/wx-config /usr/local/bin/wx-config

Lplex was initially modeled on Dave Chapman and Fabrice Nicol's excellent open source utility dvda-author, which creates dvd-audio discs, and wav2lpcm, which converts lpcm from wav to dvd order. Dvd-audio is admittedly superior to dvd-video in the sense that it handles a far wider range of lpcm audio (from 16-bit 44khz mono up to 24-bit 96khz 6ch and 24-bit 192khz 2ch), but has the one drawback of requiring a dvd-audio player for playback, which in the real world remains a relatively rare bird. Dvd-video players are everywhere, on the other hand, and offer identical digital quality for their narrower range of supported lpcm audio types, which is where lplex comes in. Dvd navigation and extraction was modeled primarily on dvdunauthor by Scott Smith and Ralf Engels, another great open source utility.

Lplex is free software distributed under the GNU GPL License.