Penguin
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dvdauthor is a suite of programs for authoring DVD-Video discs and performing related tasks.

  • dvdauthor itself takes a bunch of MPEG files representing the titles and menus, and puts them together according to the instructions in an XML file.

  • dvdunauthor performs the opposite task to dvdauthor: given the files making up a DVD-Video title, it separates out the individual menus and titles into separate MPEG files, and constructs an XML file that dvdauthor can use to put them together again.

  • spumux constructs the subpictures used for subtitles and menu buttons, and multiplexes them onto MPEG-2 files, according to instructions in an XML file. It also inserts information about the colours used in the subpictures, in a form that can be compiled by dvdauthor into the appropriate DVD-Video format.

  • spuunmux performs the opposite task to spumux: given an MPEG-2 file containing a subpicture or menu definition, it extracts the subpicture layer into separate PNG files, and creates an XML file that spumux can use to put them together again.

dvdunauthor and spuunmux are very useful for trying to understand the structure of existing DVD-Video titles.

'Q' DVD-Author is a GUI-based tool to ease the job of DVD authoring. It can generate the XML files and command sequences necessary to drive the various CommandLine utilities in the dvdauthor suite.

qdvdauthor and the dvdauthor documentation examples make heavy use of the MJPEG Tools package for generation of MPEG files and the like. However, I'm pretty sure all these operations can be performed just as readily with FFmpeg.