movie-make-title-simple(1)

πŸ’– movie-make-title-simple β€” the manual, but make it cute πŸ’–

okay bestie, so this is movie-make-title-simple(1) from the videotrans suite, and honestly? it's giving "tiny program, big menu energy." it makes a simple title sequence that you can then use to build a menu with movie-title. that's the whole vibe. let's get into it ✨


✨ NAME ✨

movie-make-title-simple β€” creates a simple title sequence that can be used to create a menu with movie-title πŸŽ€


🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

movie-make-title-simple -o output -m mode [-i image [-s]]
       [-b background] [-a audio] [-n animation]

πŸ¦‹ DESCRIPTION πŸ¦‹

so what this program actually does: it lets you create a simple menu background for use with the movie-title program, which you can then use to create menus for DVDs that have more than one menu on them. multiple menus?? we love a layered queen πŸ‘‘

you've got options (literally). you can tell the program to use an empty background of a specific color β€” and black is the default color, no cap β€” or you can use an image that you supply to put in the background, optionally scaled to fit the screen.

further, you can optionally supply an audio track to be played while the menu is being displayed 🎡 and here's the important part bestie: if you do not specify an audio track, no audio will be played. this also means the menu is completely static, and animated picture-in-picture versions of the movies that are displayed in the menu are not possible in this case β€” only static pictures are possible. so no audio = no animated PiP. that's just the rules 😭

and the best way to grasp how the system works is by trying it out for yourself. fr fr, go touch grass with the CLI 🌱


πŸ’… OPTIONS πŸ’…

the following options are available:

  • -o output β€” specifies the name of the directory that should be created, and it will contain a number of JPEG files and a WAV file for the audio of the title sequence after the program is done. personally, the author usually uses the name title (short and to-the-point). iconic choice tbh 🫢
  • -m mode β€” specify either pal or ntsc, depending on whether you are creating a PAL or NTSC DVD. NTSC is an American TV standard, PAL is usually used in Europe and other parts of the world. pick your fighter 🌍
  • -i image β€” if you specify this option, you can supply the filename of an image in any format that the ImageMagick suite understands, and that image will be displayed in the background of your DVD menu. the image will be displayed in its original format, unless you specify the -s option (see below πŸ‘‡).

a PAL menu is 720 pixels wide and 576 pixels in height. an NTSC menu is 720 pixels wide and 480 pixels in height. the aspect ratio of either is not exactly 4:3, but is close enough. close enough is a lifestyle πŸ’€

if your picture is larger than the resolution of the menu itself, it will be scaled down (keeping the aspect ratio intact) to fit on the screen. if your picture does not have the same dimensions as the menu and leaves borders, the color of those borders can de determined using the -b option (see below). (yes, "de determined" β€” that's a typo that lives in the original and I'm keeping it, periodt πŸ’–)

  • -s β€” this option may only be specified if you specify the -i option as well. otherwise, the program will complain and abort. no -i, no -s, bestie, that's the deal 🚫

this option, if specified, causes the image that was specified using the -i option to be scaled to the size of the menu itself (making it as large as possible without any pixels falling off any edge). if your picture is not the same shape as the menu and leaves borders, the color of those borders can de determined using the -b option (see below).

  • -b background β€” using this option, you can determine the color of the background of the menu that is not covered by the optional image that may be supplied using the -i option. if the -i option is not used, this option determines the color of the entire background.

the color must be in the format rgb, #rgb, rrggbb or #rrggbb. the latter is the same color notation as is used on the web. examples are:

000000    Black
000088    Dark blue
0000ff    Bright blue
008800    Dark green
00ff00    Bright green
880000    Dark red
ff0000    Bright red
008888    Dark cyan
00ffff    Bright cyan
880088    Dark magenta
ff00ff    Bright magenta
888800    Brown
ffff00    Yellow
888888    Grey
ffffff    White

there are numerous color choosers out on the web, one of which is http://www.ficml.org/jemimap/style/color/wheel.html. using the color chooser, you can pick any color you like. go wild, choose your aesthetic 🌈

as you can see from the syntax of the argument, the hash sign (#) is optional. if you want to use the hash sign, be sure to place the entire color specification in single or doubles quotes, because the hash sign can confuse some shells: they think the hash sign is the start of a comment, causing the rest of your command line to be ignored, causing an error because the -b will not have an argument in this case.

⚠️ real talk: unquoted # = your shell thinks it's a comment = your whole command line after it vanishes = -b gets no argument = error. quote it or lose it, bestie.
  • -a audio β€” using this option, you may supply the filename of an audio file to use in the menu. may be an MP3 file, a WAV file or anything else that mplayer can play without needing extra options. soundtrack moment 🎧

if you use audio in the menu, this will open up the possibility of using animated picture-in-picture versions of the movies in the menu (see the -n option below). if you do not supply an audio file, this will not be possible to use animated picture-in-picture versions, only static images or no previews at all (again, see the -n option below).

  • -n animation β€” using this option, you can tell the program what kind of menu you would like to create. the possible arguments are:
    • none β€” which will cause a menu to be created that will have no previews of the movies, but will only display the background color/image, the titles of the movies and the navigation buttons.
    • static β€” which will cause a menu to be created that will display a preview image of each movie, but that is not animated.
    • animated β€” which is only possible if you supply an audio file using the -a option (see above), and which will cause a menu to be created that will display picture-in-picture animated previews of the movies.

if you don't specify this option, the default will be to use animated if you supplied an audio track to be used, and static if there is no audio. it just knows ✨


🩺 DIAGNOSTICS 🩺

if this program is called with an incorrect set of parameters, it will print a diagnostic message telling the user what went wrong. also, it will then print its usage information, listing all the options and their meanings. so it's not gonna leave you guessing β€” it's gonna sit you down and explain 🫢

the program tells you what it is doing while it is running. commentary! we love a narrator πŸ’¬


🌟 EXAMPLE 🌟

the command line that the author uses most often is:

movie-make-title-simple -o title -m pal \
      -i background.jpg -s -a nice_music.mp3

look at that. clean. efficient. main character energy πŸ‘‘


πŸ‘€ SEE ALSO πŸ‘€

videotrans(1), movie-title(1), movie-make-title(1), movie-to-dvd(1), movie-compare-dvd(1), movie-rip-epg.data(1)

(the whole friend group, go say hi πŸ’œ)


πŸŽ€ AUTHOR πŸŽ€

the author is Sven Berkvens-Matthijsse (sven@berkvens.net). please send any project related e-mail to videotrans@berkvens.net.


πŸ› BUGS πŸ›

none known. please report any bugs to videotrans@berkvens.net! literally zero known bugs, which is such a flex, but if you find one, tell them πŸ’–


and that's the whole page bestie πŸ’… it's from the videotrans source, sitting in section 1 of the manual, and the date slot on this one is just… empty. no date. mysterious. elusive. iconic 🌸 go make some menus, and remember: if you want animation, you need audio. periodt βœ¨πŸ¦‹