Version history of VCDEasy v3.1.0

Changes from VCDEasy v3.0.2 to VCDEasy v3.1.0

• New: The MPEG Stills encoder can now auto-rotate images according to the "Orientation" EXIF information (you can turn ON/OFF this option in the "General" settings page)
• Updated: The "Supported CD writers" list has been updated (84 CD writers added)
• Improved: Better support of the MPEG audio files
• Improved: Double clicking the MPEG files list now opens the Add Files dialog
• Improved: There are now two separate multiple select buttons for the timeout in the "Interactivity" page: one for the timeout duration and one for the timeout file. Before that, it was not possible to change the duration for several items in one step without overwriting the timeout file at the same time...
• Improved: The default timeout duration in the "Interactivity" page is a preference in the "Options" page.
• Improved: Some compliance tests for the MPEG files have been added.
• Fixed: The Access violation at address 0226246D has been fixed (this happened for a few users having "Stadocks Object Desktop")
• Fixed: Other minor problems have also been fixed.

• The built-in list of supported CD writers has been updated (14 CD writers added).
• A few minor tweaks.

• Bug fix: "CDR Devices Scanning" did not stop on some computers.
• The built-in list of supported CD writers has been updated (41 CD writers added).
• The reliability of the burning engine has been improved (including a better detection of the kind of disc inserted in the CD device).
• The bad display (for some languages: Chinese, Russian, ...) of the dialogs and the group boxes has been fixed.
• Added: a refresh caption button in the MPEG stills page (to refresh the picture, you can also hit RETURN while entering a caption).
• Bug fix: using "Disassemble a (S)VCD disc" it was not possible to have a "." (other than for the extension) in the filename of the BIN file.
• 2 new themes added.

• ISO9660 Level 2 support added: VCDEasy now supports long filenames and lower cases in the data part of the VideoCD. This applies to the files added by the user, not for the ones which belong to the (S)VCD specifications.
• Ability to set a background color for the caption of the MPEG stills (thus making the caption easier to read in some cases)
• Ability to have the caption not overlap with the image (there is now a checkbox "overlap caption with image" in the MPEG stills creation page)
• VCDEasy now supports 104 exif tags (see the file "exif.txt" in the folder of VCDEasy for the list of them)
• A bug in the window size and position saving has been fixed (when the window was saved as maximized)
• The built-in list of supported CD writers has been updated (about 170 CD writers added!)
• The underlying configuration engine has been improved (performances).
• "Burn a CUE or TOC CD Image" is now allowed in the trial version (thus even the trial version can now be used as BIN/CUE or BIN/TOC burning tool)
• New version (1.2) of the VCDEasy project file format (previous versions of VCDEasy won't be able to read the new project files, but new versions of VCDEasy can read the old project files)
• Some compliance tests for the MPEG files have been added.
• New version of the installer
• A few minor tweaks.

• ISO9660 Level 2 support added: VCDEasy now supports long filenames and lower cases in the data part of the VideoCD. This applies to the files added by the user, not for the ones which belong to the (S)VCD specifications.
• Ability to set a background color for the caption of the MPEG stills (thus making the caption easier to read in some cases)
• Ability to have the caption not overlap with the image (there is now a checkbox "overlap caption with image" in the MPEG stills creation page)
• VCDEasy now supports 104 exif tags (see the file "exif.txt" in the folder of VCDEasy for the list of them)
• A bug in the window size and position saving has been fixed (when the window was saved as maximized)
• The built-in list of supported CD writers has been updated (about 170 CD writers added!)
• The underlying configuration engine has been improved (performances).
• "Burn a CUE or TOC CD Image" is now allowed in the trial version (thus even the trial version can now be used as BIN/CUE or BIN/TOC burning tool)
• New version (1.2) of the VCDEasy project file format (previous versions of VCDEasy won't be able to read the new project files, but new versions of VCDEasy can read the old project files)
• Some compliance tests for the MPEG files have been added.
• New version of the installer
• A few minor tweaks.

• Bug fix: some warnings were reported/interpreted as errors during the creation process (bug introduced in VCDEasy 2.1.0). Thanks to Bert for this bug report.
• Bug fix: it was not possible to create toc/img and Toast CD images files (bug introduced in VCDEasy 2.1.0).
• Bug fix: in the case of toc/img CD images files, some temporary files were not deleted.
• Minor tweaks.

• Requested by many users: the specials characters (&,é,à,ù...) are now allowed in file/folder names (i.e 8bits ASCII characters support)
• The underlying VideoCD creation engine has changed (... good/bad feedbacks are welcome!)
• New version of the VCDEasy project file format (previous versions of VCDEasy won't be able to read the new project files, but new versions of VCDEasy can read the old project files)
• Improvements of the character sets conversion routines (for example: the character "È" is no more mapped to "_", but to "E" now)
• A color related bug (under Windows 9x/Me only) has been fixed
• The built-in list of supported CD writers has been updated (about 40 CD writers added!)

• The Access Violation 006f96c1 of VCDEasy 2.0.2 has been fixed (this happened on some Windows only)
• The built-in list of supported CD writers has been updated (about 140 CD writers added!)
• Ability to abandon the addition of files in the ISO filesystem part of the VideoCD when there are some special characters not allowed (this will help some users who sometimes had to click many many time on the "ok" button...)
• SPTI is now the default CD access method on Windows NT4/2000/XP.
• Ability to drag'n drop ChapterXtractor and SmartRipper "chapters information" files directly onto the chapters list in the "Chapters" page (Requested by Sefy Levy).
• Startup messages can now be translated.
• A bug has been fixed: the addition of huge files in the ISO filesystem part of the VideoCD could lead to an inconsistent filesystem, and sometimes to an "Integer Overflow" runtime error too.

• The user settings file (VCDEasy.ini) has been moved to the "User Application Data" folder (this is useful for the users wanting to run VCDEasy with no administrator rights)
• The built-in list of supported CD writers has been updated (about 40 CD writers added!)
• The creation of MPEG stills did not work on some computers, this has been fixed
• Some compliance tests for the MPEG files have been added.
• New version of the installer
• Major improvement: in order to burn, an ASPI layer is no more needed on Windows NT/2000/XP !!! The (Windows NT/2000/XP built-in) CD access layer called "SPTI" is now used.
• Major improvement: when the CD access method "SPTI" is used (on Windows NT/2000/XP), VCDEasy now locks the access to the CD writer! This prevents another application from interfering with VCDEasy while burning
• Ability to choose the number of copies to burn
• The built-in list of supported CD writers has been updated (many CD writers added!)
• Some picture file formats have been added: JPEG 2000, TDU Hips, Sun raster image, ...
• Some performance improvements around the MPEG files analyses have been made
• VCDImager 0.7.12 back as default instead of VCDImager 0.7.14 because VCDxRip 0.7.14 has a bug (bad references in the XML file)
• If you associate (yourself) the .cue and/or the .toc files to VCDEasy, then double clicking on these files (if VCDEasy is not yet running) will open VCDEasy and bring you the CD Tools page where the location of the CD image file to burn will be already filled in
• A bug related to size of the preview window (when no picture has been loaded yet) in the MPEG Stills page has been fixed
• A bug related to the "Too High Svcd BitRate" warning has been fixed
• The toolbar is hidden by default is the screen size is 800x600 or lower
• The language files have been moved to the "Lng" subfolder of VCDEasy's installation folder
• The SpinEdit component has been improved (XP themes support added)
• Bug fixed: access violation error when adding a too big MPEG file in the trial version of VCDEasy
• A memory leak (in the batch mode of the MPEG stills creation) has been fixed
• The engine for queued commands has been improved.
• Most digital cameras now put "hidden" data in their pictures as EXIF information (see www.exif.org). VCDEasy can now use this information for the automatic caption generation during MPEG stills encoding.
• VCDEasy project files are now associated with VCDEasy (when VCDEasy is not already launched, double clicking on a project file will open VCDEasy and load the project)
• Each generated CUE file now contains the corresponding BIN file name in the long filename format without the directory information, allowing you to move the BIN/CUE CD image files if needed (as long as both, the CUE and the BIN file remain in the same folder).
• A toolbar has been added. Ability to not display it at statup in the settings page.
• Themes support added (in addition to the regular XP themes). See in the settings pages.
• The tasks executions reports have been simplified
• The logic behind Graphical Interfaces components has been changed/improved at many places.
• Many changes in the source code structure in order to ease the integration of new feature in the future (in trying at the same time to not change too much the graphical interface).
• New option: Ability to not show the warning before erasing a non empty CD-RW
• The reliability related to the output locations has been improved
• The temporary CD image files are "hidden" when the "Expert Mode" is not activated
• The XML Viewer page is no more visible when the "Expert Mode" is not activated
• Simulate and Burn are now exclusive when the "Expert Mode" is not activated (this is to avoid potential problem when CD auto-insert notification is ON)
• The bad display on the small icons under Win9x/Me have been fixed
• GNU VCDImager v0.7.14 support added
• The way VCDEasy is dealing with CD drivers has been improved (and changed, so check your CD writer/reader settings in "Files"/"Settings"/"CD Writer/Reader" the first time you launch this version of VCDEasy).
• In the MPEG stills page, ability to use information from the picture for an automatic generation of the caption. For example: "%n(%e) - %d @ %t" -> "picture(.jpg) - 07/09/2003 @ 11:16:32"
• If you really do not want to run VCDEasy with administrator rigths, use "-NoAdmin" as command line argument (edit your VCDEasy shortcut). Note that in this case you may have troubles: CD devices detection problem, unable to run correctly VCDEasy on Windows XP if you installed it in "C:\Program Files\VCDEasy" because of no write rights there for VCDEasy.ini, ...
• If you want to force VCDEasy to read your manually modified project files, then use "-NoCRC" as command line argument (edit your VCDEasy shortcut)... "at your own risk"!
• Regression bug fixed: bad detection of Windows Media Player on some Windows 9x/Me
• VCDEasy now computes the exact total size a VideoCD will have (as well has the exact size of its ISO filesystem part). So, a CD size bar and lots of useful improvements have been made thanks to this information now available.
• You can create up to 6 hours CD quality AudioVCD, as the ability to use MPEG Audio only files has been added (lots of work behind this addition, lots of deep code has to be modified...). I think I will soon include a tool to generate such Audio only MPEG files. For the moment, I will write a guide on how to create some with TMPGEnc and Philips VCDMux. Note that a MPEG Still (picture) played before an audio only MPEG file should stay on the screen, so this is a way to make a high quality pictures slideshow with audio comments for each picture. :-) AudioVCD is also useful if your DVD Player does not read MP3 discs!
• If you moved some files specified in a project file, VCDEasy will now ask you in order to find them. Nothing that clever here, this is just a start. The ultimate goal there is to have easy to use "project templates".
• The option "Do not show a compliance warning when adding a KVCD.net compliant MPEG file" has been added.
• The ability to add Caption Text on MPEG Stills has been added.
• A "Most Recently Used" list has been added for project files.
• MPEG files with the extension .mmd are now accepted (from Philips VCDMux).
• VCDEasy should be more robust at startup.
• Files with invalid "last modified date" (may occur with MPEG and .DAT files copied from a VideoCD to a NTFS hard disk) could create troubles, it should be fixed now.
• The bad display of the Numeric Keys Grid's pick list when VCDEasy is mazimized has been fixed.
• The Numeric Keys Grid's pick list now supports Copy/Paste... It will save time to some users!
• Better use of information like OS, Administrator or not (in VCDEasy and in its setup exe) in order to give some warnings and avoid some troubles. For example, you must have Administrator rights to run VCDEasy on Windows XP while it is not necessary (even if recommended) to run it on Windows 2000.
• A bug preventing some complex project files to be loaded has been fixed.
• The bug related to the ability to make VideoCDs on 99min CD-Rs has been fixed.

• Removed the "time bomb" feature and nag screens.

• Wanted by many many users since a long time... load/save projects !
• Ability to save and reuse the MPEG Analyze information (this will speed-up the reload of MPEG files, and so the reload of projects).
• Requested by a donor: Anti Flickering option added to the MPEG Stills page
• Picture viewer added to the MPEG Stills page (easier to understand the impact of each image transformation option)
• Mjpeg Tools v1.6.1 support added
• Use of the "CD Image File Recorder" concept
• Some compliance tests have been added.
• Requested by several donors: You can now work with network shares.
• Again, in the spirit of making things easier to use, an expert mode have been added. The non-expert mode should be ok for most of the users. Some messages maybe be different and some options may be shown or not whether you are in expert mode or not.
• Project options have been reorganized on the Graphical Interface.
• Most of the settings not directly related to a VideoCD project have been moved to a settings dialog.
• In order to reduce the number of use troubles, and to reduce the complexity of the source code, I made a few changes:
  • GNU VCDImager is no more an optional component.
  • The location of the command line tools (GNU VCDImager, CDRDAO, MjpegTools) can no more be user defined.
  • MPEG analysis is now mandatory for each MPEG file added to the project (I know it is not a good news for a few users, but it will reduce highly the number of troubles... [chapter entry points check, padding problems detection, making sure that no user will try to make chapters to a MPEG still,...]).
  • No more "VCDEasy minimal distribution".
• Catalan Translation by Xavier (Thanks!)
• Traditional Chinese Translation by Koko (Thanks!)

• Better recognition of the Adaptec ASPI version if any
• VCDEasy can now use Nero's ASPI layer if there ("WnAspi32.Dll" in the folder of Nero [and also "NeroApix.vxd" in "Windows\System\IOSUBSYS\" on Win9x/Me])
• If you know what you are doing... you can force the use of a specific ASPI layer in putting the corresponding "WnAspi32.Dll" file in the CDRDAO folder. Note that an ASPI layer may be more than just one file, so be careful to have all of them installed...
• Several bugs/improvements related to the Media Player box (in the chapters page) has been fixed/made. It should be more robust now. In theory, VCDEasy should be able to read what the Windows Media Player 6.4 (located at: "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\mplayer2.exe") can read... But, according to some users, it is not always the case... It depends in fact on the codecs (DirectShow filters in fact) your Media Player is using. Also, note that if your Windows Media Player is unable to resize a video under their original size (because of the codecs), then you may have sound but no video in the VCDEasy's Media Player.
• A bug fixed in the display when Windows large fonts (yet another one...)
• I removed the About, History and Credits pages, and replaced them by dialog windows accessible via the "Help" menu.
• The history is now displayed as RTF document.
• The version of each language file is now displayed.
• Fixed bad display of small icons when the user is not an Administrator on WinNT/2k/XP.
• Put "NoAutopaddingWarning=1" in the VCDEasy.ini file to not have the warning for MPEG files which require autopadding
• Put "NoBadPacketsWarning=1" in the VCDEasy.ini file to not have the warning for MPEG files which have bad packets
• The "Approximate CD size" computation has been (again...) improved.
• VCDEasy is now more robust to errors in the language files (VCDEasy 1.1.3 was not usable with the Czech language file)
• Bug fix when adding a file with bad "Last Modified" information
• Bug fix related to some CD writer speed selections
• Russian Translation by Vladislav Kugelevich (Thanks!)
• Turkish Translation by Solid Development (Thanks!)

• Ability to capture in one step the pictures for all your chapters
• Ability to capture a picture from the Media Player box
• Media Player box integration into the chapter page, to ease the choice of chapters, as a start. (thanks to some donations I have received, I bought the TActiveMovie delphi component). But please, do not send me an email if the Media Player is unable to play one of your file. The player plays what your regular Windows Media Player can play. If you can not play a file... it can be for example because this file is bad, or because you do not have on your Windows the required CODEC (for example, a MPEG2 codec is required to play MPEG2 files... and there is no MPEG2 codec coming with Windows).
• VCDEasy now uses the file "cdrdao-drivers.txt" in the VCDEasy folder to ease the CDRDAO "Force Driver" choice.
• VCDEasy still does not accept network files "\\server\share\..." (limitation from CygWin, the UNIX emulator), but now works with mapped network drive (for example "Z:\Videos" which is in fact "\\server\share\Videos")
• Requested by a donator: when you let VCDEasy analyze the MPEG files, an "Autopadding required" warning is shown if the MPEG file will be padded on the fly (this padding may result to a bad display)
• Requested by a donator: when you let VCDEasy analyze the MPEG files, an "Bad packets" warning is shown if the MPEG file contains some bad packets (this may result to a bad display)
• Requested by most of the donators: Lots of work around guides for the VCDEasy web site... (a few important guides remain to be done...)
• "Tips of the Day" feature added
• CUE files for CDRDAO v1.1.7 can now have the BIN filename in the long filename format (The CDRDAO CUE parsing bug has been fixed)... but CDRDAO still does not use this BIN filename in the CUE file! So the CUE and BIN file still must be in the same folder with the same filename...
• If you will not use CDRDAO v1.1.5 anymore, you can put "Expert_LongBinNameOnly=1" in the VCDEasy.ini file to have the BIN file name in the long filename format (without the directory information) in the generated CUE files. This can be useful if you use another burning application, and it works with CDRDAO v1.1.7
• CDRDAO v1.1.7 support
• Requested by a donator: Ability to disable "Reload the disc if necessary for writing". NB: With some CD Writers, CDRDAO needs to eject/reload the disk (thus refreshing the status of the inserted disk) for simulation or burn. This reload may cause problems when used with applications like UDF packet writing software
• Requested by a donator: "Do you want to add this non-compliant file anyway ?" added when compliance check failed.
• Requested by a donator: Ability to disable the BURN Proof feature when the CDRDAO driver is generic-mmc or generic-mmc-raw.
• Bug fixed: DEL key deleted two chapter entries in the Chapters page (Thanks to Robert).
• Bug fixed in the XML viewer (Thanks to Bryan).
• Romanian Translation by Virgil Mocanu (Thanks!)