Sharing TyTool Menu Backgrounds: post your work

[Pro-289]

Since TyTool(7r11?) will be able to import a .BMP for a menu background, I reckon a dedicated thread for sharing is in order. :)

.BMP format
---------------
Dimensions: 720x480
Color Depth: 24bit (16.7M colors)
Filesize will be: 0.98MB (~1,036,856 bytes)

Since the .BMP will be almost 1MB, you could be nice to all and .ZIP (http://www.winzip.com/) it to make it smaller. It's possible to turn a 0.98MB all black .BMP into a 1.14KB .ZIP. :) It's too bad this forum does not support .ACE files. I can turn my .BMP into a 323KB .ACE, instead of a 615KB .ZIP.

I'll start by posting a Smallville background I made for Joshua.

[qwiki]

Interestingly, if you ACE it first (I got 324KB using your Smallville.bmp) then ZIP it, the file size came down to 321KB.

[phoenixZed]

Can't wait, background images will be fantastic! I've got a bunch of stuff stacked up on an external drive waiting for just this feaure. I recommend looking at www.khitomer.net, lots of the cover designers also do VCD menu images, which we could convert to bmp. Most also include blank versions of their designs which would be perfect for us.

One question, why do you suggest 720x480? Khitomer explains that a 704x480 image will be displayed in the correct 4:3 aspect ratio for standard tvs.

If you're rolling your own, they suggest starting with a slightly larger 4:3 image, like 768x576, and when you're done, resize it to 704x480. Also note that overscan on your tv will chop approximately 20 pixels from each edge of your image. So what you see on your tv is the inner 664x440 portion of your pict.

Edit: fixed url

[Pro-289]

I picked 720x480 cause that's what jdiner uses for his menus. But I still haven't tested 704x480 yet to see if there's any visual difference. I would guess they suggest starting with a larger image so when you downsize it you get a bit of anti-aliasing on the pixels, so they're not so sharp. edit: well maybe not. I guess it has to do with keeping the 4:3 aspect ratio.

I guess one could .ACE it then .ZIP it. But then you'll need two extractors to view it, or just an all-in-one like Winace (http://www.winace.com/).

Wow, some really good artwork at Khitomer.

[FredThompson]

Aspect ratio of 720x480 and 704x480 is the same. They are different valid display modes and handled differently. It's easy to get confused regarding square computer pixels and rectanguolar video pixels. This is one reason programs like VCDEasy prefer PC resolutions like 640x480.

Regarding bitmap backgrounds, I've just sent Josh a message offering to help with an image/video designer. The idea, essentially, is to use AviSynth to build menus. One huge advantage is a method I've thought of to "halo" text so it never disappears into the background. It should also be possible to create motion menus given how the players work.

For background images, if you collect a particular series, sometimes the title screen of the show makes a nice background. There are many studio and fansites with nice bitmaps. For generic backgrounds, you might want to look at theme-oriented sites like deviantart. MainConcept releases 5 looping generic backgrounds every week or so which could be nice. I've got a few of those but have been remiss in collecting the whole set.

Another idea I have is to clip the opening sequence of a show and play that then go to the menu. All of this kind of thing is easily done with AviSynth. It's a programming language, of sorts, to build video frames.

Having said all of this, I'd love to discuss the ideas but am leaving for a 2-week business trip and really want to talk with Josh first to make sure we're not duplicating efforts and ensure proper integration.

[jdiner]

Right now TyTool requires the bitmap to be in 720x480 mode.

It would not be that hard to make the tool a bit more flexible for supporting 704x480. But in my early testing it didn't make any difference in how much was cut off. It seemed to make things just a touch larger but we still lose as much realistate making it not as good a choice.

--jdiner

[FredThompson]

The math for 720x480 is a heck of a lot easier...

[jdiner]

Originally posted by FredThompson
The math for 720x480 is a heck of a lot easier...
Precisely... :)

--jdiner

[TheWickedPriest]

Could I make a request? If people post backgrounds, I would prefer to see PNG files instead of zipped BMPs. That way, one could view them just by clicking on them, instead of downloading and unzipping them first. The size should be about the same. I suggest PNG rather than GIF because it allows more colors, and rather than JPEG because it's lossless.

I don't know if TyTool will support PNG files directly (the tools I use will), but if not, they can easily be converted back to BMP.

[jdiner]

It does not and probably will not. PNG is a seriously more complicated format to deal with code wise. I looked at a lib for doing it in the past. It was almost as large, just the lib itself, as the entire tool is right now. That does not appeal to me. Further the only tools I could find that did a decent job with PNG where either on unix, which many people here do not have access too, or commercial which we are trying to avoid.

I personally prefer that people just post these things as a BMP in a zip format. We also need to keep in mind the disk space that we are using here on the forum.

I am just happy to find some new stuff that looks good. :)

--jdiner

[FredThompson]

A lot of fansite have computer desktops. Those can be very useful. Probably better to post URLs than images from them.

Sharing resources for images is great, don't know if a thread is the best way to do it. Might get real cumbersome.

[jdiner]

Ok. As I have been working this over I have had need for a image editing/processing program.

I checked online last night and found that photoshop is $600+ which is completely rediculous. So I got onto downloads.com and checked for something freeware/shareware on there that is cheaper/free to do some of this. There are hundreds in the general catagory and range from free and obviously crap to photoshop's demo at the above listed price.

So I looked into Gimp. There is even a pre-compiled bin for Win32. But... and there is always a but, it requires the installation of at least 15 other things. And that is never a great idea under Windows.

So that leaves editing under my FreeBSD box which has a 15" monitor on it as it is just a fileserver 99.9% of the time.

So I am looking for suggestions. Programs to try and use etc... Since I want to add a suggestions list to my docs on TyTool and the new menu things I would like to get a list of things from freeware to shareware to commercial that people like. Obviously I would prefer the freeware/cheap end of the spectrum but for all I know there is nothing decent in that catagory...

Anyone?

--jdiner

[keith721]

I purchased this PhotoShop "lite" product a couple of weeks ago, specifically to manipulate images from my digital camera. It seems to have quite a few features, including the drawing layers that PhotoShop is so well known for.

Caveats:
1. I have no experience working with the full-blown version of Photoshop, so can't give you a fair comparison.
2. I am by no means any kind of graphic artist. Seriously.
3. It does everything I need, you of course may feel differently.

Pluses:
1. It can be found for retail prices from $129 down to $89, usually with another $30 rebate to lower the actual price to anywhere from $99 to $59.
2. It's not a Micro$loth product, nor a mom-and-pop thing, it's from Adobe, who seem to know what they're doing.
3. It appears to be Adobe's attempt to capture market share and revenue they wouldn't otherwise reap from the $600 full version. (AutoCad went through this several years ago.)

[TRILIGHT]

Originally posted by keith721
I purchased this PhotoShop "lite" product a couple of weeks ago, specifically to manipulate images from my digital camera. It seems to have quite a few features, including the drawing layers that PhotoShop is so well known for.

I have not used it as I own the full version of Photoshop. However, I can tell you from experience, if it supports layers, that is HUGE! It is worth the price just for this one feature. I would imagine that they would allow you to adjust properties of each layer like the full PS does and this is a great advantage. I just went by the Adobe site to read about it and they have it listed for $99 so I would imagine it could be had for cheaper with rebates at stores and such.

[jdiner]

Many thanks for the replies.

I have been looking at the free demo try-and-buy version of PaintShop Pro from JASC software. I am amazed at the feature set. The price is still a bit on the high end for most at $99 or so. But it sounds like 3 amazing pieces of software.

I was hoping there would be something I could recommend that was cheaper. But as with most things you seem to get what you pay for and it looks like the $99 is pretty much the low water mark for a decent video tool.

--jdiner

[Pro-289]

I did some tests with 720 and 704 widths. And there were no visible differences on my TV. In fact, both had the exact same visible area, 630x453, due to my TV overscan. To find it, I kept making borders until I was barely able to see each edge. What's odd is the visible area in the 704 menu was shifted to the right about 8 pixels, compared to the 720 which was in the middle. So at least with my setup, if I had text centered in a 704 menu, it would actually look shifted to the left on the TV.

[jdiner]

Been testing things tonight. And a good thing found some messagebox'es that were left over in the code.

But here is the menu, in jpg format, as generated by TyTool directly. (The jpg part, just the bmp it was made from...)

Not bad...

--jdiner

[rd001]

Very nice Farscape menu there.

[HuMan321]

Excellent Josh!!!

[captain_video]

Hot diggety, I'm stoked! Excellent work (again), Josh. You've come a long way since the early versions of TyTool. I wonder if anyone ever envisioned you'd have TyTool doing the things you can do with it now. You have definitely gone above and beyond on this one, bro.

[keith721]

Stop being so humble, Josh!
Looks darned good to me!

[jdiner]

Alright. The one tiny bit of bad news and a resulting change that I want to do...

I burned that to DVD+RW and tried it in my 4 players.

On the PC it looks and works sweet. On the hardware players the text is a touch to far off to the right hand side and the last 3 characters are obscured.

I remember now that the text in the button "boxes" would render just off the screen (it was centered before and always showed for me). Since I wanted that one right-justified and off of the "pic" in the background that is becoming an issue.

So I am going to be adding the rulers based on the work Pro-289 did in determining what show and what does not. Thus the template creating system will show things clearly as to what will render and what will not.

But that will take a bit of time as it means a re-working of the template editor. So I will offer you here a choice. Do you want TyTool sans template editor for right now? Or do you want to wait until I have it all done and the whole things is ready for prime time?

--jdiner

[HuMan321]

My vote would be to try it out right now.

With the editor (We could work around the borders)

Thanks again for all your hard work

Maybe it could be posted in this thread for those that want, then the final in the sticky?

[SR712]

Jdiner-

Because of the overscanning of people's home TV sets, there are 2 areas that we use in post-production when we compose for the screen. Safe Action, and Safe Title. It is always a necessity to keep titles within the Safe Title Area, or you cannot be sure that it will be displayed on everyone's TV. The Safe Action area is used when you are composing a shot for a camera. The two areas are demonstrated in the attached image. As a general rule of thumb, the central 80% of the display is the safe title area and the central 90% of the display is the safe action area.

[phrend]

I'd love to have what you've got working sooner than later, so I vote for now :)

(I'm sorry to say that I don't like the background color that you use, so I'd love to be able to change that by using my own bmp.)

Thanks!!!

[jdiner]

What that is my favorite color. I think I am offended.

Heh. Yeah right. It was the least changing least offensive color I could find when I was writing that code. Nothing more, nothing less. It has gotten seriously old for me after all of this testing.

Images like the one that I put up are going to be so much nicer.

--jdiner

[Pro-289]

Yea, I guess every TV will have its own overscan. My friend's 16:9 in 4:3 mode displays about 680 width, just a guess. But his screen chopped the top a bit more than mine did, so I couldn't see the top border.

[jdiner]

Originally posted by SR712
Jdiner-

Because of the overscanning of people's home TV sets, there are 2 areas that we use in post-production when we compose for the screen. Safe Action, and Safe Title. It is always a necessity to keep titles within the Safe Title Area, or you cannot be sure that it will be displayed on everyone's TV. The Safe Action area is used when you are composing a shot for a camera. The two areas are demonstrated in the attached image. As a general rule of thumb, the central 80% of the display is the safe title area and the central 90% of the display is the safe action area.

Interesting those were exactly my calculations and what I could see on the screen. One of my DVD players shows things in what you are calling the safe action area and one of them clearly requires things to be inside the safe title area.

However I would like to point one thing out so it is clear. All of this is now controllable via the template files. So you can position things where ever you would like once you get this stuff. You are not even remotely bound by the files I have created and will be providing.

Sorry for choosing the other path. I posted here. And then ran out of time. The hours spent on this over the weekend and work today ran me dry. It will be out soon but I don't even have the docs ready to go on this stuff. Writing them is the very worst part for me. I hate that kind of thing.

--jdiner

[jdiner]

Originally posted by Pro-289
Yea, I guess every TV will have its own overscan. My friend's 16:9 in 4:3 mode displays about 680 width, just a guess. But his screen chopped the top a bit more than mine did, so I couldn't see the top border.
In my own testing today I found that it is also DVD player dependant.

I have a switch box with an old Amiga monitor, 1080s rule!, and a Panasonic, a JVC, and a Mintek. The P and JVC seem to have the same general output. Slight color variance but other than that the same. The Mintek had a serious color variation and a major change in the what could be see on the screen.

But as mentioned in my last reply. That is why I went with a template system.

--jdiner

[Pro-289]

For anyone wanting to see what their own overscan is, or just to trip out on all the colours, and perhaps if ya got a DVD RW, you can try this overscan_test.BMP background.

Each outside square is 5 pixels wide/high. So for example with simple math, you can count the pixels (in bars of 5) you see on the right & on the left, then subtract that from 120 (total width of squares in graphic), and that's how many horizontal pixels you don't see from your overscan. Subtract that from the graphic width 720, and that's your viewable width. You could do the same for vertical pixels too, but of course the graphic height is 480.

[VideoJoe]

Definitly recommend Paint Shop Pro from JASC. It can do anything Photoshop can do at a great price. The number of image file formats it supports is tremendous. It even has support for Amiga files.

[FredThompson]

Josh, have you investigated font style wrt mpeg2? I've been away from home on business so haven't been able to be much help. Hoping to find some proper antialiased video fonts for you.

[mavrcksd]

I did go to that menu site that was posted a while back with different DVD prints, and cover prints etc. Simpsons, etc.

It seemed to have a lot of what was out there (5-7 years past) but nothing as of recent. Unfortunately I have just really started archiving my recordings so dont have the need for the older stuff. I'm more interested in what todays shows are. (I worked in TV for the last 7 years on the road - saw enough of prime time tv) :) :)

Anyways, I wonder if we could have some sort of tool inside of tytool that goes to a website to pull art from postings and import that into your menu background. Me, I'm not an artist at all, cannot even draw a straight line WITH a computer. LOL. But I think it would be interesting to set something like this up.

Tytool could even execute a database query to see if anything was avail?

Just thinking outside of the box.

MAV

[jdiner]

Originally posted by FredThompson
Josh, have you investigated font style wrt mpeg2? I've been away from home on business so haven't been able to be much help. Hoping to find some proper antialiased video fonts for you.
I haven't. When I upgraded the quality output from the mpeg-2 encoding of the menu page it didn't seem all that needed. It was strange how all of the mpeg-2 jitter around the text and other images disappeared and things go nice. I am not saying that a new font would't be just as nice or even better. But in that farscape test I put up I was just the Arial font at size 13. Looks great.

--jdiner

[keith721]

Dug into the Photoshop Elements 2.0 Help documents tonight, to see how many layers it would support (fairly limited, right? nope.) Frankly, I was amazed! :) :)Photoshop Elements lets you create up to 8000 layers in an image, each with its own blending mode and opacity. However, the amount of memory in your system may put a lower limit on the number of possible layers.

[Pro-289]

Originally posted by mavrcksd
I'm more interested in what todays shows are.How about ya post a request? Which shows are you wanting backgrounds for?
I'm sure some of the helpful artists here could click something together. :)

[FredThompson]

I'm going to set up an FTP site for backgrounds. Give me a couple of days to get it working.

[HuMan321]

FredThompson "I'm going to set up an FTP site for backgrounds. Give me a couple of days to get it working".



Sweet!

[jdiner]

Originally posted by FredThompson
I'm going to set up an FTP site for backgrounds. Give me a couple of days to get it working.
Would you be willing to host things as pairs? BMPs and the new templates for laying things out with them. The template files are tiny but in pairs they are seriously valuable.

--jdiner

[FredThompson]

Sure. I'd prefer is zipped packages and I'll put thumbnail pages on some website. That will help cut down on traffic. I've got something like 60M of webspace and was going to host a how-to site for tytool but, since I can't directly host all aspects of tytool, I'll just do backgrounds. Will also create a links list to some grphics how-to sites and fonts.

Right now I'm trying to find out more about TrueType's outline flag. If we can thicken the default outline, it will be real helpful to keep text from disappearing into the background image. Josh's sample screen looks great but you're not always going to have a high contrast between the font and background.

Uh...I'll do this as long as there isn't serious heavy leeching happening. Can't support a huge download demand but I do have quite a bit of available disk space.

[jdiner]

Hummm. Sounds like I ought to find someplace else to host then. I get the feeling that especially at the start since the templates that are out there are bad, there is going to be a pretty high load.

--jdiner

[FredThompson]

Initially, my webspace can be used. Once it fills up, something else will have to be done. My systems are Win2K and I do a lot of CPU-intensive work. I'm concerned about people tieing my systems up. AFAIK, there is no load limit on the webspace.

Maybe some kind of "popularity" tracker cna be used and less popular files would be stored on the FTP when space starts to get tight.

In any event, it should be less cluttered than threads will be.

[Pro-289]

Here's a Da Ali G Show background I made if anyone's interested.

[jdiner]

Here is a Stargate SG-1 menu that I made.

The source image, since I am no artist :), came from the Sci-Fi channels wellpaper/desktop arena. When reduced in size it became 640x480. And when going to 720x480 the stargate within the image became oval.

So I scaled to 640x480, right aligned the image. Cleaned a few things out reguarding show time. And put then extended the left hand side out. All in all not to bad.

Included are some the templates I used to make the menu and a small 56k jpeg image of what it looked like when populated for season1 disk 1.

Thanks for the recommendation to Paint Shop Pro btw. It is a wonderous tool for doing this kind of work.

--jdiner

[jdiner]

This file contains the same .tmp files but the backdrop image is of Teal'c.

--jdiner

[jdiner]

Same as before.

--jdiner

[jdiner]

Last one. Same general menu with Jack O'Neill.

--jdiner

[FredThompson]

It's going to be a few more days before I can host these files. Sorry about that. @ of my hard drives just went poof (along with 250G of processed extractions - anyone collect Alias, Charmed and Smallville?)

When the replacement drives arrive I'll set up an FTP server for the short term and do something web-based after that. Better to see thumbnails than grab stuff you don't really want. More than likely, there will be a central thumbnail/index section with links to files on a multitude of sites. When the structure is ready, I'd be interested to hear from anyone who can help host the data set. I'll keep a master copy and (if he's interested) mirror to Josh but the actual data files will need to be spread out to reduce system demand.

[Pro-289]

So, does anyone have any background requests?

[jmhenry5150]

Whoohoo! - since you asked:

Smallville
That'70's Show
Taken
Carvivale

Just to name a few...

I also think we should post the template files here too...

[jdiner]

Originally posted by Pro-289
So, does anyone have any background requests?

Ooohhh...

Jake 2.0

Hehehe.

--jdiner

[kurtm]

Originally posted by Pro-289
So, does anyone have any background requests?

Invader Zim
Good Eats
Jeremiah

Jeremiah isn't a priority since there are VCD backgrounds that look nice.

And templates along with the backgrounds would rock, but perhaps I'm getting greedy =)

[kurtm]

Originally posted by jdiner
Ooohhh...

Jake 2.0

Hehehe.

--jdiner

And who are YOU to request a background, huh?

:D

[gobsmack]

Guys,

Is there any way to make TyTool generate the Menu Items in another color besides red?

I'm scratching my head. Thanks

[jdiner]

Originally posted by gobsmack
Is there any way to make TyTool generate the Menu Items in another color besides red?

Not right now. You can do it if you read up on the dvdauthor site and search for some posts on here by pro-289. So DVDAuthor can do it but at the moment you can not do it with TyTool directly.

--jdiner

[jdiner]

Ok. A website has been built for storing these things. A fellow forum member built it for us to use to share the templates and shortly down the road to show/house the FAQ.

A new DNS name has been registered. More information to come but it would appear that 2 or 3 days will be required by the ICANN registrars to get it all setup.

--jdiner

[Pro-289]

Since the new website hasn't been posted, I'll upload the backgrounds here.
jake20.zip (379,854 bytes)

[Pro-289]

zim.zip (115,669 bytes)

[jdiner]

The TyTool.com website is up. It allows for the easy uploading of files to the server, and will show thumbnails of the BMP files for later downloading.

--jdiner

[Pro-289]

Should probably remove the Javascript redirect at the site. If Javascript is disabled, you never see the whole site.
But cool so far. :)

[jdiner]

Ummm. Ok> I will pass that onto the admin dude.

--jdiner

[ronnythunder]

dang, this is some awesome work, guys! man, if we're taking requests, how about some of these from foodtv:

30 minute meals
good eats
food 911

go ahead, call me a wimp or whatever, but i don't record a lot of sci-fi! :)

ronny

[jdiner]

Wimp!

I don't record ANY food shows at all.

I used to work as a chef years ago. (Done a little bit of everything...) And while cook very well, I don't have time anymore. I got seriously into computers and the rest of my life is pretty much history. :)

--jdiner

[Pro-289]

oh, maybe while you're at it, if it's not too much trouble, to ask him if he could display the thumbnails at 160x120 4:3 format, instead of 120x120. Heck, if he could just add width="160" height="120" in the thumbnail <img> tag, he won't even have to change any thumbnail extraction code. Or even width=180 if he wanted the scaling correct. Just a minor picky request. :D

[Pro-289]

For those of you skimming over the posts looking for backgrounds,
there's more HERE (http://www.tytool.com/) thanks to jdiner and his admin dude. ;)

[BubbleLamp]

Just tried to access the web site, got a nasty ASP.NET crash!!

[jdiner]

Bubblelamp:

I have been on and off of it a lot lately. No crashes here. So whatever it was must have been short lived.

--jdiner

[TRILIGHT]

This is what I'm seeing right now...

Server Error in '/TyTemplates' Application.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to obtaining a connection from the pool. This may have occurred because all pooled connections were in use and max pool size was reached.


...followed by an exception stack trace.

[Pro-289]

I've seen that error message about 3-4 different times now. Seems to happen maybe twice a day or so, but subsides after a few hours.

Josh, ya think your admin can give me more space? :D
My account is stuffed...

[jdiner]

I will see if I can get more space. Or at least an option to increase those that post a lot of things.

I have now seen the stack track/crash as well. Never happened before I opened up the site to the public. Not sure what is causing the problem but obviously some things need to be fixed with it.

--jdiner

[Pro-289]

yea, I was just viewing it too. And maybe just a coincidence, but I tried selecting to view the files by File Name (i think), and it locked up. I think I saw that once the other day too. Just a throw of marbles, but maybe the file sorts are messed up.

[jdiner]

I don't know. ASP has never impressed me before and this is not helping. It looked and worked great with just 2 people accessing the site. But the new load isn't that high for these kinds of problems. Maybe I should just have written something in C. Easil enough done, would have an ugly interface, but it would at least run.

--jdiner

[Pro-289]

well it looked like the site came back. but i was experimenting with the file sorts, and it locked again. i might have tried the options too fast and jumbed up the server.

[Pro-289]

Originally posted by jdiner
It looked and worked great with just 2 people accessing the site.Also tell your webmaster whenever you select Read More..., it increments the Downloaded: value.
So it ends up giving a false downloaded # times value.

[Pro-289]

Anyone have more requests? :D
Come on, bring'm on! :p

[FredThompson]

OK, boy, whatcha got? :P

Alias (there are some awesome fansites for graphics, PM me for a links list)
Mail Call (How about the R. Lee Ermey jabbing finger shot? - I like the opening clip, "sit down and shut your trap, it's time for Mail Call!")
Guts and Bolts
Modern Marvels
Spy School
WWE Smackdown, Raw, Confidential
War Stories with Oliver North
The Joe Schmoe Show (anyone got ep 7?)
Biography
Tales of the Gun
MI-5
Law & Order (probably different cast lineups, too many seasons for just one)
History's Mysteries
Nova
Wings, Wings of the Red Star, etc.
Generic Olympics sports collage
Generic Basketball collage (college and pro)
Generic Football collage (college and pro)
Generic Channel/Network specific backgrounds (Fox, WB, History, A&E, Speed, etc.)
Trading Spaces
Mythbusters

I've loaded some streams into VirtualDubMod using SmartDeinterlace to get a screenshot then done color correction and cleanup. That can be a great way to make a basic title screen.

[Pro-289]

Originally posted by FredThompson
OK, boy, whatcha got? :P
damn!! Got yerself a database. ;)
guess I asked for it. :D

I don't have anything right now. I'm making'm as I go along. So if some of the backgrounds I make seem generic, it's cause I have no idea about its particular theme/common images.

[FredThompson]

Originally posted by Pro-289
damn!! Got yerself a database. ;)
guess I asked for it. :D

I don't have anything right now. I'm making'm as I go along. So if some of the backgrounds I make seem generic, it's cause I have no idea about its particular theme/common images. There's a reason I'm interested in Riley's slaved disc carousel mod...

Yup, you said, "bring'm on!"

PM me if you want design resources/links/etc. Fansites are a great place to find really good desktops. A lot of those could be resized.

Like I've said, VirtualDubMod is a great way to get title screens.

[FredThompson]

So I'm minding my own business, browsing through the backgrounds at the tytool site and ... HOLY COW!!! ... I now have a new #1 season pass: 30 Minute Meals.

Whew, 30 minutes 'cause nobody cares about the meal. They want to get to dessert!

[Pro-289]

damn that chick is hot!:D

[FredThompson]

Too bad they're faked photos, huh?

Yeah, she's cute but find a few pictures of Debbi Fields. Tell ya what, Mr.s Fields ain't no fat old lady.

[jdiner]

Faked or not. She is still hot. :)

--jdiner

[BubbleLamp]

OK, now I gotta go check this out for myself! Damn, time to fire up the third DSR6K I guess!

BTW, you guys ever catch MXC on Spike? It's where they put English overdub on those wacky Japanese game shows. Saw it for the first time the other day with people on roller skates as the front half of a horse. It was a friggin' riot.

[FredThompson]

Yeah, I watch it ever so often when I need a good Stoogesque jolt. Did you notice the voiceover guy did the cheesiest music video award things, also? My favorite XMC is where they fire the volleyball over the mud pit and the girl takes it in the face then falls, stunned, into the mud.

Yes, I know, I need therapy, that what the doctors always tell me.

FWIW, she's nowhere near as hot as those faked photos. Debbi Fields, however, is a mega babe, cover model quality, no joke. Too bad she's not on PBS any more.

[Pro-289]

Originally posted by FredThompson
Too bad they're faked photos, huh?shit.. They're fake?? If I had known that, I wouldn't have made a background image with'm. I did a search for her name to find photos and stuff. And this (http://www.fhmus.com/girls/covergirls/241) site came up with'm.

Are you sure they're not her? If so, then maybe I'll scratch that one and make a new one with real images.

[FredThompson]

Wow, ok, I guess they aren't fake. She doesn't look like that on the show, though. There were 2 episodes today. When I checked them, she was looking more, shall we say, pedestrian.

She also doesn't do that with strawberries, as best I can tell. Nigella, on the other hand, knows how to use her lips.

I guess when you've got sex kitten makeup artists and photogs...

I've seen Scavulo's book. Hard to find now. It's amazing what makeup and hair can do. If the right bone structure is there...

Looking forward to when you do Trek images ;) Mmmmm...7 of 9...

[Pro-289]

Originally posted by FredThompson
Looking forward to when you do Trek images ;) Mmmmm...7 of 9... Who said anything about Trek images? ;)

[ronnythunder]

nice work on the 30 minute meals, though my wife probably doesn't want that background on all of our 30 minute meals dvds. :)

i was about to check out the food 911, but the website crashed with the timeout thing again :(

great work, guys, i wish i had your talents.

ronny

[mindless2]

Is there a how-to website or post for adding backgrounds and creating them.
I've tried searching the forums but can't find anything.
I've been collectiing Smallville, Jeremiah, and Enterprise and I'd like to use kewl backgrounds.........

[jdiner]

Check this very thread. The ones for TyTool are at tytool.com.

There are other places for finding such images. Also found in this thread.

--jdiner

[BubbleLamp]

Originally posted by FredThompson
So I'm minding my own business, browsing through the backgrounds at the tytool site and ... HOLY COW!!! ... I now have a new #1 season pass: 30 Minute Meals.

Whew, 30 minutes 'cause nobody cares about the meal. They want to get to dessert!

Sorry, I don't get it. She looks like a hockey player! Butt the size of a small car, and nothing up top either.

[jdiner]

Originally posted by BubbleLamp
Sorry, I don't get it. She looks like a hockey player! Butt the size of a small car, and nothing up top either.
Are you looking at the same pics I am? :)

--jdiner

[BubbleLamp]

Originally posted by jdiner
Are you looking at the same pics I am? :)

--jdiner

I just watched an episode of the show, she made pork chops.

[keith721]

If you're not watching Carnivale on HBO, you're missing it. Curvaceous women portrayed as beautiful characters, and I certainly believe they are, as well. :D :D

[ronnythunder]

come on, guys! rachael ray is hot! sure, she's not going to win "miss heroin chic usa" or anything, but i really want to know how many of you would turn her down if you found her naked in your bed... ;)

ronny

[FredThompson]

I just pretend I'm a strawberry...

[mindless2]

Is there anyone or anyplace, sharing ty streams??? I've been collecting a few shows, but it sucks when you miss one...

[BubbleLamp]

Originally posted by mindless2
Is there anyone or anyplace, sharing ty streams??? I've been collecting a few shows, but it sucks when you miss one...

Look up about 5-6 posts for the sticky thread!

[mpauley]

Originally posted by mindless2
Is there anyone or anyplace, sharing ty streams??? I've been collecting a few shows, but it sucks when you miss one...

You mean like here (http://www.lookma-nohands.com)?

[mindless2]

Can someone point me 2 an "How to"
for adding backgrounds to my menus.

when I get to the "Make menu/ifo" section
I see a box that says "Background bitmap" but its all grayed out...

can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks

[artships]

Originally posted by mindless2

when I get to the "Make menu/ifo" section
I see a box that says "Background bitmap" but its all grayed out...


Edit -> Load Background Bitmap

[jdiner]

Originally posted by mindless2
Can someone point me 2 an "How to"
for adding backgrounds to my menus.

when I get to the "Make menu/ifo" section
I see a box that says "Background bitmap" but its all grayed out...

can someone point me in the right direction?

Yeah. The docs included in the zip archive. Find the release notes for the 8r1 - 8r4 verisons.

Check the DVD doc file as well. All of this is listed in there including howto style steps.

--jdiner

[AVD]

Originally posted by jdiner
Check this very thread. The ones for TyTool are at tytool.com.

There are other places for finding such images. Also found in this thread.

--jdiner

I cant find any links anymore, does this mean that they have been banned? I was looking to try some generic BSG template. I know they were on the tytool.com site..

t-i-a

[jdiner]

Just checked it and they are right there on the second page.

Try again.

--jdiner

[AVD]

Originally posted by jdiner
Just checked it and they are right there on the second page.

Try again.

--jdiner


I'm sorry, i didn't realize there was a redirect on the tytool home page.

Now I am getting a timeout error on the tytemplate page

o well, i guess im just too impatient, sorry

thanks

[edit] everything working now... thanks...

[jdiner]

That site needs some serious help. The guy that did it for me did it using ASP. I have had very little to do with ASP over the years. But they constant down time, the limited number of simultaneous clients, etc... Honestly I think it should be replaced. I.e. redone. I could do it given the time, but I don't have much of that.

Anyone want to volunteer to build such a site in PERL/C/whatever anything but ASP at this point?

--jdiner

[jmhenry5150]

ASP isn't the problem - I think it was a shotty ASP.net implementation...Trust me ASP is just fine :)

My football league The XBLFL (http://www.xblfl.com) website is developed in ASP and runs very smooth...

Where is the current site hosted? I'm interested in helping, but my forte is in classic ASP...

[jdiner]

Alright I got a message off to the guy that offered to host things and has been admin'ing the TyTool site. Asking what has been asked here and checking on some of the requested information. I am hoping to get a reply back sometime soon. He has in the past been pretty responsive to me and the needs of the users here.

--jdiner

[malfunct]

Alright I got a message off to the guy that offered to host things and has been admin'ing the TyTool site. Asking what has been asked here and checking on some of the requested information. I am hoping to get a reply back sometime soon. He has in the past been pretty responsive to me and the needs of the users here.

--jdiner

From the error message it seems that the problem is that he isn't releasing his SQL connections after using them. The likelyhood that all the pooled connections are used at any one time on a properly coded page is fairly low. Do you have any access to the source, maybe send me a zip so I can look through it for problems? I'm fairly skilled with ASP.Net development (do it 8 hours a day 5 days a week) so hopefully I can crack it. It would be the least I could do in repayment for the wonderful work you have done on tytool.

[malfunct]

Alright I got a message off to the guy that offered to host things and has been admin'ing the TyTool site. Asking what has been asked here and checking on some of the requested information. I am hoping to get a reply back sometime soon. He has in the past been pretty responsive to me and the needs of the users here.

--jdiner

Is the site fixed? Or is it just freak chance that I've been able to log in successfully every time?

[FredThompson]

upload still seems screwy.

[malfunct]

upload still seems screwy.

Bummer.

Well if I can figure out the file upload module to my website software I can set up a place there to send templates and bitmaps.

[jdiner]

It has been worked on and is better. But perfect is still a ways off. Plus we are beginning to use too much space for the hoster. a meg a piece is starting to add up. Since it was a gift to use by him I can't fault him at all for that reaction.

I am working on getting other things setup. No great word so far on the other side of things. But hopefully it will come through.

--jdiner

[malfunct]

It has been worked on and is better. But perfect is still a ways off. Plus we are beginning to use too much space for the hoster. a meg a piece is starting to add up. Since it was a gift to use by him I can't fault him at all for that reaction.

I am working on getting other things setup. No great word so far on the other side of things. But hopefully it will come through.

--jdiner

If your solution was not aspx I'd move it over to my server no questions. I'll keep working on the fileupload module then and if nothing else I can set up temp space for us to run on.

[mpauley]

Just soemthing to think about... if your worried about hosting and space... eDonkey links... P2P the files...

[malfunct]

Just soemthing to think about... if your worried about hosting and space... eDonkey links... P2P the files...

I think they would really have to work to use up my space. Bandwidth is another issue to think about though.

[mpauley]

I think they would really have to work to use up my space. Bandwidth is another issue to think about though.

Right... and if someone downloads something once, and continues to share it... the bandwidth will always be shared with many people. I have a dedicated eDonkey server that I am willing to let be used. And posting a ed2k link is just as easy as posting a regular URL.

[malfunct]

Right... and if someone downloads something once, and continues to share it... the bandwidth will always be shared with many people. I have a dedicated eDonkey server that I am willing to let be used. And posting a ed2k link is just as easy as posting a regular URL.

The problem with the idea being automated upload to that edonkey server.

[mpauley]

The problem with the idea being automated upload to that edonkey server.

There is no uploading to the server... Whatcha do is create your background. Zip it or RAR it. Put it in you tivoMX (special edonkey client I did) shared folder. Goto tivoMX, right click and your make link. Someone can then download directly from you. The next person will download from the first 2 people and so on and so on... If 15 people have the backgound you made (AND SHARE IT), it'll take no time at all to download.

[malfunct]

There is no uploading to the server... Whatcha do is create your background. Zip it or RAR it. Put it in you tivoMX (special edonkey client I did) shared folder. Goto tivoMX, right click and your make link. Someone can then download directly from you. The next person will download from the first 2 people and so on and so on... If 15 people have the backgound you made (AND SHARE IT), it'll take no time at all to download.

What happens when everyone quits sharing it? We need a way so that at least 1 client is garunteed to have it, otherwise it doesn't behave like a website.

[jdiner]

A quick question for those concerned with good looking menu images...

I have been getting ready to burn Season 4 of Smallville onto DVD. And I went out looking for some new images to use for the menu on the DVD. Way back when I had gotten a set of images from khitomer.net for this very purpose. But that website appears to now be gone completely.

There were images on there that were really quite excellent. They appear to have been created by someone nicknamed 'jabba'. Anyone know if that person is still making such images? Where to get them?

Baring that anyone know where to get that type of image? Any other VCD/DVD cover or menu images?

Anyone? Anyone? :)

Attached is a sample of what I was talking about.

--jdiner

[kelsirose02]

does tytool10 4 support this? Where do you go??