Auto Blu-ray TUI

A practical, terminal-first workflow for turning a folder of videos plus a PowerPoint menu into a Blu-ray-ready project, final ISO, and optional burned disc.

Auto Blu-ray TUI (terminal user interface) is its own project. It includes and builds on the archived HD Cook Book / BD-J / GRIN tooling, but the user-facing goal is a modern automated Blu-ray authoring dashboard.

Instead of learning a complex authoring program or paying for expensive alternatives, design your disc menu in PowerPoint.

What it does

Auto Blu-ray TUI guides the whole disc-building process from one dashboard:

1. scans a project folder for videos and subtitles
2. converts menu.pptx into a Blu-ray menu structure
3. prepares Blu-ray-compatible H.264 + AC-3 .m2ts media
4. uses NVIDIA NVENC automatically when available, with CPU fallback
5. targets DVD-5, DVD-9, BD-25, or quality/no-cap output depending on the selected disc preset
6. builds the HD Cook Book BD-J menu overlay
7. muxes titles into Blu-ray STREAM, CLIPINF, and PLAYLIST assets
8. assembles a final Blu-ray ISO
9. detects an optical burner and blank disc
10. burns the first disc automatically when media is large enough, then lets you burn more copies or exit

Why it is useful

Blu-ray authoring normally involves a fragile chain of tools and formats. This project wraps that chain in a single TUI that shows what is happening, where it failed, and what is safe to reuse.

Benefits:

• PowerPoint-first menus — build menu screens in a familiar editor instead of hand-authoring every layout. Shapes whose text matches a video, such as Background 1, can become autoplaying looped video regions on that slide.
• Readable button labels — use Button Text | Action to keep pretty PowerPoint labels while targeting videos, timestamps, chapters, slide jumps, or built-in menu actions.
• One-command workflow — launch the TUI and let autopilot work through the steps.
• GPU acceleration — uses RTX/NVENC automatically when available.
• Disc-size guardrails — targets DVD-5, DVD-9, or BD-25 and rejects oversized encodes/ISOs instead of silently creating output that will not fit.
• Resume-friendly behavior — skips acceptable existing encodes and adopts already-running ffmpeg jobs when relaunched.
• Visible progress — color status, per-step progress bars, per-video progress, ISO readiness, and burner status.
• Disc burning loop — burn the finished ISO, insert another blank disc, burn again, or exit.

Quick start

From the repository root:

./scripts/install-bluray-deps.sh
./scripts/monitor-bluray-project.sh "/path/to/Blu-ray project"

When the TUI opens, it runs an initial project/media analysis before the dashboard so you can see the video/subtitle inventory before choosing a workflow.

In the TUI:

• Actions: w full autopilot, Enter encode media only, b burn the final ISO, k stop running work, q quit
• View/device: r refresh/re-analyze if needed, v cycle detected optical burners
• Options: d disc size (DVD-5 → DVD-9 → BD-25 → quality/no cap), m menu backend, e encoder, z resolution, l quality, p NVENC preset, a audio bitrate, o encode only one video, s smoke-test length

Menu backend status

• BD-J / GRIN is the current working menu backend and default. Use it for finished discs today.
• HDMV-Lite is experimental. It exports/scaffolds Java-free menu metadata and HDMV authoring artifacts, but it does not yet compile functional Interactive Graphics streams or final HDMV menu commands.
• Auto currently stays on BD-J. It must not select HDMV as the final backend until the HDMV compiler_status is functional.

PowerPoint button action grammar

PowerPoint button text can be a simple action, or it can use the preferred display/action form:

Button Text | Action

The pipe syntax lets the visible menu text differ from messy filenames. Examples:

Main Feature
Play Movie | Main Feature
Start at Big Reveal | Main Feature@1:00:30
Watch the Finale | Main Feature#Finale
Chapter 4 | Main Feature#4
Bonus Features | goto:Extras
Bonus Features | menu:Extras
Bonus Features | slide:Extras
Trailer | file:Trailer Final Export.mov
Return Home | main
Go Back | back
Watch Everything | play all
Coming Soon | disabled
Placeholder | none

Supported Grammar v1 actions are video names, VideoName@timestamp, VideoName#Chapter, goto:/menu:/slide: navigation, file:Exact Filename.ext, and built-ins: main, back, top menu, resume, replay, play all, disabled, and none. Advanced creative commands such as slideshow, idle/attract mode, pre-roll, compare cuts, aliases, or project.json routing are future work.

Project folder expectations

A project folder can contain:

menu.pptx
Video 1.mkv
Video 1.srt
Video 2.mp4
Video 2.srt
...

If a video has no matching sidecar subtitle, autopilot can try OpenSubtitles before media analysis. Set these environment variables first:

export OPENSUBTITLES_API_KEY='your-api-key'
export OPENSUBTITLES_USERNAME='your-username'
export OPENSUBTITLES_PASSWORD='your-password'
# optional; default is English
export OPENSUBTITLES_LANGUAGE='en'

Without those credentials the lookup is skipped safely and the TUI shows an informational preflight note.

The workflow writes build outputs under:

build/bluray-media/
build/bluray-authoring/
build/final-bluray/
build/bluray-burn/

The final ISO is written to:

build/final-bluray/bluray-project.iso

Documentation

Start with the walkthrough:

• docs/walkthrough.md

Detailed workflow notes live here:

• docs/blu-ray-menu-authoring.md

Credits / upstream heritage

Auto Blu-ray TUI includes and builds on the archived HD Cook Book / java.

Intended use

This project is for authoring Blu-ray discs from your own videos, personal projects, home movies, training materials, or other content you have the right to use.

It does not decrypt commercial Blu-ray discs, remove copy protection, or assist with unauthorized copying of copyrighted material.

Find this useful? Feel free to donate https://buymeacoffee.com/rarecore