AVANTI - FFmpeg/Avisynth GUI (support thread).

[jeff d]

The metadata manager is unchecked for me as are all options in that screen.

I found that if I resample the audio to 48000 in the avs file ffmpeg has less of a problem with the source, but still problematic.

It also appears I get different results depending on the 32 or 64 bit ffmpeg.

This is what avanti reports on opening the source:
Input #0, avs, from 'D:/football/football.avs':
Duration: 02:01:55.83, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
Stream #0:0: Video: rawvideo, bgra, 720x480, 662900 kb/s, 59.94 tbr, 59.94 tbn,
59.94 tbc
Stream #0:1: Audio: pcm_s16le ([1][0][0][0] / 0x0001), 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s16,
1536 kb/s

When I try to process I get his with the following which seems to be connected to the file being opened, but it happens even if the file isn't opened by another application:
[avs @ 0000000001D3D160] AVIFileOpen failed with error -2147221164D:/football/football.avs: Operation not permitted

[jeff d]

More issues with the loading. I'm not sure why by I can't get the files to load every time. Here' some more feedback if it helps buffer underflow is intersting..:13:14:28 - Free space on destination disk at start 9,264 Mb.
FFmpeg messages/warnings:
[buffer @ 038D0B40] w:720 h:480 pixfmt:yuv420p tb:1/1000000 sar:0/1 sws_param:
[setdar @ 0AD7AE20] a:16/9
[scale @ 07C9C940] w:720 h:480 fmt:yuv420p -> w:720 h:480 fmt:yuv420p flags:0x4
[setdar @ 0AD7AE20] w:720 h:480 -> dar:16/9 sar:32/27
[ac3_fixed @ 0AD42220] channel_layout not specified
[ac3_fixed @ 0AD42220] No channel layout specified.
... The encoder will guess the layout, but it might be incorrect.
Metadata_Write:
... encoder : Lavf53.21.0
[mpeg2video @ 07DBB8C0] rc buffer underflow

[Chris K]

When I try to process I get his with the following which seems to be connected to the file being opened, but it happens even if the file isn't opened by another application:
[avs @ 0000000001D3D160] AVIFileOpen failed with error -2147221164D:/football/football.avs: Operation not permitted

You could try to exit and re-launch Avanti. This kills a previous FFmpeg process that might be locked in memory. Using 64-bit FFmpeg versions is reported as not very successfull (even slower than 32-bit).

The buffer underflow message is a one time only message at the very start of mpeg2video encoding. It appeared a while ago in more recent FFmpeg builds and probably disappears again in a while. As soon as you get this message regularly at processing, then it is alarming.

The problems I have seems to be related to the ffms2 dll. When I change the FF sources to DirectShow everything goes fine. I would still try FFmpeg from the command line with your script. In Avanti, FFmpeg runs as a so called child process. That's how a gui can monitor FFmpeg. I tried the script from the command line and the problem was gone.

[Chris K]

I downloaded the latest ffms2 dll which is from august 2011 from here...

http://code.google.com/p/ffmpegsource/downloads/detail?name=ffms-2.16.7z

This solved my problem which was that Avisynth throwed the error "audio source contains no audio frames". It was very unpredictable. E.g. with 2-pass encoding, the first pass did, the second not?

This latest version fixes this but the cause of your problems might not be the same. I'm testing this on XP 32-bit. The link is to the generic 32-bit version, not the C plugin.

[jeff d]

Thanks, The strangest part for me was that even though I get all the errors, hangs and whatnot, I'm still able to trick avanti into starting the encoding process. I was able to get what I needed done with doing the resampling of audio inside the avs, and some other "tricks" that do nothing. The I somehow was able to get avanti started with nothing as source 1, open source 1, select the version of ffmpeg (can't recall 32 or 64) and then, I believe, I was able to start the process. At this point I was happy to run just a single pass encoding.

So, I got it to work, thanks for the help. But this 64/32bit mixing of tools makes things a bit difficult and right now I'm not a big fan of 64bit windows.

[NighthawkGuy]

Under Windows 7 x64 its best to stick with all 32bit for the tool chain or there are problems.
Use standard 32bit avisynth and ffmpeg.
Its the same with other video tools that use a series of video tools, like avisynth, ffdshow decoder, etc.
Mixing 64bit and 32bit always causes issues.
I've found little or no speed improvement with true 64bit apps vis the 32bit equivalent app in any case.
Unless the app needs >4GB at once, 32bit apps/tools are fine in Windows 7 x64.

[duhmez]

I have a quick question. I want to make a simple batch file for encoding. Once I setup avanti the way I want can I generate the full line of switches? I remmeebr long ago I used an audio encoder gui for lame and it let me copy to clipboard the full command the gui had set up. This wuld be very handy so I could set it in windows context menu and encode a file by right click>ffmpeg endode.

[Chris K]

I have a quick question. I want to make a simple batch file for encoding. Once I setup avanti the way I want can I generate the full line of switches? I remmeebr long ago I used an audio encoder gui for lame and it let me copy to clipboard the full command the gui had set up. This wuld be very handy so I could set it in windows context menu and encode a file by right click>ffmpeg endode.

If you right-click on the "User VIDEO options" command line, you can save the full command line in a bat file but this contains the absolute paths to the source and destination. Avanti doesn't loop dos commands for batch processings.

[duhmez]

Thanks so much! Just the info I needed! The paths dont concern me all that mattered was the syntax for the encode operation!

[Chris K]

The new Avanti 0.6.4 release fixes a initialization failure at launch when used with FFmpeg builds from December 20, 2011 and later. You'll have to upgrade to 0.6.4 if you want to use a recent build like e.g. the Zeranoe weekly builds.

If you want to try vgtmpeg with Avanti, please follow this little guide ...

You have to first rename the executable to "ffmpeg_vgtmpeg.exe" for Avanti to see it. To extract and copy/convert a DVD title, you can enter this at the "Source 1" field;

dvd://e:/video_ts?title=3

where you can replace "e:/video_ts" for the path where the DVD folder exists and the title number for the desired title. This is the preferred method where Avanti is able to show the proper progress info.

vgtmpeg should map out the audio and video stream automatically but in my experience that doesn't always work. Actually reading commercial DVD's did fine but with the ones that were authored with dvdlab, vgtmpeg only came up with the video stream.

To overcome this, you can call up the "Source properties" at the main menu and double-click in the left margin of the audio and video stream. This will add the required -map commands to the command line (see "User input stream mapping" in the help).

Alternatively you can also just load a "video_ts.ifo" or ISO file at "Source 1". The source properties then will show all available titles (as programs) and you can use the "User input stream mapping" option again to map out any desire audio and video stream. Avanti doesn't show reliable progress info automatically with this method but you can force it by copying the duration of the selected title to "Limit encode duration" field.

vgtmpeg doesn't support encrypted DVD's natively so you have to decrypt these first to your HDD with something like e.g. DVDFab decryptor.

Chris

[tigerb]

Hey Chris, Happy New Year!

1) How does one upgrade to the newer version without sacrificing personal settings/templates as well as the libfaac/FFmpeg? (My current portable Avanti 059 is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Avanti and I have ffmpeg.exe and libfaac.dll in the ffmpeg folder.

2) I'm still on Avanti 059 and FFmpeg-git-N-30172-g3c20c0e/libfaac-1.28, which version of the newer FFmpeg do I need to download for the new Avanti 064?

Thanks.

[Chris K]

Hey Chris, Happy New Year!

Thanks! Happy New Year to you too and of course to all others here at VideoHelp.

1) How does one upgrade to the newer version without sacrificing personal settings/templates as well as the libfaac/FFmpeg? (My current portable Avanti 059 is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Avanti and I have ffmpeg.exe and libfaac.dll in the ffmpeg folder.

You can overwrite a Avanti install. That should preserve all your settings and additions but to be sure, I would make a temporary back-up of your current Avanti install.

Just an important additional note: If you overwrite a Avanti version, the default templates are updated so if you modified one or more of them and saved them under the same default filename, your modifications are lost. I recommend to always save modified templates with a new name.

2) I'm still on Avanti 059 and FFmpeg-git-N-30172-g3c20c0e/libfaac-1.28, which version of the newer FFmpeg do I need to download for the new Avanti 064?

You can simply download tha latest Sherpya build and replace the current one. You can keep the libfaac dll where it is.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mplayer-win32/files/FFmpeg/

[Chris K]

New changes in the FFmpeg banner (version info) break Avanti 0.6.4 again for the latest available Windows build (Zeranoe). There's currently also a bug in the -map_metadata command which doesn't parse the given arguments. You can even enter your own name there without any error. Anyway, this means that the "metadata manager" option to remove metadata will fail.

I can fix the version info problem but I'm afraid the developers did not yet finished their work on this subject so it may not last for long.

The last known FFmpeg win32 build that works properly with Avanti is the Sherpya build from December 7, 2011.

http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer-win32.php

If you want to use a Zeranoe build and the broken map_metadata option isn't an issue for you, you can use the previous Zeranoe build from January 5, 2012.

http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/

Chris

[Chug a Bug]

Hi thanks for the program. However I seem to be having problems with it, with .ts files recorded from my PVR the filenames are quite long containing a description of the TV program and contain a lot of spaces but Avanti seems to have trouble parsing the filenames correctly- even if I drag and drop the file into the Source 1 window it spits out the error message "-Error - 'Source 1' file/path doesn't exist."

I have a lot of these recordings and it's simply too tedious to edit/remove all the spaces etc from the filenames. Other FFmpeg gui's don't seem to have problem parsing these filenames, just Avanti which is a shame because it's by far the most feature-rich. Also the "open folder" icon doesn't seem to open any folders - often. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, I'm not sure if it's a bug or it's something I'm doing wrong...

Oh and if you're interested in any feedback on additional feature some kind of auto-suggestion of filenames to save would be be really nice i.e inputting the following into Source 1 - "MyVideo.ts" automatically has the suggested filename "MyVideo[1].ts" or similar appear in the "Destination" box - just a thought.... cheers

Oh and OS is Windows 7 64 bit if it's any help. I'm using the recommended ffmpeg and libfaac builds mentioned in earlier posts in this thread.

[Chris K]

Hi thanks for the program. However I seem to be having problems with it, with .ts files recorded from my PVR the filenames are quite long containing a description of the TV program and contain a lot of spaces but Avanti seems to have trouble parsing the filenames correctly- even if I drag and drop the file into the Source 1 window it spits out the error message "-Error - 'Source 1' file/path doesn't exist."

For Avanti, the total file path should not exceed about 250 characters. Are there any special characters like e.g. % in these filenames? It would help if you could post a example. It's also not recommended to run Avanti from a deep "install" path. For Windows 7 x64, it should be in a folder at the "Program Files (x86)" directory on your boot drive.

Also the "open folder" icon doesn't seem to open any folders - often. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't,

This is also a path problem because the dialog is a module at the "avsystem" folder that is loaded when you call it up. I'm afraid there always will be this kind of problems for Windows 7 users because Avanti runs on a interpreter (Gui4Cli) that wasn't developped for it and there probably will be no future updates.

Oh and if you're interested in any feedback on additional feature some kind of auto-suggestion of filenames to save would be be really nice i.e inputting the following into Source 1 - "MyVideo.ts" automatically has the suggested filename "MyVideo[1].ts" or similar appear in the "Destination" box - just a thought....

I'll take a look into that. If the "Destination" field is empty, it would only be able to suggest a filename at the source path. Personally I don't like to write to the same path as the source. I could try to modify the destination dialog so it accepts to open a path without a filename and then add a suggested filename, derived from the source (including automatic numbering if it already exists).

[Chug a Bug]

For Avanti, the total file path should not exceed about 250 characters. Are there any special characters like e.g. % in these filenames? It would help if you could post a example. It's also not recommended to run Avanti from a deep "install" path. For Windows 7 x64, it should be in a folder at the "Program Files (x86)" directory on your boot drive.

Heres an example of one of the offending filenames, these filenames are generated automatically by the PVR and are a mixture of the the date/time and EPG data of the programme:

"01-18_20-01-47_BBC FOUR (eng)_The Last Days of Steam Time Shift - Documentary which tells the surprising story of how Britain entered a new age of steam railways after the Second World War and why it soon came to an end after the.ts"

This is also a path problem because the dialog is a module at the "avsystem" folder that is loaded when you call it up. I'm afraid there always will be this kind of problems for Windows 7 users because Avanti runs on a interpreter (Gui4Cli) that wasn't developped for it and there probably will be no future updates.

Ah... that would explain why the open folder function isn't working, so I modified the avanti.ini to change all the filepaths from absolute to relative i.e.

ffmp_path=C:/Program Files x86/avanti-065/ffmpeg

to

ffmp_path=./ffmpeg

etc, and that seemed to fix the "open folder not working" problem and makes it portable too. Perhaps an installer would be an idea to make it's location fixed which would avoid this and the other "doesn't exist" errors due to the user moving the folder from where it was unzipped?

...but as to the main problem of the unparsed filenames, on further study it seems its a problem with the Gui4Cli itself, if I Drag and Drop the above file it recognises the file/path just fine, but if try the Open Folder option it fails....

I'll take a look into that. If the "Destination" field is empty, it would only be able to suggest a filename at the source path. Personally I don't like to write to the same path as the source. I could try to modify the destination dialog so it accepts to open a path without a filename and then add a suggested filename, derived from the source (including automatic numbering if it already exists).

That would be great, the PVR saves to the <user>/My Videos folder and I like them in the same place to keep them all together but thats a personal choice I guess

[Chris K]

Heres an example of one of the offending filenames, these filenames are generated automatically by the PVR and are a mixture of the the date/time and EPG data of the programme:

"01-18_20-01-47_BBC FOUR (eng)_The Last Days of Steam Time Shift - Documentary which tells the surprising story of how Britain entered a new age of steam railways after the Second World War and why it soon came to an end after the.ts"

I copied a clip to a "temp" folder in the root of C:\ and renamed it to that name. The filename is 232 chars and together with the dir 241. This way the file is accepted by the file load dialog. When I change the temp folder to "Temp captured video clips" (261 chars) it is rejected. The interpreter then throws the following error...

*ERROR* File: "" Line: 156
Join file names, Resulting path will be 262 bytes long.
File paths must not exceed 260 bytes.

I also tried to open the file in MPC and TotalCommander and they both say "File not found".

This is also a path problem because the dialog is a module at the "avsystem" folder that is loaded when you call it up. I'm afraid there always will be this kind of problems for Windows 7 users because Avanti runs on a interpreter (Gui4Cli) that wasn't developped for it and there probably will be no future updates.

Ah... that would explain why the open folder function isn't working, so I modified the avanti.ini to change all the filepaths from absolute to relative i.e.

ffmp_path=C:/Program Files x86/avanti-065/ffmpeg

to

ffmp_path=./ffmpeg

etc, and that seemed to fix the "open folder not working" problem and makes it portable too. Perhaps an installer would be an idea to make it's location fixed which would avoid this and the other "doesn't exist" errors due to the user moving the folder from where it was unzipped?

Yeah! The best you can do if you move the setup to another folder, is to delete the "AVANTI.ini" file. The idea of relative paths is nice but there's a option to run FFmpeg form another than the Avanti "ffmpeg" folder. It then still has to store a absolute path.

...but as to the main problem of the unparsed filenames, on further study it seems its a problem with the Gui4Cli itself, if I Drag and Drop the above file it recognises the file/path just fine, but if try the Open Folder option it fails....

It's indeed one of the dialog components that has the 260 chars restriction. When you drop the file this all is skipped and the path is simply put into a textbox. From there FFmpeg and e.g. the video preview don't have problems with the long file path.

I'll take a look into that. If the "Destination" field is empty, it would only be able to suggest a filename at the source path. Personally I don't like to write to the same path as the source. I could try to modify the destination dialog so it accepts to open a path without a filename and then add a suggested filename, derived from the source (including automatic numbering if it already exists).

That would be great, the PVR saves to the <user>/My Videos folder and I like them in the same place to keep them all together but thats a personal choice I guess

This is what I have in mind ...

1. Basically you still can use the source and destination dialogs as they are now.

2. To obtain a destination path automatically, empty the destionation field before you open the load dialog (or drop the file). It then creates a safe path at the source directory, based on the source name.

3. To obtain a destination path at a arbitrary directory, open the destination dialog, open the desired folder and press "Save" without selecting a file. It then creates a safe path at the desired folder, again based on the source name.

To easily empty source and destination fields, double-click on the "Source 1", "Source 2" and "Destination" labels on the left. This already works in the version you currently use.

[Chug a Bug]

This is what I have in mind ...

1. Basically you still can use the source and destination dialogs as they are now.

2. To obtain a destination path automatically, empty the destionation field before you open the load dialog (or drop the file). It then creates a safe path at the source directory, based on the source name.

3. To obtain a destination path at a arbitrary directory, open the destination dialog, open the desired folder and press "Save" without selecting a file. It then creates a safe path at the desired folder, again based on the source name.

To easily empty source and destination fields, double-click on the "Source 1", "Source 2" and "Destination" labels on the left. This already works in the version you currently use.

Sounds great! Looking forward to trying it out I wish I was smart enough to program this stuff myself

[Panomaniac]

Hello - first post.
Avanti is working well for me, thanks! But I would like to output in an MXF wrapper. MXF is not on the drop-down list, so how do you do it?
Should I choose "Default" as the wrapper and enter mxf in "User VIDEO options", or maybe edit the .ini file to include mxf?

Any help is appreciated. Cheers.

[Chris K]

Hello - first post.
Avanti is working well for me, thanks! But I would like to output in an MXF wrapper. MXF is not on the drop-down list, so how do you do it?
Should I choose "Default" as the wrapper and enter mxf in "User VIDEO options", or maybe edit the .ini file to include mxf?

Any help is appreciated. Cheers.

Just type mxf at the "Container" field and press enter. This will add it to the list and saves it in the ini file for the next time you need it. You can add as many containers (c.q. file extensions) as you like this way.

You can also do that with other fields like "Frame rate" and "Frame size" etc.

[Panomaniac]

Wow, that was easy! Thanks Chris.

[Chris K]

Hi to all,

From early February 2012 many FFmpeg -flags2 options are deprecated and replaced by single commands. I've been a bit early with adapting templates for this change. If you get FFmpeg errors, mainly with templates that use the mpeg2video codec, you can download a zip that contains both the old and new set of templates.

http://avanti.arrozcru.org/tpl_upd.htm

For the latest Zeranoe builds, the current templates (Avanti 0.6.7) will do fine but when you use e.g. the latest Sherpya build which is from December 2011, you'll need to replace them for the old ones.

Chris

[NighthawkGuy]

I noticed that the latest Avanti version (0.6.7) has a delayed startup with a message for several seconds before the main program appears.
The previous version 0.6.6. didn't have that.
What is the program during during that long new startup delay time now?

Is there any advantages (speed, etc) of the newer Zeranoe builds vs the latest Sherpya build?
I've been using the Sherpya builds successfully for quite some time, so have been sticking with that.
Looks like v0.6.6 is best for Sherpya for me with faster startup and has the older compatable templates.

[Chris K]

Hi NightHawkGuy,

I noticed that the latest Avanti version (0.6.7) has a delayed startup with a message for several seconds before the main program appears.
The previous version 0.6.6. didn't have that.
What is the program during during that long new startup delay time now?

The delay is only four seconds long. It's part of a workaround to overcome initialisation issues on Windows 7. Should the program hang at that stage, you can click on the small startup window to remove it from memory. Older versions sometimes don't show up at launch and users have to find and terminate it at the Windows taskmanager. I'm still working on better stability for Windows 7.

For about a month I have a develop setup for Avanti on Windows 7 (32-bit) and found a lot of issues that don't show up on Windows XP. http://avanti.arrozcru.org/windows7.htm

Is there any advantages (speed, etc) of the newer Zeranoe builds vs the latest Sherpya build?
I've been using the Sherpya builds successfully for quite some time, so have been sticking with that.
Looks like v0.6.6 is best for Sherpya for me with faster startup and has the older compatable templates.

Version 0.6.7 adds some improvements for Avisynth script editing and updates the local paths in the ini file automatically when you move the setup to another directory (or rename the existing).

If you don't use Avisynth or only small scripts and 0.6.6 works fine with the Sherpya build, there isn't much reason to upgrade. The latest Zeranoe FFmpeg builds support some new things like e.g. audio channel mapping and it can move the "Moov" data to the start of an mp4 container. It does this at the end of the conversion and you have to give the expected "moov" size as a argument to let it save space for it. The Zeranoe buiilds might also have an updated libx264 (not sure) but don't support libfaac.

Chris

[NighthawkGuy]

FYI, in my own use, I haven't had any Windows 7 x64 issues running the last few Avanti versions including 0.6.6 so far - not using any compatability mode settings either.

I just tried the latest Zeranoe ffmpeg build and noted it didn't support libfacc which I like that Sherpya does.
Testing with Zeranoe and using the Avanti NTSC MPEG-2 interlaced video template (NTSC_MPEG2_IL_ES_HQ.tpl) that has these video options:
v_userOpt=-top 1 -flags +ildct+ilme+alt -mbd 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -qmax 10
causes an error with Zeranoe that references the "alt" flag - maybe that changed.
It works fine with the latest Sherpya build though.

Anyway to deal with the ffmpeg warning messages about audio channel mapping?
With a video source with this audio stream:
Source Stream #0:1[0x3ea](eng): Audio: mp2 ([3][0][0][0] / 0x0003), 48000 Hz,
stereo, s16, 128 kb/s
and Avanti destination audio settings of:
Codec: AC3-Fixed
Bitrate: 192
Sample Frequency: 48000
Channels: 2
I always get these ffmpeg warning messages:
ac3_fixed @ 03e46620] channel_layout not specified
[ac3_fixed @ 03e46620] No channel layout specified.
... The encoder will guess the layout, but it might be incorrect.

[Chris K]

I just tried the latest Zeranoe ffmpeg build and noted it didn't support libfacc which I like that Sherpya does.
Testing with Zeranoe and using the Avanti NTSC MPEG-2 interlaced video template (NTSC_MPEG2_IL_ES_HQ.tpl) that has these video options:
v_userOpt=-top 1 -flags +ildct+ilme+alt -mbd 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -qmax 10
causes an error with Zeranoe that references the "alt" flag - maybe that changed.

Yeah, I have overlooked that one and will update the templates in the next version. You can remove +alt from the flags and add -alternate_scan 1 to the command line like...

-top 1 -flags +ildct+ilme -alternate_scan 1 -mbd 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -qmax 10

Anyway to deal with the ffmpeg warning messages about audio channel mapping?
With a video source with this audio stream:
Source Stream #0:1[0x3ea](eng): Audio: mp2 ([3][0][0][0] / 0x0003), 48000 Hz,
stereo, s16, 128 kb/s
and Avanti destination audio settings of:
Codec: AC3-Fixed
Bitrate: 192
Sample Frequency: 48000
Channels: 2
I always get these ffmpeg warning messages:
ac3_fixed @ 03e46620] channel_layout not specified
[ac3_fixed @ 03e46620] No channel layout specified.
... The encoder will guess the layout, but it might be incorrect.

I think that FFmpeg most of the time guesses it right. Certainly with 2 channel audio. Problem here is that you could suppress the message with the -channel_layout x command but up to now I never found out how to give the argument for it.

EDIT:

I've been joking around a bit with that command and when I set it to 3, the message is gone. I don't see any logic in it but 3 seems to be for two channel audio? If I give 2, it says "not supported". If I give 4, it says that the number of channels don't match.

[p9g]

Question about User tools menu manager...

I am using Avanti 0.6.7 on Windows 7.

I have the correct tool path, but when I run a tool it pops up a shell to run the command, but the shell window closes as soon as the command completes. Is there a way to tell Avanti to add a "pause" or otherwise keep the output around long enough to read it?

(I added tool entries to call AtomicParsley to show me the mp4 atom tree, and another to call qt_faststart.)

Thanks,
Paul

[Chris K]

Question about User tools menu manager...

I am using Avanti 0.6.7 on Windows 7.

I have the correct tool path, but when I run a tool it pops up a shell to run the command, but the shell window closes as soon as the command completes. Is there a way to tell Avanti to add a "pause" or otherwise keep the output around long enough to read it?

(I added tool entries to call AtomicParsley to show me the mp4 atom tree, and another to call qt_faststart.)

Thanks,
Paul

AtomicParsley is a command line tool that does its thing and then closes. I don't know if it has a option to keep the dos window open for reading? Avanti has no option for that. If I want to add it, I'll have to call the tool with cmd.exe. But it then must be added as an option because in other cases (e.g. dgpulldown) it should close after the job.

You could add > output.txt to the command line at the user tools manager and then read the text file afterwards but that's not really a decent solution. GUI tools like MediaInfo stay open when used as user tool.

[p9g]

AtomicParsley is a command line tool that does its thing and then closes. I don't know if it has a option to keep the dos window open for reading? Avanti has no option for that. If I want to add it, I'll have to call the tool with cmd.exe. But it then must be added as an option because in other cases (e.g. dgpulldown) it should close after the job.

You could add > output.txt to the command line at the user tools manager and then read the text file afterwards but that's not really a decent solution. GUI tools like MediaInfo stay open when used as user tool.

I created a .bat file in the user_tools folder with the following

"C:\apps\AtomicParsley-win32-0.9.0\AtomicParsley.exe" %* -T
pause

In avanti, I pointed the Tool path to the .bat file. Arguments is set to "@destination"

The "pause" line keeps the cmd window open (and hangs avanti) until I press a key to close the cmd window (and unhang avanti).

This does what I was looking for.

[NighthawkGuy]

I created a .bat file in the user_tools folder with the following

"C:\apps\AtomicParsley-win32-0.9.0\AtomicParsley.exe" %* -T
pause

In avanti, I pointed the Tool path to the .bat file. Arguments is set to "@destination"

The "pause" line keeps the cmd window open (and hangs avanti) until I press a key to close the cmd window (and unhang avanti).

This does what I was looking for.

Thats a good solution by using a batch file. Excellent tip!