TMPGEnc batch or command line?

[Cutaway]

I've been scouring these forums and the Web in general regarding TMPGEnc with regards to batch encoding using the command line. I've seen references to a "/batch" and "/close" command line options. However I can't find any documentation or description on how to use them.

Has anyone used these command line options?

For example, I would have File1.avi, File2.avi, etc that I want converted to mpeg2 (DVD compatible) files. Do I need to create a template or some type of configuration file to specify the type of encoding? How do I tell TMPGEnc what files I want encoded?

I tried the TMPGEnc Batch Lister tool but I'm looking for a way to use TMPGEnc strictly from the command line.

Would the Plus or XPress versions be a better option? How would I use those?

It sounds like a number of people have asked similar questions but I've had no luck finding any answers.

Thanks in advance.

[jimmalenko]

I was where you are about a year ago, and stumbled across some information that was very helpful. I ended up creating my own VB GUI that interacts with TMPGEnc and a few other programs and creates a DOS batch file to execute. I found the easiest way to be to set up a project using generic names such as video.avi as the inputs, and output.m1v and output.mp2 as the outputs (I chose to output as ES in my project file, but you could easily just make this output.mpg). I believe that I couldn't get TMPGEnc to close properly using the batch arrangement or something like that.

This means to process more than one file at a time, you need to copy or rename your inputs to match these filenames, then copy the output files to a different filename(s), so as not to overwrite them. I used a counter from within VB to handle the filenames, but you could easily just manually set them in the batch file. Here's a sample:

copy "C:\Video Source.avi" "c:\Working\video.avi"
C:\Software\TMPGEnc\TMPGEnc.exe "c:\384.tpr" /Encode /Close
copy "c:\Working\output.m1v" "c:\Finished\Track0001.m1v"
copy "c:\Working\output.mp2" "c:\Finished\Track0001.mp2"

This uses input file "video.avi", launches TMPGEnc using a saved project called "384.tpr" (which I've previously set up in TMPGEnc manually with these filenames and then gone to file > Save Project), which outputs to "output.m1v" and "output.mp2". I then rename these files "Track00001.m1v" and "Track0001.mp2", so that I don't inadvertently overwrite the files.

For multiple file processing, all you need to do is copy and paste the lines of code above, and change the relevant parts for the subsequent files, so for three files you would have:

copy "C:\Video Source.avi" "c:\Working\video.avi"
C:\Software\TMPGEnc\TMPGEnc.exe "c:\384.tpr" /Encode /Close
copy "c:\Working\output.m1v" "c:\Finished\Track0001.m1v"
copy "c:\Working\output.mp2" "c:\Finished\Track0001.mp2"
copy "C:\Next Video Source.avi" "c:\Working\video.avi"
C:\Software\TMPGEnc\TMPGEnc.exe "c:\384.tpr" /Encode /Close
copy "c:\Working\output.m1v" "c:\Finished\Track0002.m1v"
copy "c:\Working\output.mp2" "c:\Finished\Track0002.mp2"
copy "C:\Third Video Source.avi" "c:\Working\video.avi"
C:\Software\TMPGEnc\TMPGEnc.exe "c:\384.tpr" /Encode /Close
copy "c:\Working\output.m1v" "c:\Finished\Track0003.m1v"
copy "c:\Working\output.mp2" "c:\Finished\Track0003.mp2"

Hope this helps ...

[Cutaway]

This is pretty much what I was looking for. Thank you very much!

A couple of follow-up questions:

1. Is there a way to have it run without displaying the GUI?

2. Is it possible to check if TMPGEnc succeeded? For example, does it set the ERRORLEVEL value on exit?

Thanks again. This is very helpful.

[sanjayk]

jimmalenko certainly have some good solutions up his/her sleeve.

But the gui of TMPGEnc has a option to add you project to batch encode. So add your saved projects to batch encode and run it. minimize the application if you dont like to look at it!