ffe
ffmpeg front-end for Windows
http:
(c) corz.org
itstory.. aka 'version history'.. aka 'changes'..
[known bugs at the bottom]
* Fixes
~ Changes
+ New stuff
D For Developers/Tinkerers
NOTE: source code is available. If you don't like something, change it.
Or write a nice comment on the ffe page, or mail me, and I might do it.
That whole arguments/MATOF section could do with a re-write - it's a
black-box, house-of-cards maze of hacks bolted on as-and-when required,
with no overall strategy and often under the influence! It is fun exercise
for my brain.
2.5.4 (
"Eejit Soup") [dev. latest: 2022-02-19]
~ ffe will now remember your audio and video codec selection when you
toggle between auto- and custom codecs.
* Fixed extra parameters input adding instead of replacing parameters in
certain circumstances.
~+ Improved help texts.
~ Minor dialog fixes, button placements, etc..
~ There is now console feedback when you right-click the output label (to
delete the output file) and it doesn't exist.
* I think I had avoided this before because there was a minor issue with
Right-Now-Click actions being sent twice, which would have created
double entries in the console. This has now been fixed.
* Fixed a bug where old output paths would return when enabling MATOF in
the GUI. It was easily sorted (dragging in folders is always best!) but
annoying.
* For a while there, when launching with presets, you needed to ensure
that store_filepaths was enabled in your main prefs or inside the preset
itself. Sorry. Anyway, that is no longer the case.
If you have specified a inputfile(s) in your preset, ffe will use it,
regardless of your current store_filepaths setting. Consequently, you
can no longer set store_filepaths inside ffe.ini presets as that is
confusing. If file path exists, it will be used.
This doesn't affect GUI operation. Preset loading will respect your
current file paths setting.
*~ MATOF status is now saved to ffe.ini when you toggle the setting from
the main GUI**. As well as being the more expected behaviour, this also
prevents it leaping into action in presets where it is enabled in the
main prefs but unwanted in a preset fired at launch (go(), run(), etc.)
but hasn't been specifically disabled for that preset. In other words,
unless specifically set, MATOF will respect your main settings when
loading presets.
** Also goes for clicking in the output file input - MATOF is disabled
and this setting is saved immediately to ffe.ini.
~ Brought back the full version number for the about box.
2.5.3 (
"Sleeps with the Wishes")
+ At last, the codec -> extension mappings are inside ffe.ini.
No more magic transformations; you now have control.
They look something like this..
[mappings-video]
xvid=avi
mjpeg=avi
mpeg4=mp4
mpeg2=mpg
flash=flv
msvideo=wmv
vp=webm
av1=ivf
Codec search string on the left, extension to use on the right. Same
story for the audio mappings (for when you are outputting audio).
Anything not covered by a mapping in your preferences will use the
default extension. Add whatever you need. Sample sets will be copied
over to your ini when you upgrade to the this version of ffe.
This change also cleaned up some code, too.
+ Added the new mappings to the import/export facility. Curently they are
exported/imported with the
"main settings".
~ The codec drop-down context menus will now be greyed out when auto-
codecs is enabled, to prevent you overwriting your carefully pruned
custom list with the BIG list from inside FFmpeg.
* Fixed the renaming of presets (which I recently broke).
2.5.2.2 (
"Dark Spinach")
+ If you switch from recycle bin to permanent deletion, the one-time
delete warning is re-enabled.
+ If you hold down the <shift> key while you click the cropping label
(title), you can set the value for the number of frames to interrogate
for *this* cropping test.
If you right-click the label you can set a new value to use as the
default number of frames to test.
+ ffe will now report all the settings it is using when running an auto-
crop operation.
~ The default frames value (for auto-crop testing) has been increased to
100 but this might still not be enough to catch some content's borders.
A quick visual inspection will tell you roughly where the action starts.
FFmpeg interrogates the file fairly quickly so it's no problem testing
hundreds of frames or more.
~ When opening a report (rather than viewing in the console) with report
saving is disabled in your prefs, ffe will still fallback to using the
console, but it will now tell you why it did that, in case you didn't
realise you could change it.
+* The
"copy" option will now be automatically added to the Auto-Codec
lists. I forgot about this when I created the auto-codecs facility and
found myself having to type it. Sod that.
+ You can now set the color used for warnings. This isn't used a lot at
the moment (the file input will flash this colour if you click the label
to open the file's location and it doesn't exist) but may be used more
in the future.
This is normally red (ff0000), but you may have issues with red, so you
can now enter a standard RGB hex value, e.g..
warn_colour=C0DCC0
Which would give you
"money green" warnings.
+ Added the
"@params" @token, which is the value of your current extra
parameters input. This should make it easy for you to turn your ffplay
button into a preview button (which could show your video with your
current ffmpeg settings**), if you so desire; amongst possibly other
things.
** note, ffplay won't understand all your ffmpeg parameters in preview
mode, but many it will, making for a useful facility.
* Fixed the ffplay routine adding errant quotes around your arguments. It
made no difference until you added quotes of your own and things got a
little.. uncertain.
+~ Other improvements and additions to notes, documentation and reporting.
2.5.2.1 (
"Song of Tar")
* Fixed a bug where MATOF was being incorrectly enabled for single files
when the user had disabled MATOF (who does that!? Okay it turns out, a
few people..)
* Fixed directory loading in presets and command-line. The following..
ffe.exe go(preset) B:\Test\ffe\IN\*
ffe.exe go(preset) B:\Test\ffe\IN\
ffe.exe go(preset) B:\Test\ffe\IN
Will now all produce the same result, especially when using @tokens in
the outputfile setting.
See also:
"Quirks & Caveats" section at the foot.
* You can now override store_filepaths inside presets. I added this as a
workaround which I'm pretty sure is no longer required but I'll leave
in for now.
* Fixed errant file loading into inputs when store_filepaths is disabled.
+ Added AV1 to the list of types that ffe will automatically switch the
extension of output files. In this case,
"ivf".
2.5.1.4 (
"Froggy Bacon")
+ Custom Button notes, if any, can now be piped to the console when you
click on a custom button.
+ You can put newlines in your preset notes. There is a new multi-line
notes editing dialog to facilitate this feature.
Although it should be transparent to you, if you want to roll your own,
ffe stores newlines as
"\n" character sequences in its ini, like so..
notes=Disable the output!!!\n And create the
"OUT" directory!
Any spaces and tabs (yes, you can use tabs) you insert will be respected
as the console uses a monospaced font for output. I'm not expecting
anyone to put ASCII art in their ffe presets, but still, formatting can
be useful. Especially for warnings, caveats and gotchas.
Yes, if you put notes=<something> inside your main preset, it will act
as a welcome message, which you would see on Every Single Launch. This
is sooo tempting! Well, I should really, erm,
"demonstrate" the feature!
Also, it would encourage folk to dive into their ffe.ini, always good.
+ You can set the prefix used when spewing out notes, or delete that
entirely.
notes_prefix=
"\nnotes:\n"
Again, \n = newline/linebreak. But this time it's manual-editing-only.
Note: the prefix is not used if the notes derive from the main [ffe]
preset; i.e. a welcome message.
+ When outputting files, ffe will now create the parent directory if it
doesn't exist. This is a user error!
+ Added a quick fade-out at exit. I would ideally like a TV power-off,
like the Hudl 2 does. Och well.
~ Updated a few presets to include notes and improved parameters, e.g. the
FLAC preset now sets compression level to maximum and channels to
independent encoding. The notes tell you about this.
* Fixed a bug with the main window not re-activating properly after
cancelling the FFmpeg Quick task edit dialog.
* Fixed the Ampersand (&) translation on the custom buttons. They now
correctly show their keyboard accelerators underlined.
* Fixed a bug where @tokens in the outputfile setting were being
translated too early and creating potentially invalid paths.
* Fixed the errors in the
"simple" presets. Ironic, eh.
* Fixed a bug with the custom buttons grid not re-creating properly if you
disabled then immediately re-enabled custom buttons. Now the buttons
will continue to work as before.
* Fixed a bug where ffe would ask you for an output file name if the
output directory could not be found during non-output operations, like
creating image sequences. Now ffe will simply allow FFmpeg to fail to
the console.
2.5.1.3 (
"Diced Hedgehog")
+ Added
"Auto-Crop", which basically uses FFmpeg's
"cropdetect"
functionality to get the likely cropping values for the video and
inserts them, as if by magic, into the cropping inputs, ready for you to
encode the video.
You can get ffe to perform auto-crop by clicking either of the cropping
labels (
"crop w / h" and
"crop x / y"). Their ToolTip also lets you know
this.
In addition, the labels' text changes to a sky blue on mouse-over, a bit
like a URL does. I like this a lot and might get other controls to do
it. Right-Now-Click-enabled button labels could turn green on mouse-
over, perhaps ...
At any rate, once the crop values have been calculated successfully, ffe
reports the result to the console, to show you how clever it's been.
+ Added the sky blue mouse-over styles to the input and output labels.
~ Improved the logic and formatting of the Custom and Short Test buttons,
which will now work exactly as expected under all conditions, adding
and removing parameters willy-nilly, even fixing up some user errors as
it goes (spaces missing between commands, if the user deleted them).
* Fixed a bug where the HotKeys for the FFmpeg responses (y/n) weren't
being unset after use, so if you tried to use
"y" or
"n" in your
settings, perhaps whilst getting the next encode ready, nothing would
happen, as ffe was still sending these keys to FFmpeg (which were being
safely ignored). ffe will now release the HotKeys as soon as they are
used.
* Fixed the docking for the copy output and clear output buttons, so if
you launched ffe with a wide window and resized it to a small window,
the buttons would slide right over the top of the search button. Now the
buttons will stay put.
D cel.au3
I've improved CLT() and CRT() (and the wrapper, CBT()). They now return
the number of replacements made. You can also specify separate
characters for left and right when using CBT().
2.5.1.2 (
"Static Orange Pips")
+ You can now keep notes inside a preset. Add
notes=<Your Text Here>
to any preset and on loading that preset, these notes will be spat out
into the console, and are a good place to put any information you might
need when working with the preset.
An example preset is included in the default ffe.ini.
There is also a new presets context menu item where you can set this for
the currently selected preset (select one first!)
* Fixed the short test button not removing its command if you launched ffe
with a short test command at the start of the parameters input and
clicked the short text button. Clicking the button with a short test
command already in the extra arguments will now remove the command, as
expected.
* Fixed a bug where if you had @tokens in your extra parameters, the would
be added to the MATOF string repeatedly.
There is still too much complexity in that old code. I'll need to get
the coding spanner out at some point and rewrite it.
2.5.1.1 (
"Soft Landings On Sausages")
+ You can now Ctrl+Click the reset button to also clear the input+output
file paths. Shift+Click will clear ONLY the input+output file paths.
~ Updated the automatic wildcard you get when dropping a folder from the
old-school
"*.*", to the ultra-modern, sleek and so-cool,
"*". Obviously
this was a massive amount of work and when you first try it you will
see why; it's like you've jumped straight into a science fiction movie.
All donations welcome.
+ You can now display a timer in the title bar when FFmpeg is running for
at-a-glance job time.
The toggle is in the app menu > visual prefs. You can switch this on and
off whilst FFmpeg is running. There is also a HotKey: Ctrl+R.
Think
"Running Time"; it also uses
"R" as the app menu accelerator.
~ Improved the FFplay Quick Task button command handling so you can do
slightly more complex tasks. Remember to enclose all paths, including
@tokens, in
"quotes".
+ Added a new macro, which is @arguments. This translates into the
arguments that will be fed to FFmpeg, as can be seen in your
"Command-
line" display.
This is useful in the above new more complex FFplay tasks, e.g..
@arguments
"@inputfile"
.. which will give you an instant preview of how your output file will
look, potentially saving you having to make short test clips.
All your cropping and such can be viewed instantly. BUT BEWARE.. This
won't work if you have parameters in your extra parameters input that
FFplay doesn't understand. Click the FFplay help button for more details.
If you are messing around, trying to get a working FFplay command, you
will probably want to display the output in the ffe console (F6).
* Fixed saving the old output file to the exit settings when the user had
deleted the contents of the input (it was being read afresh).
Also the spurious saving of the inputfile when it was empty. Now, if you
reset everything and exit, your exit-settings is an empty preset, as
expected.
* Fixed a glitch on reading the fall-back directory, which was being lost
somewhere in the matrix.
2.5.1.0 (
"Melon Thrasher")
~ Changed the cropping controls to use the new cropping format. I don't
know how I managed to miss skip this! Thanks for the heads-up, again..
D ffe has been stripped of all
"common" functions, that is, function which
also exist inside
"Corz Essentials (Lite version)", aka.
"cel.au3",
which is now included (in Resources/). Yes, I know! It's back!
2.5 (
"I do requests, Bob")
It's here!
+ If you right-click the output file label, it deletes the output file.
You get a warning the first time you attempt this.
+ Added a couple of delete options for this (get to them @ app menu > ffe),
namely, always delete to recycle bin and always warn on delete.
NOTE: If you have wildcards in your file output, i.e. for a batch, e.g..
B:\AVIs\* [libx265][aac].mkv
.. and you had just created 10 video files, right-clicking the output
file label will DELETE ALL TEN FILES. In other words, the delete command
respects the wildcards.
+ Ctrl+click the the input file and output file selector buttons and you
instead open the directories with; if they (yet) exist; the files
selected. Otherwise just the folder. If the folder does not exist, the
corresponding input momentarily flashes red.
Ctrl+clicking the input file selector button performs precisely the same
action as clicking the label to the left of the input file.
* Fixed a bug where if you had parameters in your extra parameter input at
startup (retained settings) and you clicked a custom button to *remove*
parameters, you would instead get a second set of the same parameters.
ffe will now correctly remove the existing parameters, as expected.
~ Cleaned up the console output when editing buttons (shift-click the
button). It was just one long line of often confusing text. Now you can
see what's what.
* Fixed the search box opening top-left when first opened.
~ Moved the copy and clear button over next to the search button, which I
think makes more sense, and keeps it away from the
"do it" button. Looks
neater, too. And some other minor GUI tweaks.
D I notice my web host is deleting my new betas, since I switched over to
compiling with AutoIt beta, in fact. I'll go back to making binaries
with the release version, for now.
v2.4.9.5 (V2.5rc5)
+ Added a HotKey to suspend console output whilst FFmpeg is running. This
can be useful when running certain plugins that output a *lot* of data.
The HotKey is Alt+C. You can toggle back and forth, though note, if you
do *only* that, there's a high chance the output won't begin updating
again immediately on enabling. Just click anywhere, or stop switching it
on and off and go do something more constructive!
At the end of the job, the full log will be shown in the console, as
usual.
+ Added the ability to load multiple presets on the command-line. Simply
separate preset names with a pipe (
"|") character..
run(Load Test Commands|Reverse Video+Audio)
"B:\Test\ffe\*.mp4"
This example demonstrates the intended usage; to load
"layers" of
commands. In this instance, the first preset loads pre-job commands to
empty my test folder and post-file commands to create media report on
all output files. It also sets the output folder for the following task
(which does not have this set). This base preset could be pre-loaded for
many different jobs.
Here is what the first preset might look like in your ini..
[Load Test Commands]
pre_job_commands_file=@datadir\pre-job-commands.bat
post_file_command=ffprobe.exe "@outputfile" > "@ofilename_report.txt"
run_pre_job_commands=true
run_post_file_command=true
outputfile=B:\Test\ffe\OUT
NOTE: If you attempt to use the pipe character in the name of your
presets, it will be replaced by an exclamation mark/point.
If you *already* have presets with pipe characters in their name, you
will need to change them to something else, like,
"!". Also, seriously,
what were you thinking!? lol
+ Added transparency menu to the drop window context menu. There are 5%
graduations, from 0 to 100.
A note about drop window transparency and mouse hover:
When you hover you mouse over the drop window, the transparency will
switch to 50%. Unless your transparency is already between 45% and 65%,
in which case it will switch to 0% transparency (completely opaque), as
these values are too close to 50% to see an obvious change on mouse-
over.
If this behaviour bugs you, you can set the mouse-over transparency
explicitly, using the following preference in your main settings..
drop_win_hover_transparency=<value>
<value> being from 0-100
The default is -1, which lets ffe work it out.
+ Added menu item for
"Sort Presets" on the presets list itself, which
seems sensible. If you alter the setting, the menu item will change to
let you know that a restart is pending. Along with the corresponding app
menu item.
This facility has also been extended to all other app menus for settings
that require a restart..
Images on (some) Buttons
Show MouseOver ToolTip Help
Wrap Console Output
ToolTips over Console Output
~ You no longer need to restart ffe (Alt+F5) to toggle the
"log each job"
switch. I just noticed that this was required when coding the above. Now
ffe will grab the preference afresh before running jobs.
~ I've updated ffe.ini to use UTF-8 WITH BOM, to prevent it being
transformed to ANSI during built-in InIWrite() functions. I *really*
need to look into writing all my own ini routines!
+ Add further error-checking and cleaned up some extraneous code.
~ Removed the Proper Casing of the help label. It will now respect
whatever case you use in your title.
* Fixed the custom selections on the input dialogs not being set (since
the beta this now needs to be done after the GUI_SHOW. Fair enough.).
v2.4.9.4 (V2.5rc4)
+ You can now enter full commands, with paths, in the help buttons, so
you can use them for help files from other programs, like ffprobe, or
FFplay. Or any program.
You can also use @tokens in the command for the help files, e.g..
@appdir\ffprobe.exe -h
I've set two of the demo help buttons to ffprobe and FFplay to
demonstrate this capability.
* Fixed media reporting from URLs, which I carelessly broke recently.
* Fixed the edit/add help buttons, which again I recently broke. Too many
late night sessions, clearly.
* Fixed a bug where if you cancelled out of the Post-File command dialog
your post-file command would be set to
"". You can still set the command
to empty if required, but cancelling the dialog won't do it for you.
* ffe will now correctly set the
"seen" flag for help texts if you edit a
help text button command. Now, if you command has changed, you get the
changes immediately.
* Fixed a bug in one of the default custom buttons (it was using the old
format!!!)
v2.4.9.3 (V2.5rc3)
+ Added the facility to have automatically-populated codec drop-downs. ffe
will grab the latest encoders list from FFmpeg and parse it to produce a
list of audio and video codes for your codec drop-downs. Fairly groovy.
If you like to have *all* the available codecs in your drop-down, this
is for you.
If you like to switch binaries, this is for you, too. This automatic
list will reflect the codecs available in your current binary, as soon
as you switch binaries.
You can toggle Automatic Codec DropDowns from the app menu. When enabled
you lose the ability to add/remove items; indeed there is no context
menu for the codec drop-downs at all in this mode. There is no need to
add; you have ALL the available codecs in your drop-down!
You can switch between your own list and the full (auto) list without
destroying either. There is a HotKey (F7). You can keep your own list as
a set of
"favourites", and toggle back-and-forth as required.
By the way, if you want a FULL list that you /can/ edit, here's a trick:
Enable Automatic Codec DropDowns (F7).
In your ffe.ini, set either/both codec lists to empty (and save it):
video_codecs=
audio_codecs=
Disable Automatic Codec DropDowns (F7).
On discovering the list(s) empty, ffe will populate the drop-down with a
set loaded from the current FFmpeg binary. Now you have the full list
AND it is editable.
|Note: If only one of your lists is empty, ffe will only populate that
one, leaving the other as-is.
NOTE: If you do not make an actual edit (right click the combo/drop-down
and add something, anything), even a quick fictional one, ffe will NOT
save the generated list to your ini file.
+ Added an App Menu (sub-menu) for the Post-File controls. Things you
previously had to hack into your presets manually. Namely..
post_file_run_style=direct/dos/shellexecute
..How to run the command.
post_file_capture=true/false
.. Whether or not to capture output to the console.
post_file_show=true/false
.. Whether or not to hide the invoked program.
See
"Post-File run options", further down this document, for more
details about what these settings do.
v2.4.9.2 (V2.5rc2)
Reorganised the source package and now using AutoIt Beta (3.3.15.3) to
build the binary.
<= v2.4.9.1 (V2.5rc1)
+ You can now set the pause HotKey to global, so you can pause/suspend
operation even whilst ffe is not at the front. This function is usually
set to the ScrlLock key which as you know, IS USED FOR NOTHING ELSE!
This can be toggled from the app menu.
~+ Improved Find dialog (for searching in output).
The window will also now remain on top during searching. Window
position is now also saved and restored between Finds.
By the way, if you hold down the SHIFT key when you open the Find
dialog (with button/F3), you get Replace options. Quite why *you* would
want this, I have no idea. But there you have it.
+~ Your recent files list now works globally, which makes more sense
and less confusion. It will also automatically remove missing files
from the recent files list (in the tray menu). These operations,
like so much, are reported to the user in the console.
+ The recent files menu now shows only the base name of the files, as
opposed to the full path. Clearly this makes for much neater menus.
Way too much work went into this.
~ The Custom Buttons are now even more configurable. Well, the
position, anyway. They have always been *completely* configurable!
I fixed some positional issues, too, so everything should line up
much better with the other buttons now, using the default settings.
~ There is no longer any theoretical limit to the number of rows of
buttons you can create. You can fit six rows of buttons at 16px high
(with a slightly smaller font), if you want *lots* of buttons.
+ Added new @tokens:
@inputfile = Full path of input file.
@appdir = ffe program directory
+ By popular request, I added two new buttons to launch quick tasks for
ffmpeg and FFplay. These are of course configurable and to make them
truly useful they accept @tokens.
There are HotKeys for both buttons; F11 and F12, respectively.
I like the logic: F1 (create) ==> F12 (play)
Right-click the quick task button to edit the command. There is no
context menu, the right-click takes you directly to the input. I like
this system so much I've used it for the short test button, too. Enter..
Right-Now-Click!
Command output is piped to the console for ffmpeg commands and also
optionally** for FFplay commands (for simply watching a video, FFplay's
output is superior. For troubleshooting, choose ffe console)
** You can toggle this setting from the app menu, and more quickly with
the HotKey: F6.
Like other controls, the ToolTip for these buttons updates to show you
the current setting. Another good reason to keep the ToolTips enabled.
There are *loads* of uses for these two wee buttons. Setting the FFplay
Quick Task to
"@outputfile" seems like a no-brainer. The FFmpeg button
can be anything you fancy. How about a quick Video->MP3 converter
button..
-i
"@inputfile" "@parent\@item.mp3"
Or one-click image extractor..
-i
"@inputfile" -r 1
"@parent\@item_%05d.png"
Imagination is the only limit! And the technical limitations of FFmpeg,
of course. The button can't make espresso. At least, not a decent cup.
***
It should be noted that FFplay also plays MP3 and other audio files.
You get a spectrum analysis while audio plays (also available for video,
btw, check out the FFplay hotkeys - it's minimalist, but an excellent
little media player, nonetheless). Pretty neat.
+ Shortcut (*.lnk) files are now resolved when dragging and dropping
onto inputs/drop window.
If you *really* want the old behaviour (inserting the shortcut file,
rather than the linked file) hold down the SHIFT key while you drop.
Though note, in that case, if you have automatic reporting for
dropped items, you will, unless you have super-human reflexes and
timing, get a useless media report for the .lnk shortcut in your
default nfo viewer! Just, why?
+ You can now disable saving media reports. They will still appear in
your console output, but won't leave report files next to the media
files. Thank you! This setting is available from the app menu.
~ When you click on the
"input:" label (to the left of the file input)
rather than simply open the media file's containing folder, ffe will
now open the folder in Explorer with the media file *selected*. W00!
If the file in the input does not exist, the label flashes red,
instead.
+ The positions of ALL the wee dialogs** are now remembered after you
close them so they will open up in the same place next time.
NOTE: if you cancel or OK an empty value, the position is NOT saved.
** Edit buttons, rename presets, set test length, etc., etc..
~ Cleaned up the console output. There sure is a lot of it these days.
+ You can now disable ToolTips over the console output area (where they
can annoy) whilst retaining the useful tips over your other inputs and
controls..
allow_console_tooltip=false
This setting is available from the app menu >> Visual Preferences.
+ You can now have ffe run your drag-and-drop command on files supplied on
the command-line (or your retained settings), so when you launch ffe
with a file (e.g. from your SendTo menu), it will immediately produce a
media report, or just process it immediately, or whatever.
This setting is available from the app menu.
+ Added a new drag-and-drop command;
"Play", which plays the dropped file
with FFplay, using your regular settings.
+ Also added
"Generate", which generates an ffmpeg batch script, just like
shift-clicking
"do it!" or running ffe with generate(preset) on the
command-line.
+ Added keyboard accelerators for ALL the app menu commands.
Hit Alt+Space and away you go!
+ Added a tray menu option to open the data folder. Cleaned up the
ordering of the tray menu, too. More logical.
+~ Added and improved help messages, console output and other useful
goodies. The window title is now used for more messages, too (e.g. when
you copy the console to the clipboard).
~ If you launch ffe with the Shift key held down, it will ignore your
previous exit settings and use the defaults. This has been true for a
while but I didn't take a note of it anywhere.
This action will now also disable retaining exit settings so that any
existing exit settings will remain intact after re-launch, should you
wish to enable the facility again (Ctrl+E), the old settings will still
be there.
As a side note, exit settings are now retained in your ini up until
the point in time when they are replaced. If ffe gets killed for any
reason, your exit settings will not.
+ Also, if you have exit settings disabled, and then enable it, ffe will
offer to load your previously-stored exit settings (if you have any).
~ In the case of freak naming conflicts during unattended operations,
ffe will now use a timestamp, rather than a random string, for the
conflicting name's suffix.
+ You can now add video and audio codec to the lists from directly within
the GUI (right-click the control). There are *hundreds* of these you can
add. Only popular formats are included by default. Go nuts. Or rather,
add what you need.
+ Similarly, you can now remove codecs the same way.
~ ffe now stores backup ini files inside the subfolder;
"Backup", inside
your data directory. Sorry.
+ You can now change the default extension from inside the ffe app menu.
This is the global setting. As before, you will need to hack the setting
into your presets if you need this set at the preset level.
There is also a HotKey for this: F2.
You can stop bugging me about this now!
It should be noted that there is rarely any need to set this directly.
ffe takes care of the extension mostly automatically. The default is
used only as a fall-back when, for some reason, ffe can't determine the
extension.
Note: You can set this on a preset level. There is an edit item in the
preset drop-down control's context menu.
But again, you should not need to. Or at least, very rarely!
+ Added a few more GUI menu items, so you can get to more of the many many
settings hidden away inside ffe.ini.
~ When saving a preset, ffe now only saves the settings you actually
changed (mostly). The actual data saved is reported to your ffe console.
~ batch_commands_timeout and batch_commands_timeout are no longer saved
automatically on a per-preset basis (they were simply copying the master
settings anyway, as there is no way to alter these from within the ffe
GUI). Users advanced enough to be using this stuff can add parameters
to their presets manually, if you so desire, along with any of the other
script control settings.
+ There is now an
"About ffmpeg" option in the app menu and tray menu
(beside the About ffe entries) so you can see the current version of
whichever ffmpeg binary you are working with. The output is piped to
your ffe console.
~ The default extension for the ffmpeg-generated help files is now
"txt".
You can change this in the help button preferences.
~ Removed the limit on the number of help button you can show in the GUI.
Also the magic used to place them. There is a trade-off between the
space taken up by these buttons and the space taken up by the custom
command buttons. You will find balance.
TIP: If you create enough custom buttons to fill a rectangular block
MINUS ONE, you leave the bottom-right corner empty and a large number of
help buttons will slide in comfortably.
+ Added an automatic extension mapping for
"gif". ffmpeg can output
animated gifs, by the way. I really must put these mappings into some
kind of user preference.
+ Added quite a few app menu items so you can get to more of the hidden
ffe settings. I don't think there are many left.
I also moved a couple of prefs around to hopefully make things more
logical.
~ The flag that tells ffe you already created a particular help file (with
FFmpeg) and to simply re-load that instead of re-creating, is now unset
when you load a fresh FFmpeg binary, in case the codecs and what-not
have changed.
+ You can now disable the
"with file paths" checkbox altogether, so file
paths never get saved with or loaded from presets. A ToolTip will still
appear over the control's area, informing the user that this preference
has been disabled inside ffe.ini.
File paths will always be remembered between sessions however, if you
have
"retain exit settings" enabled.
Also, if you launch ffe with go(<preset-name>) and there is an input
file specified, ffe will load that inputfile (which may have wildcards).
~ ffe will now report to your console if you attempt to create a media
report from a missing input file. (this
"feature" was later removed. If
you aren't getting any output from your edited help button, run your
command through the FFmpeg Quick Task button to get the full error
output)
~ The delimiter used to separate commands from comments inside the custom
buttons has been changed from
"|" to
"***", as the pipe interfered with
certain FFmpeg advanced commands. Sorry.
You will need to update your buttons manually. Again, sorry. This is
easiest in a text editor, though shift-clicking any button will get you
to the gubbins. If you have lots of buttons, you definitely want to do
this in a capable text editor; it will only take a few seconds..
Select the entire [custom buttons] section, replace
"|" with
"***".
I have also made this available as a preference in your ini file. So you
can keep the old behaviour if you prefer, update at leisure, whatever...
button_delim=***
~ The HotKey to abort the current task is now Ctrl+Q, which a) is more
in line with the
"q" we send to ffmpeg itself to quit, and b) works,
which F4 seems not to any more. I may investigate. But then again, maybe
not; F4 is too easy to hit by mistake!
Pause/Break still aborts *everything*.
*+ Fixed the F9 Drop Window toggle not working in recent Windows builds and
improved it so it works no matter if you have the main GUI or drop
window at the front. So long as ffe is at the front, F9 toggles the Drop
Window.
We're using twin-accelerators now, so it goes *really* fast!
~ On the subject of accelerators, I've re-coded most of the HotKeys to
use GUI accelerators now, so there is no chance of those HotKeys
interfering with other apps / being unavailable / etc..
+ The current state of the tri-state controls is now shown in their pop-up
ToolTips. Of course, you can see their state from the GUI, too:
Checked = Enabled
Unchecked = Disabled
Filled = Unset
+ A simply mad amount of console and debug reporting. You want data? You
got data!
btw,
"The data say" is good English.
"Data" a plural. Unless we are
talking Star Trek; in which case
"Data" is a sentient android seeking
humanity. The singular is
"datum". But seriously, who says
"Datum"?
~ Removed legacy (pre v0.9) pref handling. It's just confusion in the
code and there's really no need for it any more.
~+* Ctrl+A will now select all the text of the control you are in, as
opposed to only the console output. This only works in controls that
normally have more than a few characters in them, so not for codecs and
what-not (their text is automatically selected when they get focus), yes
for parameters and file inputs.
And the console, of course. Another pet annoyance bites the dust!
+ You can now add and remove help buttons from directly inside ffe. Right-
click any help button for options.
+ You can now also edit help buttons from directly inside the GUI.
~ When you wipe a preset, ffe makes a backup, as ever. If you wipe a
preset with the same name again, ffe takes a backup of your previous
backup before creating the backup. That's two backups. No more.
+ You can now restore preset backups from directly within the ffe GUI.
Shift+Click or Right-Now-Click the wipe button to get to the backup
chooser.
+ Added a
"Restart ffe" option to the tray menu. There is also a HotKey
for this: Alt+F5**. This is useful if you need to reload after changing
some global preference, and other stuff.
** This, like so much else, will become a thing.
~* I re-organised and re-wrote some menus to (hopefully) make them more
logical. Someone won't agree.
+ Drop Window Image Starter Pack..
Added the facility to download a starter pack of images for your drop
window. A small, tasteful, video-orientated selection.
You can get to this feature from your ffe tray menu.
There is a preference for the images' base URL, so you can use your own.
image_pack_url=https:
If you decide to roll your own for whatever reason (I can think of a
few), upload a list of images, named..
image_pack_urls.txt
and drop it into the root images folder.
Subfolders are fine; ffe will re-create those locally and make them
available in your drop window's cascading images context menu. Pretty
neat. All this is nicked from my upcoming app; BlobDrop.
ffe will use this as a download manifest. The format of the file is a
simple plain text list of image paths from the root, e.g.
Film-Reel-Simple.png
Folder-Videos-icon-By-Zerode_small.png
Animated Gifs/Animated_film-strip-trans-by_Cor.gif
~ Updated the short test button to use
"-frames:v" instead of
"-vframes",
which has been deprecated (it still works for now, but will be removed
in the future).
+ You can use quit(preset) in place of run(preset) on the command-line, as
it perhaps makes more sense. As usual, it runs the preset and quits.
+ Updated some of the detault custom button presets to be more in line
with modern FFmpeg usage.
+ Added the current help command to the help buttons ToolTip, so you can
see what the *actual* command is without editing the button.
Lots of the ToolTips have useful dynamic information, by the way.
+ Added ini option to remove comments from your ini file, which is:
clean_comments=true
This will also happen automatically if your ini file grows to more than
60KB in size, to prevent clipping if it were to reach 64KB in size; the
theoretical maximum size for an ini file. For some reason.
Contrarywise, if you want the original comments back and you ini file is
small enough to take them..
Inside ffe.ini
Set:
clean_comments=false
Set your version number *anything* smaller.
Restart ffe.
+ Post-File run options..
There is now a few choices for how to run the post-file command, that is
the optional command ffe runs after each completed file, usually, though
not necessarily,
"doing something" to the output file.
Firstly, you can choose the method used to run the command..
"Standard": Internal, direct, accepts arguments and > redirections.
"dos": As above, but through Windows command interpreter (cmd.exe)).
"ShellExecute": A simple mechanism enabling you to launch a file
using Explorer's default verb, usually
"open".
Generally you want the internal (direct) method, but if your console
program isn't working as expected, try the dos option.
Note: When using the dos method, you will need to put
"quotes" around
any path with spaces in it, including the path of the program.
NOTE: Any quotes in post-file commands are encoded as '"' in your
ini file. It all happens automatically from the GUI, but remember this
if you are editing you ini manually.
When running direct/dos you also have the following options:
Post-File Command Capture (true/false)
Choose whether or not to capture the output (which will be visible
in your ffe console). If you are capturing the output, you will
obviously need to wait for the process to end. If your cammand is
expected to take a long time, you may want to disable this.
post_file_capture=true
Show Post-File Command Window (true/false)
This sets whether or not we run the command hidden.
By default we show the program window..
post_file_show=true
NOTE: Pre-Job, Post-Job and Post-File commands can all be saved inside
presets, even the default preset. However, if you have any of these set
and then load a preset with them unset, they will remain unchanged. This
is by design..
You can load a preset with some commands setup, then another preset
without any commands, then (perhaps after some tweaks) re-save the
second preset, except now it has commands ini it.
+ The preference kill_ffmpeg_on_exit=<true/false> will now be honoured
when read from a preset. Though this is technically a global setting, it
has potential usage inside presets, so can be manually added, if
required.
~ The
"reset" button now resets ALL parameters and settings, including
any pre- and post-job batch files and post-file commands. This is more
in line with what most users expect to happen and is less confusing.
~ Although the state of the tri-state job buttons (overwrite, join, quit-
when-done, shutdown-when-done) aren't normally saved to a preset unless
they have been changed by the user (otherwise inheriting the defaults),
they WILL now be retained between sessions, as to have half of them (the
pre- and post- commands) remember and the others not, is odd if you
don't understand the reasoning behind it, which was flimsy to begin
with.
NOTE: pre- and post-job command file locations, as well as post-file
commands are grabbed fresh from your ini file before they are used, so
you can edit these in the ffe GUI or your favourite text editor and the
new batch scripts/commands will be picked up and used immediately.
+ You can now set a default audio file extension. This is rarely, if ever
needed as most audio codecs map simply to file extensions.
At any rate, it's now a pref: default_audio_extension=aac
~ Updated sample custom button Frei0r filters to use new syntax. I also
tracked down a collection of x64 Windows DLL's (inside the excellent
Shotcut) and put them in the goodies folder (see the ffe page) for you.
Only some of these work. At least, my limited tests have only gotten
some of them to work, albeit some of the funner ones. There is a list of
the ones I got working, here:
https:
+ In the event of conversion failure (perhaps a plugin parameter?) ffe
will now clean up the empty files FFmpeg leaves behind.
+~ Fixed-up the logic of the pre- and post- job buttons. ffe will now also
check for the existence of commands/batch files when you enable these
features and move straight to the creation dialogs should any be absent.
ffe will also inform you when pre-job and post-job command files load
successfully, or not. Same with the post-file command.
If these features are disabled/unset, ffe won't bother you about them.
+ ffe will now report the total time for a batch at the end of the batch.
Quite an omission.
+ Improved the tracking of external commands, so you can see errors and
such in the console.
*** Fixes ***
* Fixed a bug where ffe would annoyingly load the output file path (with
MATOF, if enabled) even though you loaded a file on the command-line
(SendTo, etc.). Now ffe will re-create the output path, as usual, from
the input file. If you *really* want to get back the stored exit
settings' output file path, click the MATOF button.
* Fixed a bug where if you set a delayed start and there was an error
creating the batch, the state (and the error message) would loop
indefinitely, eating CPU. Thank the Teen Titans for spotting this one!
* Fixed the version checking at the server end. Oops!
* Fixed a bug where ffe wouldn't pass your Y/N response back to ffmpeg,
as the ffmpeg developers had (finally) fixed that typo and ffe no longer
recognised the question!
* Cleaned up batch exiting so that total time and such are displayed in
the console, just like regular jobs.
* Fixed a lot of minor bugs as I went along. Things I noticed I'd not
finished or not thought-out properly. Run a diff on the source if you
want to see the many many changes. Some of these were recently
introduced! Suffice to say, loads of wee niggles and annoyances have
been taken care of..
* Fixed the flashing buttons. Oops.
* Fixed new dialogs appearing top-left instead of centre.
* Fixed MATOF's often wonky target file handling (dragging a folder onto
the output is still the best way to set the output).
* Cleaned up the double+ ToolTips.
* Fixed the resizing errors.
* Fixed codecs not present in the combo list not loading from presets.
* Fixed certain settings not being remembered properly (e.g. the
store_filepaths state checkbox wasn't being saved).
* Fixed the incorrect menu items.
* Stopped empty log files being created. This may still happen
occasionally in the beta, when I forget to remove temporary lines with
debug_level=0, but it won't happen spuriously on every run.
* Fixed the presets menu not refreshing after renaming a preset.
* Fixed renaming sections from re-ordering the presets combo (the AutoIt
built-in IniRenameSection() function does this, so I re-wrote it; with a
sledgehammer).
* Fixed a bug where renaming custom buttons would place the renamed button
at the end of the buttons. This annoyed people. Again, unthinking use of
built-in functions was the cause.
We use a much more elegant solution now and while I was in there I
cleaned up some other old scrappy code.
* Fixed the button grid re-creating two, or was it three times when the
GUI was resized beyond its minimum limits and ffe had to resize the GUI
automatically. Now it will refresh a single time, as expected.
* Fixed the
"gone too far" flag (when the above happens) not being unset
after an automatic correction, so the button grid was being recreated
every time the window dimensions changed, or were checked, which is a
lot.
* Fixed a couple of spurious variables that found their way tagged onto the
end of console lines.
* ffe will no longer crash if forced to use an empty ini file; it will
simply replace it with the default version.
* Fixed a bug where load(), run(), etc. would not work if
retain_exit_settings was enabled.
* Fixed a bug where exit settings were being destroyed on quit if you
launched ffe with load() on the command-line.
* Fixed a bug where the mian GUI would appear briefly during a
"generate"
option.
* Fixed a few bugs with the pre-job, post-file and post-job commands
buttons, tootlips and loading. Everything should now work as expected.
* Fixed a bug where your log location would get set to the system
temporary folder unless it was set inside your current preset.
* Fixed a bug where running a non-existant preset from the command-line
would result in the batch running with the default settings. Now, if a
preset does not exist, ffe will fail with an error.
* Fixed concatenation not working. We now instruct FFmpeg to accept
"unsafe" paths. We are also properly tracking the output so we can know
these things.
* Post-batch tasks will no longer run if the batch was aborted. Oops!
* Fixed the text selection issues on the command-line display. You can do
Ctrl+A in there, too, to select all text.
* Fixed the q/n keys not passing to FFmpeg during a concatenation
operation.
* Fixed a bug where slashes were being
"fixed" in shell commands when the
user put @tokens in their batch files, mangling the flags as a result.
~ DEV ~
+D Much improved error messages and debugging. You can set the debug level
from 0 (off) to 10 (gobs), in your ini..
debug_level=10
This is useful for messing with the code or creating a bug report.
Level 1 (the default) will reports only errors.
We can also technically set debug_level=0, which will usually produce no
output. This can be useful when we need to debug one particular section;
we can add debug lines with the level set to 0 and we will see output
for ONLY the section we are working on, which can save copious
scrolling. The default level will display these messages too, of course.
~D We now use CorzFancyInputBox() exclusively for dialog inputs, so no need
to include InputBox() resources. CorzFancyInputBox() has a few
advantages, not least of which, it remembers the positions of your
various dialogs. If you like your rename preset dialog to pop up
precisely under the control, just put it there one time. Done.
All input dialogs now use the Consolas font for the input. This can
also now be set in your ini file. If the font name has spaces,
enclose it
"in quotes".
+ You can now set the maximum debug log size. When this limit is
reached, the file is archived and a new log is created.
+~ LOTS of internal code clean-ups, minor fixes and improved efficiency.
~ I moved a lot of the functions around to hopefully make things more
logical. Forget running a diff.
I also added dummy functions for easy navigation in any decent text
editor. These have been growing for a while and are really useful for
making and navigating to sections in your code.
+ Added a wee comment tag (
"::dev::") above any items in the source code
that I consider useful to you getting ffe compiled ASAP; places you will
need to make edits/comment-out/etc..
2.0 (
"hatched socket")
+ Batch Runs.
ffe can now process multiple files. All you do is replace the file name
with an asterisk/question mark. Your input could look something like..
I:\Rip\ffe\Test\*.avi
Which would have ffe process every AVI file in the specified directory,
applying whatever options you have set in your various settings.
You can also do:
I:\Rip\ffe\Test\*.*
which would process ALL the files in the directory.
In other words, you can use regular Windows file name wildcards. These
are all fine..
I:\Rip\TV\Test\*.*
I:\Rip\TV\Test\*.mkv
I:\Rip\TV\Test\Suits*.*
I:\Rip\TV\Test\Suits.S01E??.*
The output input will display the */? to let you know a batch operation
will occur. The actual output name will be created dynamically during
the batch run and appears in that same space (which is greyed out during
the run), displaying whatever file ffmpeg is currently outputting.
Your console output and log file (if created) will contain output for
the entire batch operation, and will be saved at the end of the batch
run, to wherever you specify.
And you can of course save batch jobs as presets. If you regularly find
yourself, for example, grabbing the first fifty frames from a bunch of
movies, you can setup an ffe batch job to process them all and then, in
the future, simply drop the movies in your specified folder and launch
ffe with the preset on the command-line. Or create a generic preset and
drag in the folder... ffe is designed to accommodate many styles of
working, at least, all the fast ones!
You could make a single-click ffe shortcut on your desktop to handle the
entire job.
NOTE: You cannot create batch jobs with URLs as the input. However,
there's nothing to stop you using URL for the output, perhaps an FTP
directory.
+ Concatenation (joining).
At the end of your batch operation, you can have ffe fire-up ffmpeg's
built-in concatenation routines to join all the output files together.
The concatenated output name can be set in your ini (default:
"joined").
To enable this, check the
"join" checkbox before you run the job.
NOTE: although ffmpeg/ffe will allow you to join *any* files together,
it is obviously only going to work correctly if you join files with the
same output format, dimensions and such. HOWEVER, if you are looking for
some zany, original video effects, or to create an audio track, go right
ahead!
NOTE: If you have overwrite enabled, this also applies to any
concatenated output; you won't have to respond to ffmpeg's command line
prompts, unless you want to.
The concatenation task details also appear in your job log.
+ Improved the log output and final time readings. Instead of always
getting rounded seconds, you will now get a more human readable output,
with hours and minutes. Accuracy is also improved for short timings
(under a minute) where the readout will /not/ be rounded.
The original (rounded seconds) output will appear in braces next to the
regular output, in case you like seeing that, e.g..
Completed in 3.19755239240638 seconds (3.2 seconds)
+ Added
"Abort Batch" to tray menu. If you use
"Ctrl+Q" to quit the ffmpeg
task during a batch run, ffe will skip right to the next file. If you
want to abort the /entire/ batch, use the tray menu item. There is also
a HotKey for this, which is: Pause/Break.
NOTE: Pause/Break will also abort any single task, so makes sense to use
for all aborts.
+ Customizable Control Buttons.
These are nifty. You can specify /any/ number of custom buttons to add
whatever parameters you want to the extra/input parameters input. Okay,
it's actually 500, but seriously, no way you are fitting 500 buttons in
there.
Custom buttons are simply a place to store your argument
"sinppets".
Things which are often used and could be applied to many presets (which
can be thought of as
"scenarios").
For example, you might have a button called
"Add Subs", which would add:
-scodec copy -metadata:s:s:0 language=eng
into the extra arguments. Or another button (keeping with the subs
theme) named
"Subs Probe", which adds something like:
-probesize <bytes> -analyzeduration <microseconds>
Or whatever you like. This is especially useful for filters and other
things you use over and over, as well as a place to put
"templates",
base settings that you can tweak on a per-job basis, perhaps saving the
actual button value as <what-unit-it-is>, in case you forget.
You can control how many columns of buttons there are, or set it to auto
and let ffe work it out (the number of rows is always worked out
automatically).
There is no theoretical limit to the number of columns you can create,
though you will need a wide monitor and a large window to display
double-digits of columns!
For example, if you have 10 buttons but only specify 3 columns, you will
only see (with default button dimension settings) NINE buttons, as there
is a limit to the number of rows which can be displayed inside the
interface - ffe will stop creating custom buttons when it has filled all
the rows. So ensure you create enough columns to house all your custom
buttons, or set it to
"auto" and ensure your window is wide enough.
You can also control the width of the actual buttons and the font size
used (as well as spacing, Y-position and button height). You can have
HEAPS of small buttons or a few, well labelled big buttons. Your call.
Hovering your mouse over any custom button pops up help text with the
contents of the button.
Buttons are created left-to-right, row-by-row. A few example buttons are
provided. Old ffe.ini files without custom buttons will get the samples
automatically installed with this and later versions of ffe.
Click the button and its parameters will appear in your extra arguments
input. Simple. Click the button a second time to remove that same
command. Like I said, nifty.
You can set the number of columns directly from the App Menu (up to 24
columns, if you need more, set it in ffe.ini, or use the Auto setting),
and have the buttons re-created live inside the GUI, with any new
buttons you just created appearing instantly.
If you don't want to change the number of columns, only refresh (perhaps
to show manually ini-added buttons - though why - the GUI inputs are
great!), simply re-select the current number of columns!
As mentioned, there is also an
"auto" setting, which will automatically
select the number of columns based on the width of the window and number
of buttons. This works great and is what I use myself. In auto mode,
resizing the main window recalculates the buttons.
If you Shift+Click any of the buttons, you can edit the button directly
from within ffe. NOTE: If you /change/ the name of the button, you will
create a new button.
Or rather, if you want to create a new button, simply enter a new name
in the button editor name input. The idea of this is that it is QUICK to
create a new button:
Shift+Click ANY button
Type Name <enter>
Type/Paste Function <enter>
Voila! A New Custom Button.
And the code goes directly into the extra arguments input, so you
don't even have to click the button you just made.
Each button also has a context (right-click) menu where you can choose
to rename or delete your button if required. There is no warning with
the delete option, okay, there's one, the very first time you use the
facility. THEN there is no warning. You have been warned!
You can use
"&" symbols in the names part to specify accelerators for
these buttons, i.e.
"Blur &1", which would enable you to activate that
button by doing
"Alt+1" on your keyboard. Or
"&Blur", which would enable
you to activate it with Alt+B.
** BY THE WAY, if you don't *see* the accelerators when you launch ffe,
hit the ALT key one time.
As a bonus, if you hold down the Ctrl key while you click the button,
the action will apply not to the extra parameters input, but to the
INPUT parameters override, so you can use your custom buttons to keep
snippets for either or both inputs. Ctrl+Click the button a second time
to remove the arguments from the override input.
See the [custom buttons] section of ffe.ini for the actual button data.
You generally don't need to concern yourself with this as all the
create/edit/rename/delete functionality can be got at from the GUI,
however, for those that like this sort of info, here it is..
A [custom buttons] section looks something like this..
[custom buttons]
&Sharpen A=-vf
"unsharp=5:5:1.0:5:5:0.0"
Sha&rpen B=-vf
"unsharp=luma_msize_x=7:luma_msize_y=7:luma_amount=2.5"
&Blur=-vf
"unsharp=7:7:-2:7:7:-2"
BoxBlur &1=-vf boxblur=2:1
BoxBlur &2=-vf boxblur=2:1:cr=0:ar=0
&PNG 1/s=-r 1
"output%05d.png"
HQ &JPG 1/s=-r 1 -qscale:v 2
"output%05d.jpg"
&Glow=-vf
"frei0r=glow:20"
Pi&xelate= -vf
"frei0r=pixeliz0r:0.02:0.02"
On the left, the name of the button (including &Accelerators). This will
be the text on the button itself. It is also used for the pop-up tooltip
(along with the command). On the right goes the command to add to the
extra parameters.
Don't worry about colons and quotes and stuff leaking into your file
names via the MATOF string; ffe is smart enough to handle this. Usually
you don't need the quotes, anyway, but they can improve readability.
You can include notes along with the button. These notes will be
displayed in the mouseover ToolTip. This is a handy place to put
explanations for obscure parameters. These are stored inside the custom
buttons section of ffe.ini, simply added onto the end of the command
after a pipe
"|" character, like so..
[custom buttons]
add SRT subs=-scodec copy -metadata:s:s:0 language=eng|merge subs in original SRT text format and set the language to English.
NOTE: when editing custom buttons, the final (3 of 3) dialog is the
comment input. If you immediately dismiss this dialog (Esc key) any
current value will remain unchanged. It's quicker if you just want to
edit the actual command - the most likely scenario. If you want to
delete the comment, delete it in the input and click <OK>, as usual.
~ Because of the custom buttons and their accelerators, I have moved all
Alt+HotKeys to Ctrl+HotKeys, leaving you free to use ALL available
accelerators for your custom buttons. Yum.
+ Console output messages. ffe will now drop useful messages into the
console output, for example, confirmation when you wipe or add a preset,
save or update a custom button, change AppMenu items and so on.
Also, when you load a preset, ffe will use this facility to inform you
if the status of any hidden settings have changed, e.g..
loading preset: Apple Movies
default_extension:
"mp4"
Because of this and other console output enhancements and integrations,
console output has become integral to ffe's operations and you can no
longer disable it.
If you really need to not see it, ffe will allow you to resize the main
window small enough to hide it!
+ Automatic backup of wiped presets. You can still use the old method
(creating a second preset with some string added to the end, which will
be ignored during presets load) but ffe will now create an automatic
backup of any wiped preset, just in case.
Obviously, these backup presets do not appear in the presets drop-down.
There is also a new context menu on the presets drop-down, with an
option to delete all backup (wiped) presets.
+ A quick way to update the location of your ffmpeg binary: drag it into
ffe's file input.
+ NEVER OVERWRITE fail-safe. This just happens, there is no setting.
Basically, ffe will never instruct ffmpeg to overwrite a file which has
been created in the current job. This is to prevent people shooting
themselves in the foot, waking up the next morning to find their
expected dozen 1080p TV episodes have been transformed into unplayable
subtitles files, which could potentially happen if you used the *.*
wildcard on a directory which contained auxiliary files, e.g..
my-movie.mkv
my-movie.srt
And didn't double-check your parameters! When encountering this
(admittedly, your) instruction, ffe will give the to-be-created file a
random suffix. Remember, when using wildcards in general, it's usually
wise to specify as *much* as possible of the file name.
+ Added a
"short test" button, which simply adds parameters to the extra
params input, specifying we process only the first 1000 frames, a thing
I do a lot. You can, of course, then edit this setting inside the extra
parameters input, as usual.
You can also specify the number of frames the button adds; Shift+Click
the button to edit this number before insertion. Right-click the button
for an edit-only option. And of course you can edit ffe.ini directly.
+ There are now configurable help buttons that open (by default) the
basic, formats, filters and codecs help files, as well as the FULL
ffmpeg help text, respectively, within the console output. As usual,
Shift+Click opens the help text in your default .nfo viewer.
These are super-handy when when you want to quickly check an ffmpeg
parameter, of which there are a ridiculous amount, which btw, I love.
These texts are also dumped to your data directory (second and
subsequent viewings in the same session will load these dumped files
rather than create afresh with ffmpeg.exe). They are always created
fresh at least once per session, in case you updated your ffmpeg binary.
You can edit these buttons; the text they show and what they do; inside
ffe.ini. The format is fairly straightforward..
help_texts=
"Main|help.nfo|-h,Formats|help-formats.nfo|-formats,Filters|help-filters.nfo|-filters,Codecs|help-codecs.nfo|-codecs,Full|help-full.nfo|-h full"
Each help file section is separated by a comma
"," and each property is
separated by a pipe
"|" character, basically..
Title|output-filename.ext|ffmpeg command
The first entry will be CAPITALISED and used in the ToolTip entry, which
makes for faster recognition, should you forget which button is which
and need to hover over them to get help.
With this in mind, I also added a wee help text which pops up the name
of the button in Big Letters in the space above the buttons. The text
there will appear Proper Case, regardless of how you enter it in your
preference. Yes, I am evil!
And as I mentioned, you can have up to five buttons. Or none at all.
Your call.
NOTE: when using the help launch option (Shift+Click), ffe will use your
system's default viewer/editor for that type, so use whatever file
extension launches your preferred viewer.
+ Delayed Job Start. In the System Tray menu, is an option to start your
job at a later time. A simple dialog will let you choose how many days,
hours and minutes you wish to delay the job for, or alternatively, pick
an exact date+time from the picker.
At any rate, ffe will then go into suspend mode until your chosen time
arrives.
You will note the delayed start system tray menu item is now checked. If
you wish to abort the delayed start, uncheck that. This also works if
you were daft enough to start the delayed start with no input & output
files specified!
Once delayed start is activated, ffe posts a handy, human-readable
countdown timer in its main window TitleBar, lets you know exactly how
long there is to go. For those that don't know chops from cheese, you
can disable this inside ffe.ini.
There is a HotKey for this: Ctrl_D.
IMPORTANT: In suspend mode, ffe will still accept changes to the job's
parameters.
+ Floating Drop Window
You can open a floating, transparent drop target which acts just like
ffe's regular input file input, so you can drag in files and folders and
have ffe process them immediately with your current drag-and-drop
command, or just insert them into your file input. You can also use it
to set the location of your ffmpeg binary, which some folk need to do a
lot.
The drop window floats above all other windows on your desktop, so it's
always available to accept files and folders. During ffmpeg jobs, the
drop window will hide itself.
The floating window is created from an image. A few samples are
provided. Many more here..
http:
You could use a regular rectangular image, but the facility is
designed to be used with a partly transparent image, so you can have
some useful shape floating on your desktop, something that fits well
into a corner, or along an edge, or resembles Jessica Alba, or whatever.
Click and drag anywhere inside the drop window to move it around.
You cannot usefully resize this window, if you need a different size,
use a different sized image! There is nothing to stop you using an image
the size of your entire desktop or bigger (ffe will use a bit more
memory, that's all), maybe create a live border around one the edge of
one of your monitors. A few
"strips" are provided for edge use.
For PNG and ICO files, ffe produces a proper transparent window with
full alpha blending - drop shadows will look lovely. This enables you to
produce some beautiful and useful
"shades". GIF, WMF and EMF do not
supports partial transparencies, but you can still have useful shapes.
NOTE: The floating window will change transparency (to 50%) when you
hover your mouse /anywhere/ over the image rectangle, but only the
visible parts of the window are *active*. In other words, if you drag a
file onto an empty part, it will fall right through!
This is by design (so you can click-through the window). If you need a
window that can accept a drag-and-drop across the entire rectangular
area, set the outlying transparency to 1%, rather than 0. It will still
be invisible to the naked eye, but will prevent click- and drag-through.
You can also apply this 1% to inner areas, whilst leaving the outside
shape
"shaped", i.e. completely transparent, for click-through.
An example of this principle is included in the distribution, named:
drop-movie-to-ffe-SOLID-CENTRE.png
In this example, the outside (curved) edges of the floating window are
completely transparent, if you click outside the shape (yet still within
the
"rectangle"), the click will pass straight through. If you click in
the
"transparent" middle section, although it
"looks" transparent, it
behaves just like the visible parts of the window; click and drag to
move, accepts file, and so on.
You can also set the overall transparency of the visible parts of the
floating window (the transparent areas of a transparent image will
always be 100% transparent - unless using the above-mentioned trick).
You can set it from 0 (opaque) to 100 (completely transparent). As
mentioned, it will jump to 50% visiblility when you hover your mouse,
over it, for feedback (unless you already have the transparency set to
within 10% of 50%, in which case it will jump to 0% transparency).
ffe uses Windows GDI+ to handle images, so technically, anything GDI+
can load, ffe can use.
Yes, you can use animated GIF files**. And yes, they will animate. Note:
dragging a file onto a wildly dancing elf could be tricky, though not
impossible! Gently throbbing buckets and such-like work well, though.
Image formats that I know work:
PNG, GIF, ICO, JPEG, BMP, EMF, WMF, PCX (most), EPS (some) and TIFF
Transparency supported:
PNG, GIF, ICO, EMF and WMF
Alpha Blending (proper shadows and semi-transparencies) supported:
PNG and ICO
Animation supported:
GIF
Right-Click the Drop Window for a fantastic context menu. There are
options to refresh the menu and close the floating window, as well as
pick a new images folder, open the current image's folder and exit ffe.
But that is not all..
Any /other/ allowed images you have sitting in the same folder as your
drop window image will appear in an
"Images" menu. And any images you
have in folders inside /that/ folder will appear as submenus, and so on,
all the way through the entire directory tree. Aye. Select any image to
switch to that image, obviously.
Drag one of your allowed image types into the drop window and it becomes
the new drop window. Allowed types are set in ffe.ini - by default, png,
gif, emf, wmf and ico files, because they can all have transparencies.
The images (context) menu has two modes of operation, fixed and fluid.
In fixed mode, you set a
"root" Images directory and the context menu
always displays that directory tree. You can also, optionally, have ffe
copy all dragged images into your Images folder.
In fluid mode, the Images menu instantly switches to the parent folder
of whatever image you select or drop in. When I say
"instantly", I mean
as soon as ffe has finished scanning the entire directory tree for
allowed images, which could take a moment, especially if you choose HUGE
media directories.
When the drop window is active you can also use the left/right arrow
keys to cycle through the current images menu, yes the WHOLE menu, right
through all the subdirectories, in order. ffe should be good for up to
five million items, though whether your system can handle a menu this
big is another story.
Remember, the HotKeys cycle through the *menu*, so if you have fluid
mode disbled, drag in an image and hit left/right, you will get an image
from the main drop window images folder. If Auto-Copy is enabled, your
new image is also immediately available from the menu/keys.
ffe is happy to use an image from *anywhere* on your system, regardless
of which mode you are in, fluid or fixed, and regardless of whether or
not the image is in your specied Images directory.
If you key past the end/start, ffe cycles back to the start/end.
It's okay to load LARGE animated GIF files. I haven't found one ffe
couldn't handle (the largest one I have is just under 6MB). As they say,
YMMV.
You can switch the Drop Window on/off from the main GUI (the wee target
button next to the file input) or the tray menu or by the HotKey (F9).
You can also (from the tray and drop window context menus) toggle
fixed/fluid mode as well as auto-copy images and choose a new location
for your (fixed) image folder, pretty much everything you should need.
NOTE: when fluid menu is enabled, the
"Copy Dragged Images" and
"Choose
Image Folder" items are greyed out. While technically possible to allow
users to alter these settings whilst in fluid menu mode, it would only
lead to confusion. When fixed mode is enabled (or rather, fluid mode
disabled), these items will again be active, which leads to the opposite
of confusion.
I discovered that the Drop Window also doubles up as a handy animated
gif viewer, not only with left/right arrow control through an entire
TREE of images, but showing the images directly on your desktop overlay,
which everyone who sees it will agree is pretty darned cool.
This drop window facility took way more code+time than I expected, so
please use it HEAVILY!
I should add, when I (and many thousands of others) want to get windows
EXACITALY at the edge, or over the edge, or just want a super-easy way
to do window moving and resizing in general, I use KDE-Mover-Sizer..
http:
(Drag window over corner of desktop, Alt+RightClick. Done.)
** Animated GIF support is courtesy of trancexx. Cheers! If you are
compiling your own ffe, you will find this support is trivial to
remove/add, should you feel the need.
+ Recent files menu, in the system tray. Any files you create are added to
this menu. Select a file to open it with your system's default viewer
(whichever app is set for the
"Open" verb).
Files are only added once, from the bottom-up - the most recently
created files go at the top.
By default, this information is /not/ stored between sessions, but you
can enable that, if you wish, inside ffe.ini.
+ Improved
"singleton" behaviour. If ffe is already running and you send /
drop a file to ffe.exe, it will now, rather than simply quit; instead
bring the currently running instance to the front, inserting the new
file path into the file path input.
For those testing multiple ffmpeg binaries with multiple ffe setups, or
whatever, you can disable this behaviour from inside ffe.ini and run
multiple instances easily, perhaps with different settings, though
multiple instances of the same installation also work fine.
+ Shutdown when done. It can be handy to have ffe shutdown your computer
at the end of a long job. Set this to true to do exactly that.
This setting is also available directly in the GUI.
+ Quit when done. Works exactly the same way as Shutdown when done.
Both Shutdown when done and Quit when done also can be saved your inside
presets for convenient scheduled operation.
NOTE: If shutdown when done is enabled, the quit when done setting is
not available. Before shutting down your computer, ffe will quit.
+ Click the label next to the output path input to COMPLETELY disable the
output. This is handy if you are cooking up your own custom output, for
example when creating image sequences. This state is saved/restored
inside presets.
+ Intelligent Output Path.
Okay, semi-intelligent. ffe will attempt to create valid paths in your
output input (how confusing!), which is the input area where you enter
(or better yet, ffe enters) the name of the output file.
You can drag files and folders in there and ffe will work it out. For
example, if you have an input file,
"D:\path\to\movie.avi", the output
input might read
"D:\my\rips\movie.mkv". If you then drag the folder,
"D:\some\other\folder" onto the output input, it will now read,
"D:\some\other\folder\movie.mkv", automatically inserting the folder
part before the file name part to create a valid output file path.
If you now toggle the MATOF switch, the MATOF string will be added to
and removed from this new path, e.g..
"D:\some\other\folder\movie[libx265][AAC][-strict experimental -preset medium -x265-params crf=22].mkv"
Tip: If it's being too clever for its own good, delete the output and/or
hit the MATOF button a couple of times! ;o)
NOTE: As soon as you click your mouse in this input, you disable MATOF.
++ You can now set the CPU priority of the ffmpeg task. There is a also
sub-menu in the app menu for setting this. Note: you can adjust this
live, whilst ffmpeg is running.
In practice, CPU Priority doesn't make a huge difference, at least on my
system, though could be handy for taxing jobs on computers with minimal
resources, or for squeezing every last drop of speed out of ffmpeg for
jobs you want done NOW.
It is also handy for throttling back if ffmpeg is causing your music
player to stutter.
~ Selected text in the console output window will now retain its selection
when the output is not in focus. As well as being generally useful, it
means you can actually see matches when using the search function!
By the way, I didn't write the search function, it's one of those AutoIt
UDFs, so apologies for any niggles you may have with it. Feel free to
write a better one! I did improve its behaviour slightly (editing UDFs!
AARRGH!!) so that you can Find >> Type >> Enter to get straight to a
result.
+ ffe can now dump the log output next to the output file after every job.
The preference (in ffe.ini) is:
log_each_job=true/false
Note: The per-job log will follow your global log_append setting. You
can set this from the App Menu.
+ frei0r plugin support. OK, technically, ffe doesn't need to support
ffmpeg plugins as it is only a front-end, HOWEVER, anyone who has tried
to play with the the excellent frei0r plugins on Windows will realise
that this isn't always straightforward. Inserting system environmental
variables at run-time is outside the skill-set of the average user, for
a start.
ffe lets you choose a plugin folder, a place to dump your frei0r and
other ffmpeg dlls, and injects this path into the system environment
variables each time you run ffmpeg, ensuring point-and-click simplicity
when running frei0r processing plugins.
A couple of frei0r examples are included in the custom buttons. Enjoy!
+ You can now set the font and font size for the console output, defaults:
console_output_font=
"Lucida Console"
console_output_font_size=9
BTW, I use:
console_output_font=
"ProFontWindows"
or..
console_output_font=
"Consolas"
console_output_font_size=9
For clarity, these settings are also used for the input parameter
override and extra parameter inputs.
+ Added @tokens for the extra parameters input.
Using tokens, you can have extra arguments like this (note: regular
output is disabled in this example, as we are specifying our own
(images))..
-vframes 50 -r 1
"@parent\@item_[@ext]_%04d.png"
Which would grab 50 images from the first 50 seconds of video (one per
second) from an input file like this:
V:\Surreal\Un Chien Andalou - 1929.mpg
and output files named..
V:\Surreal\Un Chien Andalou - 1929_[mpg]__0001.png
V:\Surreal\Un Chien Andalou - 1929_[mpg]__0002.png
V:\Surreal\Un Chien Andalou - 1929_[mpg]__0003.png
And so on.
Here are all the available @tokens:
@inputfile Full path of input file.
@item Base name of input file, minus extension.
@ext File extension of input file.
@oext File extension of current output file.
@ofilename Basename of current output file.
@outputfile Complete path of current output file.
@sec Seconds value of clock. Range is 00 to 59
@min Minutes value of clock. Range is 00 to 59
@hour Hours value of clock in 24-hour format. Range is 00 to 23
@mday Current day of month. Range is 01 to 31
@mon Current month. Range is 01 to 12
@year Current four-digit year
@wday Numeric day of week. Range is 1 to 7 which corresponds to Sunday through Saturday.
@yday Current day of year. Range is 001 to 365 (366 in a leap year)
@parent Parent directory of input file
@outdir Output Directory (wherever ffe is currently outputting files)
@tempdir System Temp directory
@datadir ffe data directory (in portable mode, it is the program folder)
@desktop Current user's desktop folder
@programfiles Your Program Files directory
@homedir Current user's user directory, e.g.
"C:\User\Fandango"
@mydocuments Current user's
"My Documents" directory.
And because @token processing is performed on the extra arguments, you
can use @tokens in your custom buttons. Happy days!
@tokens are also available for the input parameter override. I haven't
played with this much, but the possibilities are mind-boggling. For
example, a big directory full of movie.mkv + matching movie.srt files
you want to combine, you could do something like this in your input
parameters:
-i
"@parent\@item.srt"
And WHAM! ffe processes the entire folder, adding subtitles to all the
.mkv files and outputting them wherever.
That cute input override should work for single files, too.
+ @Tokens can be used for ALL path preferences in ffe and inside
ffe/ffe.ini. Try it!
+ ffprobe media reporting (instant .nfo files!).
If you have ffmpeg, you most likely have ffprobe sitting right next to
it. Let's use it. ffe can now generate a media report for your files
which you can view in ffe's console viewport and/or your favourite
viewer.
You can set the reporting format (ini, xml, csv, etc.) as well as the
output file location (dynamic @tokens supported) and file extension (the
default being
"auto").
By the way, these values are gathered fresh each time you click the
button, so you can change them (from the app menu) and then create a
report with a /different/ format instantly.
The other settings are available inside ffe.ini, along with the ability
to add any extra parameters you may need to pass to ffpprobe, as well as
the ability to automatically unescape the output, if required.
Note: the
"compact" report might wrap in your console viewport, but the
saved version will be just fine! It is only /vertically/ compact!
Yes, you can use URLs as input files for media reporting, the same as
regular ffmpeg file processing, grab all the info from an rtmp stream,
or whatever.
+ MediaInfo Support. Same as above, but instead using the excellent
MediaInfo:
http:
You want the CLI version, in 32 or 64 bit, depending on your OS. Install
it somewhere in your program files if you haven't already.
And again, you can pass it extra parameters inside fee.ini, if required.
Sadly, you cannot use URLs as input with MediaInfo.
+ Automatic audio file extension from codec.
If you are extracting an audio stream from a movie file; video set to
disabled, audio set to copy; ffe will probe the video file to discover
what audio codec is used and, assuming MATOF is enabled, automatically
set this as the output file extension.
If you have a batch job, the extension will temporarily show as
".wav",
but once the job starts, ffe will insert the correct extension. Yes, you
can easily rip the audio tracks from a bunch of movies at-once.
If you /choose/ an audio codec, ffe will of course honour your decision
and re-encode the audio to that format, as usual.
NOTE: If you move ffprobe.exe away from ffe.exe, this will not work.
+ Added a new command-line switch,
"run", which works exactly the same way
as the old
"go" switch, except ffe will quit when the job is done.
Note: when using the
"run" switch, you will NOT be asked whether or not
you wish to abort the quit process (unlike setting quit_when_done=true).
ffe will simply quit.
+ Same again, but for shutdown, using the unsurprisingly named,
"shutdown"
switch. Works exactly the same way as the
"run" switch, above, except
that ffe will shutdown your computer at the end of the job.
Just like,
"quit", if used with a
"run" switch, THERE WILL BE NO PROMPT.
The machine will simply shutdown. Use with caution!
Don't worry if these are set inside a preset that you then run live in
ffe (as opposed to via the command-line). If there is a window visible,
ffe will always warn the user before a shutdown.
+ Pre-Job and Post-Job Commands.
You can now specify a set of windows shell commands to run before and/or
after ffmpeg job runs. You can set the name of this file inside ffe.ini,
or create one from ffe's system tray menu.
You can enter a simple file name, in which case it is assumed to be
inside your data directory (in portable mode, that is the same directory
as ffe.exe) or you can enter the full path to the file.
These are standard windows commands, EXACTLY LIKE YOU WOULD PUT IN A
.BAT (Windows Batch Script) FILE.
I use this to empty target folder then copy test files over from the
source folder for a fresh batch of tests, but the facility has many
potential uses.
Post-Run commands are handy for doing things like..
mkvpropedit
"@outputfile" --edit track:s1 --set flag-default=1
(setting the subtitle track of a movie as the
"Default Track",
which ffmpeg currently cannot do)
You can also set these file paths inside individual ffe presets for per-
preset pre- and/or post-run commands. These settings can be inherited
with presets, too.
If a pre-run commands file exists for the current preset, you will have
an
"Edit Pre-Job Commands File" option in your ffe system tray menu.
Otherwise you will have a
"Create Pre-Job Commands File" option. Same
for the Post-Run commands.
You can enable/disable this facility for individual jobs/presets from
the main GUI. If the commands file does not exist, the gui controls are
greyed out.
When enabled, you can right-click either of the two controls to specify
a new pre or post-job commands file at any time.
NOTE: ffe can either run the .bat file with the Windows shell, where the
Windows command interpreter processes the file like a regular batch
file, which should work fine, or else process the commands itself,
one-by-one.
Using the first method, you should name your commands file <name>.bat.
Using the built-in method, ffe doesn't care what extension you use, it
will run the commands, in order, one-by-one. Your call.
If you are doing complicated loops and GOTOs, you definitely want to use
the former method, like so..
run_commands_with_shell=true
+ Post-File Comands.
You might have looked at the example Post-Job command (above) and
thought,
"But what if I'm running a batch?". Good Question!
A Post-File command is a command which is run on every file which is
output by ffmpeg. While your post-job batch script will run at the very
end of the job, the post-file command runs for each and every file you
create, as soon as it is created.
Of course it is designed for post-processing @outputfile, but just like
the pre- and post-job commands, it can be anything at all.
You can switch this facility on/off inside the main GUI (job buttons).
Right-click the control to get a fancy input dialog where you can enter
the actual command to be run. You can drag files into that input to have
their paths pasted in-place (where the caret is).
NOTE: UNLIKE the pre-job and post-job commands, this command is not
processed by the Windows Command Interpreter, it is run directly by ffe.
You will probably want to put quotes around any paths you use, which
includes
"@outputfile", though because the command is run directly by
ffe you shouldn't need to put quotes around the exe's path, for example,
this is fine..
C:\Program Files\Video\Converters\MKVToolNIX\mkvpropedit.exe
"@outputfile" --edit track:s1 --set flag-default=1
It's basically:
<PROGRAM> <ARGUMENTS>
However, if you try to do something like this..
C:\Program Files (x86)\MediaInfo\MediaInfo.exe
"@outputfile" >
"@outputfile.nfo"
ffe will recognise you are trying to do a shell redirection, grab the
Std I/O and save it to the specified file. How cool is that!
+ Drag-And-Drop Commands.
What?
Basically, this is a command you can set to be performed whenever you
drag and drop a new file onto ffe's file input. Currently available
commands are
"go", which immediately runs the current job with the new
file, and
"report" which immediately produces a media report using your
current media reporting preferences.
You can switch this functionality from the app menu.
+ Script Output (including batches).
Hold down the SHIFT key when you click the
"Do It" button, and instead
of sending commands to ffmpeg, ffe will run through the job, saving the
ffmpeg commands to a regular Windows batch script you can use to run the
ffmpeg job wherever/whenever you like, send to others, whatever, even
when/where ffe isn't around.
You can setup long batch operations, with concatenation, use presets,
all with a single click, even automate the process, run from inside
other batch scripts.
Note: If your job contains pre-job shell commands, they too will appear
inside the batch file.
If your job includes concatenating files, the concatenation list will
be saved to the same folder as your batch script (which you get to
choose). The idea being, that is where you will run the batch from. So
long as you keep the files together (ffe-concat-list.txt and ffe.bat),
everything will work as expected. If you need to do something tricky,
edit your .bat file accordingly.
You can also set this as a launch switch, exactly the same as
"go",
"run", etc. (so you could also set it as an Explorer context command)
The switch is
"generate". It acts like
"run" in that after completion of
the job, ffe will quit. The batch file (and concat list, if applicable)
will be saved to the current working directory.
The following example would generate a
"ffe-concat-list.txt" and
"ffe.bat" in the current working directory. Running the batch file gets
you all the .mkv files inside
"I:\Rip" converted to x265 and joined
together into one movie file (assuming you have this exact preset AND
hypothetical directory, and that joining is enabled, of course)..
ffe.exe generate(x265 HEVC AAC medium AAC)
"I:\Rip\*.mkv"
When used this way, you won't see the main ffe GUI; ffe will simply
generate the batch file and then exit. The one or two files will be
immediately available for further processing by other devious processes.
When scripting, don't forget to specify output files, or else ensure
MATOF is enabled for your specified preset, or else ffe may present you
with a file save dialog! Testing first is always advised.
+ Import / Export..
There are new items in the preset selector's context (right-click) menu.
Also in ffe's system tray menu..
"Import Data" can import ANY ffe setting, be it preset, custom button or
main settings. ffe will present you with a dialog to choose which
settings, if available, you want to import (if the file only contains
presets, you will only get that option).
Note: if your import file contains only two main settings (inside an
[ffe] section), ffe will only write those two settings to your ffe.ini,
everything else will be untouched. Same for buttons; new buttons being
added onto the end of your current buttons, as expected.
NOT SO WITH PRESETS, which will be completely replaced, assuming you
have an existing preset with the same name. New presets get tagged onto
the end of your existing presets.
ffe will always create a time-stamped backup of your current ffe.ini
before performing import operations. This is placed with other backup
ini files, in your ffe data directory.
"Export Data" works the same way, but for exporting; you can export main
settings, buttons and/or presets. Export all three and you basically
create a condensed (no comments) version of your ffe.ini file.
+ Added
"Open Log File" item to the tray menu.
+ Retain settings on exit.
ffe can remember what you were doing and restore it all the next time
you run ffe. You can toggle this behaviour from the app menu (Ctrl+E).
Note: when launched with a job (
"go" or
"run") on the command-line, this
behaviour will be temporarily disabled. It will /not/ be disabled if you
load a job from the command-line using the
"load" switch.
NOTE: this doesn't affect your default preset. ffe creates a separate
temporary preset to house all your settings.
NOTE: If you run multiple instances of ffe, later-quitting instances
will, by design, overwrite the exit settings of earlier instances. The
/last/ instance is the one that will be remembered for tomorrow/next
session, though note, if you had five instances of ffe running and quit
instance 3, then open another instance of ffe, it (ffe6) would open with
instance 3's settings, as instance 3 was the
"last quit".
Of course, if you are using multiple portable versions, none of this
applies, they will each retain their own settings.
FYI, the ffe.ini [section] is named
"FFE-EXIT-SETTINGS".
+ You can drag files into the console output area. Its path will be pasted
into place (for working on parameters for ffmpeg). Same goes for the
input parameter override and extra arguments inputs.
NOTE: Input override parameters are not added to the MATOF string, as
this creates LONG file names.
The two wee buttons next to the input parameters override are
"+", which
simply adds:
-i
""
to your input and places the caret bewtween the quotes. Then you can
drag a file in and its path goes precisely where required. You can do
this multiple times, ffe will place the new -i
"" at the end and pop the
caret inbetween the quotes. It's something I do a lot, and one click
beats one click plus seven keystrokes any day!
And
"x", which instantly deleted the entire contents of the input.
Another oft-used time-saver.
+ Greatly expanded the built-in lists of audio and video encoders.
Basically, I added them all. At least, all the ones you would find in an
official (free) binary. If you roll-your-own, you can add whatever you
need (libfdk_aac is already there).
NOTE: If you upgrade, YOU WON'T GET THESE. You might want to copy the
prefs from the new supplied ini file, or else copy your presets into a
fresh ini file, which has all the new goodies.
NO! That sounds too complex. Better to use ffe's new import facility and
the ffe-upgrade.ini. Drag-and-drop - you're done. See below for details.
+ Improved help ToolTips. Hover your mouse over any control (for the drop-
downs, hover over the chevron) to get mostly useful help and tips.
+ You can now also disable the helpful ToolTips, inside ffe.ini and from
the ffe app menu (restart required). I don't recommend this. No, I don't
recommend this. For a start, how will you remember the contents of all
your custom buttons? Go on, leave the tips enabled!
+ Added more console output, for those that like that sort of thing. Note:
I mean StdOut. You would need to be running ffe from inside another
process/debugger/code-monster to see this stuff.
+ You can now choose to NOT sort the presets drop-down.
By default, ffe sorts the list of presets to make it easier for regular
folk to find their chosen preset. But you might prefer ffe not do this.
With sorting disabled you get your presets presented in the order they
appear inside ffe.ini; most likely the order in which they were created,
but you may have mindfully changed this. Also, the default
"ffe" preset
will, by default, always be at the top.
+ You can now pause/suspend the ffmpeg process by using the HotKey
"SCROLLLOCK" (aka.
"ScrLk") while your job is running. Press SCROLLLOCK
again to resume. This can be handy if ffmpeg is eating all your CPU
cycles and you have some other short CPU-hungry task to perform.
+ You can now set whether or not you want ffe to kill the ffmpeg process
when it is itself quit. You could setup a job, start it, and then quit
ffe and ffmpeg will continue running in the background, until the job is
complete. Not something I recommend, but there it is.
Of course, this means you can also explicitly tell ffe to do the
opposite, killing any ffmpeg process when it quits, the default.
This setting can also be inherited from and set inside presets.
kill_ffmpeg_on_exit=true
Neither should happen, but you never can tell with ffmpeg+users.
... While I'm here, I should explain what
"inherited from and set inside
presets" means. This behaviour obviously occurs with all the regular
settings you see inside the GUI, that's how presets work. Other settings
are more
"global", and obviously wouldn't make sense to have on a
per-preset basis, for example, window transparency.
Simply put, most settings, whether or not they can be set in the GUI,
can be inherited from presets. Regardless of how the option is set
(either from the App Menu, or manually inside ffe.ini), e.g.
kill_ffmpeg_on_exit=true; when you load a preset that setting becomes
active, just like regular preset settings.
Unless a setting is explicitly set inside a preset, it will be left as-
is; a facility which can be put to a great many uses. This means that
whatever is in your default
"ffe" preset will be used to setup all the
parameters for a command-line job, unless they are specifically set in
the loaded preset's own settings.
This means you can
"stack" presets, loaded presets inheriting settings
from previously loaded presets (unless specifically set otherwise).
Using the add/replace option, you can also stack ffmpeg arguments, but
that's another story..
You could load a preset which sets, e.g., shutdown_when_done=true, and
then load another preset that contains the parameters for a job. The
shutdown_when_done setting will still be set to true, as it was not
explicitly set to false inside the second preset. Of course, clicking
the shutdown button is easier, but this is just an example.
When you load a preset, everything in the GUI (including all the ffe job
buttons) can be set/unset/specified by the preset, as well as the
following settings..
Setting: Type Where Set:
kill_ffmpeg_on_exit bool ffe.ini
default_extension bool ffe.ini
batch_commands_timeout int ffe.ini
These settings will NOT be saved with a preset, they are read-only. They
can be set manually inside a preset (in ffe.ini). They also don't show
up in the GUI, being reserved for people who know what they are doing.
You will see them in your main [ffe] settings already.
batch_commands_timeout will beinherited and saved with presets.
quit_when_done and shutdown_when_done *will* be saved to presets, so
long as that's not your default preset. This is to prevent folk shooting
themselves in the foot. If you really want these things in your default
preset (which would be inherited by all presets not specifically
disabling this behaviour!), feel free to edit them into ffe.ini. ffe
will respect this.
If any of these non-visible settings have changed, ffe will post a
message to the console output stating this, e.g..
loading preset: Batch x265 (HEVC) & Shutdown
kill_ffmpeg_on_exit: enabled
shutdown_when_done=true
+ Vastly improved code comments.
+ Console Output can now be word-wrapped.
+ You can now set ffe to start in a minimized state.
NOTE: if you quit ffe in a minimized state, that is the way it will
launch next time. This works even when
"Retain Exit Settings" is set to
false.
This setting enables you to set it permanently, or just for next launch.
The same is true for the maximized state, though why anyone would want
to maximize ffe, indeed any window, is beyond me.
~ The
"q" HotKey (the one ffmpeg uses) has been changed to
"F4". Of course
ffe still sends an actual
"q", but you no longer do. This prevents
people from unwittingly quitting the ffmpeg process while attempting to
setup parameters for the next job, which is doable.
IMPORTANT: The settings are not only enabled whilst ffmpeg is running,
they are LIVE. For example, you are merging 50 movie files with their
corresponding .srt files and half way through the job you switch (in
your extra parameters input)..
language=eng
to..
language=de
Every video file created FROM THAT POINT will have German as the
subtitle language title.
This is super-useful, but a big gotcha for the unwary. Now you know!
~ ffe now uses matroska (.mkv) as its default container. You can change
this inside ffe.ini. This setting can also be set inside and inherited
from presets.
default_extension=mkv
~ ffe will now load whatever file you specify on the command-line when
using the go() switch, regardless of whether or not a file is specified
inside the preset. Essentially, the command-line overrides ffe.ini
settings, e.g..
go(x265 medium preset crf=22 AAC(HQ) Audio)
"I:\Rip\ffe\Movie.flv"
The output file name will be created dynamically, unless you have an
outputfile= specified inside your preset, which will be used whenever
possible.
If you have MATOF disabled and the input file contains batch commands
(
"*" or
"?" characters) MATOF will be automatically enabled.
You can specify a directory for outputfile, and ffe will create dynamic
file names within that directory.
~ MATOF status is now saved and recalled with presets.
~ You can now hold down the SHIFT key when you save over an existing
preset (including the default 'ffe' preset) to skip the warning dialogs.
~ ffe will no longer attempt to stay inside your desktop, it interfered
with multi-monitor usage. It will now live happily on any one of your
many, many monitors.
~ The
"resize_order" preference has been changed to
"resize_first", so it
makes sense. Old presets will be automatically update for a few ffe
versions.
~ ffe will no longer save blank preferences (resize, crop, etc.) inside
your ffe.ini. Only ini hackers saw these, but still. Not only this, ffe
will compact out the blank prefs of any preset you re-save.
~ ffe will now fix up any illegal characters in the MATOF output file name
so that it doesn't produce an error when using such things as filters
(with perhaps quotes and colons in them). Which is to say, it didn't
used to. *Ahem*.
~ Replaced all relevant input boxes with my own fancy input box. This has
better text, accepts drag&drop and remembers its size and position.
The first time you use it, you get a half-screen-width input box in the
middle of the screen, which you will immediately want to get to the
optimum size and position for your workstation. From that point onwards,
ffe will remember the size and position of the inputbox, FOR EACH
INDIVIDUAL CONTROL.
If, like me, you want three different widths for inputting custom button
names, arguments and notes, ffe will make it so.
Some controls (like inputting short test frames number) still use the
standard Windows control. You are just typing a number, hitting enter,
nothing fancy required.
~ The log_file preference is now log_location, as it can also be a folder.
~ As soon as you click inside the output path input, MATOF is immediately
disabled. This should prevent some annoyance.
~ The
"outfile" pref has been renamed to
"outputfile". It had to be done.
This version of ffe will update any legacy preferences it finds.
* ffe will now correctly /add/ your selected preset arguments to the
existing preset arguments when 'add to ..my settings' is selected, which
didn't always happen.
* Fixed incorrect placement of GUI on launch when previously quit whilst
minimized.
* Lots and LOTS of minor and not-so-minor undocumented improvements and
fixes, error-checking and reporting, logic and so on. En-Joy!
** end of ffe. long live ffe2! **
1.1 (
"Koi's Folly")
~* ffe's logging location preference now makes more sense. Also, ffe will
no longer create a folder in your application data folder if you are
running in portable mode. You can also specify a log file location
other than the application directory when running in portable mode.
Similarly, ffe will no longer install the help file to your app data
folder in portable mode when you click the help button.
1.0 (
"Squishy Nugget")
+ Portable usage is now fully supported. Simply drop your ini file next
to ffe.exe. You're done.
+ Added a special
"portable install" switch, which is
"portable", e.g..
c:\path\to\ffe.exe portable
This will copy a fresh ini file into place for you. This is useful for
new portable installs, or if you just can't be bothered locating / don't
need any settings from, your existing ini file.
You only need to use this one time, if at all.
+ ffe can now accept file paths on its command-line, so you can launch
with a video file ready-to-go. This also means you can use it in an
Explorer Context (right-click menu) command.
+ You can load presets at launch time by using the special parameter,
"load", followed by the name of the preset in braces..
C:\path\to\ffe.exe load(Preset Name Here) E:\path\to\video.flv
Files can be processed immediately, using the switch,
"go", like so..
C:\path\to\ffe.exe go(Preset Name Here) E:\path\to\video.flv
If your preset contains specified in and out files, those will be,
used. If file names are supplied on the command-line, any file
names stored inside the preset will be temporarily ignored.
If MATOF is enabled, the output file name will contain all the ffmpeg
parameters used in the conversion, as usual.
See the ffe page for more details.
~ STDERR reading has been improved in AutoIt. So now console output is
only updated when STDERR actually contains new data, eliminating the
flicker you get when building on recent versions of AutoIt.
~ The console output window is now editable, so you can copy and paste out
of it, or whatever.
* Fixed a bug where ffe could disable your
"q" key during conversion.
~ Removed the
"Enter" HotKey ({F1} now starts the process).
~ ffe now always scrolls to the bottom of the log output when complete,
regardless of whether or not log append is enabled.
+ Added the total time taken to the foot of log.
~ Drag & Drop a new file onto file input now updates the output file input
[sic] automatically, regardless of whether or not MATOF is enabled, and
whether or not there was already a file path in the output file input.
While potentially annoying someone, this is much more generally useful
for ffe's intended usage.
+ If the ffmpeg binary (ffmpeg.exe) is not present, ffe will now present
the user with a dialog where they can locate it. If all that fails, to
avoid confusion, ffe will not draw the
"Do It!" button.
~ I updated the codec definitions to match the new formats. I'm currently
using ffmpeg rev12665. e.g.
"xvid" is now
"libxvid",
"mp3" is now
"libmp3lame". They didn't make it backwards-compatible.
+ ffe got a new program icon! I Included a 48x48, version for tiled windows.
+ Also created new icons for the file locate buttons. Like the old ones,
but documents this time, not folders. What was I thinking?
+ Ctrl+F now brings up the Find dialog. Clever, huh!
+ Shift+Click the help button to instead open the help file with your
system's default .nfo file viewer. Clicking normally (to get the help in
the console output window) will now also activate the console window, if
it wasn't already.
* Fixed a few other minor gui irregularities, things that happen in states
that I don't normally put ffe into (e.g. run with console window disabled).
~ I ported across my window-sizing routines, so the ffe window will now
remain in-desktop, nomatter what you do.
+ ffe now stores its version number inside its preference file, and uses
this to decide if your ini file needs to be upgraded.
+ You can now override the log path (log_file), as well as disable logging
altogether.
+ ffe can now handle ffmpeg prompts, and pass a y/n response back to
ffmpeg. So far, I've only seen this prompting when ffmpeg needs to
overwrite a file, but there may be other prompts. If you see any others,
please let me know (ffe can already handle them, but it would be good to
know so that I can post specific title bar messages).
+ And more!
For hackers and compilers..
~~ ICON INDEXES HAVE SHIFTED BY ONE. You must compile with a recent version
of AutoIt, or else revert the indexes to their previous values (-5, etc).
I've also added a couple more extra icons for the buttons. Use or ignore.
~ AutoIt Update: _GUICtrlEditScroll -> _GUICtrlEdit_Scroll
Associated constants are also updated.
0.8.1 (
"Menacing Ovary")
+ added
"(or just drag it in)" to the file input ToolTip, trivial perhaps,
but I forgot to mention that you can just drag files in there, which is
obviously often much faster than the other methods.
0.8 (
"A Spoon of Mince and One Tattie")
+ Using new (UDF) find routine. It throws up a nice find dialog, instead.
It doesn't highlight the text, like the old find, but it does easily
allow you to skip to the
"next" entry, which is handy.
* removed the extraneous
"-an" from the sample presets. OOps! sorree for
the lack of audio in your output files. Sample presets is a good idea
though, eh!
0.7.11 (
"Beaver's Delight")
* fixed the control hiding (find wasn't hiding if you disabled the console
output). The find feature was hacked on quickly for an earlier version,
so I'm fixing it up.
~ <enter> no longer activates the encoding IF the
"find" input is visible.
This is to prevent your intuitive <enter> (after inputting a search
word) setting off the encoding process again. I've done this a few times
myself. When find is active, <enter> will now perform the search.
0.7.10 (
"Solace for Corners")
~ maintenance release - non-code improvements only
0.7.9 (
"Avalanche of Doubtless")
+ Improved the gui automation for single track conversions, and removed
the need for either the -an or -vn switches - simply select the item
in the drop-down (the item containing the word,
"disabled").
~ moved img/icons/ to icons/ - there are no other images in this program
if you are upgrading your source, remember to move your icons up ../
0.7.8 (
"Morning Malarkey")
+ Expanded the audio and video track disable functionality; you can now
use the
"disable video" option in the codec dropdown (there's also one
for disable audio) which will add/remove the correct switches from the
parameters, and enable/disable the correct properties and MATOF string.
It's trivially easy to rip either the video track or audio track from a
piece of video, and convert it in the process, too.
NOTE: The
"quick config types" (which are native to ffmpeg) will still
override any of these settings.
+ Added more extension types to the mix, and improved some legacy code (a
nice way of saying it was shite before)
~ Decreased the minimum height - folks that don't use the console output
can have a neater looking window.
0.7.7 (
"Moaning Mindy")
~ MATOF now senses when you've added the -vn (no video) switch, and gives
the output file an audio extension, instead. It gets the extension from
whichever audio codec you have selected.
This makes it very simple to do video >> audio conversions.
Bugs:
Debug Levels:
You can set debug_level=<integer> in your ffe.ini to produce varying levels
of debug output. Useful for tracking down bugs and other errors.
Note: each level contains all the information from the previous level.
0: No debugging output (unless I missed a temporary line in the current beta!).
1: Errors only (the default).
2. The most basic functional messages.
3. Information on important functions and variables.
4. Major functions logged here.
5. Most functions logged here.
6. Less important / inner functions and vars logged here.
7. Lots of detail here. Good working debug level for developing.
8. More detail, including all loaded preference variables.
9. Includes string inner workings.
10. Entire string and file output. Insane amounts of data.
Temporary debug lines are usually level:0, so you can leave debug_level at the
default (1) and only see errors and your temporary messages, without too much
detail getting in the way.
Quirks & Caveats:
When generating batch scripts of wildcard batch runs, if you specify a non-
existent path (that may exist then generated script is run) ffe will
"fix"
the path and use the fall-back, instead.
Specifying single output files in presets is fine. If you are specifying
paths and letting ffe handle the output file names is the way to go.
outputfile can be a file or directory name or path, with or without
wildcards @tokens, depending on what you are trying to accomplish. You can
also traverse relative directories, so..
outputfile=@parent\..\OUT
.. is also fine.
If you specify a file path when running a batch (multiple input files), ffe
will use the path part as the destination directory, ignoring the file name
part.
Like many of ffe's settings and parameters, experimentation is the key to
best utilising this
"flexibility".