AutoGK feature request

[electrongunner]

I'd really like to see an option to begin a job with the second pass so if you're re-ripping something that failed on the second pass, you can resume with the second pass instead of starting all over again. I imagine a little checkbox that says, "use existing first pass info". That's all we'd need on the user interface. It would save me hours of re-ripping, since I often cancel a rip after the first pass if I've need to play a CPU intensive game while I'm encoding. I never know when someone is going to call me up and want to play CS Source while I'm ripping. ;)

[richarddd]

This would be very nice. It also seems to have been requested on numerous occassions, but len0x has not greeted the request with enthusiasm :)

[kilivipin]

I like that idea... Especially seeing as on my pc, a first pass can take anywhere from seven to fifteen hours.

[len0x]

Originally posted by richarddd
len0x has not greeted the request with enthusiasm :)

yep :) Because for a user it might be enough to just have first pass log, but not for AutoGK. It needs so much stuff gathered during setup (comptest percent, length, fps, number of frames, type of source, codec settings etc) that its virtually impossible to just run second pass. The only solution is to hack _all_ the initialization and first pass code to try to skip it intelligently, but obviously I won't do that...

[electrongunner]

It would only be a problem if you changed your settings between first and second pass. There's no reason AutoGK couldn't simply pop up a dialog box that said something like this:

"AutoGK has detected complete first-pass files in your source directory. Do you wish to begin with the second pass or restart from scratch. (Note: if you have changed any settings whatsoever, you will need to restart from scratch)."

Why couldn't that be done? It seems like you should just be able to add a function that loads the existing config data.

[len0x]

- how do you know first pass was complete?
- and there is no existing config data saved - that's the problem. I need to gather everything again in order to split video and subs in the end as well as init audio routines for muxing (this info is not gathered from main AutoGK window, but during setup/demuxing/analysis step)

[richarddd]

how do you know first pass was complete?
AGK puts an explicit message in the log :D

and there is no existing config data saved - that's the problem. I need to gather everything again in order to split video and subs in the end as well as init audio routines for muxing (this info is not gathered from main AutoGK window, but during setup/demuxing/analysis step)
Aha! I had thought this info was saved in the log and the agk_tmp directory

[len0x]

Some (but not all) info does indeed get saved in the log, but I never intended the log to be a starting point for new encode :) I hate parsing logs :D

[electrongunner]

Originally posted by len0x
I need to gather everything again in order to split video and subs in the end as well as init audio routines for muxing (this info is not gathered from main AutoGK window, but during setup/demuxing/analysis step)

I see. I guess it would be more than a trivial change to write this info to a file after it's collected during the first pass? I just bugs me that there's never been a program that could resume a rip from the second pass.

[Quest]

Some (but not all) info does indeed get saved in the log, but I never intended the log to be a starting point for new encode :) I hate parsing logs :D

<sigh> This is a problem with AutoGK. So I'm writing to request for a few things ...

On my computer, it takes anywhere from 9 to 15 hours to do a conversion with the average being over 12 whole hours. Since I started to use AutGK, I've always been afraid of any situation where my system crashes partway since there doesn't seem to be a "resume" feature. Last night this did indeed happen. I have a gk_tmp folder full of all the necessary files and a log with all the info up to that point, yet I know it's going to have to start all over again from the very beginning so the entire night's processing is all a complete waste.

Another problem, since I have a limited hdd size, I often have to use v1.25 since it, and not v1.95, allows us to use DVDShrink or any other VOB ripper. Since I only have 4.2 gigs available in one drive and 1.5 gigs in another, DVDShrink is often the only way I can copy my DVDs.

So if an auto-resume will ever be included, it would be so neat if we could have a version that does that allows us to use any ripper like v1.25 does. Also, having the ability to save a job would also be great. I had to re-set the job just now in order to begin again. It would be such a simple thing to just have saved that last night and then re-open it today with everything ready to go (with a resume button, would be so neat <sigh>)!

The above 3 things are needed to elevate AutoGK from pretty nifty (because of end results even if so long in doing so) to absolutely perfect.

Just a thought and hoping Len()x will take this into account esp. now that DVDDecrypter has been put out of commission.

Thanks.

[stax76]

from a developer point of view, I consider something like this more as an hack than a feature

[unskinnyboy]

@Quest, Using any other ripper other than DVD Decrypter can be done by faking the streaminfo.txt file which DVD Decrypter outputs when you rip the DVD in IFO mode. Do a little searching around in this same forum and you will find many threads on the same issue.

Reg: Resuming the job at the 2nd-pass, you can do this outside of AutoGK using just VirtualDubMOD. Lets say the encode crashed during the 2nd-pass, now if you open up the XviD encoder dialog, you can see that AutoGK has set the XviD options for the 2nd pass, including the location of the 1st-pass stats file. Now open the *_movie.avs (this will be inside the agk_tmp directory) in VirtualDubMOD, choose Video->Fast recompress and select video compression as XviD (no need to configure anything since AutoGK pre-configured it for you). Now press F7 and save as new avi. Done!. You will have to mux in the audio later to create the final finished avi, also the autosplit won't happen if you had chosen 2CDs (1400 MB) or 3CDs (2100 MB) as your target size before.

Bit difficult to set up ^^^ but works and saves you time having to rerun the first pass. :)

[electrongunner]

from a developer point of view, I consider something like this more as an hack than a feature

Yeah, but from a user's point of view, it would be more useful than anything else that's been added to AutoGK in the past year.

- how do you know first pass was complete?

Parse the log file. If you don't already do this, add a flag to your logfile that says "Beginning First Pass" and "Beginning Second Pass".

- and there is no existing config data saved - that's the problem.

Isn't that what's written to the AVS and VCF files? If not, would it really be so hard to write a function that loops through your config array (you do keep the values in an array right?) and writes them all to a "config" section of the log for each job? Then you could tell where to resume and what settings to use by parsing the log.

I also second the idea of being able to save a job list. It sucks having to reset all my jobs every time I want to restart my machine or quit the program temporarily.

AutoGK is a great program, and the price certainly makes it hard to complain, but now that this program is pretty far along, it seems to me like it's time to start adding the kind of versatility that users like me have been needing for years now. I've seen these same complaints from users of every other program out there and nobody (including the commercial software) has ever come up with a decent solution. It would be a proverbial feather in AutoGKs cap if it could save and resume jobs.

[neo_anderson]

pls include divx 6 support, with option to form and edit divx container before encoding!better xsub support than divx container would be more than welcomed!

[len0x]

Enough with requests already - I'm no longer considering them...

[riggits]

pls include divx 6 support, with option to form and edit divx container before encoding!better xsub support than divx container would be more than welcomed!

Divx 6 support (the codec itself) would be more than enough to meet most expectations. The divx container, MP4 container, AAC support and pretty much everything else will probably come in due time.

Thanks len0x, you're an amazing dude! :thanks:

[isapc]

will ther ever be a 64 bit version of auto knot