Batch Mode "Skip Prepare Phase" Problem

[emberarc]

I can't check in the "Skip Prepare Phase" box in batch mode. Why it is?

[Rockas]

That function has been disabled
There are some skins that just aren't updated :)

[emberarc]

Why is this function disabled?

[Rockas]

'Cause it's not needed anymore :)

[jdobbs]

It was added with the intention of creating that function at some point... but has never come about. Every now and then you'll see a "grayed out" menu item or function pop up. It's just a part of the way I do beta stuff...

[Rockas]

?!?!?!?
Man I could swear that I used that function once?!?!? :o

Maybe I was dreaming :D

[jdobbs]

Twilight Zone time.

[emberarc]

OK. But maybe later could be useful to make an advantage on the OneClick mode. Namely in this mode RB could check which part is completed from the 3. Thanx

[J-Wo]

I've mentioned my interest in this feature in earlier posts. I'd find it very useful as an Rb-Opt user, which I run after the prepare phase to tweak avs/cce settings. I don't tweak too much, but it's a good thing to be able to apply certain filterings for the main movie vs. the extras. Anyway if I want to encode more than one movie, I can't do it with DVD-Rb's batch mode as it will override the settings I've made with RB-Opt and run the prepare phase all over again. Instead I use Rb-Farm for that. But still, it would be a nice feature to have implemented in DVD-Rb.

[pg55555]

I support J-Wo.

I also like to use RBOpt, and the only way is with the Three Click, wich means I need to click just for the rebuild step.

In fact, I can no find a sue for this third click.

The Prepare phase makes sense because you can review RB calculations, tweak the .ecl and .inf file (with RBOpt or manually, decide if continue with VBR or try OPV, etc.

But there is nothing you can do between the Encode and Rebuild phases. Just click the Rebuild button. (I think the only cases in wich this extra step has been usefull is when there is a problem with some of the .m2v files (missing, bad encoding) and a workaround is to encode it separatelly and copy to the working directory)

So, i think it would be usefull to have the option of a Two Click method: The Prepare and the Encode/Rebuild

[jdobbs]

Here's the thought pattern.... I could make the batch option look at the progress flag in the INF file -- and not repeat any phase that has been already done...

The problem with that is that if you have a directory that you use frequently for output, and it has an old encode in it (or experiments you may have done), DVD-RB will see the progress as "complete" or "in the middle" and not do some part of the encode or rebuild at all.

Think about it and let me know what you think. I just want to be sure that adding a minor "convenience" for one person doesn't cause a royal pain-in-the-ass for others.

[J-Wo]

Originally posted by jdobbs
The problem with that is that if you have a directory that you use frequently for output, and it has an old encode in it (or experiments you may have done), DVD-RB will see the progress as "complete" or "in the middle" and not do some part of the encode or rebuild at all.

Well does that make sense if we are talking about batch encoding? If someone is going to queue more than one encode, why would they be using the same output directory for each movie?

My suggestion is to put the option into the advnaced options window, or special DVD-RB settings, and obviously have it NOT ticked by default. This way users who are unfamiliar with its use will hopefully never have to encounter it.

The way I see it, there are already so many options in Rb that can totally screw up a new user if they are uninformed, why not add just one other? :D

[pg55555]

jdobbs

That can happen today. If you forget to look at your output directory, you can be overwritten a previous backup if you use One click.

The true is, there is not foolproof software (just two days ago, after spending a couple of hours writing a specially sensible email I hit the wrong button, swiftly answered YES to the "Are you sure..." question, and ...., to start again:( ).

So, again, I support J-WO suggestion

[jdobbs]

Originally posted by pg55555
jdobbs

That can happen today. If you forget to look at your output directory, you can be overwritten a previous backup if you use One click.

The true is, there is not foolproof software (just two days ago, after spending a couple of hours writing a specially sensible email I hit the wrong button, swiftly answered YES to the "Are you sure..." question, and ...., to start again:( ).

So, again, I support J-WO suggestion Yes, but that is a good thing -- because the end-result is a good encode, as everything is overwritten.

In the scenario I used the exact opposite could happen. You think (when you get up in the morning) that the encode is complete and you burn it -- only to find out it was a movie you'd finished two days earlier.

[J-Wo]

personally I would still find said feature very useful. As it is I can use Rb-Farm to do batch encodes without the prepare phase, but it doesn't to batch rebuilds. Not a big deal since rebuilds take only about 15 minutes on my computer and I can easily do them when I wake up in the morning... But the ability to do batch encode+rebuild without prepare would be very nice. I'm guessing there are others out there that would benefit, and not just the two people you are hearing from in this thread!

As I suggested earlier, you could put it in the advanced features and even have a popup warning show up when ticked, explaining that this is only for advanced users and can screw up the output for novice users.

Of course this is your program and your time... So I just humbly request you consider this in one of your future upgrades. (pretty please? ;))

[wmansir]

I have used batch mode in the manner jdobbs described, re-using the workind directory. I just set the working directory the same for all jobs with seperate output directories. It actually saved me about 16 gigs of disc space because I had 5 jobs queued up. I think that's one of the main advantages of being able to specify a seperate output directory.


As an aside, I had to redo all those jobs. I was watching the output and it was stuttering and skipping around, which I haven't seen in DVD-RB in many months and never that bad. Luckily for everyone but me it was just the HD I was using that was crapping out. It was a 40GB drive I pulled from an Win98 system because it was acting flakey and I was hoping NTFS would be able to make it usable for non-critical storage, but no such luck. I tried to copy each job off the drive, but every one had a read error at some point.

Since I re-used the working directory I only had the files available to re-build the last job. But even though it bit me in the behind I still think it's a nice option to have.

[Whitespliff]

The RB-Opt support feature would be very nice to have, put in a special advanced features menu or something, I don't care.
If a newbie makes a mistake with this he probably won't do it twice :D