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Topic: BatchEncoder (Audio Conversion GUI) (Read 42433 times) previous topic - next topic
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BatchEncoder (Audio Conversion GUI)

I would like to introduce my project called BatchEncoder (formerly known as theFrontend).

BatchEncoder is an audio files conversion software. It supports most of popular audio file formats including lossy and lossless compression. The program is very simple to use. BatchEncoder is basically GUI front-end for command-line tools. All it does is create background processes and pass arguments to it with options set in presets/format menu and additionally adds input and output file paths. For specific options for each format use help available for command-line tools.

Features:

- Front-end for command-line tools.
- Supports popular audio formats.
- File transcoding between audio formats.
- Multi-threaded conversion.
- Full UNICODE support.
- Multi-language user interface.
- Out of the box configuration for new users.
- Advanced options for experienced users.
- Open-source, fast and simple.

Website:

https://github.com/wieslawsoltes/BatchEncoder

Download portable version:

BatchEncoder-4.0-Win32.zip
BatchEncoder-4.0-x64.zip

Download installer version:

BatchEncoder-4.0-Win32.exe
BatchEncoder-4.0-x64.exe

Screenshots:

FileList.png
FileListConverting.png
ConfigureFormats.png
ConfigurePresets.png
ConfigureTools.png

Documentation:

Wiki Pages

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #1
Firstly, thanks for providing this tool.  I've downloaded, and am just about to have a quick play.

I see no mention of tags.  Are tags transferred?  If so, I think you should add it to the blurb.
I'm on a horse.

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #2
@Synthetic Soul

Tags are not transferred, but I was thinking about this feature. The problem is I am using only command-line tools while working with audio files. Nothing is done in program (theForntend is only a frontend, this is the basic concept of program) that might change contents of the file. So I need some tagging tool to transfer tags. This way I would extract tag from input file before conversion and add tag after conversion to output file.

Any suggestion from your side about command-line tagging tool? From my side I can without any difficulty this feature.

Thanks,
wisodev

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #3
didnt someone create a cl program called tag that dealt with tags? I forget.

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #4
yup.....

Check Synthetic Soul's website....

Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #5
No offense intended but, aren't there already a lot of front-ends out there?
I mean, foobar2000 and/or MediaCoder cater to most encoding/transcoding
needs as it is. Will this front-end offer something new?
Wanna buy a monkey?


Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #7
Any suggestion from your side about command-line tagging tool? From my side I can without any difficulty this feature.
Tag can handle FLAC, Vorbis, APEv2 and ID3v1 tagging.  Tycho's metamp3 looks good for writing ID3v2 (and ID3v1) tags.  In fact, it has the --fit switch which is my preferred method of tagging with LAME: ID3v1 with ID3v2 only where necessary.  The Nero AAC encoder has it's own separate tagger IIRC.  I dunno, but with Vorbis, ID3 and APE tags covered that's all or most I think.  Maybe there could be some way of linking a format to it's tagger?  There's also the possibility of tagging while encoding, with apps like FLAC, LAME, WavPack, etc.  Tag will read all the tag types listed above, so maybe it could be used as the reader?  Just a few hastily-thrown-together thoughts.

No offense intended but, aren't there already a lot of front-ends out there?
I mean, foobar2000 and/or MediaCoder cater to most encoding/transcoding
needs as it is. Will this front-end offer something new?
Although foobar is also, theFrontend seems extremely extensible, so obscure encoders not already covered (e.g.: speex) can easily be added, new presets created, and most importantly shared (as they are XML they can even easily be posted to a forum thread).  Many people still use MultiFrontend even though we have foobar and MediaEncoder...
I'm on a horse.

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #8
@Synthetic Soul

About tags:

The main problem with tagging using external command-line tools is preservation of characters in different code pages. Windows uses current code page of your locale (you can change this, but this is not usable for theFrontend purposes) and I need UTF-8 or even Unicode character to be send via command-line. The best solution would be using internal manipulation of tags done by theFrontend.

About extensibility of theFrontend:

Currenlty there are some dependencies in source code about way the cl tools are handled. I will remove all this later and enable adding easily new formats and rules of handling them.

PS.
theFrontend works on Windows 95, 98 and any later Windows version, the compatibility is one of main goals, it works fine even under linux using wine.

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #9
Very nice program, wisodev! You can't have too many good encoder frontends

Been using it for a few hours, and I will post feedback to this thread.

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #10
I tried it out earlier today and liked it very much, very stable IMO for an alpha build - I was waiting for a crash or something and it never happened, good work!

Although I do miss automatic tagging, albeit I do still use Tag Frontend w/Tag for all that.


Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #12
I would be interested if this could run natively on Linux. I've no idea what that would involve since I don't know how many of the backends are open source/run on Linux...

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #13
I would be interested if this could run natively on Linux. I've no idea what that would involve since I don't know how many of the backends are open source/run on Linux...


Well theFrontend is written in C++ with MFC and I can't compile it natively for linux. But it runs well with WINE. The backends can be (or should be) also Win32 executables and it all works well (there are some issues with FAAC/FAAD but Nero command-line encoders/decoders are working good here) under linux. I have tested this under Debian, Suse and currently under Ubuntu linux distros.

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #14
Hey yeah I forgot about this. Any progress?

 

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #15
Hey yeah I forgot about this. Any progress?


The program is under development and new version will come out soon with upgraded codecs configuration. I am planing to release package (installer) with some free encoders/decoders properly configured to use with theFrontend. I will post the news in this topic.

Thanks,
wisodev

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #16
Sorry, I mis-read this.  MediaCoder is the program that starts a webserver on port 19819, and also causes Kaspersky AV software to go nuts, claiming it contains a trojan download program.

flac > schiit modi > schiit magni > hd650

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #17
New version 0.0.0.2 is available for download.

Changelog:
- Added Nero AAC encoder support for .mp4 and .m4a output files.

Website:
http://www.thefrontend.net/

Project at sourceforge.net:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/thefrontend/

After very long break in development of the theFrontend I started again and new options and new formats will be added in near future.

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #18
wisodev, just a word regarding the form layout... It seems to me that you may have the "preset" and "encoder" lists in reverse order.  Were it me, considering standards, I would place the greater dominant factor to the left and the lesser dominant factor to the right.

Anyhow, it's just a suggestion.  Best of luck to you.

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #19
wisodev, just a word regarding the form layout... It seems to me that you may have the "preset" and "encoder" lists in reverse order.  Were it me, considering standards, I would place the greater dominant factor to the left and the lesser dominant factor to the right.

Anyhow, it's just a suggestion.  Best of luck to you.


Is the placement of preset and format lists an usability problem or only a formal problem. I am pretty much used to this layout and so I do not find it confusing or unusable. It is trivial to change this anyway.

Thanks for feedback and I will think more about it

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #20
i have only one problem with this right now: it's win-only

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #21
wisodev, I'm not sure whether to describe it as a formal or a usability problem.  I just think it makes more sense the other way around.  In any event, I don't mind too much whether it's switched one way or the other.  I just figured I'd recommend. =)

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #22
After very long break in development of the theFrontend I started again and new options and new formats will be added in near future.

I am so happy to hear this! Good on you, wisodev

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #23
i have only one problem with this right now: it's win-only

I second this one. On Linux it's a serious problem getting any transcoding properly running with external encoders, especially in the cases of non-free formats. For me it's Nero AAC which causes serious issues, because practically any Linux transcoder only flawlessly works with FAAC instead. Support for Nero AAC has to be scripted externally in all applications I'm aware of, causing further problems concerning the tags' retention.

Introducing theFrontend (Audio Conversion GUI)

Reply #24
wisodev, very nice program! Works well, quick, and easy to use. I would like to suggest that you consider the ability to convert from FLAC images+cue to mp3 separate tracks in your development.
Glass half full!