It's time for a REAL Batch Converter

Jessariah67 wrote on 10/8/2003, 3:29 PM
BC is so buggy -- now mine won't load the MC MPEG 1 & 2 or the MP3 encoders. AC3 isn't even on the list. Plus, you can't do anything with afile with no audio stream (I understand that this app was meant to be audio based). Soooo....

When are we going to get a BC that can handle either audio OR video and convert several files in several formats. You finish a project and have one .avi. You throw it into SOMETHING and get QT & WMV files at two different bitrates, a DVDA compliant Mpeg & separate ac3 audio stream. With one click, you're ready to burn a DVD and upload your samples to the web. Saves mucho time.

I've looked at some of the Vegas scripts available -- they're nice, but they don't handle avi files. I don't want to have to re-render everything. I also don't want to drag 20 files onto the Vegas timeline and double render each (which is what it looks like I'm gonna have to do...)

Comments

roger_74 wrote on 10/8/2003, 5:26 PM
Have you looked at Batchrender Pro?

What do you mean by "they don't handle avi files"? Do you mean you want to render to avi and then from that avi render to other formats?

Edit: Ah, I see what you mean now. You don't want to involve Vegas projects at all, you just want to point at an avi file and convert it. Am I right?

My interests in Batchrender Pro aside, I'd like to see an updated Batch Converter too.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 10/8/2003, 6:23 PM
Jes, I had a simular "problem." I capture everything on an old el-cheap analog capture card with the Huffy codec. But, I vegas works with DV files faster. So, i needed to convert my Huffy AVI's to DV AVI's.

I took one of the batch render scripts and turned on the region rendering. So, for each regoin i make in Vegas, it renders as a seperate file. I just imported my AVI's into a new project, plopped on the timeline, double clicked on each clip (to timeselect the clip), then hit R. On to next clip...

With the scripts you can set it up to render multiple regions to multiple formats, but i haven't had a reason to do that on my computer yet.
kentwolf wrote on 10/8/2003, 8:01 PM
The latest Main Concept MPG2 encoder (1.4) does an excellent job. And it's fast too.

You could render your AC-3 from the Vegas time line, which is very quick, and the MC encoder will batch encode video stream only.

Works super.

Serious time saver.
Jessariah67 wrote on 10/8/2003, 8:15 PM
I think I've found a workaround -- at least in theory...

There's a new script in the script forum that renders multiple files in multiple formats. I could drag the avi files (one at a time) onto the timeline, save the veg file, then load those veg files into the script, so , in effect, I'm still converting the avi files, instead of having to add the time to re-render the projects.

Should work, but still an added step (and time) that shouldn't have to be necessary...IMHO
Cheesehole wrote on 10/9/2003, 12:12 PM
Why not drag all the avis you want to batch on to the timeline and then write a script that will render each one. This is a topic for the Scripting forum.
Jessariah67 wrote on 10/9/2003, 6:41 PM
that's a great idea, Ben. Unfortunately, I don't write script. But I bet someone will put it together. I bought Batchrender Pro for 15 bucks and it works great -- still, it would be quite a time saver nto to have to create separate veg files for each .avi you want to render...
Cheesehole wrote on 10/9/2003, 8:50 PM
I should have said, write one, find an existing one, or ask someone to tweak an existing one in the scripting forum. My point was that you can do exactly what you want with a script.

You're right of course... the scripting language is not something accessible to the average Vegas user. A master editor isn't necessarily a master coder. Even I, as a multimedia/javascript developer certainly don't write them from scratch. Tweaking existing scripts is the way to get things done :)
TheHappyFriar wrote on 10/9/2003, 8:58 PM
I made a script to take all the regions in a VEG file and output them to a certain AVI custom preset and an Mpeg-2 custom preset. Then you can have 50 clips in 50 regions and it renders 50 file.

Would someone here like me to post those on my website so they can be downloaded?
2G wrote on 10/9/2003, 10:25 PM
I've got a script that I obtained a while back from somebody on the forum. I tweaked it some. But it takes all the AVI files (or MPG files) in a directory and renders them to whatever format you want. Just change a couple of lines in the script. No VEG files required (other than the temp one the script creates for you).

Let me know if you're interested. If someone wants to post this, I'll email it to you. Again, not my original work. But I can't live without it now.

2G
TheHappyFriar wrote on 10/9/2003, 11:21 PM
send that one off to me: the_happy_friar at yahoo.com

Jessariah67 wrote on 10/11/2003, 7:58 AM
I'd love to have that as well. kevin@harkproductions.com

Thanks!
roger_74 wrote on 10/12/2003, 4:04 PM
Jessariah, the next free update of Batchrender Pro will be able to render from any media supported by Vegas, not just projects. Renders can also be based on any previous renders in the same batch.

If you have any suggestions or questions regarding Batchrender Pro email me at roger_74 at home dot se.
Cheesehole wrote on 10/13/2003, 6:47 PM
I'd love to look at the script too. :)

cyberben at tampabay.rr.com

thanks!