Batch Processing

The operations under the Tools menu only process the file that is currently open in DVMP Pro. The Batch Processing facility allows you to do this to several files in one go.

Click the File>Batch Processing menu and the Batch Processing window appears. This is independent of the main DVMP Pro window, so you can still play files or change Tools>Options settings while the Batch Processing window is open.

You give Batch Processing a list of input files and it processes each file in turn. The output files are all stored in a single output folder, and are given the same filename as the input files but with a suitable suffix that identifies the operation that has been performed.

You add files to the input file list by clicking the Add button. This opens a file selection dialog where you can select one or more files (using SHIFT-click or CTRL-click to select multiple files). Click OK and the files are added to the list-box headed Files to be processed. If any files are not recognised as supported file-types a warning message box appears and those files are not added to the list.

You can add more files to the list simply by using the Add button again. The extra files are added to the end of the list-box.

You can also add files to the list by dragging the files from another program such as Windows Explorer and dropping them onto the list-box. This is often more convenient than using the Add button.

When files are added to the list-box they have a tick mark against them. This tells the Batch Processor to process that file. If you want a file to not be processed (but you'd prefer to leave it in the list) just un-tick the file.

You can remove files from the list-box by clicking the file to highlight it and then clicking the Remove button. Multiple files can be removed by SHIFT or CTRL-clicking files to highlight them - for example you can remove all files from the list by clicking the first file, scrolling to the bottom and SHIFT-clicking the last file, then clicking the Remove button.

Files are processed in the order that they appear in the list box. However you can easily change the order simply by clicking a file in the list box and then dragging and dropping it at the new position. You can also use SHIFT and CTRL-click to drag multiple files.

Now select the operation that is to be performed from the Operation drop-down list. You will find most of the operations here that you've seen under DVMP Pro's Tools menu.

Now choose a folder where the output files will be created. You do this by clicking the Browse button. A Browse Folders dialog box appears where you select the output folder.

You can now run the Batch Processor by clicking the START button.

If the operation you chose has some associated settings then a Confirm Settings dialog box will appear which allows you to check that these are all correct, and change them if necessary. (These are the same settings that you can see in the Tools>Options menu.) When you are satisfied with the settings just click the OK button and the batch processor will start processing the files.

If the operation you chose does not have any associated settings (e.g. file conversion) then the batch processor will run immediately when you press the START button.

As each file is processed, the two progress bars at the bottom of the window show the progress through the current file and an estimation of the progress through the entire batch run.

Also, progress messages will appear in the Output Log pane. These messages are also written to a log file in the output folder.

The batch processor will never overwrite existing files. If the output folder already contains a file with the same name as a new file which needs to be created, the new file will have a (n) suffix added to it, where "n" is a number that will guarantee a unique file name.

You can abort batch processing by clicking the Abort button. All output files created so far will be left intact, but if a file is currently being written-to then it will be deleted - it's probably of no use as it will be incomplete anyway. If you abort frequently then keep an eye on the contents of the output folder as it can fill up quickly with files from previous aborted runs.

When the Batch processing run is complete, a Finished message will appear in the Output Log pane. You can then scroll back through the messages in the pane or examine the log file in the output folder to check whether each file was successfully processed.

When you are finished batch processing, you can close the window by clicking the Close button.

Note that you can not Exit from DVMP Pro while the Batch Processing window is open.