Batch, presets and the job queue

This is the part that justifies the program. One operation across fifty files, set up once.

Batch

Tools → Batch.

Add Batch Files takes individual files. Add Batch Folder takes everything in a folder. Select All Loaded uses what is already in your media bin, and Deselect All clears the selection.

Batch operation chooses what to do to all of them. Export preset chooses the settings. Batch In (seconds) and Batch Out (seconds) apply the same trim to every file, which is exactly right for a set of recordings that all start with the same ten seconds of setting up.

Output naming pattern decides what the results are called. Get this right before you start a run of fifty, because renaming them afterwards is its own afternoon.

Test on one first

Run a single file through with the settings you intend to use, look at the result, then run the rest. A batch of fifty at the wrong setting is fifty files to redo and an hour of encoding you do not get back.

Presets

Tools → Presets, or Edit Presets from the batch panel.

A preset holds the whole set of export settings under a name: File type, Video quality codec, Picture quality, Shape and size, Frame rate, Sound quality, Sample rate, Bit depth and Channels.

When the shape does not match the source is the fit or fill decision. Maximum file size in MB and Maximum length in seconds can both be left empty for none.

The form shows a This preset makes line describing in plain words what you will get, which is worth reading before saving, because it catches the setting you did not mean.

Preset name, then Save New Preset. Reload Presets picks up changes made outside the program.

Editing the raw preset

Under the Advanced disclosure there is a Preset JSON field holding the preset as text. Useful for copying one between machines or for a setting the form does not expose. The disclosure remembers whether you left it open.

Most people never need it. It is there rather than in the way.

Presets travel with the folder

Saved presets live in your data folder beside the executable, so they come with the program folder when you copy it and they do not come with a file you hand somebody.

The job queue

Export → Show Job Queue.

Every export, transcription, analysis and batch run appears here with progress and a Cancel button. Work runs in the background, so you can set up the next job while one runs.

A failure shows its error on the row. It stays there rather than vanishing, so you can read it after the fact.

How long things take

A straight container change is almost instant, because nothing is decoded. A re-encode takes real time, and a slower encoder preset takes more of it for a smaller file. Transcription is slow and uses as much processor as you let it.

Queue the long jobs and go and do something else. That is what the queue is for.