Messages

1

General Software Discussion / Need a recursive utility

« on: May 27, 2021, 05:35 PM »

Hey there folks. I'm in need of a utility that can either:

1) allow me to execute a standard DOS/CMD command in every sub-directory of a particular folder
  or
2) create a 0-byte file in every sub-directory of a particular folder, all with the same name of my choice.

Way back in the day of Windows 95 and MS-DOS, I had a tool that would do option #1, but it seems those older 16-bit tools don't work in Windows 10. I've tried the FOR /R tool, but it doesn't seem to be able to create files, only manipulate existing files which is no help.

Does anyone know where I could find a tool like that? *** or *** could someone here write a utility that will do that?

Thanks for reading! Please let me know if you have any thoughts of an existing tool, or if creating one is possible.

2

General Software Discussion / Re: IDEA: Need an .MPCPL file editor

« on: October 11, 2018, 07:57 PM »

Okay, Skwire, I'm not exactly sure of what you did, but you fixed it! It works, it can load AND OPEN the MPCPL files, and did several drag-and-dropped files (once with over 2 dozen at one drop!) and had no problems at all. Lastly, I went to save it and it saved without corrupting the information, and was able to be loaded into MEDIA PLAYER CLASSIC as smoothly as if it had been saved from MPC.

That was fabulously done. I'm going to see if I can find out if I can make sure the folks over at MPC that this tool is available. I'd imagine that I'm not the only one who could have used this.

Thank you again.

FDWojo 

3

General Software Discussion / Re: IDEA: Need an .MPCPL file editor

« on: October 10, 2018, 09:14 PM »

So, after an unforgivably long absence, I'm back again. And as I mentioned in my direct reply to you, Skwire, I did note that there was an updated version of MPCPLEditor which I now downloaded and tried out.

Sadly, things when from good to bad. Of course, I still have the old EXE that I can run and open MPCPL files just fine. However, with this new version (dated 04/05/2018), it won't open the MPCPL files. When I choose FILE -> OPEN, and then select the appropriate MPCPL file, the app briefly loses focus and then… nothing. Granted, I'm not any kind of a programmer, so I'm at a loss as to what's wrong. I thought originally that it might be because I've had my computer running continuously for the last week, and even though I've got lots and lots of RAM, HD space, and low CPU usage, I figured: What the heck, reboot the PC.

So I did that and tried the new MPCPLEd.exe. Same problem. The next step I tried was to temporarily disable ALL programs that start up on my PC automatically, no matter how unlikely it is and then reboot and try again.

So I did that, too, and when I open MPCPLEd.exe now, it *still* doesn't work. I guess I'll need to put the ball back in your court, Skwire. Please let me know how things go, and I'll keep in touch for the next week or so. I hope I can figure out what's not working.

If it helps, my system info is listed below my signature. And as I mentioned in the previous tests mentioned above, I rebooted with all off except for my Anti-Virus (Avast Premier). Also, with regards to the MPCPLEd.exe program I'm using, the HELP -> ABOUT screen shows the exact same for both versions. The only diff I can see is that on the older version, my screen handle is misspelled which helps me tell them apart because the are both the same "v1.0.1 build 1" and the two executables are slightly different sizes.

Thanks…

FDWojo

4

General Software Discussion / Re: IDEA: Need an .MPCPL file editor

« on: April 03, 2018, 03:35 PM »

Oh, one more thing. I really like the fact that you provided an INI file, because I really wanted to put the LABEL column to the RIGHT of the FILENAME column, and I CAN!.

I've tested it out on over a dozen (copies) of my MPCPL library, and no problems at all.

Oh, by the way, just for aesthetic purposes, you might want to make the "Save MPC Playlist" line instead say:

"Save MPC Playlist as"

That way it more closely indicates what it does, because the first time I saved it, I worried for a minute... "Is this going to overwrite the original?" But of course, this was only a copy, so it didn't really matter, but for others who didn't have this conversation with you, that reassurance might be a nice confirmation of not overwriting unless they wanted to. And if you wanted to take it all the way, maybe make the CTRL-S key combo work for that? I mention that last because CTRL-O opens an MPCPL file, so CTRL-S would be a perfect match to it.



fdwojo

5

General Software Discussion / Re: IDEA: Need an .MPCPL file editor

« on: April 03, 2018, 03:17 PM »

Okay, so let me give you the short version of the results. It works great! I'll admit it threw me for a moment when I loaded up an MPCPL file that used LABEL and SUBTITLE because each "line" is in a separate column. But admittedly, that probably makes it even easier to code. If the column is blank, you don't need to "write" that line to the final file. Very elegant.

Now, being the kind of person that I am, I'd like to request one more feature. Is it possible to either allow creating new lines? Or better still, allow dragging and dropping media files into the window so that they simply get added in as lines (probably at the bottom of the list)? True, you'd (by default) only fill in TYPE and FILENAME, but that's okay. If I need to I could add the LABEL when necessary and/or add a SUBTITLE file if needed. Aside from that, it really works great!

On a weird side note, I tried dragging a media file into the editor, and it DID give me the cursor with a (+) symbol beneath the arrow just like if I was dragging a file from one folder to another. But when I let go of the mouse button, nothing happened. I'm guessing that's only because of the window class that you used that the (+) sign got carried along.

Thank you, thank you!

fdwojo

P.S. What caused the error, by the way?

6

General Software Discussion / Re: IDEA: Need an .MPCPL file editor

« on: April 03, 2018, 07:52 AM »

Okay, so this reply is mostly for skwire. At your request, the first thing I did was to copy over my MPCPL folder onto the desktop. Then I unzipped your files onto the desktop. Once that was done, I ran your EXE to just see what things looked like before I started any editing.

Unfortunately, at first, my AV software kept wanting to check it out because it was a "rare, new file" that might be a virus. But I told it I trusted it and it stopped bothering me. Then, when I ran it again, it immediately popped up this error message window:

[ Invalid Attachment ]

Also, I tried to drag and drop an MPCPL file onto the EXE file just to see what it would do, but it gave the exact same error.

If it helps any, my system is:

• Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, fully up-to-date on any available patches
• 64GB RAM
• 4GHz Quad-Core CPU

If there is anything else you need to know, just drop a line or a reply.

Good luck!

fdwojo

7

General Software Discussion / Re: IDEA: Need an .MPCPL file editor

« on: April 03, 2018, 07:18 AM »

Sorry folks, for the lapse for those few days. It was a bit of a busy Easter and Dyngus Day. But I found 4WD's info and links very helpful. And I thank all of you for the great info you've provided. It's given me a few good ideas. However, besides that, I must also thank skwire for working up the MPCPLed tool. I'll be trying that out over the next day or two to see if there are any unforeseen bugs in it. I doubt it, but I'll check for everyone who might like to use it's sake.

But I really have to say that you guys really rock! I very much appreciate all the time and thought you all put in to helping me (and hopefully others), and I'll be looking around for other ideas from all of you.

Thanks!

fdwojo

8

General Software Discussion / Re: IDEA: Need an .MPCPL file editor

« on: April 01, 2018, 07:17 AM »

So is this #EXTINF line a separate line from the actual Media file line?

And as for my using MPCPL as opposed to M3U, I just never had used any programs that had M3U as a default format. In fact (if you'll excuse my ignorance), until you mentioned it, I didn't even know that MPC supported it. As for the Subtitle files, they don't always match the filename. But then, with MPC, it first looks in the media file folder to see if there's a valid Subtitle file there, and if not, it looks for one in a SUBS folder, and if it's there, it uses that, no matter what the name. I guess I'll have to go thru all my subtitle files and have a bit of renaming to do!   

Thanks very much for that idea of using M3U, tho. For that reason, I will consider this topic to be DONE and closed.

fdwojo

P.S. I don't know if it's supposed to be me that changes the Topic title to
        "DONE: Need an .MPCPL file editor"
or if someone else does that. If it's me, could someone tell me where/how it's done? I didn't see any kind of link anywhere that would allow me, the original poster, to change it. Sorry if I'm stupid and missing something obvious.

9

General Software Discussion / Re: IDEA: Need an .MPCPL file editor

« on: March 31, 2018, 10:51 PM »

Unfortunately, that's not really the problem I'm having. As I said in my original post, I can create MPCPL files just fine. And of course, if I double-click on a .MPCPL file it does indeed open up in MPC. The task I'm trying to find a solution for is to be able to easily edit a VERY LONG (over 100 media items) list. If you have ever opened a long playlist in MPC that is too long for the height of your screen, try to move an item from the top of the list to the bottom (or vice versa). It's a real pain in the a**. And if you want to move a chunk of them (like say, 10 media items), you have to do them each one at a time.

Now, as I also mentioned, I can open that same MPCPL file in notepad (for instance). The difficulty here is that If I cut and paste a group of lines from one area to another in the same list, and don't renumber all the lines to go from 1 for the first media item lines on up to the highest number for the last media item, then that MPCPL file will play back in the original order that it was in before you changed it because of the numbers in front of each line telling MPC in what order to play them in. In fact, if you open up the changed MPCPL file, you'll see all the same media in the list in the same order it was in before you edited it.

I was kind of hoping that since all I'm looking for is some kind of custom text editor that will take into account all the lines for each media item and keep them together, and also renumber them based on 1 at the beginning, and going up until it gets to the end.

If you are curious, and if you haven't done it yet, pick out an MPCPL file of yours that has a lot of media items in it and open it in Notepad or whatever text editor you like. You'll see that each media item is NOT just one line. Each media item will be at LEAST two lines. a TYPE line, and a FILENAME line. Plus a SUBTITLE line if there is a subtitle track for the video item, plus a LABEL line in case the user (you,, for example) had renamed the item while in the playlist of MPC. By the way, when you try to drag an item either up or down the list where it would need to scroll, it is a rather slow scroll, which explains part of the problem with trying to rearrange items in the list.

And before you suspect that I have an old computer, I don't. Mine has 64GB RAM, 4 GHz Quad core CPU, with an SSD system drive. And no, there's not much other stuff running on the PC.

Now, as an additional idea, the only two critical lines are the TYPE and FILENAME lines. The LABEL and SUBTITLE lines could actually be lost and it wouldn't really be that much of a problem. Although, considering the media items as a group will all have the same number in front of them, I'd really like to keep them if they exist. As long as a TYPE line comes right before the FILENAME line, and both of them (in each pair) has the same, but unique number from other media items.

Oh, and with regard to the M3U files, if you try to save a playlist in MPC, it will save in the M3U format, but if any of the Media files in the list referenced a Subtitle file, I'll have lost track of that in the M3U and PLS formats. Plus, if I wanted to relabel a media file in the playlist to be more informative, that option is not saved, either.

I hope that gets my desire across better than what I guess I had originally posted.

Does anyone have any ideas for an editor like this?

fdwojo

10

General Software Discussion / Re: IDEA: Need an .MPCPL file editor

« on: March 31, 2018, 01:01 AM »

That's okay, I realize it wasn't your script when you provided the link to where it came from. I was only referring to the fact that it really isn't what I'm trying to accomplish. Hopefully there is a solution out there.

fdwojo

11

General Software Discussion / Re: IDEA: Need an .MPCPL file editor

« on: March 30, 2018, 10:36 PM »

I must admit that I haven't ever gotten around to trying and using AutoHotkey for any tasks. I knew it was available, but for the most part, I hadn't ever tried it for anything. Admittedly, I don't know enough about AHK because I would have thought that it would just run programs, not that it could "create" a program. Yes, I know that AHK uses scripts, but I was always under the impression that it just triggered existing programs. I'll have to look into it to see if it's worthwhile.

However, being able to avoid AHK and instead using a standalone program that either of you have the chance for, would actually be the preferable solution for what I'm looking for. I guess we all have things to look into.

By the way, I was looking over the script that you listed there to see if I could get an idea from what it was doing. Granted, I don't have any RL experience with AHK, but it looks like your idea is to create a brand new playlist from, say, a folder full of media, maybe even from a folder and it's subfolders. Unfortunately, that wasn't what I was hoping for. Rather, I was looking for the ability to edit existing playlists into the order I wish, and possibly add or remove some entries (Media item) in the list. I greatly apologize if I didn't make that clear.

Anyways, I'll check out your script to see what it does to see if I guess right from what I could read of it.

I'll check back. Thank you both for your responses!

fdwojo

12

General Software Discussion / Re: IDEA: Need an .MPCPL file editor

« on: March 30, 2018, 05:45 PM »

Although I don't have any specifics from the people who wrote MPC, TYPE has always been a zero (0) in all the MPCPL files I've ever created.
Also, FILENAME is used in all of them as well.
I have a few files that have the LABEL line, but those only appear if the user renamed the file in the playlist while in the program (MPC). For the uses I do, it's not critical unless a filename is rather vague about what it is and I want to clarify it.
The SUBTITLE line I've only noticed a few times, but that one is pretty much required.

Now please keep in mind that knowing WHAT lines to use isn't the problem here. Rather, it's that I have a few rather long playlists for MPC and if it's just one entry, I can easily drag it up or down in the list. But many times, I have numerous lines that I want to move elsewhere in that playlist. And since (A) you can only move one line at a time, and (B) if you try to edit the MPCPL file in a text editor, you have to renumber all the lines so that it all works out in order.

So, in short, knowing what lines to create isn't needed. What *IS* needed is a simple way to move entries in the list around and have it bring any other matching lines with it and then renumber all the lines.

For instance, lets say I wanted to reorganize the list so that it was all MP4's first, then AVI second, and then MP3's last. It would come out like this (if I only copy and paste lines):

[Select]

MPCPLAYLIST

4,type,0
4,filename,C:\Users\fdwojo\Videos\Mass Effect Playthrough.mp4

5,type,0
5,filename,C:\Users\fdwojo\Videos\Far Cry Playthrough.mp4

6,type,0
6,filename,D:\Movies\Action Adventure\Indiana Jones #9.mp4
6,subtitle,D:\Movies\Action Adventure\Indiana Jones #9.srt

3,type,0
3,label,Robot (1080p)
3,filename,C:\Users\fdwojo\Videos\Robot.avi

1,type,0
1,filename,C:\Users\fdwojo\Music\themesong.mp3

2,type,0
2,label,Extended Themesong #2
2,filename,C:\Users\fdwojo\Music\ts2_h264.mp3

Now, if I did this and tried to play this playlist in MPC, it would actually play in order from #1 to #6. But I had wanted it in a different order, so I'd have had to renumber all the lines so that the first media item was 1, the second was 2, and so on. That's the functionality I'm looking for. It will rearrange the lines, and RENUMBER them into the order I indicate.

Now, in case you're wondering, if you look at the playlist while you are in MPC, it would look like this:

[Select]

1. themesong.mp3
2. Extended Themesong #2
3. Robot [1080p]
4. Mass Effect Playthrough.mp4
5. Far Cry Playthrough.mp4
6. Indiana Jones #9.mp4

Now, imagine this list a lot longer, like maybe a hundred songs and videos. Trying to edit that is tremendously difficult. It all comes down to the fact that each media item in the play list will consist of 2-4 (or more?) lines that make up that one media item. I would need them kept as a group, and moved as a group to whatever new location in the list I'd specifiy.

I hope my description of the problem has helped.

fdwojo

13

General Software Discussion / IDEA: Need an .MPCPL file editor

« on: March 30, 2018, 04:15 PM »

The media player I prefer to use is Media Player Classic, and like many (probably all) players, you can save playlists (.mpcpl files). Also, when in MPC, you can edit the playlist by dragging one file at a time up and down the list and dropping it where you wish. However, if you have more the 1 or 2, it can be a very tedious task, especially if you have a long list. And if you're me, you have VERY long lists of songs and videos to play through. 

Is there, or has anyone ever considered creating, an editor for these MPCPL files? Although the file is a simple text file, the trick is that each item in the list takes up 2 (or more) lines. Plus, each item (in order) has to be numbered, from 1 on up before saving it. Lastly, each line in a set of lines for a media item has to all have the same number. And that's the problem. If I were to try to edit it in notepad, even if I moved only one media file entry, I'd need to re-number the entire list (which is a PitA).

So, can anyone create a program that will allow the editing of the file and move the 2 (or more) lines for each media item as a group, and renumber the entire thing when done and save it back?

For what it's worth, (in case you're not familiar with the playlist format, here is a example of an MPCPL file with 6 media items in it:

[Select]

MPCPLAYLIST

1,type,0
1,filename,C:\Users\fdwojo\Music\themesong.mp3

2,type,0
2,label,Extended Themesong #2
2,filename,C:\Users\fdwojo\Music\ts2_h264.mp3

3,type,0
3,label,Robot (1080p)
3,filename,C:\Users\fdwojo\Videos\Robot.avi

4,type,0
4,filename,C:\Users\fdwojo\Videos\Mass Effect Playthrough.mp4

5,type,0
5,filename,C:\Users\fdwojo\Videos\Far Cry Playthrough.mp4

6,type,0
6,filename,D:\Movies\Action Adventure\Indiana Jones #9.mp4
6,subtitle,D:\Movies\Action Adventure\Indiana Jones #9.srt

I've taken the liberty of adding blank lines between each media item to make it easier to see what constitutes each media item. However, the normal file would not have ANY blank lines.

Requirements (Ideally):
   Works in Windows
   Be able to cut/paste from one place in the list to another.
   Have up/down arrow buttons to move item(s) up/down the list.
   When saving at the end, it will renumber all items from 1 on up.
   Because it needs to contain full path names, it should support Unicode.

Recommendation:
   Either show 1 line for each media item, otherwise
   Show all lines for each media item,
   but when moving (or Cut/Paste), all items of a media item move with it.

Thanks to anyone who can help.

fdwojo

14

General Software Discussion / Re: Requesting a comic book editor

« on: February 20, 2013, 12:11 PM »

4WD: Sorry about the delay, but I didn't see your reply. I uploaded a CBZ file I had on my own computer up to the site, it wasn't a CBZ that was online. Also, the CBZ file works fine in my own Comic Rack program.

Panzer: I'll check those out and see how well they work.

Thanks

``````````````````````````````

By the way, I was thinking that although I was looking for a comic book viewer that would let me delete files (images), I realized that another way to look at it is to find an archiver with the ability to see thumbnails of images.  I'm not sure what version they added this with, but I found that WinZip v17 (Pro) includes this very capability.  Problem solved. (yes, I know it's not free, but I haven't upgraded my WinZip since v6 which was in the early 1990's, so it was definitely about time.)  Maybe this might help you guys, too.

Thanks again!

15

General Software Discussion / Re: Requesting a comic book editor

« on: January 24, 2013, 12:02 AM »

Okay, I tried it out. As a side note (not that I mentioned it before), but I must say that I have never liked online tools because of how long it can take, not to mention needing an internet connection. I was hoping from your writeup that online was optional as well as local view/editing. But, not.

Anyway, I tried it out with a typical CBZ file and I tried it again with a CBR file.  I went thru the process of opening, picked out a few images and deleted them and then the moment of truth: I tried to export to CBZ and boom, it failed. Admittedly, I don't want to export to PDF. What with the errors and all, it seems to sadly not to be an option.

I also did some searching for other tools. I found a tool called CBXShell, but it only shows how many files, but not the ability to view/edit/delete.

Once again, I guess I'm still looking.  Thank you for your efforts though.

16

General Software Discussion / Re: Requesting a comic book editor

« on: January 23, 2013, 09:35 PM »

Wow, that sounds like it would do just what I'm looking for. I'm off to try it folks!  If you don't hear from me, I'm either very happy with this solution (very likely) or else you guys have just gotten me addicted to your wonderfulness of solving requests.

------------------------------------

Okay, I tried it out. It's like a combined file explorer and comic book viewer. There's only one problem: It does indeed let me view the images, but I cannot delete them inside the CB? files. In effect, it's just a viewer, not an editor. I still would be faced with doing all the steps I mentioned above.

Well, thanks for the suggestion, though. I'll keep looking and hoping.

And apparently you posted your last thoughts as I was downloading, trying out, and then writing about it.

17

General Software Discussion / Re: Requesting a comic book editor

« on: January 23, 2013, 07:31 PM »

Well... correct me if I'm wrong, but your program is meant to create comic book files (CBZ/CB7/....) not edit them. If you'd like, I'll be happy to admit that I'm lazy. Yes, I could instead (manually):

A) rename comic book file to .ZIP or .RAR
B) extract all files into a folder
C) view all files with my primary single image viewer and delete as I go
D) re-compress all the files into a .ZIP or .RAR (I prefer ZIP)
E) rename the extension back to .CBZ or .CBR

The way I see it, your program would only allow me to combine steps D and E together. Not to mention that I still have to give it the same name it had from before.

I guess I'm trying to automate things as much as possible.  Of course, the best option would be for my comics viewer (ComicRack) to allow me to do that, but the only thing it will do is to allow me to mark the desired images as hidden (it's called deleted in the program, but they are actually hidden.) And then if I send these files to someone else or one of my other devices, such as my tablet, the unwanted pictures are still there and reappear, thereby defeating the intent. Of course my last option above (the renaming of the extension) would leave the file there, but at least it would not be viewable at all.

Lastly, I'm sorry if I have misunderstood the capabilities of CBAR, because I have downloaded it and used it for making them, but as I said before, it seems like it can only create CB archives, and all the editing is still left to me like I mentioned above.

Thank you, though.

18

General Software Discussion / Requesting a comic book editor

« on: January 23, 2013, 04:50 PM »

Just as a preface, I searched the entire forum and can't find any info or requests for something like this, so...

I apologize if I thought this request to be too simple a task, but if it's possible, here is what I am looking for.

Background: I read lots of comics (using ComicRack). However, sometimes I'll be reading through one and there are all these unwanted, unneeded advertisement pages in the comic book that I'd love to get rid of.

Request: Can a program be written so that it could open a CBZ file, let me view and pick out any unwanted pages and actually delete them and then save the modified files back into the same file again.

Option 1) it might be even easier if I could see a whole slew of pages as thumbnails (perhaps 20 or 30 per screen) because I don't really need to read the comic book if all I need is just to pick out the unwanted stuff.

Option 2) allow this for CBR as well. I know that giving it full RAR (CBR) capability is expensive to add to a program, but perhaps you could just restrict it to only work if the user has WinRAR already installed. Otherwise, it would be a disabled option. This idea is something that SKWIRE did with his "Comic Book Archive Creator"

Thanks for listening. Please let me know if it's an option.

P.S. I am primarily after a solution that will actually delete unwanted pictures, not just mark them as hidden. But, this brings another option to my mind. If deleting is a problem or unwise, renaming the file so that anything that is a JPG, PNG, etc. could be renamed to have a ZZZ (or some other unused 3-letter extension). That way, it wouldn't be actually deleted, but instead would be totally hidden it wouldn't show up in viewing it with my Comic Rack viewer. This method would have the side benefit of working with every single comic viewer out there and wouldn't need to rely on maintaining an external list of what pages to view and what pages to hide.

Thanks again.

19

Skwire Empire / Re: Release: Comic Book Archive Creator

« on: July 24, 2012, 02:51 AM »

In the latest build, I added the ability to specify the output type (JPG or PNG) when converting PDFs.  I also included your request to specify the quality of a jpg and the compression of a png.  Some things to keep in mind:

• The JPG quality value is 0-100 where 0 is the worst quality and 100 is the best quality.  The default is 85.
• The PNG compression value is 1-10 where 1 is the least compression and 10 is the most compression.  The default is 6.

Website | Download
v1.0.4 - 2012-07-17
    + When converting PDFs, added ability to specify image output type and
      quality/compression settings.  (Thanks, fdwojo)
v1.0.3 - 2012-07-15
    + Last used folders are now saved when adding files.

-skwire (July 18, 2012, 09:27 AM)

Thanks for the response and changes. (and the shout-out to me in the change-log!)
Also, I really like the idea of saving the last-used folder. I never save any data (except program settings) in the program folder, so that's great.

Thank you for the welcome. Keep up the good works that you do!

Frank

20

Skwire Empire / Re: Release: Comic Book Archive Creator

« on: July 17, 2012, 02:32 PM »

In the process of creating the comic, you make each page from a PDF into a JPG.  I know that when creating a JPG, it is possible to indicate the 'compression quality' of the image, and I believe it can be set between 1 and 100 (1 is least compression and 100 is most compression).  What do you use for a setting? Can it be added on the Options page so that we can squeeze (or not) the size of our comic book files?

FDWojo