Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

[daxb]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

Thanks for the suggestion. I will give it a try.

I also am testing another idea. There is an option for forcing manual input when no metadata is detected. My failures have been caused by a less than reliable wireless connection. When it goes down, then it just skips all the way to the end. Not sure that this will help those with a crashing problem.

[mns]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze39sc9/mediadogg/

Utility gives you the opportunity to eject any CD not mounted. Since the OK ones will be at the beginning, then a simple for i = 0 to n-1 loop (the XL1 starts at disc # 0) will enable you to eject those n CD's.

Great thank you! I used the GUI to eject the ripped CDs and it worked perfectly. Quick question is there a way to enter a range of CDs to eject say slots 0-15 instead of entered each slot #individually in the gui and ejecting 1 at a time?

[Porcus]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

Quick question is there a way to enter a range of CDs to eject say slots 0-15 instead of entered each slot #individually in the gui and ejecting 1 at a time?

In the \temp subdirectory, you'll find mediachanger.exe. The command mediachanger eject <number> will eject that CD. Open cmd.exe, add this directory to your PATH (or cd your way to it), and give a command like FOR /L %i IN (0,1,20) DO mediachanger eject %i to eject CDs # 0 through #20.

[daxb]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

Porcus,
I don't want to mess up this thread by discussing the mediadogg program. Any chance you can point me to a place that has more background on the application. I did not see it on the website. The command you suggest above has left me a bit perplexed although I think I can make enough sense of it to change the discs from 0-20 to something else.
Thanks,
Dax

[Porcus]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

I don't want to mess up this thread by discussing the mediadogg program. Any chance you can point me to a place that has more background on the application.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=835285

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=692413

The command you suggest above has left me a bit perplexed although I think I can make enough sense of it to change the discs from 0-20 to something else.

The /L switch means that the (0,1,20) is interpreted as from 0 in steps of 1 until 20.

[skavan]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

OMG. What an astonishing piece of software. Congratulations Mr.Spoon!

It's rare that I rave, but I started writing my own .net batch ripper a year ago (for the Powerfile based changers) and just ran out of time to take it to completion...and now here it is...and a whole lot more powerful than my version - especially on the ripping side.

Where I spent a lot of time was on the changer management side and have a chunk of .net code that could be repurposed to work alongside/in your batch ripper.

Specifically, my mediachanger code provides a nice GUI based view of:
a) What's in the changer
b) Batch load/unload - from slot ranges and also "marked" slots
c) A huge amount of somewhat crazy code designed to deduce the media type
d) A 2 way event driven sync to receive updated meta data about each slot...(so once ripped/scanned, it shows the Album name etc..).

Anyway...what I'd love to do is be able to hook this into the batch ripper somehow or other so that:
1. Users can see slot usage
2. If BatchRipper could pass info about each disk, it would be easy to then do a "selective eject" of failed disks etc...
3. Progress of batches
4. Selection of rip slot ranges that could be passed back to batchripper.
and so on.

#1 can be done outside of batchripper, but #2-#4 probably can't -- unless there is a log stream i can read in real-time -- whereupon at least one way traffic can take place?

Thoughts?

[skavan]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

oh - one more thing...is there any setting -- or any other way -- to get the ripper to store the WM/MCDI TOC as a string (i.e. 08+96+...) rather than the binary format that's used?

I need the text version for a downstream app.

Thanks.

s.

[Spoon]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

WMA TOC: http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=16523

Batch ripper calls reject.exe for any rejected discs, not the sony cannot eject whilst in a batch, but if you took over the reject.exe code and stored the disc number you could do it at the end.

[skavan]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

a) Thanks for the link. TOC-->WM/MCDI is working perfectly.
b) Interesting thought on reject.exe -- it spawns the following questions:

In the ripping flow, where else can an external program get notifications..ideally, I'd like to spring my program into action at the end of each file rip and then at the end of each CD rip, and ideally at the start of the batch process and again at the end. Said simply, I'd like to capture some or all of the following events:
i. Batch Process Start
ii. CD Load
iii. Track Ripped
iv. CD Complete/Unload
v. Batch finish.
as well as REJECT and for completeness, if possible, SUCCESS.
At the very minimum, i could live with a single trigger at the end of each CD.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[bhoar]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

a) Thanks for the link. TOC-->WM/MCDI is working perfectly.
b) Interesting thought on reject.exe -- it spawns the following questions:

In the ripping flow, where else can an external program get notifications..ideally, I'd like to spring my program into action at the end of each file rip and then at the end of each CD rip, and ideally at the start of the batch process and again at the end. Said simply, I'd like to capture some or all of the following events:
i. Batch Process Start
ii. CD Load
iii. Track Ripped
iv. CD Complete/Unload
v. Batch finish.
as well as REJECT and for completeness, if possible, SUCCESS.
At the very minimum, i could live with a single trigger at the end of each CD.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

skavan -

Probably the most easy way to track which processes are calling other processes with what parameters is to do what I did, which is to install Process Explorer from Microsoft (originally from sysinternals): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...s/default.aspx

I added two important columns, Start Time and Command Line. I then expanded Command Line so that it is very wide. Finally I sort by Start Time.

Then you can see not only what processes are being spawned, but the command lines being sent from the parent

There spawn tree branches early into two half-trees:

       Batch Ripper
       /           \
      /             \
     /               \
    /                 \
   /                   \
Pre-Batch.exe or    CDGRAB.EXE
Load.exe or             |
Unload.exe or           |
Reject.exe or           v
Post-Batch.exe      (various compressors)

The information gained under examination includes useful information of two types (primarily):

1. You can learn all of the documented and undocumented command line switches being used.

2. You get pointers to logging and messaging files being used to send information from the parent to the child and vice versa.

I've used the above information, along with some documentation (and reminders) from Spoon to ensure my ulcli tool can work well as a loader driver.

What you'd probably want to do is write your own wrappers to intercept (or even replace if you're feeling bold) the changer drivers for the sony unit.

The only issue I see is that item "iii." could probably involve inserting yourself between the cdgrab.exe process and the compressors, where a lot of data is being exchanged (plus the metadata character set issues). If you can find a a passive way to monitor that information, I'd recommend going that direction.

-brendan

[skavan]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

Brendan,

Many thanks for the detailed reply. Looks like my weekend just got eaten!

I seem to remember from years back that the musicconverter gave users the ability to kick off out-of-proc (and thus async) processes..but my memory may be faulty and I can't see any such capability anymore.

Absent that capability, looks like your method is the only way to go...
What I thought I'd do, to keep it simple, is that upon getting a trigger - say at the end of each ripped track, I'd simply read and parse the log file. Of course, I'd have to know the name of the logfile....mmmhh...so many questions -- so little time....

Thanks again,

Suresh

[bhoar]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

Well, you can always activate as many of the logging/debugging flags as possible and use process explorer to see what file handles the batch ripper and the spawned processes are using. There might be some log file content you can use.

Good luck.

-brendan

[Porcus]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

Sony are doing wierd things with the Firewire on that system, many times in Vista you would get 2 firewire devices and it would not work correctly, whereas when it was working there was only 1. Now obviously there are 2 devices there and sony are combining them, so it is no surprise that the c2 is not working. Also according to sony only the closest device to the computer can rip audio (if using more than one).

So are you saying that the C2 errors are lost somewhere between the CD-spinner's IDE-out and the changer's Firewire-out?

(Idea: disconnect the CD drive and connect to a computer by eSATA, while controlling the changer by Firewire?)

[bhoar]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

So are you saying that the C2 errors are lost somewhere between the CD-spinner's IDE-out and the changer's Firewire-out?

(Idea: disconnect the CD drive and connect to a computer by eSATA, while controlling the changer by Firewire?)

Unlike duplicator robots, where the automation robotic controller doesn't talk to the drive, the sony/powerfile units have changer controllers that actually talk to the drive device via firewire.

...from what I have read.

-brendan

[Porcus]

Re: Batch Ripper: Media Changer Loader (Sony XL1B) Discussions

Unlike duplicator robots, where the automation robotic controller doesn't talk to the drive, the sony/powerfile units have changer controllers that actually talk to the drive device via firewire.

But does it have to communicate that way?

...from what I have read.

Huh. Tempted to try. Just a Q: If I use a USB-to-IDE adapter, will the C2 error codes be lost? (I've tried to connect a few IDE devices that way, and CD-ROM-spinners are the most prone to not be recognised.)