Coding folks: Handbrake fork?

[Darkhand]

If you've ever converted video from one format to another, you've probably used Handbrake, considered one of the most useful video conversion utilities out there. Have a bunch of files you want converted from one source to another? Just select them all, add them to the queue, pick your destination format, and convert. Easy as pie, right?

Not quite. It would be that easy, but the devs absolutely insist on making you select one file at a time for addition to the conversion queue. After dozens of requests in the forums to allow ctrl or shift-click selection of multiple files, they require you to select files one at a time. Their reasoning is that no one could possibly want to convert multiple files to the exact same format with the exact same settings; every file is different and needs its own settings.

People like me, however, who have video cameras that create a separate video file every time the record button is pressed, would greatly benefit from the ability to add multiple files to the conversion queue. Every file is the same format, same resolution, same audio codec, etc. Having to manually add 200 files to the queue one file at a time turns handbrake into a useless piece of software.

The devs are downright hostile to the suggestion now; asking for this feature on the forums results in a locked thread and action against your account. They've admitted previously that it's not a design limitation, just a choice. Why they loathe the idea so much is beyond me.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of a fork or similar project that provides as much power as Handbrake and the ability to add multiple files to a queue at once. Heck, it is open source... even help modifying the queue selection function to accept multiple files in the file selection dialog, loop through those selections and add each one to the queue with the current settings would be great. The fact that the devs are so overtly hostile to such a simple (and useful) feature request from a sizable portion of their userbase makes me want to fork the project myself for this purpose alone. Unfortunately Sourcepawn is still a challenge to me let alone C#... but even I see this as a potentially simple change.

Any ideas/alternatives?

[Ice1]

Super has always worked well for me, it basically allows you to do exactly what you are talking about, i think. Try it out http://download.cnet.com/Super-Video...-10277613.html . But just a note, if you have a antivirus that scans the running memory you need to turn it off, not sure why, but super plays havoc with antiviruses.


Btw thats a fucking stupid scenario you described there hey. The devs obviously need to grow the fuck up.

[salith]

I personally use Format Factory;
http://www.formatoz.com/
Windows only, though.