ZTools Version 2

[zehd]

I thought I would start a thread where anyone and everyone could have some input into the redesign and rebuild on several ZTools.

I have always appreciated support and suggestions from ZTool Users.

[SIZE="4"]ZProcess...[/SIZE]

The biggest criticism I received for this program is its complex user interface. It all came down to screen real estate. And I wanted it to do ALL of the postprocessing and transcoding that was possible with GB-PVR.. (probably too much)

The primary use of ZProcess has been for maintaining the aspect of ratios for non MPG on-the-fly transcoding for the MVP. So that will be the main thrust of the rebuild.

• I will be keeping things modular, rather than gathered and grouped with Tabs. The graphical adjustment screen should not be seen unless a tweak is needed. I won't be working with queues or comskip or other Post Processing tasks for a while.
  
  
• The MVP helper with be called something else. ZProcess will probably be evolved and reintroduced as a shell for many Post Processing tasks, including redeveloped ZTools and other tried and true 3rd party post processing apps.
  
  
• Setup and customizing will be the easiest. When called by GB-PVR to transcode, it will be much lighter and less obtrusive.
  
  
• The aspect ratio tweak screen will be a plugin dll that can viewed and adjusted on the MVP - real time...
  
  
• My wiki page is the first hit with Google already. And it's referenced on other HTPC forums. It's time to make this a little more accessible.
  

Any thoughts would be appreciated...

[zehd]

I have started on ZProcess2.

I have improved on many mechanisms already.

• The retrieval of Video File information is now lightening fast, and that shaves at least a second or more off the load time.
  
  
• The calculations to maintain the aspect ratio or more robust and I have incorporated PAL and HD dimensions right from the start.
  
  
• The last thing I worked on with the old ZProcess, was preventing ZProcess from chewing up the CPU while it waited for the spawned Transcoder window. Now, that is working perfectly. Now ZProcess2 can wait in Normal CPU Priority for the Transcoder to finish.
  
  
• I'm getting rid of Hunter. Though I will still work with three windows. GB-PVR sends a request to ZProcess which calls ZTranscode (which does the grunt work) which calls a transcoder (like MEncoder or FFmpeg). This is still necessary to prevent orphan processes. If GB-PVR decides to kill one window, the other windows should die too...
  
  
• ZProcess and ZTranscode will have less GUI. It seems that it was quite overwhelming for many new users.
  
  
• They will have their own separate config program (similar to GB-PVR).
  
  
• The new ZProcess and ZTranscode will use many of the same registry settings as the old ZProcess.
  

I will be ready for alpha trials very soon.

And BTW, I'm backing up profusely. I have a date/time stamped zip file created, then copied to several different drives on my network. Major back ups will be saved to the internet...

[HtV]

And BTW, I'm backing up profusely. I have a date/time stamped zip file created, then copied to several different drives on my network. Major back ups will be saved to the internet...

Good to see you are on the road again.

cya Hans.

[sub]

Yeah, I'm also glad to hear you're on the way back.

[zehd]

Thanks guys.

I can't believe how it felt. The wind was knocked right out of me.

I really appreciated all the support and good wishes.

You may have wished for me to stay dormant though. I'm going to right a ZProcess Config PLUGIN in vc.net. That's going to be fun...:eek:

[zehd]

ZProcess 2 is almost ready for testing. The core process is super stable and fast.

I'm now working on the config.exe and the install.exe...

[HtV]

The core process is super stable and fast.

I'm sure there's some wisecrack about good things coming out of bad things.

[zehd]

I'm sure there's some wisecrack about good things coming out of bad things.

Indeed. And I'll leave them to you

My coding is tighter... there's no doubt ZProcess2 is benefiting from the development of it's predecessor.

I wonder how much tighter sub is getting pvrx2 with his from the ground up rewrite... probably a lot...

[zehd]

I'd be interested to see how well the Basic version of ZProcess2 works for people.

Enclosed in the zip are two programs, ZProcess2.exe and ZTranscode.exe. Copy them to same folder as your original ZProcess.

Now here's some tricky stuff. The big part I'm missing is the Config GUI. So until I get it done, you can use the old ZProcess to adjust settings.

ZProcess2 uses the same reg keys as ZProcess. But the auto checking that is installed in both ZProcess and ZProcess2 can conflict so here's how you use the two.

When you run new ZProcess2, the first question is, "would you like to register ZProcess2 with GB-PVR?" 'Yes' will save it into GB-PVR FOR MVP TRANSCODING ONLY!

If you need to adjust the settings and run the Old ZProcess... Click 'No' on this msgbox...

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

(This dialog is misleading, but I can't change it....)

You should be able to adjust settings and save them. Currently, only the Trans2MVP profile is looked at, because Zprocess2 will ONLY do on-the-fly transcoding...

Operation...

What should happen is when you try to watch a video on the MVP, ZProcess2 is called, takes the in and out file passed by GB-PVR and passes it onto ZTranscode.

ZTranscode launches the Transcoder (MEncoder works really nice).

Just so you know, the Transcoder window is launched in hidden mode by default and ZTranscode lives in the SysTray. If you want to see the Transcoder Window, right-click the ZTranscode tray icon and select 'show transcoder'...

Good luck

[zehd]

Forgot to mention, if you ever want to remove the references for either ZProcess or ZProcess2, click Remove Refs in their respective 'GB-PVR Settings' sub window...