[SABRAWY]

I'm very satisfied with this great software. It garantees great performances, expecially at low and very low bitrate. The only defect I found is the lack of a command line mode.

If you have to set up and launch the encoding on a remote computer or if you need to integrate FME in a pre-existent authomatic procedure or system, You would need a command line mode or a programmatic way to handle starting, stopping, changing configurations.

Unfortunately FME does not give this possibility, but you can easy obtain the same final result with an handy WSH script.

A WSH (Windows Scripting Host) is simply a .vbs text file that can be interpreted by windows as a Visual Basic Script (starting from Win2000). Cut and Past the code below in your notepad, insert the path to your FlashMediaEncoder exe and save all as TEST.vbs.
Now, double clicking on the file and you will see the FME starts, loads the configuration held in the custom.xml file (previously setted and saved) and finally starts the encoding.


Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run "[write here the path to FlashMediaEncoder.exe]", 9
'parameter: 0=hide, 7=minimized, 9=normal
'Give FME time to load
WScript.Sleep 5000 'milliseconds to wait
WshShell.AppActivate "Adobe Flash Media Encoder"
WshShell.SendKeys "%fo" 'Open a custom config
WshShell.SendKeys "custom.xml"
WshShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}" 'Start encoding
WshShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}" 'Confirm

This second, tiny script close the FME application.

WshShell.AppActivate "Adobe Flash Media Encoder"
WshShell.SendKeys "%fx"
WshShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"

This simple control, can be enriched if needed. You can, for example, hide the FME window to the user or also try to read the log file to know the exact state of the application.
The only difficulty is to control multiple istance of FME, but I'm working on it...