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<p align="center"><font face="Arial" size="2"><img border="0" src="../../illustrate.gif" width="348" height="82"></font></p>
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<td width="99%" height="21" background="../../BoxTop.gif"><b><font size="2" face="Arial">
dBpoweramp CLI Encoder Codec</font></b></td>
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<p><font size="2" face="Arial"><b><br>
</b>A CLI Encoder uses<span lang="en-us"> external compressors (not native
to dBpoweramp) to handle compression, using a CLI encoder requires intermediate to advanced computer skills. If there is a choice to use a pre-created dBpoweramp
codec (such as dBpoweramp's Ogg Vorbis codec, rather than oggenc.exe)
then use dBpoweramp's instead, it will have better error reporting and
ID tagging abilities.</span></font></p>
<p><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial" size="2">There are two ways to
use the CLI Encoder, the first and simplest is to point to an encoder
(executable) and specify a command line. This mode of operation is
covered below. </font></span></p>
<p><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial" size="2">The other way is to
dynamically create an options page (with option buttons, drop lists),
the command line is automatically constructed depending upon options
selected. This method is much more complex to setup, but once done it is
more user friendly to select the various options, dBpoweramp uses this
method for command line encoders (such as Nero's m4a encoder).
<a href="dynamic.htm">Dynamic CLI Encoder tutorial</a>.</font></span></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2"><b>Supported by this Codec</b>
</font></p>
<ul>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Encoding: Yes<font color="#808080">
</font></font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Multi-processor Encoding: Yes
<font color="#808080">(with dBpoweramp reference)</font></font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Decoding: No</font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">ID Tag Reading: No</font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">ID Tag Writing: Yes<font color="#808080">
[** if passed on command line to encoder, or equivalent dBpoweramp
decoder installed]</font></font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Unicode Tagging:</font><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#808080">
</font><font face="Arial" size="2">Yes</font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Gapless Encoding & Decoding:
Dependant on Encoder</font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Explorer Audio Popup Information:
No</font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Explorer Columns: No</font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Unicode Filenames: Yes (even if cli
encoder is not)</font></li>
</ul>
<p><b><font face="Arial" size="2">Compatibility</font></b></p>
<blockquote>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">Windows 98 or newer, <b>dBpoweramp
R12</b> or newer required.</font></p>
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<p align="left"><b><FONT face=Arial size=2> Setting
Up </FONT></b>
</p>
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<p align="center">
<img border="0" src="compression.png" width="465" height="137"></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">Follow these steps to setup the encoder:</font></p>
<ol>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">First off you need a command-line
encoder, for this example neroAacEnc.exe will be used (Nero's mp4
encoder), we have saved this encoder to <b>c:\</b>. </font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Looking in <b>c:\program
files\illustrate\dBpoweramp\encoder\cli encoder\</b> is a file
called <b>encoder.txt</b>, edit this file to change the extension of
the encoder, in this example .m4a</font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Load dBpoweramp and select the codec
CLI Encoder and click <b>Locate Encoder</b>, find and select
<a href="file:///c:/neroAacEnc.exe">c:\neroAacEnc.exe</a>. </font>
</li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Look at the encoder being used, you
need to know if the encoder can work with stdin (where audio is
piped in, normally by specifying - on the command line, or if a
temporary file is required), Nero can work with stdin where it
expects a command line as: -if - -of c:\final.m4a
We would set <b>Command Line</b> in dBpoweramp to <b>-if - -of [outfile]</b>
[outfile] is a dBpoweramp dynamic item which is auto-filled with the
final filename (a short pathname is used such as
<a href="file:///c:/file~1.wav">c:\file~1.wav</a> to ensure
compatibility with non-unicode encoders & that spaces in the
filename will not trouble the encoder). If Nero did not use stdin
pipes we would have to supply a temporary file, in this instance the
command line would be: <b>-if [infile] -of [outfile]</b>.</font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Decide how to tell the encoder which
format the source audio is, normally <b>Pass Wave Header</b> is left
checked and the format is passed in a wave header, if the encoder
expects no headers uncheck this and supply frequency & channels, etc
on the command line with dynamic items.</font></li>
<li class="style1"><strong>I<font size="2">mportant: </font>
</strong><font size="2">In order to pass short pathnames dBpoweramp
must first create the final filename (it is zero bytes), many CLI
encoders will sit and wait asking to overwrite the output file, the
force overwrite (specific to the CLI encoder) must set on the
command line.</font></li>
</ol>
<p><u><font face="Arial" size="2">Other Options</font></u></p>
<blockquote>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2"><b>dB Write ID Tags</b> gives
dBpoweramp the chance to write ID Tags, dBpoweramp would require the
correct decoder installed which is able to write tags.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2"><b>Highest Quality Decoded Source</b>
requests to the decoder to supply audio data with the highest
resolution (for example mp3 would be decoded as floating point,
check the command line encoder is able to handle high resolution
audio).</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2"><b>Frequency, Channels & Bits</b> can
be set to change the audio before it is sent to the command-line
encoder, for example set channels to 2 if the encoder does not
support 6 channel audio (and your audio source is 6 channels).</font></p>
</blockquote>
<p><u><font face="Arial" size="2">Dynamic Command Line Items</font></u></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">The following items will be dynamically
replaced on usage:</font></p>
<blockquote>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">[infile]
Input filename, if not present stdin is used<br>
[outfile]
Output filename, this is required for every conversion<br>
[artist]
Artist<br>
[album]
Album title<br>
[title]
Track title<br>
[genre]
Music genre<br>
[year]
Year of recording<br>
[track]
Track number<br>
[track_total] Total tracks on CD<br>
[disc]
Compilation disc number<br>
[disc_total] Compilation
disc total<br>
<br>
[tag]<element>[] Embed user defined tag element<br>
[unique]
Unique number (not padded)<br>
[extension] Audio
format extension<br>
[date]
Current date<br>
[time]
Current time<br>
[day_of_week] Current day of week<br>
[now_year] Current
year<br>
<br>
[frequency]
Frequency ie 44100<br>
[channels]
Channels ie 2<br>
[channels_subone] Channels-1 ie 0 for mono<br>
[bits_per_sample] Bits ie 16<br>
[bytes_per_sample] Bytes (bits / 8) ie 2<br>
</font></p>
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<p align="left"><b><FONT face=Arial size=2> Testing </FONT></b>
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<p align="left">Switching dBpoweramp to Debug Mode (dBpoweramp
Configuration >> Music Converter >> Music Converter Debug will display
after a conversion the command line and encoder path used to encode (as
well as plenty of other information), this can be useful in debugging.</p>
<p align="left">Important: dBpoweramp creates the output file (zero
bytes) before encoding, many cli encoders ask the user if it is ok to
overwrite the output file, there should be a command line value to force
overwrite without user intervention.</p>
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<p align="left"><b><FONT face=Arial size=2> More than
One </FONT></b>
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<p align="left">If more than one CLI encoder is required, duplicate the
\encoder\CLI Encoder.dll and \CLI Encoder\ folder and give new
names (for example \Lame CLI.dll & \Lame CLI\ folder.<br>
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<p align="left"><b><FONT face=Arial size=2> Command
Line </FONT></b>
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<p align="left">dBpoweramp Reference allows compressions from the
command-line, commands specific to this codec:</p>
<blockquote>
<p align="left">-cli_encoder="c:\encoder.exe"
encoder to use<br>
-cli_cmd="{qt}[infile]{qt} [outfile]"
command line to pass to encoder, use {qt} for " If no [infile] then
audio is piped to stdinput <br>
-bits="16", or "float"
(non supplied leaves as is)<br>
-freq="44100"
(non supplied leaves as is)<br>
-channels="2"
(non supplied leaves as is) "1" to "9"<br>
-nowavehdr
To not first supply a wave header to encoder (frequency etc has to
be supplied on command line)<br>
-hi_quality
instruct decoder to decode as highest quality<br>
-nodbtag
dBpoweramp should not tag output file after writing</p>
<p align="left">Example: "c:\program
files\illustrate\dBpoweramp\coreconverter.exe" -infile="c:\afile.wav"
-outfile="c:\outfile.mp3" -convert_to="CLI Encoder" -cli_encoder="c:\lame.exe"
-cli_cmd="{qt}[infile]{qt} {qt}[outfile]{qt}"</p>
<p align="left"><b>To specify " on the in cli_cmd use {qt}, NB {qt}
is not required if typing into the Command Line box in the encoder
compression options page</b></p>
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<p align="left"><b><FONT face=Arial size=2> Terminology </FONT></b>
</p>
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<blockquote>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2"><b>Encoding: </b> compress and
write an audio file,<br>
<b>Decoding: </b>uncompress, or read an audio file,<br>
<b>ID Tags:</b> meta data such as artist & album are embedded
inside the audio file,<br>
<b>Lossless:</b> compression without audio quality loss,<br>
<b>Lossy:</b> audio quality is sacrificed (how much depends on
bitrate and codec used) to achieve smaller files,<br>
<b>Gapless:</b> allows the decoder to decode audio stream
without gaps (silence),<br>
<b>Explorer Audio Popup:</b> a dBpoweramp function, hold the
mouse over a supported audio file and details contained are
displayed,<br>
<b>Explorer Columns:</b> columns can be added to Explorer
Windows such as bitrate & ID Tag elements,<b><br>
Multi-processor Encoding: </b> for dual processor, or multi
core processors multiple files can be compressed at once fully using
both (or more) CPUs.<b><br>
Command Line: </b>text interface, where commands are typed
(start >> run >> cmd to get to the command line)<b><br>
</b> </font></p>
</blockquote>
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<p align="left"><b><FONT face=Arial size=2> Version
Changes </FONT></b>
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<blockquote>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">Complete <a href="version.html">Version Changes</a></font></p>
</blockquote>
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