External Control

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External Control

DFM can be controlled remotely via Ethernet, normally using a telnet interface on port 33, although this is configurable within DFM: Settings > External Control.

To configure DFM, select Settings > External Control and type in the port over which you wish to communicate with DFM.

The full range of file conversion steps detailed in the File Convert section above is available through external control via these commands:

LOAD "fullpath"

Load the DFM files in this path

INPUTFILE "fullpath"

Set the input file for a single file movie

INPUTFOLDER "fullpath"

Set the path to find image sequence files

INPUTFILETYPE type

jpg, tif, tga, dds, bmp, png

OUTPUTFOLDER "fullpath"

Set the output path for converted files

OUTPUTFILETYPE type

7th (currently)

OUTPUTFILENAME

Override the automatic output filename

INPUTIMAGESIZE X Y W H / NATIVE

Specify which part of the image to use, or use the whole image (default) by choosing Native

OUTPUTIMAGESIZE W H

Override the automatic output image size

OUTPUTSTARTSAT frame

The output file numbering starts with this number (has to be divisible by 10)

STOPAFTERFRAME frame

Stop converting after this frame number

CONVERT

Start the conversion process

CANCEL

Cancel the conversion process

STATUS

Return DFM status

SHORTSTATUS

Return short DFM status : canconvert frame framecount mode width height skipexisting

WARNINGS

Return any warnings

TIMEDSTATUS Y / N

When Y, output the current frame and the total frame count after every 10 frames.

QUIT

Quit the application

QUITAFTERCONVERT

Quit the application once the current conversion has ended.

MINIMIZE

Minimize dialog and playback window

RESTORE

Restore dialog and playback window

HELP

This help information

The various commands are not case sensitive, and are actioned by Carriage Return (character 13). The strings OK or BAD are returned after each command indicating syntax success or failure.

A typical sequence would be:

INPUTFOLDER "c:\mymoviefolder\beach movie"
OUTPUTFOLDER "c:\mymoviefolder\beach movie\output"
INPUTFILETYPE jpg

You can now see if there were files found using STATUS – this returns full status information such as:

INPUT:

c:\mymoviefolder\beach movie\*.JPG

OUTPUT:

c:\mymoviefolder\beach movie\output\*.7th

FRAME:

0

FILECOUNT:

198

INPUTSIZE:

0 0 512 768

OUTPUTSIZE:

1024 x 768

DEINTERLACE:

Off

MODE:

Stopped

CANCONVERT:

Yes

SKIPEXISTING:

No

QUITAFTERCONVERT:

No

Note the CANCONVERT flag: if this is No, then it could be no files were found (FILECOUNT will be 0) or there are problems with the files found. Check this by sending WARNINGS you get back (for example):

Files 'Stargaze_00014.jpg' and 'Stargaze_0002.jpg' have different digit size!

or

Missing file(s) after frame 14 !

Correct these problems, and then send REFRESH to update the status information.

You can set the OUTPUTFILENAME which overrides the one chosen by DFM, but be aware that any of the other commands causes this to be reset to the automatic one, so issue this command last before sending CONVERT.

While conversion is progressing, you can check it by requesting STATUS to see the current frame increasing, or request SHORTSTATUS, which returns a string such as this: 1 0 198 0 1024 768 0

These numbers represent these facts:

Digit

Description

1

Canconvert

0 = No, 1 = Yes

2

Frame

Current frame number

3

Framecount

Number of files found

4

Mode

0 = Stopped, 1 = Converting

5

Width

Output image width

6

Height

Output image height

You can send CANCEL at any time to stop conversion.

Page edited [d/m/y]: 20/07/2022