Distributed File Manager > 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!

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