Visual Basic

11-Aug-12 6:20

There is a article in here that has a class that puts a wrapper around "Lame.exe" so you can use Lame to convert .wav files to .mp3. It works great, but I cannot seem to get it to loop through a directory and convert all files in that directory. Does anyone know how to do it with this method, or have another way of doing it?

Kenneth Haugland12-Aug-12 13:18

12-Aug-12 13:18

Do you use this:
VB.NET LameMP3 Shell[^]?

If so you would have to create a new instance of your converter for each file you are trying to convert. WAV to MP3 is quite math heavy to do, so I'd guess it would take quite a while to complete the convertion...

iismoove12-Aug-12 14:16

12-Aug-12 14:16

I do use that. Can you help me with a little example of what you mean? Also, do you know a easier way to do it, or do you think this is the best?

Eddy Vluggen13-Aug-12 3:22

13-Aug-12 3:22

Use the Directory.GetFiles[^] method. There's an example on the same page on how to use it.

Call your convert-method foreach item that you encounter.

iismoove wrote:
Also, do you know a easier way to do it, or do you think this is the best?

I like forking, and I don't mind the overhead compared to a thread. No, it's not the "best" way, because it'll be hard to display some progress, the user might think that your software is "stuck" somewhere and decide to terminate it.

Bastard Programmer from Hell Suspicious | :suss:

if you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

iismoove13-Aug-12 3:32

13-Aug-12 3:32

What do you mean by "forking"? I am kind of new to programming, so please excuse my ignorance. I got the code to work, but like you said it seems to "hang". I also noticed that there are about 20 or so instances of "lame.exe" running in the task manager, so the machine becomes very slow and sluggish.

Eddy Vluggen13-Aug-12 3:40

13-Aug-12 3:40

iismoove wrote:
What do you mean by "forking"?

Applications sometimes do multiple stuff at once; in that case you often need threading. I'm more of a fan of "forking", where one runs an executable and fetches the result. An independent executable can be tested without the rest of the crap, makes maintenance a bit easier.

iismoove wrote:
I also noticed that there are about 20 or so instances of "lame.exe" running in the task manager

Aight, that means it works. It's best not to start all 20 conversions at once, but one after another. You're probably using the Process class to launch those, and you'd have to wait after launching until it is done before moving on to the next one.

Call the Process.WaitForExit[^] method in your loop to block execution until the external application finishes.

Bastard Programmer from Hell Suspicious | :suss:

if you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

iismoove13-Aug-12 5:03

13-Aug-12 5:03

I am using LameShell from Qualtar. I was looking through it, because i think that just has

Process.Start

instead of waitforexit(). In the LameReader function there is a _lameProcess.Start() and I tried to change it to _lameProcess.WaitForExit, but then i get a error that there is no process.

Eddy Vluggen13-Aug-12 5:14

13-Aug-12 5:14

Aw, that means that you'll probably have to modify the lame-code. The Process.Start function returns an object of the class "Process"; you'd call the WaitForExit method on that object. Something similar to the code below;

Dim p as Process = Process.Start("Notepad")
p.WaitForExit()

Hope it works Smile | :)

Bastard Programmer from Hell Suspicious | :suss:

if you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

iismoove13-Aug-12 5:22

13-Aug-12 5:22

Yea, I cannot find anything in the class that looks like that. Maybe you can? I posted Below:

Option Explicit On 

Imports System.Diagnostics
Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions

Public Class LameShell
    Private _lameProcess As Process
    Private _lameThread As System.Threading.Thread
    Private _percentDone As Integer
    Private _isRunning As Boolean = False
    Private _startInfo As New ProcessStartInfo

    'The Regular Expression to get the info from Lame.exe StandardError on a line to line basis
    'If suddenly this class stops working with a new version of Lame, thats what is to change
    'this one is tested with 3.94 beta 1 with following data per line:
    'Frame/MaxFrame (PercentDone%) |  CPU time/estim | REAL time/estim | play/CPU |    ETA 

    Private Shared _regLine As Regex = New Regex( _
                "(\d+)/(\d+)\D+(\d+)\D+([\d:]+)\D+([\d:]+)\D+([\d:]+)\D+([\d:]+)\D+([\d\.]+)\D+([\d:]+)", _
                RegexOptions.IgnoreCase _
                Or RegexOptions.CultureInvariant _
                Or RegexOptions.IgnorePatternWhitespace _
                Or RegexOptions.Compiled _
                )


    'vars for commandline
    Private _inFile As String
    Private _outFile As String
    Private _options As String

    'Events
    Public Event Done()
    Public Event Progress(ByRef Progress As LameProgress)
    Public Event IgnoredLine(ByVal Line As String)
    Public Event Canceled()

    Public Sub New()
        DefStartInfo()
        _startInfo.WorkingDirectory = Application.StartupPath
    End Sub
    Public Sub New(ByVal InFile As String, Optional ByVal OutFile As String = "", Optional ByVal Options As String = "", Optional ByVal LamePath As String = Nothing)
        DefStartInfo()
        If LamePath = Nothing Then
            _startInfo.WorkingDirectory = Application.StartupPath
        End If
        _inFile = InFile
        _outFile = OutFile
        _options = Options
    End Sub
    Private Sub DefStartInfo()
        'need this stuff to hide the window and redirect the output
        _startInfo.FileName = "lame.exe"
        _startInfo.UseShellExecute = False
        _startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = True
        _startInfo.RedirectStandardError = True
        _startInfo.CreateNoWindow = True
    End Sub
    Public Property InFile() As String
        Get
            Return _inFile
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As String)
            _inFile = Value
        End Set
    End Property
    Public Property OutFile() As String
        Get
            Return _outFile
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As String)
            _outFile = Value
        End Set
    End Property
    Public Property Options() As String
        Get
            Return _options
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As String)
            _options = Value
        End Set
    End Property
    Public Property LamePath() As String
        Get
            Return _startInfo.WorkingDirectory
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As String)
            _startInfo.WorkingDirectory = Value
        End Set
    End Property
    Private Sub Reset()
        Dim arguments As String

        _percentDone = 0
        _lameProcess = New Process

        If _options <> "" Then
            arguments = _options & " "
        End If
        arguments &= """" & _inFile & """ "
        If _outFile <> "" Then
            arguments &= """" & _outFile & """"
        End If

        _startInfo.Arguments = arguments

        _lameProcess.StartInfo = _startInfo

    End Sub
    Public Function Start() As Boolean

        If _isRunning Or _inFile = "-" Or _outFile = "-" Then Return False
        _isRunning = True

        Reset()
        Try
            _lameThread = New System.Threading.Thread(AddressOf LameReader)
            _lameThread.IsBackground = True
            _lameThread.Name = "LameReader"
            _lameThread.Start()
            Return True
        Catch ex As Exception
            Return False
        End Try

    End Function
    Private Sub LameReader()
        Dim m As Match
        Dim oneLine As String

        Try
            _lameProcess.Start()

            oneLine = _lameProcess.StandardError.ReadLine()
            While Not oneLine Is Nothing
                m = _regLine.Match(oneLine)
                If m.Success Then
                    'a line is found thats a lame.exe progress report
                    _percentDone = CType(m.Groups.Item(3).Value, Integer)
                    RaiseEvent Progress(New LameProgress(m))
                Else
                    ' line isnt interesting
                    RaiseEvent IgnoredLine(oneLine)
                End If
                'this call is blocking... thats why we are using a thread
                oneLine = _lameProcess.StandardError.ReadLine()
            End While
            'whatever happened .. when we get here we dont need the process anymore
            _lameProcess.Close()
            _lameProcess = Nothing

            If _percentDone = 100 Then
                'if we get here its safe to assume the file written by lame.exe is valid
                RaiseEvent Done()
            Else
                'we get here if anything went wrong
                RaiseEvent Canceled()
            End If

            'Catch tex As Threading.ThreadAbortException
            'hrm .. this isnt thrown when the application exits, make sure to call Cancel()

        Catch ex As Exception
            'shouldnt happen
            If Not _lameProcess Is Nothing Then
                _lameProcess.Close()
                _lameProcess = Nothing
            End If
            MsgBox(ex.Message & vbNewLine & "Are you sure lame.exe is here:" & vbNewLine & _startInfo.WorkingDirectory)
        Finally
            _isRunning = False
        End Try

    End Sub
    Public Sub Cancel()
        Try
            If Not _lameProcess Is Nothing Then
                _lameProcess.Kill()
            End If
        Catch ex As Exception
            'could happen in rare instances while already cancelling
            'nothing to do here
        End Try
    End Sub

End Class
Public Class LameProgress
    Private _m As Match

    Public ReadOnly Property FrameCurrent() As Integer
        Get
            Return CType(_m.Groups.Item(1).Value, Integer)
        End Get
    End Property
    Public ReadOnly Property FrameMax() As Integer
        Get
            Return CType(_m.Groups.Item(2).Value, Integer)
        End Get
    End Property
    Public ReadOnly Property PercentDone() As Integer
        Get
            Return CType(_m.Groups.Item(3).Value, Integer)
        End Get
    End Property
    Public ReadOnly Property CPUTime() As String
        Get
            Return _m.Groups.Item(4).Value()
        End Get
    End Property
    Public ReadOnly Property CPUEstimate() As String
        Get
            Return _m.Groups.Item(5).Value()
        End Get
    End Property
    Public ReadOnly Property REALTime() As String
        Get
            Return _m.Groups.Item(6).Value()
        End Get
    End Property
    Public ReadOnly Property REALEstimate() As String
        Get
            Return _m.Groups.Item(7).Value()
        End Get
    End Property
    Public ReadOnly Property PlayCPU() As Single
        Get
            Return CType(_m.Groups.Item(8).Value, Single)
        End Get
    End Property
    Public ReadOnly Property ETA() As String
        Get
            Return _m.Groups.Item(9).Value()
        End Get
    End Property

    Public Sub New(ByVal m As Match)
        _m = m
    End Sub
End Class

Eddy Vluggen13-Aug-12 5:54

13-Aug-12 5:54

Seems it's executed on it's own thread. Making a blocking version wouldn't be that difficult, but your app would seem to "hang" until the process is actually finished. This is "the better" version, although it makes it a bit more complicated to use.

As opposed to looping and starting all the conversions, it might be better to make a list of all the files that you need to process.

Dim items As List(Of String) = Directory.GetFiles(..

Start the conversion with the first item from the list, and proceed to the next one once the Done-event of the LameShell-class is raised. That way the code needn't block anything, keeping your app nicely responsive Smile | :)

Bastard Programmer from Hell Suspicious | :suss:

if you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

iismoove13-Aug-12 6:10

13-Aug-12 6:10

Ok, so I can keep my FOR EACH loop the same? and just have it go through the list instead of the directory?

Eddy Vluggen13-Aug-12 6:21

13-Aug-12 6:21

No, that would have the same effect; each item would be started immediately. You start it with the first item from the list, and pick the next one from the list as soon as that Done event is raised.

Bastard Programmer from Hell Suspicious | :suss:

if you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

iismoove13-Aug-12 6:31

13-Aug-12 6:31

Ok. Can you provide an example? I am lost. I know what you are talking about doing, but I cannot think of how to start that.

Eddy Vluggen13-Aug-12 7:11

13-Aug-12 7:11

Something along these lines;

'You'd be using something like this to create an instance of the class you posted;
Private lame As New LameShell()
Private items As New List(Of String)

Public Sub WhatsItsName
  'Add the handler to the "Done" event
  AddHandler lame.Done, AddressOf MethodToRaiseWhenDoneConverting

  'Build your list of files;
  items = ..

  'Start the proces;
  lame.InFile = items(items.Count-1)
  lame.Start()
End Sub

Public Sub MethodToRaiseWhenDoneConverting(Sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
  items.RemoveAt(items.Count-1)

  If items.Length > 0 Then
    lame.InFile = items(items.Count -1)
    lame.Start()
  Else
    MsgBox "Beep!"
  End If
End Sub

Bastard Programmer from Hell Suspicious | :suss:

if you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

iismoove13-Aug-12 8:14

13-Aug-12 8:14

Whoa, that is a lot different from what i was doing!! LOL. Ok, so I am trying to play around here and the AddressOf MethodToRaiseWhenDoneConverting keeps giving me a "Delegate Sub DoneHandler" error or something. Also to get the items it keeps telling me something like "1 dimensional array of string cannot be converted to generic.list"

Eddy Vluggen13-Aug-12 9:19

13-Aug-12 9:19

iismoove wrote:
I am trying to play around here and the AddressOf MethodToRaiseWhenDoneConverting keeps giving me a "Delegate Sub DoneHandler" error or something.

It said "public event Done" in the source-class, so I assumed the default event-handler. It could be that it requires a parameter-less method, you might wanna try commenting out the parameters.

iismoove wrote:
Also to get the items it keeps telling me something like "1 dimensional array of string cannot be converted to generic.list"

Ah, you'd have to paste the code here; seems like there's an assignment of a string, where a list is expected. Without code, it'll be hard to guess what should be expected.

Bastard Programmer from Hell Suspicious | :suss:

if you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

Kenneth Haugland13-Aug-12 8:32

13-Aug-12 8:32

He has figured it out, but downvoted the answer that helped him:
Convert all files in directory .WAV to .MP3[^]

Go figure Smile | :)

iismoove13-Aug-12 10:10

13-Aug-12 10:10

I didnt downvote it. I hit "Accept Answer". If i hit something else I am sorry, but I thought I hit "Accept Answer".

Kenneth Haugland13-Aug-12 10:12

13-Aug-12 10:12

No, not in the QA section, I was talking about the current thread, secound post. Not to worry, I wont hold it agains you If it wasnt you Smile | :)

That would not be right by any account Smile | :)

iismoove13-Aug-12 10:20

13-Aug-12 10:20

I am new to the whole forum thing. This is my first time ever posting anything. So when I came here I posted the same thing in "messages" and "questions". You posted an answer and then 2 days later the this thread got answered and i was having a problem with the app eating resources, so I asked about it. But now I know I only need to put it in one spot.

Kenneth Haugland13-Aug-12 10:23