The Controls Rip Blu-rays or DVDs To MKV Automatic Scan Video Cutter MkvBatcher Slave  
           
MkvBatcher_Slave
 
 
 
MkvBatcher_Slave acts as a "cabless booster unit" to the MkvBatcher main program.
            It runs conversions on its host computer and is controlled by MkvBatcher running on the master computer.
 
The setup is easy:
           Just copy MkvBatcher_Slave.exe to the desktop of a second computer and run it there. A few clicks later, you´re all set.
           Details here
                           
 

 

 		  
  
MkvBatcher_Slave GUI (mini mode)
    
Input            
 

 

   
                           
 
 
The slave setup receives the conversion orders from the master and sends information about its progress back to the master.

The master in turn sends the overall progress info to all slaves in the LAN so they all can show the overall situation on their gui. As a user, you only start MkvBatcher_Slave and leave it running in standby, waiting for orders.

You controll everything from the master as if the slave engines where running on your main computer.

 MkvBatcher   MkvBatcher_Slave 1   MkvBatcher_Slave 2
   
Master   Slave(s) over LAN ...
   Output       
       
 MkvBatcher_Slave - GUI:
  The GUI mirrors all essential info from the master.

The green bars at the headline indicate the status of the master, the slave and the connection between them. Just like the green bars at each engine do for the status of the engines.

The idea is, that if you are working on a computer running MkvBatcher_Slave, you can still monitor the progress of your conversion session.

Note:
You could even have a MkvBatcher_Slave.exe running just as a monitor on a laptop via Wifi. As long as you do not assign an engine to that laptop, wireless is no problem.
 MkvBatcher_Slave - GUI - mini mode:
  "Mini Mode"

The button with the eye symbol toggles the view between the full view as shown above and a smaller version without the engines.

The green field "Engines" left of the main progress bar sums up the engine status indicators. If one of the engines goes red, this field turns red.
The Tray Menu:
 
Find Master
This should normally only be necessary once during setup or if you changed something in your configuration.
 
Uninstall
There is no install routine for MkvBatcher_Slave (you just copy it to the desktop and run it). But there is a regular uninstall through the windows control panel. The uninstall item on the tray menu has the same function.
It removes all entries done in the registry, and files it copied to temp during operation. Only MkvBatcher_Slave.exe itself has to be deleted manually to complete the uninstall. If you don´t mind the traces, you can also just delete MkvBatcher_Slave.exe.
 
EXIT
Closes MkvBatcher_Slave and its helper processes.
 
 
A little bit of background info:
If you open the taskmanager on a computer running MkvBatcher_Slave, you may wonder to find three processes (three instances of MkvBatcher_Slave.exe) running. One instance is the main process, that starts the actual conversion process of Handbrake_CLI.exe and monitors the progress of this process. That is the core of MkvBatcher_Slave. The second instance runs independant of it as a helper process and has the dedicated function to communicate with the master over LAN. It basically mirrors the informations in the folder "\\MasterComputer\MkvBatcher\INF" and the local registry in both directions. So MkvBatcher_Slave can read its orders from the master from the local registry and write its feedback to the master into the local registry. The master in turn can read feedback and write orders in its local INF files. The helper does the work over LAN. As there is no regulated file locking over LAN, it can get pretty chaotic if several programs read and write to the same file with no provisions for possible collisions. So the INF files get locked up from time to time or crippled data may be read if reading and writing collides. The helper can cope with that. It filters crippled info out, unlocks locked files and restarts itself if necessary. Master and Slave can do their job with clean data and can not loose track of the conversion processes they have to manage and monitor. The third process is another helper that monitors the status of the connection master/slave and protects the first two processes from getting locked up if the connection is interrupted.