Chapter 7: Command Line Utilities

RealProducer Plus is installed with utilities that allow you to use the command line to create and modify streaming media files (.rm files). You run these utilities through the MS-DOS prompt.

The following programs are available to you:

• RMBatch allows you to create .rm files using all RealProducer Plus features, such as SureStream, live broadcasting, and recording preferences.

• RMEditor allows you to change information about an .rm file, trim the length of the clip, combine multiple .rm files, and create a text file containing the file's information.

• RMEvents allows you to merge image map and event text files into an existing .rm file and extract events and image maps from a .rm file into a text file.

Using RMBatch

RMBatch gives you the conversion and broadcasting capability of the RealProducer Plus main interface, but also allows you to create a batch file and record multiple .rm files with a single command.

To use the command line encoder:

1. Open the MS-DOS prompt.

2. Change the directory to the main RealProducer Plus directory.

   The default main directory is c:\Program Files\Real\RealProducer.

3. Type rmbatch <switches> where <switches> are the recording switches you specify to record your media. See the tables below for more details on all necessary switches.

   	Note
   	You must specify an input by using the /I, /D, or /L switches.

4. The command line RealProducer Plus converts the specified input into RealAudio or RealVideo once you press Enter.

Switches

The following tables describe each switch that you can use on the command line. These switches are divided into Input/Output switches, Encoding switches, and Preferences switches.

/I c:\Real\foo.avi

/D c:\Real\avifiles\

/L 3,1

/O c:\Real\foo.rm

/S "myserver:6060/foo.rm"

/U myname

/P mypassword

/X 01:20:30

/TP 1

/T 1,2,3

/A 2

/V 2

/F 0

/M mysettings.txt

/B "The Title"

/H "Joe Schmoe"

/C "My Company 1999"

/Y 0

/Z 0

/OS 144,32

/Q "a gripping story about a man and his pet banana slug"

/N "pets slugs"

/K 1

/AR 3

/IN 0

/R 1

/W 1

/G 5

/J 0,0,200,150

/ sc 1

/Rz 1

/It 1

/Di 1

/NF 2

/VB 1

/VL 30

/LP 1

/KF 20000

Examples

The following example records foo.avi into a RealMedia file for 28 and 56 Kbps audiences, audio set to voice only, video set to normal, file type set to SureStream, and "The Title" as the title of the clip. The output file defaults to foo.rm.

rmbatch /I C:\foo.avi /T 0,1 /A 0 /V 0 /F 1 /B "The Title"

The next example records from a live source to a RealServer with the same settings as above.

rmbatch /L 0,0 /S "myserver:4040/foo.rm" /T 0,1 /A 0 /V 0 /F 1 /B "The Title"

Settings Configuration File

The Settings Configuration File switch (/M) allows the user to specify a text file that contains the necessary target audience settings for the recording. Using a settings file allows you to save different settings that you use all the time, plus you can specify the exact codec used.

The parameters contained used for each target audience are as follows:

	Warning
	Parameters must be in upper case.

The settings file contains a line for each target audience that the user wishes to record for. A sample configuration settings file for a SureStream recording would be as follows:

TARGET=0,TOTAL_BIT_RATE=20,AUDIO_CODEC=sipr0,VIDEO_CODEC=RV300,MAX_FRAME_RATE=7.5

TARGET=2,TOTAL_BIT_RATE=45,AUDIO_CODEC=sipr1,VIDEO_CODEC=RV300,MAX_FRAME_RATE=10

RealProducer Plus then takes these values and creates a RealMedia stream for the target audience specified in each line.

	Warning
	Using a settings configuration file will override the Audio Format switch (/A) and the Target Audience switch (/T).

Target Audience Values

Audio Codec IDs

Video Codec IDs

Using RMEditor

RMEditor allows you to modify a previously created .rm file by changing clip information, recording and downloading options, and clip length.

To use the command line editor:

1. Open the MS-DOS prompt.

2. Change the directory to the main RealProducer Plus directory.

   The default main directory is c:\Program Files\Real\RealProducer.

3. Type rmeditor -i input.rm -o output.rm <switches> where input.rm is the name of the input file, output.rm is the name of the output file, and <switches> are the editing switches you specify. See the table below for more details on all necessary switches.

Switches

The following table describes each switch that you can use on the command line.

-a "New Name"

-t "New Title"

-c "1999 by My Company"

-C "changed title on Sept. 24"

-q "blah blah"

-n "word key"

-IN 1

-AR 2

-k 1

-r 1

-s 00:00:30:45.20

-e 00:02:15:00.00

-l c:\Real\Producer\logs\logfile.txt

-d c:\Real\Producer\dumps\dumpfile.txt

Examples

The following example allows you to view the current title, author, copyright, comments, mobile playback and selective record settings:

rmeditor -i input.rm

The following example changes the title of input.rm to "New Title" and saves the file as output.rm:

rmeditor -i input.rm -t "New Title" -o output.rm

The following example disables the selective record option and saves the file as output.rm:

rmeditor -i input.rm -r 0 output.rm

The following example trims both the beginning and end of input.rm and saves the result as output.rm:

rmeditor -i input.rm -s 0:0:3:2.20 -e 0:0:4:2.20 -o output.rm

	Note
	The start and end times will be adjusted in video clips so that the clip starts and ends on keyframes.

The following example pastes several .rm files together into one output file:

rmeditor -i input1.rm -i input2.rm -i input3.rm -o output.rm

	Note
	If more than one input file is specified, any start and end time arguments will be ignored.

Using RMEvents

RMEvents allows you to merge events and image map text files to an .rm file. Events and image map text files are created using a text editor. See "Creating an Events File" and "Creating an Image Map File" below for more information.

RMEvents also allows the user to extract events and image maps from a .rm file into a text file, so they may be edited using any text editor.

To use the command line events utility:

1. Open the MS-DOS prompt.

2. Change the directory to the main RealProducer Plus directory.

   The default main directory is c:\Program Files\Real\RealProducer.

3. Type rmevents -i input.rm -o output.rm <switches> where input.rm is the name of the input file, output.rm is the name of the output file, and <switches> are the events switches you specify. See the table below for more details on all necessary switches.

Switches

The following table describes each switch that you can use on the command line.

-e c:\Real\event.txt

-m c:\Real\image.txt

-d c:\Real\events\input

Examples

The following example merges an event text file with a .rm file:

rmevents -i input.rm -e events.txt -o output.rm

The following example merges an image map text file with a .rm file:

rmevents -i input.rm -m image.txt -o output.rm

The following example dumps image maps and events from the input file into files named input_imap.txt and input_evt.txt, respectively:

rmevents -i input.rm -d input

Creating an Events File

An events file is a simple text file that describes the different components of the event. Before you begin, make sure you have an updated list of the URLs you want to use. Events files should be created using a text editor and saved as text-only files.

The syntax for each entry in an events file is as follows:

The time for <starttime> and <endtime> is represented as:

[[[days:]hours:]minutes:]seconds[.tenths]

The input file may also contain comment lines beginning with the # symbol. The comment lines are ignored by rmevents.

For example, the following text shows how an event file might look. Note that the time of each line must be in ascending order.

u 00:00:10.0 00:00:59.9 http://www.real.com/

u 00:01:00.0 00:02:00.0 http://www.mysite.com/page2/

This input file tells the RealPlayer to point the user's default Web browser to the RealNetworks home page ten seconds into the presentation. One minute into the presentation, the browser is pointed to a page from www.mysite.com.

Creating an Image Map File

An image map file is a text file with HTML-like tags that create a clickable image map within a RealVideo clip. Image maps can be a multitude of shapes, and they can be changed over a number of different times during the clip. They should be created using a text editor and saved as text-only files.

All tags shown below are required unless stated otherwise. Negative values for numbers are not allowed.

Duration Tag

This tag must be at the beginning of the file. The DURATION tag specifies the amount of time from the start of the first map to the end of the last map in the file. The syntax is as follows:

DURATION=days:hours:minutes:seconds:milliseconds

All time parameters must be present. If you don't need to use a time parameter, fill zeros in that space.

Map Tag

This tag describes the overall properties of the image map. You may have as many MAP tags in a file as you wish. The syntax is as follows:

<MAP START=days:hours:minutes:seconds.milliseconds END=days:hours:minutes:seconds.milliseconds COORDS=x,y,x1,y1>

</MAP>

As with the DURATION tag, all time parameters must be specified. The COORDS tag defines the rectangle of the video clip that the image map will occupy. If you enter an area bigger than the display area, the entire area is inactive. Any area not located within this rectangle will be inactive as well.

Area Tag

This tag describes the region within the map that is active. You can define more than one area within each map; all areas for a map must be between the <MAP> and the </MAP> tags. The syntax is as follows:

<AREA START=days:hours:minutes:seconds:milliseconds END=days:hours:minutes:seconds:milliseconds SHAPE=shape COORDS=x0,y0,x1,y1,x2,y2,...xn,yn action_tag ALT="">

The following table describes each sub-tag:

Example

DURATION=0:0:0:40:0

<MAP START=0:0:0:0:0 END=0:0:0:5:20 COORDS=0,0,100,100>

<AREA SHAPE=CIRCLE COORDS=50,50,10 URL="http://www.real.com" ALT="Home Page">

</MAP>

<MAP START=0:0:0:5:20 END=0:0:0:20:3 COORDS=0,0,100,100>

<AREA SHAPE=RECTANGLE COORDS=0,0,50,50 SEEK=0:0:0:3:98 ALT="Seek to a point in the clip">

</MAP>

<MAP START=0:0:0:20:3 END=0:0:0:40.0 COORDS=0,0,100,100>

<AREA END=0:0:0:30:0 SHAPE=POLYGON COORDS=0,50,50,0,100,50 PLAYER="pnm://video.real.com/welcome.rm" ALT="">

<AREA START=0:0:0:31:0 SHAPE=POLYGON COORDS=0,25,25,0,100,50 SEEK=0:0:0:0:0 ALT="Rewind to beginning">

</MAP>

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This file last updated on 11/09/00 at 15:28:55.