BatchGuy

Blu-ray discs supersede DVDs, providing high-fidelity video playback, but due to their dimension and architecture, ripping their content to your computer and encoding the resulted data is very time-consuming, especially with discs that bundle TV series with a large number of episodes. That is why a software tool such as BatchGuy comes in handy to all of you who want to remux and encode Blu-ray discs.

BatchGuy is a very simple application at its core, as it relies on the functionality of other encoders and remuxers to do its job. In fact, the list of prerequisites for using BatchGuy includes eac3to, which is mandatory, along with additional third-party tools dedicated to video encoding: AviSynth and its plugins, vfw4x264, and x264. You should begin by downloading and installing eac3to and at least one of the mentioned encoders and then proceed.

Running BatchGuy, you will notice that its main window is minimalistic, with the main menu that allows you to select what to do next.

eac3to is used for creating batch files to extract streams from multiple Blu-ray folders. You can choose to extract the data to a single directory, but BatchGuy also enables you to save to a directory per playlist. This latter option allows BatchGuy to organize episodes in a series in a structured manner, based on the information it gets from the title screen. The application also provides options to decide upon a remux naming conversion and configure the resolution, the audio type, and the video format.

Moving further, BatchGuy enables you to generate AviSynth script files (.avs) for all your MKV video streams. In fact, you can generate an AviSynth template that will structure the data in different episodes, and configure cropping and resizing settings. Each of the resulted AviSynth scripts can be assigned a title and subtitles can be assigned to each stream.

Using x264, BatchGuy can process MKV video streams and generate scripts to encode the files. mkvmerge (included in MKVToolnix is then used to mux the encoded videos and create a playable MKV file for each episode that includes audio and subtitles. The integrated logger reveals a summary of all the actions.

BatchGuy works with various third-party tools to create the necessary script files for processing Blu-rays in batch mode. Its utmost feature is that it brings all these apps together under one roof and, although you must still install each of them separately, at least there is a single application to work with afterwards.

There are a few small glitches that betray a slight lack of attention to details, such as the windows that do not rezise as they should but, overall, BatchGuy does facilitate the batch encoding and remuxing of Blu-ray discs.