www.ammtools.com

INTRODUCTION

This application mines data from various multimedia files on your computer, and exports that data to web pages, XML files, play lists, etc. The data includes elements like, song size, duration, bitrate, codec, and sampling rate. It also takes snapshots of videos for you, creates play lists and sortable html files based on Genre, Alphabet, Types, and much more that you can customize yourself. It consists of many advanced features which I'll be covering in this review.

INSTALLATION & SETUP

Installation is pretty straight forward. It comes bundled with the normal industry standard type of installation. The program is ready to go once it's installed but you may want to customize a couple things before you do so, the program has a lot of options for you to work with. First you have to choose where you want the program to scan for files, and how you want them to be exported. There are many templates already implemented to get your data viewed how you want. Although the program will run right away, I recommend you set it up how you want, to get the results you need.

INTERFACE & EASE OF USE

I'll have to admit that this program uses the rules "functionality before convenience", meaning its jam packed with options and customizability, but can certainly be confusing to the general public. The interface consists of a window with several tabs to configure the application. There are two modes to A-Media Scanner:

1. File Mode - File Mode - Allows the user to view file properties, generate HTML page using one XSL transformation, visually select frames from video, and add them to an HTML page.

2. Directory Mode - The program scans directories on your hard drive, based on where you tell it, collects property information about all media files into one XML file, then extracts snapshots according to given template rules. After scanning is completed, the program performs one or more XSL transformations.

I will cover most of these features in the functionality section.

I view this application as being aimed toward the more tech savvy. It includes terms like XSL, frames, transformations, and codecs. Although any user would be able to benefit from its capabilities, the program requires someone who's more technical to take advantage of all the features.

FUNCTIONALITY

So what exactly does it do? Well, it extracts information about multimedia files, and allows you to view them in many different ways. File mode comes equipped like a player, you load a single multimedia file, and it pops up a window displaying the information about that file… For instance, if you were to load an mp3 file, the following information would be given to you:

Duration
Size
Created-by
Type
Channels
Sample rate
Bitrate
Algorithm
Layer
Channel Mode
Copyrighted
Originality
Protection
Title
Artist
Album
Year
Genre

And any other ID3 tag info

You can also play all the files from this mode as well; it will play all music and videos your computer can handle. Another fantastic feature is the ability to add snapshots to the file, by clicking snapshot as your video is playing. All this information can be manipulated using XSL Transformations which is covered in the help documentation.

Directory mode scans your hard drive and exports information based on your choice. Multiple transformations and templates can be chosen to choose the format of your output. The output can contain web pages that indexes and sorts all your media based on name, artists, genre, and much more than you can customize. All the html and indexes are automatically created for you. A search engine is also available in the application that provides an advanced method to search through your media.

CONCLUSION

A-Media Scanner is a great application for exporting your media collection to html. So you can sort through your files more efficiently, and gain valuable information about it quickly. It is extremely customizable, and is a perfect investment for those that are interested in publishing there data to other people. It has a demo version that restricts your scan to 20 searches, and sells for only $20.00.

PROS: a. Very customizable b. Great media publishing tool CONS: a. Learning curve to gain full functionality