BATS - OpenWith

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Send a clip straight to your favorite app – player, converter, whatever is installed

OpenWith plugs any installed program into the EDIUS context menu: once set up, the right-click entry launches the chosen application with the selected clip’s file – no detour via Explorer. Handy for, say, auditioning a clip in a specific player, feeding an external analysis tool, or running an external converter on the file.

Adding the menu entry

“OpenWith” is added through the “Add function...” assistant (right-click in the BIN → Add function... → pick OpenWith - Send Clip to another App). The assistant’s questions:

  1. Choose the app (“Please select your app you want to open from EDIUS context menu”): a file dialog – pick the .exe path of the application you want. The full path is baked into the .bat0.
  2. Placement: context menu of the BIN or of the timeline.
  3. Name of the menu entry (suggestion: “Open With <AppName>”), then [Preview '.bat0' file] / [Add menu entry].

How to use it

  1. Right-click a clip (BIN or timeline) → your OpenWith entry (e.g. “Open With mplayer”).
  2. BAT Server launches the app with the full path of the clip’s source file as a parameter – the app opens the file, just like a double-click in Explorer.

Good to know

  • The app must accept a file path: the file is passed as a command-line argument. Most programs (players, converters) handle that fine – with some apps it does not work, and the app then starts up empty.
  • The source file, not IN/OUT: OpenWith hands over the complete file to the app – the clip’s IN/OUT points play no role here.
  • The app path is baked in: if the app is moved, updated or uninstalled, the entry stops working – then edit the .bat0 (the path is in there as open_with=…) or recreate the entry.
  • One entry per app: for two different apps, simply create two entries with two names (e.g. “Open With Player A”, “Open With Converter B”).
  • The app’s behaviour is up to the app: BAT Server launches the app and hands it the file; whether the app modifies, copies or merely plays the file is decided by the app itself.

Managing the preset

Entries created via the assistant are user presets: the .bat0 file lives under C:\ProgramData\EdiusPowerTools\BAT-server\bat_files\BIN\ or …\bat_files\timeline\ depending on your choice, and can be freely edited, renamed or deleted (deleting removes the context-menu entry). As with all BATS presets, the .bat0 is a template from which BAT Server generates the concrete job file on every run – changes take effect from the next run.