How to Create a Watch Folder in Carbon Encoding Server

If you have Carbon Encoding Server and you want to batch process a lot of video files for conversion or encoding then you will want to setup Watch Folders so your users can more easily do this type of job. We use our watch folders for easily allowing our users to encode and convert multiple files at a time, simply by adding them to these different watch folders. We setup multiple watch folders for different users who want different video conversion or encoding types, then the users simply have to choose which watch folder to drop their file in so it's converted to the type they want. In this guide I will walk you through how to setup a watch folder on a Carbon Encoding Server.

So first thing to understand is that a watch folder is simply a folder you setup on the server that will be for dropping files into, these files are then processed by the encoding server to the settings you setup when you created the watch folder. This is why I have like 20 watch folders, not all of my users want all of their videos to be in the flash format some want MPEG4 or H.264 for high definition videos. So what I do is allow them a simple way to batch convert their files with these watch folders.

So let's setup a watch folder, follow these steps:

Open Carbon Server Admin Console

Click Watch Folders Tab

Click Add Watch Button

Click General Properties (Left view pane)

Name your Watch Folder

Click Browse

Choose Folder you want to use as your Watch Folder

Click Check Box next to Create one Job for each Target

Click Target Files (Left view pane)

Click New Target (Left view pane)

Click Browse (Under Preset)

Click file type to convert to (I did h.264, change settings as needed)

Click Select Preset

Click Browse (Next to Target Folder)

Select folder you want to use as your Target (where the files will be created)

Click Save Watch

Now you should have a watch folder that when video files are dropped into it, they will automatically be converted to the file type you selected when setting up this folder. The file type and all settings will be applied to the video file as it is encoded to the exact specifications you choose while setting up the folder. You can drop 1 or 100 files in here and they will all get encoded eventually, Carbon Server will go through the files and encode them one by one until it is finished and then you can use the finished product from your target folder.

Well I hope this guide helps anyone trying to setup watch folders on a Carbon Encoding Server.