How do you convert an entire directory with ffmpeg?

Asked 26/4, 2011 at 0:19 Answered 30/1 at 3:22

Solved ffmpeg batch-processing os-agnostic

408

How do you convert an entire directory/folder with ffmpeg via command line or with a batch script?

Gastroenteritis answered 26/4, 2011 at 0:19 Comment(4)

Run from batch file. I found a solution that was close on reddit and then used chatGTB to clean it up and make it work. It converts mp4 to WebP. I made this a comment as I could not find a way to answer. Start code: @echo off REM Loop through each MP4 file in the current directory for %%a in (*.mp4) do ffmpeg -i "%%~a" -vcodec libwebp -filter:v fps=fps=20 -lossless 1 -loop 0 -preset default -an -vsync 0 "%%~na.webp" – Wellstacked 12/6, 2023 at 20:8

@Wellstacked What do you mean that you couldn't find a way to answer? There is a button that says "Answer This Question" at the bottom of this page (click Ctrl+End to jump to the end) – Revivify 12/6, 2023 at 20:23

@TheRandomGuyNamedJoe12 Thanks for the feedback. I looked again including using your hotkey and I still am not seeing "answer this question" option. I even tried opening it in Chrome, disabled ad block, etc. no luck.Maybe I am just blind? I looked again and I think it might be this line at the end that explains it " The reputation requirement helps protect this question from spam and non-answer activity." – Wellstacked 12/6, 2023 at 22:27

@Wellstacked I have less reputation than you and I have the ability to answer – Revivify 13/6, 2023 at 1:23

269

Previous answer will only create 1 output file called out.mov. To make a separate output file for each old movie, try this.

for i in *.avi;
  do name=`echo "$i" | cut -d'.' -f1`
  echo "$name"
  ffmpeg -i "$i" "${name}.mov"
done

Enjoyment answered 20/11, 2011 at 8:35 Comment(10)

If you're like me and have lots of spaces (and a few other problematic characters) in your file names, I'd suggest addding double quotes : ffmpeg -i "$i" "$name.mov"; – Estren 17/12, 2012 at 22:36

I'm getting the error i was unexpected at this time. – Rhynd 17/5, 2014 at 1:9

is this support for .bat in windows? – Pinnule 30/6, 2018 at 6:12

this is great except what shell script is this? – Livvy 11/8, 2018 at 7:55

This causes my .mp3 files to be trimmed to 1 second. Not sure why – Gilliangilliard 15/9, 2018 at 17:59

@Pinnule No, this is sh syntax. You can install Bash on Windows if you aren't yet prepared to ditch Windows entirely. – Sorry 25/6, 2019 at 16:7

This seems to be trimming up to the first full stop and not last for me. So the filenames aren't the same but with .mov on the end. – Pioneer 18/12, 2019 at 12:45

In 2020, prefer calling sub commands with $() to `` – Structure 12/9, 2020 at 13:57

Fails for names like Song name - feat. Artist.mp4 :). Probably because cut will stop at the first fullstop. llogan's answer resolves this issue – Osteoid 15/7, 2021 at 23:15

Which "previous answer" are you referring to? – Missionary 21/3, 2023 at 13:13

677

For Linux and macOS this can be done in one line, using parameter expansion to change the filename extension of the output file:

for i in *.avi; do ffmpeg -i "$i" "${i%.*}.mp4"; done

Teflon answered 17/11, 2015 at 20:15 Comment(9)

This is perfect, thank you! Here's full command that ended up working great for me: for i in *.avi; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -c:a aac -b:a 128k -c:v libx264 -crf 20 "${i%.avi}.mp4"; done – Telescopic 28/4, 2017 at 3:29

I am getting i was unexpected at this time. error in cmd, windows 10. I used following line: for i in *.mp3; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -map_metadata -1 -c:v copy -c:a copy "${i%.mp3}.mp3"; done – Azure 17/5, 2017 at 7:13

@Azure 1) Make sure to use a different name for the output file than the input, or output to another directory, because ffmpeg can't input and output to the same file. 2) I'm not sure if Bash commands work on Windows 10 natively. Maybe I should add to the answer that it is targeted towards systems that can natively use Bash such as Linux and macOS. lxs provided an Windows answer for this question. – Teflon 17/5, 2017 at 17:25

Install git on Windows, it comes with bash shell (git-bash.exe). – Shockey 20/5, 2019 at 12:0

This should be the top answer. Admittedly, the explanation for why {$i%.*} is not simple, but if you can put that aside and just "use it" you can quickly modify to suit. For example, I converted hundreds of .mp4's (with filenames having spaces and special characters) to a smaller format using: for i in .mp4; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -s 512x288 -c:a copy "${i%.}.m4v"; done – Armitage 26/6, 2019 at 15:56

It works great. On my case, upgrading from FLV to MP4, a plain copy thru thousands of files, this is the full command: for i in *.flv; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -codec copy "${i%.*}.mp4"; done – Coulombe 30/7, 2019 at 7:35

To take it one step further, you could use Bash parameter substitution if you would like to replace the string "x265" with "x264" if you're transcoding from H.265 to H.264 which is a common use case. for f in *.mkv; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -map 0 -movflags faststart -c:v libx264 -c:a copy -c:s copy "${f/x265/x264}"; done – Affirmative 6/12, 2019 at 16:36

Thank you, your solution is perfect. This slightly modified command worked for me for i in *.MOV; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -vcodec libx265 -crf 20 "${i%.MOV}.mp4"; done – Chloride 18/7, 2020 at 19:1

I am trying to use this answer with the additional -map_metadata 0 flag, but it doesn't copy the metadata to the converted file. for i in *.MOV; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -map_metadata 0 "${i%.*}.mp4"; done – Master 10/5, 2022 at 3:1

269

Previous answer will only create 1 output file called out.mov. To make a separate output file for each old movie, try this.

for i in *.avi;
  do name=`echo "$i" | cut -d'.' -f1`
  echo "$name"
  ffmpeg -i "$i" "${name}.mov"
done