Err...Can ffmpegx do batch's of files?

[bigjuggler]

Ffmpegx is a wonderful application. Sadly my g3/350 is pretty pokey for converting to svcds. With a long weekend ahead of me I would love to hand ffmpegx several 40 minute divx files for conversion to svcd while I am out of town for a few days.

Can ffmpegx do batch files? Do you just start 3 or 4 off and let the program handle things or will this overwhelm the processor? I'd hate to come back and have nothing processed. Still, I am sure my old 'puter could process 3 or 4 of these files while I am away if it gets the chance.

Any advice?

[schmeg]

Yes, it will do batches, in the sense that you can have multiple Terminal windows running different processes.

Speed depends on your system, of course. Give it a whirl.

[schmeg]

P.S. You can also queue up a bunch of ffmpegX instructions and run them as one big command. Someone with better knowledge of Terminal commands can possibly give you some tips, but basically ffmpegX passes along a string of commands to the Terminal window.

You can paste them into a text editor, queue up multiple versions, and then paste that back into Terminal. This way you only process one thing at a time, but you give it a long list of things...

[major]

The current version doesn't support true batch mode, but you can still launch multiple encodings at the same time, and each one will run in a separate terminal window without hogging the CPU. However, if you use the "mplayer decode" option then you're limited to one encoding at a time. To make sure things come out well, just preview the output files while they're encoding, by opening them in VLC or Mplayer. For SVCD, video is encoded before audio so it's normal to hear no audio in the preview.

[thomasbbb]

Is running several encodings, four for example, at the same time, reliable? Isn't there any chance one or more of the encodings will "bleed" over to another?

[major]

Running several encodings at the same time is reliable, provided you don't use "mplayer decode" option or 2-pass encoding in more than one encoding process.

[mattdig]

Quick Batcher: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/25679

run one of the videos you want to convert through regular FFmpegX and then drag the rest (so long as you want the exact same settings) to the Quick Batcher window and it'll start running immediately.

[PatrickMc]

Yes, ffmpeg can be used in command line mode in batch files. Here is one example of converting a bunch of .avi files in folder "C:/test"

# Change directory to where input files are.
cd "C:/test"
# Collect a list of .avi files.
var str list, infile, outfile
lf -rn “*.avi” > $list
while ($list <> “”)
do
    lex “1″ $list > $infile
    # $infile is input file. Create the corresponding .flv output file name.
    sal -p “^.avi^l” “.flv” $infile > $outfile
    # Input file is $infile, output file is $outfile. Call ffmpeg.
    system ffmpeg ” -i ” (“\”"+$infile+”\”") -ar 22050 -ab 32 -f flv -s 320×240 (“\”"+$outfile+”\”")
done

This script is in biterscripting ( http://www.biterscripting.com ). Save the script in file C:/Scripts/ffmpegscript.txt. Run it with this command.

script "C:/Scripts/ffmpegscript.txt"

Needless to say, change "C:/test" to correct folder path/location where the input files are located. Any input/output file formats can be used with this script. Just change .avi and .flv to correct file extensions. ffmpeg takes the pain out of manually doing one file at a time.

[jackshrack]

Quick Batcher: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/25679

run one of the videos you want to convert through regular FFmpegX and then drag the rest (so long as you want the exact same settings) to the Quick Batcher window and it'll start running immediately.

Right on the money....exactly what i was looking for.