Avi to ac3

[bobban]

Hello

I am wanting to batch ocnvert my avi files to ac3 for use in dvd authoring. Currently I am using batch ffmpeg(gui) and it has been going well until recently.

It was going like a charm but recently I started a batch and found that it the window crashes, but leaves a process running in the background. The job is incomplete...So I use GoldWave to batch all to wav then go to ac3 and that made things better in most cases but still there is some instances of the same problem...Does anyone have an alternative method for doing this process?

[celtic_druid]

The GUI or ffmpeg crashes? I guess the GUI since presumably the process left running is ffmpeg?

Two suggestsions.
1) Drop the GUI.
Something like:
for %%f in (*.avi) DO (ffmpeg.exe -i "%%f" -ab 192 -ar 48000 -ac 2 -acodec ac3 "%%~nf.ac3")
2) Update ffmpeg if you are running an old build.
You can find my builds @:
http://celticdruid.no-ip.com/xvid/

[bobban]

Thanks for the reply...you diagnosis of the situation sounds right. Generally the ffmpeg process carries on for a while but tends to leave a half finished ac3 file vefore it stops and then doesn't complete the batch.

Great app by the way. I went to your site and got the latest binary but I havn't used command line before...and would probably prefer to be able to keep batching.... can I just copy the ffmpeg.exe over the one that came with ffmpegGUI(V1.3)??

[celtic_druid]

Yep. Commandline hasn't changed so it just keeps on working.

To me commandline apps are much better than GUI's for batch processing. Run the above and the audio from all the avi's gets converted. Filenames will be the same just *.avi and *.ac3.

[bobban]

hmm...actually I just replaced but when I started a batch it immediatly said the job was 100% complete and no process was started...will try command line.

Just tried typing the abovew but got %%f was not expected at this time....sorry but I am command line noob.

[celtic_druid]

Works fine here. Did you copy it exactly? If you are running 98/me then that could be a problem.

[bobban]

ok, will try again. Do you mean to type exactly as is below, from the same directory as ffmpeg.exe is and also having the avi files I want to convert in that directory?

for %%f in (*.avi) DO (ffmpeg.exe -i "%%f" -ab 192 -ar 48000 -ac 2 -acodec ac3 "%%~nf.ac3")

[celtic_druid]

Well you could specify a path to ffmpeg i.e. "c:\stuff\video & audio\apps\ffmpeg.exe"

[bobban]

still getting same error message: %%f was not expected at this time..Here is a screenshot.

screenshot.jpg

[celtic_druid]

Try running it from a batch file or replace the %%'s with %. So:
for %f in (*.avi) DO (ffmpeg.exe -i "%f" -ab 192 -ar 48000 -ac 2 -acodec ac3 "%~nf.ac3")

[bobban]

Thanks so much for your help...its up and running now DOS and Batch....with batch file it should be basically as productive as the GUI. Hope someone else finds this thread useful.

If I get time in the future I would love to write a new GUI for this. Unlikely in the forseeable future sadly.....Again thank you for this wonderful application Patrick...will donate when I get a job