How to batch convert/multiplex any files with ffmpeg

[jagabo]

Have you ever been able to open an AVI file with h.264 video with Gif Movie Gear? I ask because many editors cannot do so. Installing x264vfw might help.

What do you mean by "I've tried four or five batch files and none of them have worked?" Are you saying the muxing failed to produce a AVI files? Or that the resulting AVI files could not be opened by your editor? Can the be played by VLC or any of the other advanced media players?

[DarrellS]

Have you ever been able to open an AVI file with h.264 video with Gif Movie Gear? I ask because many editors cannot do so. Installing x264vfw might help.

What do you mean by "I've tried four or five batch files and none of them have worked?" Are you saying the muxing failed to produce a AVI files? Or that the resulting AVI files could not be opened by your editor? Can the be played by VLC or any of the other advanced media players?

Yeah, I forgot Gif Movie Gear won't open lagarith avi or uncompressed avi that it created

I think I've got it worked out with the batch files. The MKV copy to AVI won't work but I made one to convert mkv to xvid and it works just fine.
I also made one to convert the AVIs that I got from MKVcleaver to xvid.

for %%a in ("*.mkv") do ffmpeg -i "%%a" -c:v libxvid -preset slow -crf 20 "newfiles\%%~na.avi"
pause

for %%a in ("*.avi") do ffmpeg -i "%%a" -c:v libxvid -preset slow -crf 20 "newfiles\%%~na.avi"
pause

[jagabo]

Yes, but by converting to xvid you are losing quality. Did you try installing x264vfw? That will allow many programs to open AVI files with h.264 video.

Some things to note:

64 bit programs require 64 bit codecs. 32 bit programs require 32 bit codecs. 64 bit programs cannot use 32 bit codecs. 32 bit programs cannot use 64 bit codecs.

There are two main video systems in Windows: the older Video For Windows (VFW), and DirectShow (DS). Some programs can use only one, some both. VFW codecs are not accessible to DS, and vice versa. Most programs use VFW to deal with AVI files, DS for MOV, MP4, and MKV. So you may need to install both VFW and DS codecs, both 32 and 64 bit to be sure all your programs can use those codecs. Ie, you need to install four versions of the codecs (some do this automatically, some you may have to download individual version). In addition to these Windows system installed codecs, some programs (like ffmpeg and VLC media player) use their own internal codecs.

[hydra3333]

Some things to note:

If this forum had a thumbs-up feature, I would have clicked it

[DarrellS]

Yes, but by converting to xvid you are losing quality. Did you try installing x264vfw? That will allow many programs to open AVI files with h.264 video.

Some things to note:

64 bit programs require 64 bit codecs. 32 bit programs require 32 bit codecs. 64 bit programs cannot use 32 bit codecs. 32 bit programs cannot use 64 bit codecs.

There are two main video systems in Windows: the older Video For Windows (VFW), and DirectShow (DS). Some programs can use only one, some both. VFW codecs are not accessible to DS, and vice versa. Most programs use VFW to deal with AVI files, DS for MOV, MP4, and MKV. So you may need to install both VFW and DS codecs, both 32 and 64 bit to be sure all your programs can use those codecs. Ie, you need to install four versions of the codecs (some do this automatically, some you may have to download individual version). In addition to these Windows system installed codecs, some programs (like ffmpeg and VLC media player) use their own internal codecs.

Yeah, the converted files using the settings above look like crap. I just checked one of the demuxed h264.avi files from MKVcleaver in Gif Movie Gear and it opened right up. I must've tried to open the .h264 file before.

I don't remember what settings I used when using the external encoder feature in Virtualdub for mpeg4.

[amymor]

Hello, thank you for the guide, but is there a way to make ffmpeg recognize * or %d in a batch file for a sequence of PNG images?

ffmpeg -framerate 10 -i Anime\*.png Animation.mp4
Could find no file with path 'Anime\*.png' and index in the range 0-4
Anime\*.png: No such file or directory

ffmpeg -framerate 10 -i Anime\%d.png Animation.mp4
Anime\d.png: No such file or directory

Sorry if it's already been asked.

Update: I found a solution. If you want to use %d as a wildcard in a batch file, you need to escape it by using %% instead of %:

ffmpeg -framerate 10 -i Anime\%%d.png Animation.mp4