Batch convert video files to avi

[Cygnus333]

I have hundreds of music videos I have either downloaded or made myself using ATI TV Wonder. I have been storing these on a Seagate FreeAgent 1.5tb ext. USB drive. Space is now becoming an issue. These files are in mostly vob, mpg, mp4, mkv and avi formats. I want to compress the ones that are not already in avi format. Can someone suggest a program to convert these in batch. My only requirements are that I want to convert to avi and maintain the original size (ex. 720x480). The input files will be all different sizes. I have tried AVS Video Convertor and ImTOO AVI/MPEG convertor but these change the original size.

Regards,
Chris

[kaninelupus]

Don't often do batch conversions my self, do know Divx Pro does allow batch conversion of multiple files w/o changing the resolution properties - but is not free.

MediaCoder is another tool have used - can run batches with or without tweaking any of the resolution/audio properties. Is a little more involved to get started on, but it is free and has an extensive support forum if you get stuck :)

http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

[jbennet]

Handbrake or WinFF

Handbrake is better IMHO.

Both are free.

[Reverend Jim]

I use DIVX Converter but I have also used virtual dub which can be run from the command line so you could build a batch file or script it to scan and convert a folder.

[rubberman]

I use ffmpeg for this sort of work, exclusively. There are Windows builds available (it is free, open source software) here: http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/

I have used Windows-specific tools in the past, but nothing has the options and effectiveness of ffmpeg. You can also change the audio from mp3 to other encodings as necessary, change the aspect ratio, etc. The options are massive and take some time to sort out (it is a command-line tool). Mostly I do this: ffmpeg -i inputfilename -target ntsc-dvd -q 0 -async 20 outputfilename.mpg

These options are to encode the video into mpeg2 suitable to burn to a DVD, keep the natural resolution of the source, and sync the sound every 20 milliseconds (helps when the sound is out-of-sync with the video). This is suitable about 99.9% of the time.

FWIW, ffmpeg can transcode just about any known format into any other as desired.

[mike_2000_17]

I second rubberman on his suggestion. I use ffmpeg whenever I need to do any kind of video / transcoding work, it's phenomenal. But I would just like to add that technically ffmpeg is deprecated in favor of "avconv" from the Libav project. avconv is technically an almost drop-in replacement for ffmpeg, it is also a command-line tool (although I think there are some basic GUIs for it), and it is more up-to-date. Essentially, the Libav project is a fork of ffmpeg (i.e., avconv is derived from ffmpeg), and has now surpassed ffmpeg, thus leading the ffmpeg people to pretty much just put a notice on their program saying that it's deprecated and people should use avconv instead. But ffmpeg is still a good tool, of course, but just getting out of date.

But more importantly, avconv is available in Windows directly. In fact, Libav is what VLC uses for all its video work, so, if you know VLC, you know how superior it is to anything else out there, well, that's because Libav is superior to anything else out there.

[rubberman]

Thanks Mike. I'll have to check into libav. I've been using ffmpeg for so long that old habits are hard to break! IE, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! :-) And I do use VLC for most of my video display work, both in Windows and Linux.

[KiloKraveSarave]

I use XviD4PSP. It's fantastic to me.

[SaintAce]

Handbrake is best, in my experience. Try lowering audio quality (channels as well as bitrate) along with video quality and resolution, for most size-efficient compression results.