How do you convert an entire directory with ffmpeg?

Question

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

Answer 1

The following script works well for me in a Bash on Windows (so it should work just as well on Linux and Mac). It addresses some problems I have had with some other solutions:

• Processes files in subfolders
• Replaces the source extension with the target extension instead of just appending it
• Works with files with multiple spaces and multiple dots in the name (See this answer for details.)
• Can be run when the target file exists, prompting before overwriting

ffmpeg-batch-convert.sh:

sourceExtension=$1 # e.g. "mp3"
targetExtension=$2 # e.g. "wav"
IFS=$'\n'; set -f
for sourceFile in $(find . -iname "*.$sourceExtension")
do
    targetFile="${sourceFile%.*}.$targetExtension"
    ffmpeg -i "$sourceFile" "$targetFile"
done
unset IFS; set +f

Example call:

$ sh ffmpeg-batch-convert.sh mp3 wav

As a bonus, if you want the source files deleted, you can modify the script like this:

sourceExtension=$1 # e.g. "mp3"
targetExtension=$2 # e.g. "wav"
deleteSourceFile=$3 # "delete" or omitted
IFS=$'\n'; set -f
for sourceFile in $(find . -iname "*.$sourceExtension")
do
    targetFile="${sourceFile%.*}.$targetExtension"
    ffmpeg -i "$sourceFile" "$targetFile"
    if [ "$deleteSourceFile" == "delete" ]; then
        if [ -f "$targetFile" ]; then
            rm "$sourceFile"
        fi
    fi
done
unset IFS; set +f

Example call:

$ sh ffmpeg-batch-convert.sh mp3 wav delete