Quality AVI to MP4/H.264 batch converter?

[ehbowen]

I'm in the process of scanning some Super 8 movies for a friend. I'm scanning lossless, so I'm going to have about a baker's dozen of large AVI files. I'd like to convert them to a format which I can host on my server so that she can preview them and make comments about who that is, when this was, what they were doing, etc. If possible, I'm going to record her live with TeamViewer or similar and then edit that audio into the final video.

While VideoStudio will encode AVI to MP4 one at a time, I'd like to be able to do this as a batch. Also, I want to be able to downgrade the quality to, say, 240p or so...if at some point in the future I want to preview videos for someone who hasn't paid me yet .

I've found Total Video Audio Converter with a Google search, but I'm hoping to hear from others as to what they recommend. Thanks.

[johnnydike]

Hi ehbowen! There are several sites that you can use to convert your videos to different formats. But most converters only convert videos from community sites like youtube, Vimeo, or Dailymotion. At times you will get error messages that it can't convert the video. You can try Acethinker's online converter, Clipconverter, Video grabber, Converto.io, Freemake video converter, and Video Keeper. I personally use Video Keeper since it works almost on all types of format. I hope this information can help.

[lordsmurf]

Batch is almost never a good thing. However, for this use, you'll be fine.

I'd for sure avoid any "online converter", as you have no idea what it's doing in the background. And in almost all cases, it's using default ffmpeg settings, and that's never good.

Avoid all that Chinaware shlock. All those $50-ish programs that claim the moon, but deliver cheese.

If you want to convert to H.264, and batch, then you need to learn Hybrid. That's very powerful software, sort of an ffmpeg frontend, but so much more. I use that heavily for my hobby projects, which entails encoding and re-encoding H.264 for LAN DNLA streaming.

http://www.selur.de/downloads
Selur is a video user, and his site is akin to me having lordsmurf.com
Best of all, it's freeware.

Everything you want can be done in Hybrid, fast (multi-core x64), and with quality.

[NJRoadfan]

I might have to give Hybrid a try. I was using Avanti for advanced ffmpeg frontend work (also supports adding in avisynth scripts for pre-processing), but it hasn't seen an update in a LONG time.

For casual conversions, I just use HandBrake which has a batch conversion facility.

[ehbowen]

Well, I didn't really see an answer for a month and a half, so I went ahead and purchased that Total Video Audio Converter. It works, but the user interface leaves a lot to be desired and I'm uncertain of the output quality (of course, a selective downgrade was part of the plan from the beginning....)

I will make it a point to take a look at Hybrid; it sounds like a good option. I also have to admit that I didn't even think about using HandBrake; it would have saved me the bucks for TVAC and would probably have done just as good a job.