Automated Video Encoding Solution

Question

The Problem

I have around 3000+ videos growing daily. Each of these videos need to be converted to H.264, with 2 audio tracks, straight through and Stereo in an M4V container. I currently use a .Net application and the HandBrakeCLI to encode these videos. My problem is that this requires me to do it manually and monitor it continually.

The Ideal Solution

I am looking for a solution which can meet the following criteria:

• Monitor a set of folders for when an AVI/WMV file is dropped
• Encoded the video and log results to a log file, or notify of failures in some form.
• Remove the AVI/WMV and replace it with the M4V if it is successfully encoded.

The solution can be Windows, Linux or Mac based.

Any good suggestions?

I can modify the existing code for the encoding to do this, but honestly don't have the time to. Therefore I am looking for an existing solution before modifying and writing my own code to do this

Conclusion

The closest solution was harrymc's suggestion for using DropFolders, however it lacks multiple folder support and removal functionality. I have bit the bullet on this and I am integrating the functionality into an existing Media Management tool I am in the process of developing.

Answer 1

See Watch Folders & Convert Video Files with DropFolders & HandBrake :

DropFolders is an Adobe AIR program to be run on Windows that integrates with HandBrake. It automates the video conversion process by watching specified folders and performing the actions you assign.

Answer 2

I am sure I can come up with something better, or someone can program something, but for a quick solution, I put this together for you as a batch file. Simply put the full path to the program that you run in the line and set this as a scheduled task to run however frequent you want.

If no videos are found, or if it is already running, it will just quit and it should be very low CPU/Memory, so running every 5 seconds would be perfectly safe.

Copy and paste to a .BAT file in the folder containing the videos

@echo off

if exist locked.txt goto locked

if exist *.avi goto found
if exist *.wmv goto found
if not exist *.avi goto step2

:step2
if not exist *.wmv goto nothing

:nothing
echo no files found, quiting!

:found
@echo locked > locked.txt
**-----PUT COMMAND TO RUN HERE**
del locked.txt

:locked
echo I am already running... quiting
exit

Answer 3

I use WinFF (which is a front-end for FFMPEG for windows/OS X/linux). It has a number of existing presets, as well as having the ability to create your own.

It also has a batch list by default, and can specify the destination folder of a batch.

It can also run in multiple instances.

Answer 4

I do not know about the "monitoring existing folder", if you mean that it will actually startup the script if a file is added or changed, but I know that for automating the transcoding this is something that could be done very efficiently with ffmpeg.

And given not having time to write it yourself, there's already millions of ffmpeg scripts that have been written already, I think a quick google search for ffmpeg script to convert wmv to H.264 should get what you need. First several hits look pretty good.

Add to Wil's script above, and maybe you've got something that almost does what you need.

I'm wondering if you started a bounty on this question for a working script for a couple hundred status points if you would not get an answer quickly, assuming this would not be too unacceptable a use of the bounty system?

Answer 5

I've found "Unattended FFMPEG Encoder".

Haven't try it yet.