How to save compressed (batch processed) video files to the original folders using handbrake?

Question

I use handbrake to compress/encode video files and I'm quite happy with the results. It gives me smaller file size with no quality loss. The problem is that when I batch convert multiple files from multiple folders they go to one destination folder (the folder which I specify in tools >> options.

Sometimes 2 files from different folders have the same names and then the the name collision occur and handbrake tells me that the file is already added to the queue.

It would be great if the converted files go to the original folders replacing the original files.

Is there any way to have this functionality in handbrake? (Note: I have handbrake both on my Windows machine and Ubuntu machine).

Answer 1

AFAIK, it's not possible at the moment to tell Handbrake to replace original files neither to save them in the source folder.

Still, you can avoid name collisions checking the Automatically name output files option in the Preferences window, and making sure Title is part of the File Format field, as explained in the documentation.

Handbrake will put converted files in your specified destination folder, but you won't have any name collision problem.

If you're familiar with the command line, another way to solve this problem could be writing a script that use HandBrakeCLI.

For example, on Ubuntu (or any other GNU/Linux system) you can write a very basic script like this (for details see the CLI documentation page):

#!/bin/bash
HandBrakeCLI --preset "PresetName" -i /path/to/source1 -o /path/to/any/destination1
HandBrakeCLI --preset "PresetName" -i /path/to/source2 -o /path/to/any/destination2
[...]
HandBrakeCLI --preset "PresetName" -i /path/to/sourceN -o /path/to/any/destinationN

If you already have basic scripting skills (or you're willing to learn them) you can make scripts a lot more powerful and complex and than this trivial one, and even make it replace originals with converted files, as you said in your question.

I guess you can do similar things also on Windows 10 PowerShell, but I'm not faimiliar with it, and can't help.

Answer 2

In Windows-Handbrake, you can also change the destination folder for each file individually, by changing it in the lower insert box. You can do this for a bunch of files, in group, then change the destination folder for yet another bunch.

Let's say you want to convert 10 videos from March, and 5 videos shot in April. You should then open the March folder in Handbrake, you can add the folder and do Add All. Then, you change the folder to April, and load the videos from the April folder.

You can then verify each video destination by hovering over the file in the queue dialog window.

Answer 3

I asked this question years ago. The answer is VLC 3.