Batch Convert MKV to MP4 with FFmpeg
45sShows a quick, practical solution for a common video file conversion problem.
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This tutorial demonstrates how to batch convert MKV files to MP4 using FFmpeg without re-encoding, preserving quality. It covers navigating to the folder in command prompt, using a for loop to process multiple files, and cleaning up filenames.
Chapters
[00:00]
Introduction and Prerequisites
The video covers batch converting MKV to MP4 with same quality using FFmpeg. Ensure FFmpeg is installed.
[00:20]
Navigating to the Folder
Open command prompt (cmd), use 'cd desktop' then 'cd mkv' to reach the folder containing MKV files.
[01:06]
Single File Conversion Command
Command: ffmpeg -i file.mkv -c copy file.mp4. This copies streams without re-encoding.
[01:43]
Batch Conversion with For Loop
Use 'for -r %f in (*.mkv) do ffmpeg -i %f -c copy %~nf.mp4' to convert all MKV files recursively.
[02:45]
Cleaning Up Filenames
Use '%~nf' to remove the .mkv extension, resulting in clean .mp4 filenames.
[03:01]
Execution and Results
Press Enter to run the loop. MKV files are copied to MP4; originals remain. Conversion is fast for files around 100-400 MB.
Batch converting MKV to MP4 with FFmpeg is straightforward using a for loop and the -c copy flag to avoid re-encoding. The process preserves quality and is efficient for multiple files.
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Study Flashcards (5)
What command converts a single MKV file to MP4 without re-encoding?
easy
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What command converts a single MKV file to MP4 without re-encoding?
easy
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ffmpeg -i file.mkv -c copy file.mp4
01:06
What flag in FFmpeg copies streams without re-encoding?
easy
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What flag in FFmpeg copies streams without re-encoding?
easy
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-c copy
01:16
How do you batch convert all MKV files in a folder using a for loop?
medium
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How do you batch convert all MKV files in a folder using a for loop?
medium
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for -r %f in (*.mkv) do ffmpeg -i %f -c copy %~nf.mp4
01:43
What does the '%~nf' syntax do in the for loop?
medium
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What does the '%~nf' syntax do in the for loop?
medium
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It removes the .mkv extension from the filename, resulting in a clean .mp4 filename.
02:45
What does the '-r' flag do in the for loop?
hard
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What does the '-r' flag do in the for loop?
hard
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It makes the loop recursive, processing files in subfolders as well.
01:45
💡 Key Takeaways
🔧
Single File Conversion Command
Core technique for lossless container switching.
01:06
🔧
Batch Conversion with For Loop
Efficient method to process multiple files automatically.
01:43
🔧
Filename Cleanup with %~nf
Prevents messy filenames like .mkv.mp4.
02:45Full Transcript
[00:00] welcome to the learning zone today we're
[00:01] gonna be batch converting mkv files to
[00:03] mp4 files with the same exact quality
[00:06] and it will not take that long but make
[00:08] sure you have ffmpeg installed on your
[00:10] computer if you don't have it already
[00:12] installed on your computer i have a
[00:13] tutorial on how to do that you can click
[00:15] the link right above but first what
[00:17] we're going to do is navigate to your
[00:20] command prompt so you can do that by
[00:21] going into the windows search bar at the
[00:23] bottom typing in cmd and the command
[00:26] prompt will show up and you can click on
[00:28] that so now that we have our command
[00:31] prompt open what we are going to do is
[00:33] navigate to the directory that has all
[00:35] of our mkv files so i have a folder on
[00:38] my desktop called mkv and so we're going
[00:41] to go there by typing in cd desktop
[00:44] and what that cd does is tells it what
[00:47] directory to go to so cd desktop and it
[00:49] goes to the desktop and now we need to
[00:51] go to our mkv folder see the mkv and now
[00:54] we are in the mkv folder on our desktop
[00:56] if you need to go back you do cd dot dot
[00:58] and it'll go back a directory so cd mkb
[01:02] so now we are where all of our files are
[01:04] at and what we can do if we just want to
[01:06] convert one is do ffmpeg
[01:08] dash i
[01:10] and then the file name file dot mkv make
[01:13] sure to have the mkv in it
[01:15] dash c
[01:16] copy so basically this is just moving it
[01:19] from the mkv container to the mp4
[01:22] container it's not re-encoding or doing
[01:23] anything like that we're just moving
[01:25] containers and it will be basically the
[01:27] same file size basically the same file
[01:29] but in dot mp4
[01:31] and then file.mp4 you can name it
[01:33] whatever you want just make sure you
[01:34] have the dot mp4 and then that is just
[01:37] for one however we want to batch convert
[01:39] we want to do a whole series of them
[01:41] but what we want to do is a for loop so
[01:43] we're going to do four
[01:45] dash r and this will look recursively in
[01:48] all of the subfolders so if you have a
[01:49] bunch of folders within these folders um
[01:52] it will also convert all of those
[01:54] and then for the files
[01:57] in
[01:58] with the name
[01:59] dot mkv
[02:02] dot
[02:04] mkv
[02:05] and we're going to tell it what to do so
[02:07] for all the files that are mkv files do
[02:10] ffmpeg pretty much what we did before
[02:14] dash i
[02:15] and then this is going to be the file
[02:17] name percent f
[02:18] so the file
[02:20] dash c
[02:22] copy which is what we did before
[02:25] and then what we want to do
[02:26] is the new file dot mp4 so we can do
[02:30] percent f dot mp4
[02:33] just like that however we also want to
[02:35] clean it up a little bit by getting rid
[02:37] of the dot mkv at the end so
[02:39] if we just did it like this it'll be
[02:41] mkv.mp4 which is a little messy looking
[02:43] so we're going to do
[02:45] tilde n
[02:46] to get rid of that mkv at the end so
[02:49] it'll now just say mp4 now if you're
[02:52] doing this within a batch already you
[02:54] can do percent percent f and then for
[02:57] everything instead of percent f and
[02:58] it'll do the same exact thing
[03:01] but this should get you what you need so
[03:03] now we're going to hit enter and it'll
[03:05] go through and convert all of our mkv's
[03:08] to mp4s it will leave all the mkvs don't
[03:10] worry it's just copying them over you
[03:12] can delete them later if you'd like and
[03:13] just like that i think that was about
[03:14] seven or so files that we converted from
[03:16] mkv to mp4 they were all somewhere
[03:18] around 100 to 400 megabytes big
[03:21] so if you have larger files it'll
[03:22] probably take a little bit longer so
[03:24] thank you for james mac white on github
[03:26] for sort of this example i kind of went
[03:28] through that if you also need that for
[03:29] mac i will leave that in the description
[03:31] that's slightly different and if you
[03:33] have any issues for example if you have
[03:34] like a different audio type free mkv
[03:36] file that mp4 doesn't support you may
[03:37] have to convert it over but if you click
[03:39] the link in the description it kind of
[03:41] goes over all of those different
[03:42] solutions so make sure to check that out
[03:44] if you have any problems and if you have
[03:45] any other problems in general you can
[03:47] let me know in the comments and i'll try
[03:48] my best to help thank you so much for
[03:50] watching make sure to leave a like and
[03:51] subscribe for more videos like these in
[03:53] the future if you have any suggestions
[03:54] for future videos let me know as well
[03:56] thank you for watching i'll see you next
[03:58] time this is the learning zone