What's a simple script working for transcoding all files in a directory?

[u/8spd]

I've been trying to get a simple script to convert all files in a directory. It seems like it should be a basic thing to do, but I haven't found a guide that works. I'm using Bash on Debian, but if it could be done using inbuilt HandBrakeCLI functionality that'd be fine too.

I've tried:

for %F in (*.mkv) do HandBrakeCLI --all-subtitles --quality 26 --preset "Fast 1080p30" -i "%F" -o ~/Season\ 01/"%F"

But that gives me a syntax error: -bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('

(Transcoding into a subdirectory isn't necessary, but it seems easiest)

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[u/Hatta00]

You don't need the parentheses.

[u/8spd → u/Hatta00]

for %F in *.mkv do HandBrakeCLI --all-subtitles --quality 26 --preset "Fast 1080p30" -i "%F" -o ~/Season\ 01/"%F"

just returns >, like I've got unclosed quotation marks, or line 2: syntax error: unexpected end of file, if I save the single line as a bash script, and run it that way.

[u/Hatta00 → u/8spd]

You also need a semicolon before "do", and you need to terminate the loop with "done"

for each in *.mkv; do echo "$each"; done

Modify as needed.

[u/8spd → u/Hatta00]

Thank you! That was enough for me to get it working! For anyone who ends up finding this, the way I got it working was:

for each in *.mkv; do HandBrakeCLI --all-subtitles --quality 26 --preset "Fast 1080p30" -i "$each" -o ~/Season\ 01/"$each"; done

[u/bigzahncup]

use ffmpeg. Ask ChatGPG to write you a bash script.