Looking for bulk conversion of MOV to MP4

Peyton-Todd wrote on 2/17/2024, 9:31 PM

This may not be the right place to ask this question but hopefully someone can refer me to the right place. I have hundreds of old MOV files that must be converted to MP4, and I have found no way to do that in bulk. I have Vegas Pro version 11 on another PC, where all I have to do is load a MOV file directly to Vegas (Yes, a MOV file; it need not be a VEG. It suffices merely to drag it in.), then I can simply save it as an MP4. Problem solved. But I have hundreds of these to do, and I need a bulk process. The ease with which Vegas Pro 11 can do this encourages me to believe that the technology to make these conversions easily exists somewhere in MAGIX. So far this forum is the only place I have been able to contact MAGIX. Does someone know where I might find out if MAGIX has a product that can do these conversions in bulk? (The latest version of Vegas Pro will not even load the MOVs - certainly not directly, and my attempts to load them to a project have so far met with failure.) Thanks for any help you can provide!

Comments

mark-y wrote on 2/17/2024, 10:27 PM

MOV is a wrapper, which can contain any of a number number of formats.

If your MOV files are AVC video with AAC audio, you can probably use a renaming utility to change the extension to MP4. They should pass muster.

If the codecs are something else, post the MediaInfo details here, and we can guide you regarding bulk conversion.

RogerS wrote on 2/18/2024, 12:51 AM

What's in the mov? If it doesn't load natively in newer versions I wonder if it's an old format relying on QuickTime decoding. MediaInfo can answer this.

A tool like ShutterEncoder could likely batch convert or rewrap them to other formats.

Peyton-Todd wrote on 2/18/2024, 8:36 AM

Unfortunately these MOVs have a long and diverse history spanning several decades. Many were converted from reel-to-reel half-inch videotapes shot in the 1970s with a Sony portable video camera. Many were originally AVIs shot with a handheld video camera in the 1980s as I recall. Many others were originally MPGs shot later on with a handheld video camera. I have loaded several of them into MediaInfo, and without exception MediaInfo tells me they are actually MP4s. So maybe I could just rename them as MP4s and see if that magically fixes them?

Quite a few, believe it or not, are 655 x 480 instead of 640 x 480. Incredibly, when I loaded one of those to Vegas version 11 and simply told it in the properties dialog that it was 640 x 480, then saved it as MP4, it successfully saved as a 640 x 480 MP4 without so much as a hiccup.

Meanwhile, I'll be looking into ShutterEncoder...

RogerS wrote on 2/18/2024, 8:59 AM

Could you just paste in what MediaInfo says "View" > "Text" as it doesn't just say MP4 (if it says that at all for a MOV). Feel free to do so for a few files as it sounds like you are working with different types.

It's possible enabling Quicktime in deprecated features (and installing it) would make the files readable though there are memory limits to editing those types of files in VEGAS. Others may be codecs like Cineform that would need to be installed.

Odd pixel numbers don't generally work at all for editing so not sure what can be done about that.

Peyton-Todd wrote on 2/18/2024, 9:59 AM

So far I have simply re-named a bunch of MOVs (both 655 width and 640 width - about 10 of each of them) and the process worked perfectly. All have their MP4 file extension and all play perfectly. Following the suggestion of Roger S, I just went to another one, which turned out to have diverse properties from the others, as shown below. I renamed it to have an MP4 file extension instead of the MOV extension it had, and the resulting MP4 played perfectly.

If this continues to work (and so far it has not failed) my next problem will be to organize the process since the current MOVs are scattered about in a huge number of separate folders!

General
Complete name : C:\__SpkSgnLng1 - Short Clauses & Overflow\__Appendices (Vol 1)\_Data for Vol 1 Appendices\ShortRapidHeadnods\1- h37w me go, graduate, #HOLLYWOOD high-school.mov
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt 2005.03 (qt )
File size : 914 KiB
Duration : 2 s 535 ms
Overall bit rate : 2 954 kb/s
Frame rate : 29.970 FPS
Encoded date : 2012-11-01 15:56:46 UTC
Tagged date : 2012-11-01 15:56:46 UTC
Writing library : Apple QuickTime

Video
ID : 1
Format : Sorenson 3
Codec ID : SVQ3
Codec ID/Info : Sorenson Media Video 3 (Apple QuickTime 5)
Duration : 2 s 535 ms
Bit rate : 2 949 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 3:2
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Standard : NTSC
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.285
Stream size : 913 KiB (100%)
Language : English
Encoded date : 2012-11-01 15:56:42 UTC
Tagged date : 2012-11-01 15:56:46 UTC

Peyton-Todd wrote on 2/18/2024, 11:15 AM

It seems too good to be true, but after a google search I managed to find a single command that successfully renamed 716 files in 41 different subfolders, changing MOV to MP4 in every single one of them, as follows:

for /r %x in (*.mov) do ren "%x" *.mp4

And so far, at least, all the renamed MP4 files have played perfectly. I can hardly believe I'm writing this!

Peyton-Todd wrote on 2/18/2024, 11:16 AM

And thanks so much for all your help!

mark-y wrote on 2/18/2024, 12:44 PM

Welcome.

3d87c4 wrote on 2/18/2024, 5:16 PM

If renaming doesn't work for all, Handbrake and/or FFMPEG could be used to transcode the files.