How to Convert Videos on VLC batch/CLI?

Question

I need to do a mass-conversion of videos from a video recorder in the .mod format, to other file formats, e. g. .mp4.

How and where can I find detailed specifications and information about VLC's various CLI options and commands, required for converting between specific video and audio codecs, or formats, by means of an appropriate, tailored CLI command or a batch script?

Answer 1

To use VLC to convert from MOD to MP4 you can use the following command:

vlc -I dummy -vvv "MyVid.mod"
--sout=#transcode{vcodec=h264,vb=1024,acodec=mp4a,ab=192,channels=2,deinterlace}:standard{access=file,mux=ts,dst=MyVid.mp4}

... where:

-I dummy - Does not show the VLC GUI
-vvv - Gives you verbose output
--sout - Specifies the options to use when encoding to MP4

You can see a full list of VLC command line options by running vlc -H from the command line. There is also a comprehensive list online at https://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help

If you don't have VLC installed locally or you want to outsource bulk video conversions you could always consider using a file conversion API such as https://developers.zamzar.com. This service provides a REST'ful API for file conversion, and mod to mp4 is a supported conversion.

Full disclosure: I'm the lead developer for the Zamzar API.

Answer 2

Thanks, your post help me. And after i find the best response for me. On Windows, if you want to convert multiples files :

for %%a in (*.mov) do "C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" -I dummy -vvv %%a --sout=#transcode{vcodec=h264,vb=1024,acodec=mp4a,ab=192,channels=2,deinterlace}:standard{access=file,mux=ts,dst=%%a.mp4} vlc://quit