#Source directory and converted direcotry #Sets IFS to to allow for filenames with spaces The code might not be the neatest as it was my first proper bash script, but it's been pretty fast and stable for me, so here goes: #!/bin/bash The script lists all the file pairs so you can check for errors in the end if you want. Then it just copies the metadata and you're all set and done. For it to work you must have your original and converted files on separate directories, each with the same number of files (the directories must only have the video files, as other files/directories will interfere) and in the same order. I made a bash script that can batch transfer the metadata, using touch as suggested above. Read the x264 encoding guide on the FFmpeg wiki for more. See the AAC encoding guide for more info. 23 is default, and anything below 18 will probably be visually lossless.

In order to change the quality of the output, you can: This will convert the input with the x264 encoder and AAC audio to an output file, copying the original metadata. In the simplest case you can do your conversion like this: ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -c:a aac -map_metadata 0 out.mp4 $ mediainfo fixed.mp4 | grep 'Encoded date' | head -n 1Īctually, you don't really need to use Handbrake if you can use FFmpeg, which Handbrake relies on anyway.

Here's the final file after mapping the metadata: $ ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -i out.mp4 -map 1 -map_metadata 0 -c copy fixed.mp4 Here's the file after Handbrake conversion: $ mediainfo out.mp4 | grep 'Encoded date' | head -n 1 Use the copy codec ( -c copy) to copy all the bitstreams instead of re-encoding the video.Īfter that, you could obviously rename fixed.mp4 to out.mp4.Īs an example, here's part of the metadata record of my original file: $ mediainfo in.mp4 | grep 'Encoded date' | head -n 1.Map only the metadata from file 0 to the output ( -map_metadata 0).Map only the video/audio/subtitle streams from file 1 to the output ( -map 1), so we take the bitstreams that are already converted.Take two input files ( in.mp4 and out.mp4), which are assigned the IDs 0 and 1, respectively.To break it down, this does the following: The FFmpeg command to copy the complete metadata record to the new file would then be: ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -i out.mp4 -map 1 -map_metadata 0 -c copy fixed.mp4 fixed.mp4 – the file with 'corrected' metadata.out.mp4 – the file after Handbrake conversion.in.mp4 – the original file before conversion.You can copy the existing metadata from one file to another without needing to re-encode the video using FFmpeg.

Handbrake batch