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is there any way to losslessly convert a whole recursive file directory of .m4a files to .opus (lemmy.ml)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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i have a bunch of .m4a files in one folder, 1000s. can i automate their conversion somehow?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

before doing anything like that.. back up the folder.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Well sure always back up everything but this command will create new .opus files still leaving the original .m4a in the folder too, so even if it errors just delete the bad .opus files and try to resolve your ffmpeg codec issue before retrying the conversion or trying another method. Ffmpeg in my experience always converts with the "makes a new file with your file(s)" method, I've never had it do the "change the file destructively" method.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It'll also error out or prompt to overwrite an existing file unless a flag is passed that tells it to overwrite unattended.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Sure, but if it errors out no harm no foul, and don't pass any flags to overwrite the input file which I had not included above.

While I'm thinking about it, what is that flag? Because afaik ffmpeg can't overwrite and convert the file simultaneously, you have to use a temp file.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

That's the point: you have to go out of your way to accidentally overwrite your input files with ffmpeg.

And no it indeed can't output to the same file as input.