Convert mp4/AAC to mov/PCM under Linux with ffmpeg

Hi
So, you end up with a lot of .mp4 files and Resolve is unable to import because of the AAC audio codec used in Smartphones and Camcorders nowadays? Fear no more, here is a simple bash script to convert everything to the correct media that you can import into Resolve Studio:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
for f in *.mp4; do ffmpeg -i "$f" "${f/%mp4/wav}"; ffmpeg -i "$f" -vcodec copy -an -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb "${f/%mp4/m4v}"; rm "$f"; ffmpeg -i "${f/%mp4/m4v}" -i "${f/%mp4/wav}" -acodec copy -vcodec copy "${f/%mp4/mov}"; rm "${f/%mp4/m4v}"; rm "${f/%mp4/wav}"; done


Just copy and paste to a new file, make it executable and start it inside the folder with a bunch of mp4 files. The script converts any audo track to a PCM file, extracts the video untouched and multiplexes everything into a mov file. There is no transcoding of the video track so the script is as fast as your HD or SSD can read and write files. After that you can import the mov into Resolve.

Please be aware that you must make a backup copy of your mp4 files before you use the script.

Have fun and good luck

PS:
Feel free to modify the script for your needs.

Thank you for this script. This exactly what I was looking for.

You're welcome, Katy

I have something similar in this topic

Worth reading before run it with the rm's. I working with dummy content but could have hurt me as my files are `H.265` not `H.264`. So my file just had a black screen and no video

In fact I still cannot get it to export with audio and video!

I had AAC audio inside some iphone mov files and needed to make happy with my dr centos 18. This doesn't rm anything but puts originals into a folder for backup. Was a very helpful script someone else did for mp4s. Easy enough to do the mp4s if you want to batch those at the same time.

Code: Select all

set -e
origdir="./original"
shopt -s extglob nullglob

if [ ! -d "$origdir" ];
then
    echo "Creating $origdir directory."
    mkdir "$origdir"
fi

for vid in *.mov; do
 noext="${vid%.mov}"
 ffmpeg -i "$vid" -acodec pcm_s16le -vcodec copy "${noext// /_}.mov"
    mv "$vid" "$origdir"
done
for vid in *.MOV; do
 noext="${vid%.MOV}"
 ffmpeg -i "$vid" -acodec pcm_s16le -vcodec copy "${noext// /_}.mov"
    mv "$vid" "$origdir"

done