Summary

The process of batch run is simply:
  1. Click on "Location of HandbrakeCLI.exe" and select the directory where handbrake was installed it defaults to c:\Program Files\Handbrake
  2. Click on "Select Directory to generate into" and select the directory where you want the converted files to end up in
  3. Click on "Select Directory to process" and select the directory containing the video files to be converted
  4. By default the Selection mask always starts as * and so all files in the selected source directory will be selected. If that is not what you want then select the files as necessary. You can use the 'Reverse Selection' and 'Case Sensitive' boxes to adjust selection
  5. Click on 'Start Processing' and a DOS box (or boxes) will appear and start processing

Details

Just to provide abit more information about what is available.

The Menu Options

Options

Escape Character
This character is used when constructing a file search mask to imply that the following character is to represent itself and not a special character

Suffix to Generate
This string will replace the existing suffix on the file that you are converting defaults to mp4

Display Command Only
When this option is checked no actual processing will be done but the command that would have been used is displayed

Number of Parallel Conversion Processes
This number defines the number of parallel conversion streams that will be used when running. When the program initially runs it will decide on a value of (#processors - 2) but after this initial selection it will not interfere again - i.e once you reset it to a value you are comfortable with it will not be changed automatically again unless you set the value to 0

It can take a value of 0 -> 64 (but 0 will be changed to #processors -2) though the value that you set should be dependent on your CPU speed, your number of processors and the speed of your disks.

Help

Help
Displays this file

Version History
Displays a list of version changes

About
Displays build information

The Main Screen options

Start Processing Button

As the button says this will just:

Location of HandBrakeCLI.exe

Click this button to identify the location of the HandBrakeCLI.exe executable if it is not found in the default location (c:\Program Files\Handbrake)

Note: This option will only allow you to select a directory that contains a file called HandBrakeCLI.exe

Processing Options

If you want you can just enter the required processing options in the yellow text entry box

Alternatively you can have the options generated for you by HandBrake. to do that follow the following steps:
  1. Open Handbrake
  2. Select a trial file
  3. Adjust the settings to generate the output file that you want
  4. Click on 'Add to Queue' on the top menu
  5. The encode queue screen should now be displayed (if not then hit the 'Show Queue' command on the top menu)
  6. Click on the waiting entry on the screen
  7. Click on the 'Queue' drop down list on the top menu
  8. Click on 'Generate Batch Script'
  9. on the save as screen select a file name to generate into (perhaps HandBrakeCMDS.txt) and make a note of where it is placing the generated file
  10. Open the generated filoe and it should look something like:

"C:\Program Files\Handbrake\HandBrakeCLI.exe" -i "V:\TVShows\A Show\An Episode - S14E11 - Why is it so dark.avi" -t 1 -c 1 -o "K:\Handbrake\An Episode - S14e11 - Why is it so dark-1.mp4"  -f mp4 --strict-anamorphic  -e x264 -b 1000 -2  --vfr  -a 1 -E faac -B 128 -6 dpl2 -R Auto -D 0 --gain=0 --audio-copy-mask none --audio-fallback ffac3 -x ref=1:weightp=1:subq=2:rc-lookahead=10:trellis=0:8x8dct=0 --verbose=1

  1. Copy the whole file and paste it into the yellow text entry box
  2. You'll notice that when you paste it in the program automatically removes the handbrake program and the -i and -o options

NOTE: There is a rudimental facility to simplify the process if you use the same settings a lot. If you want to reuse these options later you can type in a significant string - perhaps NEXUS7-4:3 into the text input box next to the 'SAVE NEW' button and then you can click on the 'SAVE NEW' button. This will store these values in the ini file that holds the options for the program - they are NOT held in the registry.

To retrieve the options just click on the entry in the drop down box next to the literal 'Processing Options'.

There is NO facility in the program to manage the entries to remove them or change them you should go to the file 'batchHandBrake.ini' in the install directory and either edit the entry there or remove it

Select Directory to generate into

Select the directory where you want the files to be placed

Select Directory to process

Select the directory that contains the files that you want to process (convert). Once you have selected a directory the selection mask will be applied to the files found

Selection Mask

The selection mask defines a mask to be applied to the files in the source directory to automatically select files for processing. It does NOT have to be used. You can just click/ctrl-click/shift-click on the entriesin the file window to select files to be processed.

The mask can contain some special characters. They are:

* - match any number of characters (including zero)
. - match any single character only

So given the following files:

File 1: test1 many characters followd by an X.txt
File 2: test1 X.txt

A mask of *.txt would match all files
A mask of test1..*X.txt would only match FILE1
A mask of test1.*X.txt would match all files

By default the mask checking is case insensitive. If you want it to be case sensitive then check the case sensitive box

Once all selections have been made you can revers the selections by checking the 'Reverse Selections' check box. Note that this applies no matter how the selection was achieved.