HandBrake script for recursive batch convertion on Mac OS X & Linux

I wrote a script to recursively batch encode video files using HandBrake.

I needed to convert a bunch of AVIs into M4V so I wrote this script to convert all AVIs under a directory, with sub-directories, into M4V. The script will find all files of a given file type and then convert them (via HandBrake) into the specified file type. It’ll place the new, output file in the same directory as input file.

I’ve tested this to work on Mac OS X Lion but it should work on other versions of OSX and Linux too.

Here’s a link to my GitHub project that’ll always have the most up-to-date version:
https://github.com/derrekyoung/ScriptsAndUtils/blob/master/HandBrake-BatchConvert.sh

#!/bin/sh

###############################################################################
#
# Script to recursively search a directory and batch convert all files of a given
# file type into another file type via HandBrake conversion.
#
# To run in your environment set the variables:
#   hbcli - Path to your HandBrakeCLI
#
#   source_dir - Starting directory for recursive search
#
#   input_file_type - Input file type to search for
#
#   output_file_type  - Output file type to convert into
#
#
# Change log:
# 2012-01-08: Initial release.  Tested on Mac OS X Lion.
#
###############################################################################

hbcli=/Applications/HandBrakeCLI/HandBrakeCLI
source_dir="/Movies"
input_file_type="avi"
output_file_type="m4v"

echo "# Using HandBrakeCLI at "$hbcli
echo "# Using source directory "$source_dir
echo "# Converting "$input_file_type" to "$output_file_type

# Convert from one file to another
convert() {
	# The beginning part, echo "" | , is really important.  Without that, HandBrake exits the while loop.
	echo "" | $hbcli -i "$1" -o "$2" --preset="Universal";
}

# Find the files and pipe the results into the read command.  The read command properly handles spaces in directories and files names.
find $source_dir -name *.$input_file_type | while read in_file
do
        echo "Processing…"
	echo ">Input  "$in_file

	# Replace the file type
	out_file=$(echo $in_file|sed "s/\(.*\.\)$input_file_type/\1$output_file_type/g")
	echo ">Output "$out_file

	# Convert the file
	convert "$in_file" "$out_file"

	if [ $? != 0 ]
        then
            echo "$in_file had problems" >> handbrake-errors.log
        fi

	echo ">Finished "$out_file "\n\n"
done

echo "DONE CONVERTING FILES"