foreach my $infile (@files) { print $infile . "\n"; # escape spaces # $infile =~ s[ ][\\ ]g; my $outfile = $infile; $outfile =~ s/\.(?:mkv|avi)\z/m4v/; system "$handbrake -i '$infile' -o '$outfile' --preset=$preset"; # without escaped spaces #system "$handbrake -i $infile' -o $outfile --preset=$preset"; # with escaped spaces }