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Save convert settings to profile and select multiple files to convert at once


Dibbes

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Dibbes

I've having a lot of different codecs and file formats in my library, causing a lot of unnecessary transcoding and wasting space when older codecs are used. I'd like to convert those to modern codecs.

 

I'd like to be able to create various conversion profiles instead of having to set these for every single file, including setting the new name if I select the new files to coexist with the original item.

 

Also I'd like to be able to select multiple files at once and then just select convert from the menu and select the profile I previously created. 

 

With my library is probably going to take a year or more to get everything converted, but I believe it will be worth it.

 

@@softworkz If you want any files for testing still, please PM me with what you'd like...

Edited by Dibbes
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I've having a lot of different codecs and file formats in my library, causing a lot of unnecessary transcoding and wasting space when older codecs are used. I'd like to convert those to modern codecs.

 

I'd like to be able to create various conversion profiles instead of having to set these for every single file, including setting the new name if I select the new files to coexist with the original item.

 

Also I'd like to be able to select multiple files at once and then just select convert from the menu and select the profile I previously created. 

 

With my library is probably going to take a year or more to get everything converted, but I believe it will be worth it.

 

@@softworkz If you want any files for testing still, please PM me with what you'd like...

 

That's a huge and complex task to get it right and the current Emby conversion feature is not the best choice when your intention is to replace your original files. It is fine to create additional versions with reduced quality, but to actually replace content - a process where you don't want to loose quality but also not blow up the video size - it isn't suited well.

 

My recommendation would be to leave your content unchanged, and (manually) convert only those videos where you are experiencing playback problems.

 

Generally, saving space is a rather bad motivation for converting content. Every conversion reduces quality, and when a converted video is going to be played it may still need to be transcoded by Emby. "Older" codecs may take more space, but they also require less processing power (for the decoding side) when Emby transcodes them.

 

Also, you can never 100% trust that all conversion results will be OK, so I wouldn't let the original videos be replaced (deleted) automatically. That would mean that you need more storage space instead of less.

 

Finally: I had thought about a feature like that before, but I had considered it more as a "professional" feature for a special edition or a separate product.

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Dibbes

Hi, yes it's a good idea, thanks for the feedback.

 

@@Luke: You guys need a few new standard responses in the drop-down list... lol

 

@@softworkz:

 

That's a huge and complex task to get it right and the current Emby conversion feature is not the best choice when your intention is to replace your original files. It is fine to create additional versions with reduced quality, but to actually replace content - a process where you don't want to loose quality but also not blow up the video size - it isn't suited well.

 

My recommendation would be to leave your content unchanged, and (manually) convert only those videos where you are experiencing playback problems.

 

I really see your point here... however, I have 50TB+ of series episode where the average episode is 4GB+. I'm perfectly happy to lose a little quality for most of these, as it's not very likely these series will be watched over and over again... I'm not a professional streaming provider (though sometimes it feels like it with the amount of time I'm spending on this... lol). Either way, I don't have 4k content and an episode of 1080p content is usually very watchable in x265 HEVC on 8MBps and AAC, which will give me filesize of abut 2GB, especially since most of my users use a tablet like device or even a mobile phone to consume most of their content...

 

Also, you can never 100% trust that all conversion results will be OK, so I wouldn't let the original videos be replaced (deleted) automatically. That would mean that you need more storage space instead of less.

 

--------------------------

 

Generally, saving space is a rather bad motivation for converting content. Every conversion reduces quality, and when a converted video is going to be played it may still need to be transcoded by Emby. "Older" codecs may take more space, but they also require less processing power (for the decoding side) when Emby transcodes them.

 

I wouldn't let it replace automatically, but would check stuff at least watch a few seconds, scroll through and check the length of the episode against the original before deleting the original. Since it takes ages for a conversion to complete (it's not more than about 20 per day if very lucky), it doesn't take a lot of time to check this...

 

I agree with the decoding/transcoding statement. I have a lot of .avi files from the 90s though. Somehow these always give issues, not matter on which device these are being played. It's either no sound or no image or distorted images with green blocks through the stream for some strange reason, etc. which mostly disappear when converted to h264/h265 and I didn't really notice any difference in quality...

 

That's a huge and complex task to get it right and the current Emby conversion feature is not the best choice when your intention is to replace your original files.

 

Yes, it will take anything upwards of a year or two, but I have time and the patience to do it. Afterall I did correct the metadata of about 2 million music tracks and close to 200k ebooks and 15TB worth of comics. I've been at this for close to 15 years. Any recommendations for a good piece of software that could do this properly if not Emby, though?

 

Finally: I had thought about a feature like that before, but I had considered it more as a "professional" feature for a special edition or a separate product.

 

Since it doesn't seem Emby wants to go the path of Prof/Spec editions (yet), I doubt that would materialize any time soon... (I'm still waiting for a proper MySQL/MSSQL backend so that there isn't so much of a performance hit once you hit 200k+ items on the server. It's a real problem for me, but I won't hold my breath and will keep on using various other server products) When it comes to a separate product, well, I'd love to test...  ;)

Edited by Dibbes
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Let me add: Of course, it wouldn't be too difficult to allow creating a saved set of those settings that you can configure right now. But I'm always thinking a few steps ahead, and for converting a large library in an optimal way, that's just not a sufficient approach, because you'd normally want to choose the optimal transcoding setting for each individual source file, in a way that you don't loose quality but also don't blow up the file size unnecessarily. When you have a few fixed profiles you'll quickly stop looking at each individual file to determine the optimal settings. Eventually you'll get lazy, start choosing just "any" profile and also stop checking whether all files of a group you choose for conversion are all similar enough to convert them using the same fixed profile.

 

I have thought about whether I know any software that can do this, but I don't know any (well, I don't really know a lot anyway). Maybe other users can provide some hints. Probably there isn't one that does like I'm describing, but surely some that do better than Emby in that discipline. That doesn't take much, because media processing in Emby is highly optimized for efficient live transcoding which is contradictory in many aspects opposed to encoding for archival.

Of course it could be implemented, but it would be a feature for a small number of users only and could only be amortized by appropriate pricing. Same goes for the database layer: it's totally feasible but the target audience is pretty small.

 

BTW: There are no current plans for different editions, just occasionally I'm wondering what users would think about it.

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neik

BTW: There are no current plans for different editions, just occasionally I'm wondering what users would think about it.

 

It clearly depends a lot on the offered and the price but generally speaking.... Not much!

Edited by neik
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Dibbes

Of course it could be implemented, but it would be a feature for a small number of users only and could only be amortized by appropriate pricing. Same goes for the database layer: it's totally feasible but the target audience is pretty small.

 

Maybe, but on the other side with this you'd be able to tap a completely different market, namely the corporate one. I mean, a decent backend together with @@pünktchen's and @@saladin's plugins, makes this a "one of it's kind" corporate communication platform... I have quite a few customers who'd be very interested in this... just one of these customer alone could probably fund development of Emby for more than a year...

Edited by Dibbes
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Dibbes

It clearly depends a lot on the offered and the price but generally speaking.... Not much!

 

This totally depends on the features we're talking about... I mean an LDAP feature is something I wouldn't consider something for a normal private media server. Not sure how many users of this plugin there are, but I doubt it's more than 2% of the userbase... There are a few more of those kind of things...

 

Also, I can tell you that once the SmartPlaylist kicks off properly, database issues are going to pop up left, right and in the middle...

Edited by Dibbes
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