Auto Convert and/or Convert an Entire Library

[casminkey 19]

I've been converting a lot of new movies, especially 4k ones, and find they play so much better after conversion. I recently discovered I can automatically convert new movies - that is awesome!!

So if I enable this do I have to convert the entire library first? I don't see a way to save the "Automatically convert new content" option without doing so. Maybe I'm in the wrong spot? From my home screen, i'm clicking the 3 dots on the library, then to Convert.

If that's the only way, has anyone converted their entire library? I have almost 3,000 movies and 12,000 episodes so seems like it will take forever.

Any and all advice is appreciated!

[Q-Droid 989]

It depends on the conversion details. Existing media items that already meet the parameters will not be converted. So your bitrate, container type, audio and video codecs will be part of the decision.

That said there is no way that I know of to skip existing media or defer the new conversion jobs to start at a scheduled time instead of immediately. These options have been requested/proposed before.

I wouldn't take my chances converting such a large library at once or in large batches. It's a lot of system work and the jobs only run one item conversion at a time. There have also been problems in the past with conversions to copies (not replace original) getting stuck on an item and creating multiple versions, many more than the expected second version. This can eat up space quickly if not caught in time.

[rbjtech 5284]

I would personally try and find out why the media you currently have does not direct play in the first place.

It could be a number of thngs - but  especially for 4K, it's likely to be the source files you have exceed the capabilities of your playback equipment - be it from a network/wifi, device, video, audio or subtitle perspective.

 

[casminkey 19]

51 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

I would personally try and find out why the media you currently have does not direct play in the first place.

It could be a number of thngs - but  especially for 4K, it's likely to be the source files you have exceed the capabilities of your playback equipment - be it from a network/wifi, device, video, audio or subtitle perspective.

 

I don't disagree but just way too many factors between the source files being all sorts of formats/codecs/bitrates and playback equipment being anything from a web browser, roku, firestick, android tv, ETC. Once the files are converted, they seem to work well ... not to say they don't work well, just a second or two delay when skipping forward or back. Just much more responsive after converting.

[Q-Droid 989]

Yes, knowing why they're not direct playing is key and can reduce the number of items to convert if you still want to do that. There are also external tools for manual and automated media conversion. 

I convert all of my TV shows in Emby for playability on the lowest common devices. For movies I convert individually as needed but haven't been doing this lately since I upgraded to symmetrical internet service.

One of the external tools, Tdarr, might give you the flexibility to only convert the media formats you know are causing problems. I don't use it but others in the community do and might have some info on how to setup filters to only convert the problematic media types.

 

[rbjtech 5284]

3 hours ago, casminkey said:

I don't disagree but just way too many factors between the source files being all sorts of formats/codecs/bitrates and playback equipment being anything from a web browser, roku, firestick, android tv, ETC. Once the files are converted, they seem to work well ... not to say they don't work well, just a second or two delay when skipping forward or back. Just much more responsive after converting.

If you are happy with a reduced maximum potential from your original source - lets say avc/h264 @ 4Mbit with aac Stereo - then it's pretty well going to play on anything with zero issues - it's certainly a reasonable strategy, but do remember that there is always a new codec around the corner ...  (AV1, h266 etc ..)