On-demand BIF generation during playback

[slevin7 86]

 Currently, BIF files (video preview thumbnails) are only generated during library scans or via scheduled task. This causes problems when   
  files are renamed - Emby treats them as new files and regenerates all BIFs, which can take days for large libraries.                       
                                                                                                                                             
  Request:                                                                                                                                   
  Add an option for on-demand BIF generation:                                                                                                
  - Generate BIF only when user first seeks/scrubs in a video                                                                                
  - Cache it for future use                                                                                                                  
  - Lower priority background generation                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                             
  Benefits:                                                                                                                                  
  - Faster library scans after bulk file renames                                                                                             
  - Reduced server load (only generate what's actually used)                                                                                 
  - Better user experience for large libraries                                                                                               

Edited February 2 by slevin7

[Neminem 1516]

Well it is on demand.

Just turn off the Schedule task and turn it off in your library settings.

Then you can run the Scheduled task manually " On demand "

Edit this might not work.

Edited February 2 by Neminem

[brothom 177]

In my experience the bif generation is pretty iffy anyway.
Moving media sometimes "breaks" the media item on my end and once moved, Emby might generate new bif files but these are never connected / related to the media items themselves eventhough they exist.

But yes, you'd expect you could run it directly from Emby Server -> Scheduled Tasks: 

You can, but if you were to set "Video Preview Thumbnails" to "Never", the Scheduled Task doesn't seems to work either. 

It might be better if there were a third and fourth option for "manually" run the task with maybe a max duration or item count and "on demand".

Edited February 2 by brothom

[TMCsw 246]

6 hours ago, slevin7 said:

This causes problems when files are renamed

Why (or how) are you adding files to Emby that aren't named properly?

And if you set:

Just rename the bif too when you rename the file.