[Feature Suggestion] Streamlined Transcoding options in Settings

[dammitjeff]

Heya, I was looking at the transcoding feature that was enabled a little while ago and I loved it! It defaults to AV1, which is great for file sizes, but, was painfully slow on devices with no dedicated GPU unfortunately. h264 ended up working way better for me, but I had to manually set that as first priority in util.py in order to use it, plus I understand that might not be the case for everyone. Still, I do believe some flexibility and ease of use would vastly improve the interface so more people can use it, as it is a really nice feature that is currently hidden away behind a CLI.

I wanted to see if there was interest in transcoding options implemented within the settings page (nonfunctional as of now, proof of concept).

Users could pick their encoder of choice, and pick what versions of transcoding they would prefer (While still following the logic that it won't make transcodes at or above the files original resolution)
If the user does not have transcoding enabled in his docker-compose, it will be greyed out until it is enabled, making sure it's not accidentally enabled.

I really believe that giving more accessible interface controls to users would make people MUCH more likely to use the transcoding options, and make it easier to use instead of using the command line haha. Let me know opinions, thoughts, changes you'd like to see.

[ShaneIsrael]

So I was considering adding something like this eventually, I haven't because there's quite a bit I would like to do with it so I'll lay that out now since a lot of what you presented is similar to what I was thinking.

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Right now, the system just automatically attempts to transcode all videos if you have transcoding enabled to 1080 and 720 which I know isn't ideal for most people.

I like your idea but I think if we are going to go as far as adding some settings there's a couple ideas I'd like to also have implemented with it.

Resolutions, if we are going to give the option to select resolutions, I think we should add one more which is 480p. For encoder preferences, to make it simple I think it should allow you to set a "Preferred" and "Fallback" where if for some reason the preferred method fails, it will attempt the fallback. i.e Suddenly your gpu isn't detected. Maybe with a checkbox for "Preferred Only" which would mean that no transcoding happens if there's an issue and it doesn't attempt to use the fallback. This way, for somebody who absolutely only wants their stuff transcoded in a specific format it guarantees it.

Transcode all videos is good, but I think that should not be clickable if the system is currently transcoding. So we'll need some sort of lockfile or flag set to ensure multiple transcode processes are not happening at the same time.

A checkbox for "Automatic" that if enabled, will automatically transcode videos in the background on scan (as it currently does). If automatic is unchecked, then no transcode happens automatically and it requires you to manual transcode the video.

Which brings me to my last point Manual Transcoding, I think it would be really cool if videos that have not been transcoded have an option to kick off a manual transcode of that specific video. So maybe a little dropdown hamburger menu on the bottom right/left of the video where you can select "Transcode", in which case it puts the video in a transcode queue. That way you can add specific videos and each video you add will be put in the queue. If a video fails to transcode, it will be removed the queue and the next one will be attempted.

So... this is roughly what I am thinking. I'm open to suggestions or changes but I think this would flesh the feature out decently well.

• Add configurable transcode resolution settings (1080p, 720p, 480p)
• Implement encoder preferences:
  • Preferred encoder
  • Fallback encoder if preferred fails
  • Optional “Preferred Only” checkbox to disable fallback
• Prevent concurrent transcodes:
  • Disable “Transcode All Videos” while a transcode is in progress
  • Add lockfile/flag to ensure only one transcode process runs at a time
• Add “Automatic Transcoding” toggle:
  • Enabled: transcode videos automatically on scan (current behavior)
  • Disabled: no automatic transcoding
• Implement manual per-video transcoding:
  • UI option (e.g., hamburger menu) for non-transcoded videos
  • “Transcode” action adds video to a transcode queue
  • Process queue sequentially
  • On failure, remove video from queue and continue to next item

[ShaneIsrael]

Oh one other thing, I don't know how easy or hard this would be. Something I was going to look into at some point if I eventually got around to adding these additional transcoding features and that is progress.

I'm 99% sure there is a way to get the current progress from ffmpeg, and if so I thought it would be nice to have a loading indicator showing at what % complete the current video being transcoded is. However, getting that info to the frontend would require long polling in place I think. I also wouldn't want to store this info in the database because it would lock the database constantly writing the progress to it, so it would need to just be stored in memory, or an env variable, maybe a dictionary, something like

{
    video_id: <id>
    transcoding: <boolean>
    progress: <number 0-100>
}

with a simple api route that just returns that data to the frontend so that it can overlay the progress animation on either the video thumbnail itself, or maybe in the sidebar a little info box with the "currently active transcode operation". Only visible to authenticated users of course.

Keep in mind, this progress idea is definitely something that could come later as I think it could end up being a bit of a pain in the ass to implement cleanly.

[dammitjeff]

Phew...a lot of great suggestions here. Yeah a lot of it kinda aligns with where I wanted the project to go as well, lemme try and catch up on these:
• Adding 480p support: Love it! I can definitely add that, should just be another ffmpeg template we can build.
• Fallback order: Great idea, and something that can definitely be done so that way no one ever gets stuck.

Transcode all videos is good, but I think that should not be clickable if the system is currently transcoding.

Agree, which is why that button will probably convert into a "STOP Transcoding task" button when in the middle of a transcode batch. Kinda like this:

• A checkbox for "Automatic" transcoding upon upload
Yes! Right now it seems like it's set to auto scan uploads every 5 minutes and transcode if missing any, but a toggle would definitely be much nicer.

• Manual Transcoding on individual videos: I Really do like the idea, right now though, given the current UI, the video thumbnail might become a bit too crowded with copy link, visibility, views, time stamp, AND now transcode options. I'd be up for implementing it! However it might be better suited until after we redesign the video cards.

Adding some sort of progress indicator would be good. We do have the groundwork now to add progress tracking in the nav bar on the side. I know ffmpeg already spits out logging info so it's definitely something we can look into.

[ShaneIsrael]

Yeah I think manual in a hamburger menu can wait until after a redesign. Could maybe just skip it until that is ready if that ui overhaul is something you were still planning on doing.

Progress would definitely be nice, but not necessary right away. I know that feature might take a bit to get right so that could come after everything else is in place, tested, and working.