Volts
September 21, 2020, 9:36pm
1
Got a chonky Plex Media Server folder?
One reason for a large Plex Media Server folder is that Video Preview Thumbnail files (index-sd.bif ) use a lot of space.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/202529153-why-is-my-plex-media-server-directory-so-large/
It’s possible to disable the VPT feature entirely and save a lot of space …
… but that would be a shame. VPT is a great feature and improves seeking and scrubbing in video.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/202197528-video-preview-thumbnails/
Instead of disabling Video Preview Thumbnails completely, they can go on a healthy diet.
The hidden setting GenerateBIFFrameInterval
I experimented with 5 and 10 seconds. The savings add up quickly for large libraries. Here’s a moderate example.
setting
size
savings
2
30 MB
original
5
19 MB
37%
10
11 MB
63%
In addition to the reduced space, they generate proportionally faster, too.
On Roku the minimum scrub distance is 10 seconds, so changing GenerateBIFFrameInterval 10 saves space and has no negative impact at all.
On iPhone/iPad/AppleTV the minimum scrub distance is lower, but it works fine and still feels pretty good.
To edit the GenerateBIFFrameInterval Advanced, Hidden Server Settings instructions for your platform.
16 Likes
Volts
September 21, 2020, 9:49pm
2
Changes to GenerateBIFFrameInterval Video Preview Thumbnail generation, not those that already exist.
To delete current thumbnails and rebuild them, edit the library, chose Advanced, and DELETE PREVIEW THUMBNAILS.
They will be recreated automatically during scheduled maintenance.
To force them to be created immediately, restart Plex Media Server and Analyze the library.
1 Like
Hi,
Please excuse my English im French. Im trying to customize the GenerateBIFFrameInterval=“2” parameter to 10 but it as soon as I reboot the container changes made to preferences.xml are gone. I used nano from root session.
1 Like
Volts
January 1, 2021, 1:06am
4
I’m not familiar with any reason settings wouldn’t be preserved in a Container.
Are other Plex settings saved normally across container reboots?
if you are editing the preferences file with PMS running, it won’t work.
you must stop pms first, make changes, then restart pms.
1 Like
Volts
January 1, 2021, 2:03am
6
Ahh, I’ll edit the instructions. Good insight, TYVM.
Here’s a method for configuring GenerateBIFFrameInterval
curl -X PUT "http://server.ip.addr.ess:32400/:/prefs?GenerateBIFFrameInterval=10&X-Plex-Token=TOKENHERE"
And to view the current setting:
curl -s "http://server.ip.addr.ess:32400/:/prefs?X-Plex-Token=TOKENHERE" | grep BIFF
(Replace grep with find on Windows.)
Finding an authentication token .
10 Likes
system
April 1, 2021, 2:04am
7
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