[REQ] PMS to Automatically Web-Optimize Video upon adding into Library, if necessary

[unisonruss]

and possibly having presets to make MKV iTunes-compatible/Remux, etc.

Hi everyone,

so since I have pretty much every client available for Plex, a, I have spent the last several days really trying to optimize my media to be playable, anywhere, anytime, and no worries, without any sort of transcoding. Even though my system can handle it, I would prefer to have Plex using as little resources as possible while playing content, plus I like to have an entire video load as I watch, vs. being subject to the transcode session.

There has been a common theme for me wit the majority of clients: everything transcodes. But that typically is because the container is MKV, or the file is not web-optimized. And I'm sure I'm not the only user here that has a lot of content, and with this problem. The Roku especially is practically useless as long as the my media remains un-optimized, with long loading times, and frequent buffering. I do love the client though, and look forward to seeing it's progress, and possible fixes to this problem. And I digress...

After some research, it seems there is a cool thing called MOOV Atom, often packaged with QTFastStart, that will actually move the MOOV atom for you, making the file web-optimized. However, like many, I have no idea how to execute this, as it's all python. And then it dawned on me: Plex has awesome scanning capabilities, why not include this MOOV atom during the media analysis process, so if a file is not web-optimized, it will put your content in a MP4 for you, and move the atom itself. And if the container is MKV, perhaps Plex could remux the files for you to an MP4, that way there is no need for Direct Streaming...it will just Direct Play. Magical!

I found a program called iFlicks (url: http://www.iflicksapp.com/) that will make MKV files iTunes compatible (without re-encoding any video - just a quick audio encode and remux), but it's kind of a nightmare to have it monitor your folders (won't read sub-folders, as hard as I've tried), and the web-optimization it performs is not recognizable to Plex. If Plex had the ability to scan in your media, analyze it, and convert the file with preset options (more than likely those would be first setup on the first run, or in the media manager preferences) while making the file web-optimized, I think it would bring Plex to a whole new level! That way your content is all ready to go, and able to be served up without transcoding on any client...that way you are not stuck with a slow computer if you are visiting friends or family, and getting a linux NAS would be even easier to achieve!

An example. You have a new 1080P bluray rip (sweeet), and you have Plex preset to "Make iTunes compatible." Plex would scan in the file, remux the file (because the video is already compatible), it would also mux in the AC3 file, and a newly encoded AAC file (in case you want to watch your media straight through iTunes/Apple TV) and then be scanned back into the library after the file would be web-optimized. All done. What if the file was AVI and the video was not compatible. Plex would already know this, and it would run that initial transcode and save the new file, that way you wouldn't have to transcode again when watching. Pretty cool, right?

I know this seems high concept, but with the way things are going in technology, everything is streaming now. More and more files are sent through a cloud, and Plex would be the ultimate solution/server to use to serve that media. Also, this may solve the dlna issues...if a user used a XBOX 360 preset, the files would go through a different sequence, that way the media would be best playable on the platform.

Plex is already set up for success. It already has the transcoder, thanks to the awesome ffmpeg, it already has the fast and intuitive scanner and media analysis tool, it already has amazing folder watching capabilities, that will scan the second a change is detected. And, as far as I'm aware, the MOOV atom trick is easy, and requires no transcode...this seems right up Plex's alley.

And Roku is such a cool platform, because it does have great Plex support, and with the web-optimized implemented into the media manager, there would be way less isuues with loading times and such, for all users...and for my money, it would be a must-own device for all.

Thank you for reading this lengthy post, hopefully it inspires others with similar ideas :) Thank you for the terrific software, I'm such a fan!

-Russ

[chrisc]

One of the tenets of the Plex system so far has been that it doesn’t alter your media in any way. That is, I’m sure, one of the reasons the developers chose to abstract the metadata away from the actual files (well, that and the fact that not all media formats support embedded metadata). So, I’d think it would be highly unlikely that the dev team would want to suddenly start altering a file to mess with MOOV atoms or anything else. Not to mention that going that route could open them up to a world of hurt if they messed something up in the server and then it destroyed/corrupted a bunch of users’ libraries. I can certainly see the thought behind the feature, but I personally just don’t see that really fitting with Plex.



As for converting automatically MKVs to MP4s (M4Vs)… I’d most definitely not want that feature. While in most respects the MP4 container works just fine, it doesn’t support nearly as many audio formats or have as good multi-audio/subtitle track support. So, converting my MKVs to MP4 either wouldn’t work or would negatively affect a lot of my content.





To me personally, this feature area is something that individual users should handle themselves. If they want their content in Format X so that it’s natively compatible with Client Y, then that’s how they should encode their content. If they don’t want to worry about (re)encoding the content themselves, then they can simply let the Plex Media Server do it for them by transcoding the content when a client requests it.



That’s my “tree fitty”, at least. ($0.02 just ain’t worth much with all the inflation!)

[unisonruss]

Hehe, fair enough, and I totally get your points. Perhaps a user will come along and post an easy way to get the MOOV atom sorted for my own collection…maybe even a plex plugin could be developed to do this for our media…



I’ll add that as a request too then, to have a 3rd party plugin that would automatically do this for us…at the very least that would alone go a long way!

[epheterson]

This feature would be great as real-time transcoding really takes a toll on my NAS. I’d love if Plex automatically transcoded in the background, or repackaged, only on the required files!

[Isaac_A]

Hi everyone, While I understand why chrisc does not want an auto-converting feature, I think it would be very easy to add such a feature to the system, and let us end users choose whether or not to use it. I am not in favor of having Plex blindly going in and optimizing, and changing all of my existing media to a new format that may or may not work right, but I would like the ability to create a folder on my server labeled something like “Plex-To Be Optimized”. This way, when I add new content to my server, I put it in that folder, it is automatically optimized with certain preset values that I have chosen, and the output of that optimization process is dumped into another specific folder for me to go in and review. Both locations should be separate from my media library, and once I deem the optimized version worthy of being in my library for all to use, I can then move it there myself, and then choose what to do with the original file.

I have a very nice server running dual quad core CPU’s, 80GB of ram, and about 11TB of useable storage at this time, with more to come soon. In the end, I have the horsepower to do transcoding on the fly, but have no interest in hearing my server fans all spin up during an extended transcoding session. If MP4 works well for my situation, I want the ability to use it, and not have to go to each and every individual movie and tv episode and initiate the optimization process manually, and then have to move it all to the folder structure that I use. Its way too time consuming…

-Isaac

[Isaac_A]

I thought this was a recent post… ugh… Sorry for posting in 2018 to a 2012 thread…