Quick Start¶
For simple commandline help
pytranscoder -h
To get started right away, start with this configuration:
config:
ffmpeg: '/usr/bin/ffmpeg'
colorize: yes
templates:
qsv: # high quality h265
cli:
video-codec: "-c:v hevc_qsv -preset medium -qp 21 -b:v 7000K -f matroska -max_muxing_queue_size 1024"
audio-codec: "-c:a copy"
subtitles: "-c:s copy"
audio-lang: eng
subtitle-lang: eng
threshold: 15
threshold_check: 30
extension: '.mkv'
qsv_medium: # medium quality h265
cli:
video-codec: "-c:v hevc_qsv -preset medium -qp 21 -b:v 4000K -f matroska -max_muxing_queue_size 1024"
audio-codec: "-c:a ac3 -b:a 768k"
subtitles: "-c:s copy"
audio-lang: eng
subtitle-lang: eng
threshold: 15
threshold_check: 30
extension: '.mkv'
qsv_anime: # anime, medium quality h265 and keep both eng and jpn language tracks
cli:
video-codec: "-c:v hevc_qsv -preset medium -qp 21 -b:v 3000K -f matroska"
audio-codec: "-c:a ac3 -b:a 768k"
subtitles: "-c:s copy"
audio-lang: "eng jpn"
subtitle-lang: eng
threshold: 15
threshold_check: 30
extension: '.mkv'
Copy this file and save as $HOME/.transcode.yml, the default location pytranscoder will look for its configuration. Pick a video file to test with. Let’s refer to it as “myvideo.mp4”, using the “qsv” template defined above.
pytranscoder --dry-run -t qsv myvideo.mp4
You will see details of the ffmpeg command pytranscoder will use when you run for real.
Use the –dry-run flag whenever you change your configuration to test that things work the way you intend. To run for real, omit –dry-run. You’ll see something like this:
myvideo.mkv: speed: 8.51x, comp: 81%, done: 8%
myvideo.mkv: speed: 8.45x, comp: 81%, done: 16%
myvideo.mkv: speed: 8.46x, comp: 82%, done: 25%
myvideo.mkv: speed: 8.47x, comp: 81%, done: 33%
myvideo.mkv: speed: 8.47x, comp: 82%, done: 42%
myvideo.mkv: speed: 8.45x, comp: 81%, done: 50%
myvideo.mkv: speed: 8.46x, comp: 82%, done: 59%
myvideo.mkv: speed: 8.45x, comp: 82%, done: 68%
myvideo.mkv: speed: 8.48x, comp: 82%, done: 76%
myvideo.mkv: speed: 8.5x, comp: 82%, done: 85%
myvideo.mkv: speed: 8.49x, comp: 82%, done: 94%
Finished myvideo.mkv
Speed is how fast your machine is encoding video, comp is the compression percentage, and done how much has been processed. Your original myvideo.mkv will be replaced with a new version.
Tip
Should you wish to do test encodes without destroying the original, use the -k (keep) flag. The encode job will leave behind myvideo.mkv.tmp, for example.
Now you are ready to tweak your configuration with profiles and rules to suit your needs.