archivevideo

Re-encode hard-disk recorder videos for archiving, reducing their size.

This python script will take one or more video files and re-encode them with suitable parameters, chosen based on the properties of the source file.

Requirements

You need Python 2.7 and ffmpeg. ffmpeg must have support for x265 and the Fraunhofer AAC codecs enabled.

Usage

archivevideo [-24fhinv] file...

Given one or more input video files, re-encode them to Matroska files using relatively space-saving encoding parameters. The output file will be placed in the same directory as the input file, and the input file will be moved to a subdirectory "Duplicates" in the same directory as the input file. If an error occurs, a message will be printed for that file, and work will continue with the next file specified.

Options

• -2 downmix audio to stereo; default is to reencode all audio channels
• -4 use x264 instead of x265 to encode the video
• -f overwrite existing output files
• -h print help text
• -i print info on input files, instead of transcoding them
• -n don't run ffmpeg, just print what would be done
• -v verbose information on progress

License

(c) 2017 Stefan Bethke, all rights reserved. See LICENSE for the BSD 2-clause license details.