Metadata-Version: 2.1
Name: video-proxy-magic
Version: 0.1.0
Summary: transcode video files in batch
Home-page: https://gitlab.com/anarcat/video-proxy-magic
Author: Antoine Beaupré
Author-email: anarcat@debian.org
License: AGPLv3
Classifier: Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable
Classifier: Environment :: Console
Classifier: Intended Audience :: End Users/Desktop
Classifier: License :: OSI Approved :: GNU Affero General Public License v3 or later (AGPLv3+)
Classifier: Natural Language :: English
Classifier: Operating System :: POSIX
Classifier: Operating System :: POSIX :: Linux
Classifier: Operating System :: Microsoft :: Windows
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: Only
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10
Classifier: Topic :: Multimedia :: Video :: Conversion
Description-Content-Type: text/markdown

# video-proxy-magic

This tool allows you to generate smaller videos from a collection of
existing videos, something post-production video people call
"proxies". Those are lower-resolution files that are faster to process
for editing movies.

## Features

 * batch, automated conversion of large collections of video files
 * preserves directory structure
 * adds timecode overlays
 * transcodes files to 720p H264
 * minimalist, no GUI
 * ~300 lines of code, easy to audit

TODO: screenshots

TODO: testimonials

## Installation

This program is a [Python][] program which runs exclusively from the
command line interface, so it's a bit of an advanced tool. It depends
on [ffmpeg](https://ffmpeg.org/) to do all its work so the first step is to make sure
that is installed.

 [Python][]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)

In Debian GNU/Linux, for example, that would be:

    apt install ffmpeg python3

On Mac or Windows, use the ffmpeg [Mac](https://ffmpeg.org/download.html#build-mac) or [Windows builds](https://ffmpeg.org/download.html#build-windows) and
the Python [Mac](https://www.python.org/downloads/macos/) or [Windows installers](https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/). 

There's probably a way to install those through [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) or
[Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/), but if you know what those are, you probably already
know how to use them.

Once you have all those dependencies installed, you need install the
actual program. Normally, you should have [pip](https://pip.pypa.io/) installed, so
installing the program should be as simple as:

    pip install video-proxy-magic

## Usage

The program has a `--help` flag which has details on the various
options. An example run would be:

    video-proxy-magic.py FOO/ PROXIES/FOO/

... which would take *all* the files in `FOO/` and transcode them into
the `PROXIES/FOO/` directory, keeping the directory structure in
`FOO/`. Assuming you have a file in `FOO/BAR/baz.MOV`, it will create
a proxy in `PROXIES/FOO/BAR/baz_proxy.mp4`.

On Windows, you might have to meddle around with drive letters and
other horrors, for example:

    py videos/magic/video-proxy-magic.py H:\SOURCE H:\DESTINATION

The program is pretty silent by default, so you will probably want to
use `-v` to make it verbose. You can also run a simulation with `-n`,
and limit the search to specific files. This, for example, will run a
simulation of the transcoding with *only* the `MXF`, `MP4`, or `MOV`
files it finds:

    py videos/magic/video-proxy-magic.py H:\SOURCE H:\DESTINATION -n -v --include "*.MXF" "*.MP4" "*.MOV"

You can also *exclude* specific files with the `--exclude` flag of
course, but it's typically easier to tell it what you want than play
whack-a-mole with the various garbage you might have lying around.

Originals are, of course, not touched. 

## Contributing

See the [contribution guide](CONTRIBUTING.md) for more information. In
short: this is a free software project and you are welcome to join us
in improving it, both by fixing things, reporting issues or
documentation.

## Authors and acknowledgment

This tool was written by The Anarcat in 2020. Many thanks to my friend
for tests, feedback, and motivation.

I actually don't know much about video editing, post-production, and
barely some cinema. I just built this thing because a friend of mine
was repeatedly clicking through their video editors to generate files
like this, wasting literally days of work for something that could
obviously be automated.

## License

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
License, or any later version.

## Project status

Keep in mind I don't really offer any support for this tool. I only
wrote it to save my friend some time, and it's reluctantly that I have
created this project to make it more visible. So no warranties.
