Package: video-proxy-magic
video-proxy-magicThis 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.Featuresbatch, automated conversion of large collections of video filespreserves directory structureadds timecode overlaystranscodes files to 720p H264minimalist, no GUI~300 lines of code, easy to auditTODO: screenshotsTODO: testimonialsInstallationThis program is a [Python][] program which runs exclusively from the
command line interface, so it's a bit of an advanced tool. It depends
onffmpegto 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 python3On Mac or Windows, use the ffmpegMacorWindows buildsand
the PythonMacorWindows installers.There's probably a way to install those throughHomebreworChocolatey, 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 havepipinstalled, so
installing the program should be as simple as:pip install video-proxy-magicUsageThe program has a--helpflag which has details on the various
options. An example run would be:video-proxy-magic.py FOO/ PROXIES/FOO/... which would takeallthe files inFOO/and transcode them into
thePROXIES/FOO/directory, keeping the directory structure inFOO/. Assuming you have a file inFOO/BAR/baz.MOV, it will create
a proxy inPROXIES/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:\DESTINATIONThe program is pretty silent by default, so you will probably want to
use-vto 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 withonlytheMXF,MP4, orMOVfiles it finds:py videos/magic/video-proxy-magic.py H:\SOURCE H:\DESTINATION -n -v --include "*.MXF" "*.MP4" "*.MOV"You can alsoexcludespecific files with the--excludeflag 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.ContributingSee thecontribution guidefor 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 acknowledgmentThis 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.LicenseThis 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 statusKeep 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.