#50 Musings

Wooo the number 50 milestone. I think it's quite an achievement (for me at least) that i've written 50 posts in a row. Looking forward to the next 50.

So... My last post I talked about automating encoding my media library to a more storage friendly codec. In this case to h265. Which has some tremendous space saving compression while appearing to not lose too much in the way of quality. I mentioned Tdarr and to explain it in a simple way without getting technical. It essentially gives you unlimited control over the optimisation of your library. The features are robust, and really seems like an extremely solid product. In tandem with that, it's also complex. To set up and eventually once you've go the automation down pat. Its easy. There is another docker container called Unmaniac. Now that essentially does the same job but at a vastly simpler rate. For example, set up consists of 2 possibly 3 options depending on what your library looks like. It transcodes your files from whatever to h265, it also gives you the option of downmixing multi-channel audio to stereo. For my setup that is key.

I do like Tdarr better due to the control but when I tested it, it absolutely killed my server. Whereas Unmaniac I can still use it minimally while the transcoding is in operation. I have gone for Unmaniac for the initial transcode and then maybe move to Tdarr to keep my library in sync.

If anyone has any tips or ideas that might help me, give me a shout.

Till next time,

B