PlexCleaner

Utility to optimize media files for Direct Play in Plex, Emby, Jellyfin.

License

Licensed under the MIT License

Build

Code and Pipeline is on GitHub.
Binary releases are published on GitHub Releases.
Docker images are published on Docker Hub.

Status

Releases

Release Notes

• Version 3.9:
  • Re-enabling Alpine Stable builds now that Alpine 3.20 has been released.
  • No longer pre-installing VS Debug Tools in docker builds, replaced with DebugTools.sh script that can be used to install VS Debug Tools and .NET Diagnostic Tools if required.
• Version 3.8:
  • Added Alpine Stable and Edge, Debian Stable and Testing, and Ubuntu Rolling and Devel docker builds.
  • Removed ArchLinux docker build, only supported x64 and media tool versions were often lagging.
  • No longer using MCR base images with .NET pre-installed, support for new linux distribution versions were often lagging.
  • Alpine Stable builds are still disabled, waiting for Alpine 3.20 to be released, ETA 1 June 2024.
  • Rob Savoury announced that due to a lack of funding Ubuntu Noble 24.04 LTS will not get PPA support.
    • Pinning savoury docker builds to Jammy 22.04 LTS.
    • Switching latest docker tag from savoury to an alias for ubuntu builds, i.e. the latest released version of Ubuntu, currently Noble 24.04 LTS.
  • Updated savoury docker builds to FfMpeg v7, currently the only docker build supporting FfMpeg v7.
• Version 3.7:
  • Added ProcessOptions:FileIgnoreMasks to support skipping (not deleting) sample files per discussions request.
    • Wildcard characters * and ? are supported, e.g. *.sample or *.sample.*.
    • Wildcard support now also allows excluding temporary UnRaid FuseFS files, e.g. *.fuse_hidden*.
  • Settings JSON schema changed from v3 to v4.
    • ProcessOptions:KeepExtensions has been deprecated, existing values will be converted to ProcessOptions:FileIgnoreMasks.
      • E.g. ProcessOptions:KeepExtensions : .nfo will be converted to ProcessOptions:FileIgnoreMasks : *.nfo.
    • ConvertOptions:FfMpegOptions:Output has been deprecated, no need for user configurable values.
    • ConvertOptions:FfMpegOptions:Global no longer requires defaults values and will only be used during encoding, only add custom values for e.g. hardware acceleration, existing values will be converted.
      • E.g. -analyzeduration 2147483647 -probesize 2147483647 -hwaccel cuda -hwaccel_output_format cuda will be converted to -hwaccel cuda -hwaccel_output_format cuda.
  • Changed JSON serialization from Newtonsoft.Json to .NET native Text.Json.
  • Changed JSON schema generation from Newtonsoft.Json.Schema to JsonSchema.Net.Generation.
  • Fixed issue with old settings schemas not upgrading as expected, and updated associated unit tests to help catch this next time.
  • Disabling Alpine Edge builds, Handbrake is failing to install, again.
    • Will re-enable Alpine builds if Alpine 3.20 and Handbrake is stable.
• Version 3.6:
  • Disabling Alpine 3.19 release builds and switching to Alpine Edge.
    • Handbrake is only available on Edge, and mixing released and Edge versions cause too many issues.
    • Alpine stable release builds will no longer be built, or not until Handbrake is supported on stable releases (v3.20 May 2024).
    • Alpine Edge builds will be tagged as alpine-edge.
• Version 3.5:
  • Download 7-Zip builds from GitHub, fixes issue #324.
  • Update Alpine Docker image to 3.19.
• See Release History for older Release Notes.

Questions or Issues

• Use the Discussions forum for general questions.
• Refer to the Issues tracker for known problems.
• Report bugs in the Issues tracker.

Use Cases

The objective of PlexCleaner is to modify media content such that it will always Direct Play in Plex, Emby, Jellyfin.

Below are examples of issues that can be resolved using the primary process command:

• Container file formats other than MKV are not supported by all platforms, re-multiplex to MKV.
• Licensing for some codecs like MPEG-2 prevents hardware decoding, re-encode to H.264.
• Some video codecs like MPEG-4 or VC-1 cause playback issues, re-encode to H.264.
• Some H.264 video profiles like Constrained Baseline@30 cause playback issues, re-encode to H.264 High@40.
• On some displays interlaced video cause playback issues, deinterlace using HandBrake and the --comb-detect --decomb options.
• Some audio codecs like Vorbis or WMAPro are not supported by the client platform, re-encode to AC3.
• Some subtitle tracks like VOBsub cause hangs when the MuxingMode attribute is not set, re-multiplex to set the correct MuxingMode.
• Automatic audio and subtitle track selection requires the track language to be set, set the language for unknown tracks.
• Duplicate audio or subtitle tracks of the same language cause issues with player track selection, delete duplicate tracks, and keep the best quality audio tracks.
• Corrupt media streams cause playback issues, verify stream integrity, and try to automatically repair by re-encoding.
• Some WiFi or 100Mbps Ethernet connected devices with small read buffers hang when playing high bitrate content, warn when media bitrate exceeds the network bitrate.
• Dolby Vision is only supported on DV capable displays, warn when the HDR profile is Dolby Vision (profile 5) vs. Dolby Vision / SMPTE ST 2086 (profile 7) that supports DV and HDR10/HDR10+ displays.
• EIA-608 Closed Captions embedded in video streams can't be disabled or managed from the player, remove embedded closed captions from video streams.
• See the process command for more details.

Performance Considerations

• To improve processing performance of large media collections, the media file attributes and processing state is cached in sidecar files. (filename.mkv -> filename.PlexCleaner)
• Sidecar files allow re-processing of the same files to be very fast as the state will be read from the sidecar vs. re-computed from the media file.
• The sidecar maintains a hash of small parts of the media file (timestamps are unreliable), and the media file will be reprocessed when a change in the media file is detected.
• Re-multiplexing is an IO intensive operation and re-encoding is a CPU intensive operation.
• Parallel processing, using the --parallel option, is useful when a single instance of FFmpeg or HandBrake does not saturate all the available CPU resources.
• When parallel processing is enabled, the default thread count is half the number of system cores, and can be changed using the --threadcount option.
• Processing can be interrupted using Ctrl-C, if using sidecar files restarting will skip previously verified files.
• Processing very large media collections on docker may result in a very large docker log file, set appropriate docker logging options.

Installation

Docker builds are the easiest and most up to date way to run, and can be used on any platform that supports linux/amd64, linux/arm64, or linux/arm/v7 architectures.
Alternatively, install directly on Windows, Linux, or MacOS following the provided instructions.

Docker

• Builds are published on Docker Hub.
• See the Docker README for full distribution details and current media tool versions.
  • ptr727/plexcleaner:latest is an alias for the ubuntu tag.
  • ptr727/plexcleaner:ubuntu is based on Ubuntu (ubuntu:rolling).
  • ptr727/plexcleaner:alpine is based on Alpine (alpine:latest).
  • ptr727/plexcleaner:debian is based on Debian (debian:stable-slim).
  • ptr727/plexcleaner:savoury is based on Ubuntu (ubuntu:jammy).
• Images are updated weekly with the latest upstream updates.
• The container has all the prerequisite 3rd party tools pre-installed.
• Map your host volumes, and make sure the user has permission to access and modify media files.
• The container is intended to be used in interactive mode, for long running operations run in a screen session.
• See examples below for instructions on getting started.

Example, run in an interactive shell:

# The host "/data/media" directory is mapped to the container "/media" directory
# Replace the volume mappings to suit your needs

# Make sure the media file permissions allow writing for the executing user
# adduser --no-create-home --shell /bin/false --disabled-password --system --group users nonroot
# Replace the user account to suit your needs
sudo chown -R nonroot:users /data/media
sudo chmod -R ugo=rwx /data/media

# Run the bash shell in an interactive session
docker run \
  -it \
  --rm \
  --pull always \
  --name PlexCleaner \
  --user nonroot:users \
  --volume /data/media:/media:rw \
  docker.io/ptr727/plexcleaner \
  /bin/bash

# Create default settings file
# Edit the settings file to suit your needs
/PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner \
  defaultsettings \
  --settingsfile /media/PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner.json

# Process media files
/PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner \
  --logfile /media/PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner.log \
  process \
  --settingsfile /media/PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner.json \
  --mediafiles /media/Movies \
  --mediafiles /media/Series

# Exit the interactive session
exit

Example, run monitor command in a screen session:

# Start a new screen session
screen
# Or attach to the existing screen session
# screen -rd

# Run the monitor command in an interactive session
docker run \
  -it \
  --rm \
  --log-driver json-file --log-opt max-size=10m \
  --pull always \
  --name PlexCleaner \
  --user nonroot:users \
  --env TZ=America/Los_Angeles \
  --volume /data/media:/media:rw \
  docker.io/ptr727/plexcleaner \
  /PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner \
    --logfile /media/PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner.log \
    --logwarning \
    monitor \
    --settingsfile /media/PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner.json \
    --parallel \
    --mediafiles /media/Movies \
    --mediafiles /media/Series

Example, run process command:

# Run the process command
docker run \
  --rm \
  --pull always \
  --name PlexCleaner \
  --user nonroot:users \
  --env TZ=America/Los_Angeles \
  --volume /data/media:/media:rw \
  docker.io/ptr727/plexcleaner \
  /PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner \
    --logfile /media/PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner.log \
    --logwarning \
    process \
    --settingsfile /media/PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner.json \
    --mediafiles /media/Movies \
    --mediafiles /media/Series

Example, run monitor command as a docker compose stack:

services:

  plexcleaner:
    image: docker.io/ptr727/plexcleaner:latest
    container_name: PlexCleaner
    restart: unless-stopped
    user: nonroot:users
    command:
      - /PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner
      - monitor
      - --settingsfile=/media/PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner.json
      - --logfile=/media/PlexCleaner/PlexCleaner.log
      - --preprocess
      - --mediafiles=/media/Series
      - --mediafiles=/media/Movies
    environment:
      - TZ=America/Los_Angeles
    volumes:
      - /data/media:/media

Windows

• Install the .NET Runtime.
• Download PlexCleaner and extract the pre-compiled binaries.
• Or compile from code using Visual Studio or VSCode or the .NET SDK.
• Create a default JSON settings file using the defaultsettings command:
  • PlexCleaner defaultsettings --settingsfile PlexCleaner.json
  • Modify the settings to suit your needs.
• Download the required 3rd party tools using the checkfornewtools command:
  • PlexCleaner checkfornewtools --settingsfile PlexCleaner.json
  • The default Tools folder will be created in the same folder as the PlexCleaner binary file.
  • The tool version information will be stored in Tools\Tools.json.
  • Keep the 3rd party tools updated by periodically running the checkfornewtools command, or update tools on every run by setting ToolsOptions:AutoUpdate to true.
• If required, e.g. no internet connectivity, the tools can be manually downloaded and extracted:
  • FfMpeg Full, e.g. ffmpeg-6.0-full.7z: \Tools\FfMpeg
  • HandBrake CLI x64, e.g. HandBrakeCLI-1.6.1-win-x86_64.zip: \Tools\HandBrake
  • MediaInfo CLI x64, e.g. MediaInfo_CLI_23.07_Windows_x64.zip: \Tools\MediaInfo
  • MkvToolNix Portable x64, e.g. mkvtoolnix-64-bit-79.0.7z: \Tools\MkvToolNix
  • 7-Zip Extra, e.g. 7z2301-extra.7z: \Tools\SevenZip
  • Disable automatic tool updates by setting ToolsOptions:AutoUpdate to false.

Linux

• Automatic downloading of Linux 3rd party tools are not supported, consider using the Docker build instead.
• Manually install the 3rd party tools, e.g. following steps similar to the Docker file commands.
• Download PlexCleaner and extract the pre-compiled binaries matching your platform.
• Or compile from code using the .NET SDK.
• Create a default JSON settings file using the defaultsettings command:
  • ./PlexCleaner defaultsettings --settingsfile PlexCleaner.json
  • Modify the settings to suit your needs.

macOS

• macOS x64 and Arm64 binaries are built as part of Releases, but are untested.

Configuration

Create a default JSON configuration file by running:
PlexCleaner defaultsettings --settingsfile PlexCleaner.json

Refer to the commented default JSON settings file for usage.

Custom FFmpeg and HandBrake CLI Parameters

The ConvertOptions:FfMpegOptions and ConvertOptions:HandBrakeOptions settings allows for custom CLI parameters to be used during processing.

Note that hardware assisted encoding options are operating system, hardware, and tool version specific.
Refer to the Jellyfin hardware acceleration docs for hints on usage.
The example configurations are from documentation and minimal testing with Intel QuickSync on Windows only, please discuss and post working configurations in Discussions.

FFmpeg Options

See the FFmpeg documentation for complete commandline option details.
The typical FFmpeg commandline is ffmpeg [global_options] {[input_file_options] -i input_url} ... {[output_file_options] output_url}.
E.g. ffmpeg "-analyzeduration 2147483647 -probesize 2147483647 -i "/media/foo.mkv" -max_muxing_queue_size 1024 -abort_on empty_output -hide_banner -nostats -map 0 -c:v libx265 -crf 26 -preset medium -c:a ac3 -c:s copy -f matroska "/media/bar.mkv"

Settings allows for custom configuration of:

• FfMpegOptions:Global: Custom hardware global options, e.g. -hwaccel cuda -hwaccel_output_format cuda
• FfMpegOptions:Video: Video encoder options following the -c:v parameter, e.g. libx264 -crf 22 -preset medium
• FfMpegOptions:Audio: Audio encoder options following the -c:a parameter, e.g. ac3

Get encoder options:

• List all supported encoders: ffmpeg -encoders
• List options supported by an encoder: ffmpeg -h encoder=libsvtav1

Example video encoder options:

• H.264: libx264 -crf 22 -preset medium
• H.265: libx265 -crf 26 -preset medium
• AV1: libsvtav1 -crf 30 -preset 5

Example hardware assisted video encoding options:

• NVidia NVENC:
  • See NVidia and FFmpeg documentation.
  • View NVENC encoder options: ffmpeg -h encoder=h264_nvenc
  • FfMpegOptions:Global: -hwaccel cuda -hwaccel_output_format cuda
  • FfMpegOptions:Video: h264_nvenc -crf 22 -preset medium
• Intel QuickSync:
  • See FFmpeg documentation.
  • View QuickSync encoder options: ffmpeg -h encoder=h264_qsv
  • FfMpegOptions:Global: -hwaccel qsv -hwaccel_output_format qsv
  • FfMpegOptions:Video: h264_qsv -crf 22 -preset medium

HandBrake Options

See the HandBrake documentation for complete commandline option details.
The typical HandBrake commandline is HandBrakeCLI [options] -i <source> -o <destination>.
E.g. HandBrakeCLI --input "/media/foo.mkv" --output "/media/bar.mkv" --format av_mkv --encoder x265 --quality 26 --encoder-preset medium --comb-detect --decomb --all-audio --aencoder copy --audio-fallback ac3

Settings allows for custom configuration of:

• HandBrakeOptions:Video: Video encoder options following the --encode parameter, e.g. x264 --quality 22 --encoder-preset medium
• HandBrakeOptions:Audio: Audio encoder options following the --aencode parameter, e.g. copy --audio-fallback ac3

Get encoder options:

• List all supported encoders: HandBrakeCLI.exe --help
• List presets supported by an encoder: HandBrakeCLI --encoder-preset-list svt_av1

Example video encoder options:

• H.264: x264 --quality 22 --encoder-preset medium
• H.265: x265 --quality 26 --encoder-preset medium
• AV1: svt_av1 --quality 30 --encoder-preset 5

Example hardware assisted video encoding options:

• NVidia NVENC:
  • See HandBrake documentation.
  • HandBrakeOptions:Video: nvenc_h264 --quality 22 --encoder-preset medium
• Intel QuickSync:
  • See HandBrake documentation.
  • HandBrakeOptions:Video: qsv_h264 --quality 22 --encoder-preset medium

Note that HandBrake is primarily used for video deinterlacing, and only as backup encoder when FFmpeg fails.
The default HandBrakeOptions:Audio configuration is set to copy --audio-fallback ac3 that will copy all supported audio tracks as is, and only encode to ac3 if the audio codec is not natively supported.

Language Matching

Language tag matching supports IETF / RFC 5646 / BCP 47 tag formats as implemented by MkvMerge.
During processing the absence of IETF language tags will treated as a track warning, and an RFC 5646 IETF language will be temporarily assigned based on the ISO639-2B tag.
If ProcessOptions.SetIetfLanguageTags is enabled MkvMerge will be used to remux the file using the --normalize-language-ietf extlang option, see the MkvMerge docs for more details.

Tags are in the form of language-extlang-script-region-variant-extension-privateuse, and matching happens left to right.
E.g. pt will match pt Portuguese, or pt-BR Brazilian Portuguese, or pt-PT European Portuguese.
E.g. pt-BR will only match only pt-BR Brazilian Portuguese.
E.g. zh will match zh Chinese, or zh-Hans simplified Chinese, or zh-Hant for traditional Chinese, and other variants.
E.g. zh-Hans will only match zh-Hans simplified Chinese.

Normalized tags will be expanded for matching.
E.g. cmn-Hant will be expanded to zh-cmn-Hant allowing matching with zh.

See the W3C Language tags in HTML and XML and BCP47 language subtag lookup for more details.

Usage

Use the PlexCleaner --help commandline option to get a list of commands and options.
To get help for a specific command run PlexCleaner <command> --help.

> ./PlexCleaner --help
Description:
  Utility to optimize media files for Direct Play in Plex, Emby, Jellyfin

Usage:
  PlexCleaner [command] [options]

Options:
  --logfile <logfile>  Path to log file
  --logappend          Append to existing log file
  --logwarning         Log warnings and errors only
  --debug              Wait for debugger to attach
  --version            Show version information
  -?, -h, --help       Show help and usage information

Commands:
  defaultsettings   Write default values to settings file
  checkfornewtools  Check for new tool versions and download if newer
  process           Process media files
  monitor           Monitor for file changes and process changed media files
  remux             Re-Multiplex media files
  reencode          Re-Encode media files
  deinterlace       De-Interlace media files
  removesubtitles   Remove subtitles from media files
  createsidecar     Create new sidecar files
  updatesidecar     Update existing sidecar files
  getversioninfo    Print application and tools version information
  getsidecarinfo    Print sidecar file information
  gettagmap         Print media information tag-map
  getmediainfo      Print media information using sidecar files
  gettoolinfo       Print media information using media tools
  createschema      Write settings schema to file

Global Options

Global options apply to all commands.

• --logfile:
  • Path to the log file.
• --logappend:
  • Append to the existing log file, default will overwrite the log file.
• --logwarning:
  • Only log errors and warnings to the log file, default will log all information.
• --debug:
  • Launch and wait for a debugger to attach.

Process Command

> ./PlexCleaner process --help
Description:
  Process media files

Usage:
  PlexCleaner process [options]

Options:
  --settingsfile <settingsfile> (REQUIRED)  Path to settings file
  --mediafiles <mediafiles> (REQUIRED)      Path to media file or folder
  --parallel                                Enable parallel processing
  --threadcount <threadcount>               Number of threads to use for parallel processing
  --testsnippets                            Create short media clips
  --testnomodify                            Do not make any file modifications
  --reverify                                Re-verify and repair media files in the VerifyFailed state
  --logfile <logfile>                       Path to log file
  --logappend                               Append to existing log file
  --logwarning                              Log warnings and errors only
  --debug                                   Wait for debugger to attach
  -?, -h, --help                            Show help and usage information

The process command will process the media content using options as defined in the settings file and the optional commandline arguments:

• Delete files with extensions not in the KeepExtensions list.
• Re-multiplex containers in the ReMuxExtensions list to MKV container format.
• Remove all tags, titles, thumbnails, cover art, and attachments from the media file.
• Set IETF language tags and Matroska track flags if missing.
• Set the language to DefaultLanguage for any track with an undefined language.
• If multiple audio tracks of the same language but different encoding formats are present, set the default track based on PreferredAudioFormats.
• Remove tracks with languages not in the KeepLanguages list.
• Remove duplicate tracks, where duplicates are tracks of the same type and language.
• Re-multiplex the media file if required.
• Deinterlace the video track if interlaced.
• Remove EIA-608 Closed Captions from video streams.
• Re-encode video if video format matches ReEncodeVideo.
• Re-encode audio if audio matches the ReEncodeAudioFormats list.
• Verify the media container and stream integrity, if corrupt try to automatically repair, else conditionally delete the file.

Options:

• --settingsfile: (required)
  • Path to the settings file.
• --mediafiles: (required)
  • Path to file or folder containing files to process.
  • Paths with spaces should be double quoted.
  • Repeat the option to include multiple files or directories, e.g. --mediafiles path1 --mediafiles "path with space" --mediafiles file1 --mediafiles file2.
• --reverify:
  • Re-verify and repair media files that are in the VerifyFailed state.
  • By default files would be skipped due to processing optimization logic when using sidecar files.
• --parallel:
  • Process multiple files concurrently.
  • When parallel processing is enabled, the default thread count is half the number of system cores.
• --threadcount:
  • Override the thread count when the --parallel option is enabled.
• --testsnippets:
  • Create short media clips that limit the processing time required, useful during testing.
• --testnomodify:
  • Process files but do not make any file modifications, useful during testing.

Example:

./PlexCleaner \
  --logfile PlexCleaner.log \
  process \
  --settingsfile PlexCleaner.json \
  --parallel \
  --mediafiles "C:\Foo With Space\Test.mkv" \
  --mediafiles D:\Media

Re-Multiplex, Re-Encode, De-Interlace, Remove Subtitles Commands

These commands have no conditional logic and will process all specified media files.

• remux:
  • Re-multiplex the media files using MkvMerge.
  • Useful to update the file with the latest multiplexer.
• reencode:
  • Re-encode the media files using FFmpeg.
• deinterlace:
  • De-interlace interlaced media files using HandBrake.
• removesubtitles:
  • Remove all subtitle tracks from the media files.
  • Useful when subtitles are forced and contains offensive language or advertising.

Monitor

• monitor:
  • Watch the specified folders for file changes, and periodically run the process command on the changed folders.
  • The monitor command honors the process options.
  • Note that the FileSystemWatcher used to monitor for changes may not always work as expected when changes are made via virtual or network filesystem, e.g. NFS or SMB backed volumes may not detect changes made directly to the underlying ZFS filesystem.

Create and Update Sidecar Files

• createsidecar:
  • Create or overwrite and re-create sidecar files.
  • All existing state attributes will be deleted.
• updatesidecar:
  • Update the existing sidecar with current media tool information.
  • Existing state attributes will be retained unless the media file had been modified.

Get Information

• gettagmap:
  • Calculate and print media file attribute mappings between between different media tools.
• getmediainfo:
  • Print media attribute information using the Sidecar file if present.
  • If sidecar is not present or out of date media tools will be used.
• gettoolinfo:
  • Print media attribute information using the current media tools.
• getsidecarinfo:
  • Print sidecar file attribute information.
• getversioninfo:
  • Print application version, runtime version, and media tools version information.

3rd Party Tools

• 7-Zip
• MediaInfo
• HandBrake
• MKVToolNix
• FFmpeg
• ISO 639-2 language tags
• ISO 639-3 language tags
• RFC 5646 language tags
• Xml2CSharp
• quicktype
• regex101.com
• JsonSchema.Net.Generation
• Serilog
• Nerdbank.GitVersioning
• Bring Your Own Badge
• Docker Hub Description
• Git Auto Commit
• Docker Run Action
• Rob Savoury's PPA

Sample Media Files

• Kodi
• JellyFish
• DemoWorld
• MPlayer
• Matroska

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