This is a collection of command line tools for managing media files such as movies or TV shows.
It also simplifies some common tasks such as converting files by wrapping complex ffmpeg
commands.
For example, to convert a file to H.265/HEVC with GPU acceleration and AAC audio, plus scale it down to 480p, you would normally have to run a command like:
ffmpeg -hwaccel cuda -hwaccel_output_format cuda -i test.mp4 -vf scale=-1:480 -c:v hevc_nvenc -preset fast -c:a aac -c:s copy -map 0:v -map 0:a -map 0:s out.mp4
Using this toolkit, it would be this instead:
manage-media convert --hw-nv --scale 480 --vc h265 test.mp4 out.mp4
Install the tools:
pip install media_management_scripts
You also need to install ffmpeg
(for most commands) and dialog
(for a few commands).
brew install ffmpeg dialog
sudo apt update && sudo apt install ffmpeg dialog
Most distros have an older version of ffmpeg
(which should still work!). You can install a newer version by following the instructions here.
If you want to use TVDB for some commands, create an account on https://www.thetvdb.com and create a legacy API key here
Create a file ~/.config/tvdb/tvdb.ini
with contents:
[tvdb]
username = <your_user_name>
userkey = <your_user_key>
apikey = <your_api_key>
Pass --help
to the subcommands for detailed help. Major features are explained in detail below.
Most commands that rename or move files have a dry-run mode (-n
or --dry-run
) which will output the actions without executing so you can verify the plan.
Help output
usage: manage-media [-h] [-v]
Sub commands
create-test-video Create a test video file with the specified definitions
combine-subtitles Combine a video files with subtitle file
combine-all Combine a directory tree of video files with subtitle file
concat-mp4 Concat multiple mp4 files together
convert Convert a file
executables Print the executables that will be used in other commands
find-episodes Find Season/Episode/Part using file names
itunes Attempts to rename iTunes episodes to the standard Plex format.
metadata Show metadata for a file
compare Compare metadata between files
compare-directory Compare metadata for files in a directory
movie-rename Renames a file based on TheMovieDB
rename Renames a set of files to the specified template
search Search for video files matching the specified parameters
select-streams Extract specific streams in a video file to a new file
subtitles Convert subtitles to SRT
thumbnail Extract a number of thumbnails from a video
tv-rename Renames files in a directory to sXXeYY. Can also use TVDB to name files (<show> - SxxeYY - <episode_name>)
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-v, --version Display version
manage-media convert <input> <output>
Convert a video file to different video or audio codecs. By default if no codecs are given, the file will be converted to H.264 with AAC audio.
The source file is left intact.
- Convert to H.264
manage-media convert --video-codec h264 <input> <output>
- Convert to HEVC/H.265:
manage-media convert --video-codec hevc <input> <output>
- Convert to HEVC with AC3 audio:
manage-media convert --video-codec hevc --audio-codec ac3 <input> <output>
- Convert to HEVC, but don't convert audio:
manage-media convert --vc hevc --ac copy <input> <output>
- Scale to 480p
manage-media convert --scale 480 <input> <output>
- Convert to H.264 and remove interlacing (such as on mpeg2 DVDs)
manage-media convert --vc h264 --deinterlace <input> <output>
- Convert a whole directory of files
manage-media convert --vc h264 --bulk <input dir> <output dir>
- Extract a portion of the video
manage-media convert --vc copy --ac copy --start 3m45s --end 10m00s <input> <output>
Your ffmpeg
must support the hardware acceleration you want to use. You can check this with ffmpeg -hwaccels
. If you see cuda
or videotoolbox
, then you can use the hardware acceleration below.
Using this can speed up the conversion process significantly!
If your ffmpeg
supports it and you have an NVIDIA GPU, you can use hardware acceleration to speed up the conversion. You can see the supported codecs for decoding & encoding for each GPU here.
To use this, just add --hardware-nvidia
or --hw-nv
to the manage-media convert
command.
manage-media convert --hw-nv --video-codec hevc --audio-codec ac3 <input> <output>
If your ffmpeg
supports it and you are using a Mac with Apple Silicon, you can use hardware acceleration for encoding by adding --hardware-apple
or --hw-apple
to the manage-media convert
command.
manage-media convert --hw-apple --video-codec h264 --audio-codec copy <input> <output>
Note: this might also work onn Intel Macs, but it is untested.
Get a simple output of metadata for a file. Or get lots of metadata in json format
manage-media metadata <input>
Battlestar Galatica (2003) - s00e01 - Battlestar Galactica The Miniseries (1).mkv
Directory: /Volumes/Media/TV Shows/Battlestar Galactica/Season 0/
Title: Battlestar Galactica: Season 1 (Disc 1)
Size: 6.8GB
Format: matroska,webm
Duration: 1h34m39s
Bitrate: 10117 Kbps
Video: h264 8 bit (1920x1080)
Audio:
aac (eng, 5.1)
Subtitles: eng, spa, fra
Ripped: True
manage-media metadata --json <input>
{
"file": "/Volumes/Media/TV Shows/Battlestar Galactica/Season 0/Battlestar Galatica (2003) - s00e01 - Battlestar Galactica The Miniseries (1).mkv",
"title": "Battlestar Galactica: Season 1 (Disc 1)",
"duration": 5679.362,
"duration_str": "1h34m39s",
"size": 7354722701,
"size_str": "6.8GB",
"resolution": "HIGH_DEF",
"bit_rate": 10359928,
"bit_rate_str": "10117 Kbps",
"ripped": true,
"format": "matroska,webm",
"format_long_name": "Matroska / WebM",
"mime_type": "video/x-matroska",
"tags": {
"title": "Battlestar Galactica: Season 1 (Disc 1)",
"RIPPED": "true",
"ENCODER": "Lavf57.56.100"
},
"video_streams": [ ... ],
"audio_streams": [ ... ],
"subtitle_streams": [ ... ],
"other_streams": [ ... ],
"chapters": [ ... ],
"interlace": null
}
manage-media rename <template> <input file>
or manage-media rename --recursive <template> <input directory>
A flexible tool to rename files based on a template.
Templates can include variables or expressions by surrounding with ${...}. Functions can be called like ${upper(i)}
or ${i | upper}
.
The following variables are available:
i
/index
- The index of the current file being renamedwo_ext
- The file name basename without the extensionext
- The file extension of the current file (without '.')filename
- The filename of the current file (basename)re
/regex
- A list of regex match groups (usere[0]
,re[1]
, etc)
The following functions are available:
upper
- Upper cases the inputlower
- Lower cases the inputifempty(a, b, c)
- If a is empty or null, then b, otherwise clpad(a, b:int)
- Left pads a to length b (defaults to 2+) with spaceszpad(a, b:int)
- Left pads a to length b (defaults to 2+) with zeros
lpad
/zpad
- By default pads to at least 2 characters. If there are 100+ files, then 3 characters, 1000+ files, then 4 characters, etc.
Regular Expressions: If a regex is included, the match groups (0=whole match, >0=match group) are available in a list 're' or 'regex'. Each match group is converted to an int if possible, so a zero padded int will lose the zeros.
Example Templates:
Input: S02E04.mp4
Regex: S(\d+)E(\d+)
Template: 'Season ${re[1]} Episode ${re[2]}.{ext}'
Result: 'Season 2 Episode 4.mp4'
Template: 'Season ${re[1] | zpad} Episode ${zpad(re[2], 3)}.{ext}'
Results: 'Season 02 Episode 004.mp4'
Input: whatever.mp4
Regex: S(\d+)E(\d)
Template: 'Season ${ifempty(re[1], 'unknown', re[1])} Episode ${re[2]}.{ext}'
Result: 'Season unknown Episode .mp4'
manage-media search <input directory> <query>
Searches a directory for video files matching parameters. Note: this can take a LONG time as it has to read the metadata for each file.
You can speed up multiple searches in the same directory with --db <file
which caches the metadata.
If a video has multiple streams, comparisons mean at least one stream matches.
Available parameters:
Video:
v.codec
- The video codec (h264, h265, mpeg2, etc)v.width
- The video pixel widthv.height
- The video pixel height
Audio:
a.codec
- The audio codec (aac, ac3)a.channels
- The number of audio channels (stereo=2, 5.1=6, etc)a.lang
- The language of the audio track
Subtitles:
s.codec
- The subtitle codec (srt, hdmv_pgs, mov_text, etc)s.lang
- The language of the subtitle track
Others:
ripped
- Whether the video is marked as ripped or notbit_rate
- The overall average bitrateresolution
- The resolution name (LOW_DEF, HIGH_DEF, etc)
Metadata:
meta.xyz
- Follows the basic JSON metadata output (e.g.meta.title
ormeta.video_streams[0].codec
)
Functions:
isNull(xyz)
- Returns true if the value is nullall(xyz)
- Instead of one stream matching, check all of them
Example Queries:
- Find all videos that are H264
v.codec = h264
- Find all videos that are H264 with stereo AAC
v.codec = h264 and a.codec = aac and a.channels = 2
- Find all videos that are H265 or H264 and AAC
a.codec = aac and (v.codec = h265 or v.codec = h264)
a.codec = aac and v.codec in [h265, h264]
- Find all videos without English Subtitles
s.lang != eng
- Find videos that are lower resolution than 1080
v.height < 1080
- Find all videos that have ONLY AAC audio
all(a.codec) = aac
Renames files in a directory to sXXeYY
For example, if you ripped some Battlestar Galactica blurays, you might have a file structure like:
- BSG_Season1_Disc1
- BSG_Season1_Disc1_t00.mkv
- BSG_Season1_Disc1_t01.mkv
- BSG_Season1_Disc1_t02.mkv
- BSG_Season1_Disc1_t03.mkv
- BSG_Season1_Disc2
- BSG_Season1_Disc2_t00.mkv
- BSG_Season1_Disc2_t01.mkv
- BSG_Season1_Disc2_t02.mkv
- BSG_Season1_Disc2_t03.mkv
manage-media tv-rename -s 1 -e 1 --tvdb --show "Battlestar Galactica" --output "BSG/Season 1" BSG_Season1_Disc*
Result
- BSG
- Season 1
- Battlestar Galatica (2003) - S01E01 - 33.mkv
- Battlestar Galatica (2003) - S01E02 - Water.mkv
- Battlestar Galatica (2003) - S01E03 - Bastille Day.mkv
- Battlestar Galatica (2003) - S01E04 - Act of Contrition.mkv
- Battlestar Galatica (2003) - S01E05 - You Can't Go Home Again.mkv
- Battlestar Galatica (2003) - S01E06 - Litmus.mkv
- Battlestar Galatica (2003) - S01E07 - Six Degrees of Separation.mkv
- Battlestar Galatica (2003) - S01E08 - Flesh and Bone.mkv
- Season 1
You can configuration where to find various executables by creating a file ~/.config/mms/config.ini
. By default, commands will use the executables found in your path.
You can see which tools are being used with manage-media executables
Config File Example
[main]
ffmpeg = /path/to/ffmpeg