Fast video converter for Linux?

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Context: I'm currently using an older Samsung phone to convert h264 dashcam videos to HEVC/h265 to save space. These are many, 10 minute long videos, and the process is incredibly labour intensive, since I have to do each one manually.

The conversion itself is really fast (maybe 2-3 minutes), and the results are excellent (usually half the size with the same quality).

Question: Is there software for Linux that can convert at similar speeds, preferably batched? Handbreak has been incredibly slow.

Caveat: I'm using a Framework 13 (11th gen Intel) laptop with an Intel integrated graphics card, so I can't really leverage that in the same way a dedicated GPU can be. But still, I can only imagine that my laptop should be able to outperform my super old phone! LOL

I'm not really looking to compress the videos (I've experimented, and the quality loss from an already "poor" source just doesn't cut it). HEVC/h265 conversion would be ideal.

Is there anything else I can try?

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Everyone uses ffmpeg for this and Handbrake probably uses it also. I do most of my own conversions on a cheap dedicated server so it's not a big deal if it takes a while, but yeah, h265 is slow.

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ffmpeg is usually the tool of choice.

An example for batch converting of all AVI videos in a folder:

for i in *.avi; do ffmpeg -i "$i" "${i%.*}.mp4"; done

Source & further reading here on StackOverflow. The comments to the answer provide examples of how to explicitly tweak the quality level. Inverting what this specific comment suggests, conversion from H264 to H265 could be done by something like this, assuming all your videos' names end on .mkv:

for f in *.mkv; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -map 0 -movflags faststart -c:v libx265 -c:a copy -c:s copy "${f/x264/x265}"; done

I wonder: if one wants to make things run in parallel, would that be as easy as adding " & " before the last semicolon here? I suspect this could work as long as there are only a few handful of files, but lead to troubles once there's more.

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Try shutter its gui for ffmpeg https://www.shutterencoder.com/
And still I would use av1 or vp9

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It does, handbrake is a fantastic piece of software

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Try shutter its gui for ffmpeg https://www.shutterencoder.com/

This looks nice!

And still I would use av1 or vp9

Reasons?

The videos I'm trying to convert are not the type that I'd need to play through Jellyfin or anything like that. More archival dash cam footage that does need to be accessible. Small size without (much) quality loss is my priority, but I can't spend 12h a day converting them over. ‍

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You're wrong about not being able to levelage your Intel graphics. Intel 11th gen has hardware HEVC (h265) encoding. Your Samsung phone probably also has HEVC hardware encoding faster than your CPU encoding. You want the ffmpeg hevc_vaapi codec, and it should go even faster if you use -hwaccel vaapi for decoding.

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I know it can be leveraged, but it's not nearly as powerful as a dedicated GPU. I was converting in Windows using Intel Quick Sync, but never found it to be "fast", at least not when compared to my old Samsung phone.

Thanks for the tip, though. I will try to leverage it!

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Handbreak is really slow, though. For context, in the time it takes handbreak to convert one of these videos, I would have done like 5 or 6 on my smartphone.

Batch conversion is great, though. I just need it to be done in less than an entire day.

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Did you set it up to use Intel Quicksync? If you're using CPU only it's going to be insanely slow.

so I can’t really leverage that in the same way a dedicated GPU can be.

You can, and Intel Quicksync is often better than a dedicated GPU for transcoding video.

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VP9 is actually very good when it comes to reducing file size without a big hit to quality. It usually gives you smaller files than H.265 for the same visual result.
AV1 takes that a step further. It’s currently the best option if your goal is to get the smallest file size while keeping as much of the original quality as possible. It’s more efficient than both H.265 and VP9 in that regard.
The only tradeoff is that AV1 takes longer to encode, especially on CPUs without dedicated hardware support but for archiving purposes where speed isn’t critical, it’s often worth it.

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Didn’t ffmpeg just post another huge speed gain?

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It won't get much faster than properly used Handbrake.

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Only when using one specific obscure filter

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FFmpeg is your friend. Here's a command that should work:

mkdir converted; for i in *.mp4; do ffmpeg -i $i converted/${i::-3}.hevc; done

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Ok, you absolutely set me on the right path! I didn't realize that in Linux (using Flatpak Handbrake), I needed a separate plugin for Quicksync.

I've been running tests, and tweaking the profiles, but goddamn is it fast now! Faster than when I was using it in Windows.

Thank you!

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Awesome! It definitely makes a huge difference, and the quality on 11th gen Intel should be nearly as good as CPU transcoding.

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And using the app "Identity" (also a Flatpak), comparing the quality differences is suuuuper easy!

Goddamn, I love FOSS!

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Fast video converter for Linux?