chunk_encoder/README.md

Chunk Encoder

Note: This project is a work in progress. The scripts, their features, and command-line arguments are subject to change.

A collection of Python scripts to automate a video encoding workflow. The process involves detecting scenes, cutting the source video into smaller segments, encoding each segment individually, and muxing them back into a final file.

Prerequisites

Ensure the following command-line tools are installed and available in your system's PATH:

• ffmpeg
• ffprobe
• SvtAv1EncApp.exe (from the SVT-AV1 project)
• mkvmerge (from the MKVToolNix package)

Workflow

The scripts are designed to be run in sequence. They create and use local directories (cuts, segments, temp) to store intermediate files.

1. Cut Video into Scenes

Use scene_cutter.py to analyze the video, detect scene changes, and split the source into lossless segments in the cuts/ directory.

python scene_cutter.py "path/to/your/video.mkv"

If your video has black bars, you can use the --autocrop flag to automatically detect and apply the correct crop values during this process.

python scene_cutter.py "path/to/your/video.mkv" --autocrop

2. Encode Segments

Use static_encoder.py to encode all segments from the cuts/ directory with a single, fixed CRF value. Encoded files will be placed in the segments/ directory.

python static_encoder.py --crf 27

3. Mux Final Video

Use segment_muxer.py to combine all the encoded .mkv files from the segments/ directory into a single output file.

python segment_muxer.py --cleanup

Using the --cleanup flag will automatically remove the cuts/ and segments/ directories upon successful completion of the muxing process.