Tdarr Sample Workflow

[FunkyBuddha]

I've been using Tdarr to transcode my files to save space on my NAS. In the beginning, I was randomly selecting files to transcode. It was working, but it could have been more efficient. I came up with a workflow that keeps Tdarr busy and lets me identify files that could benefit from transcoding.

Workflow:

• Take an inventory of your media files - I use Mediainfo to identify the codec for each video file.
• Save your mediainfo output to a file - I used csv files.
• After letting Mediainfo inventory your media collection, use the output file and determine where the majority of the files need transcoding are located. I used Excel in the beginning, but found Tableau a better tool for visualization and drilling down.
• After locating the files, I move the batch to one of two staging folders - I do this to ensure that Tdarr is always transcoding one of the folders while I moved the transcoded files from the other folder back to their original location.

After implementing this workflow, I was able to triple my transcodes output. Tdarr was not running any faster, I only made sure that Tdarr always had a full queue.