[Feature Request] Pre-transcode videos in different resolutions

[AndreAle94]

Hello,

Would be nice to have a mechanism to automatically pre-transcode videos in background. This could help for having a fluid experience and reduce the latency when using cheap hardware [#225]. Ideally, it should coexist with the current implementation (e.g. someone could prefer doing it on the fly).

In my opinion:

• it should be possible to decide which qualities need to be generated (to be specified in config file)
• all the generated files should be stored in a different directory than the original files (e.g. an application specific directory - I'm not very familiar with Nextcloud app structure)
• when the source file is deleted, all the generated files should be removed

[relink2013]

This would be fantastic especially if we could specify the directory of the transcoded files. But in this way we could drastically increase the user experience but without needing to modify the original files.

[Cebrain]

Also wanted to say this would be a great feature.
I am testing also immich next to memories and this works like a charm.
All videos are played instantly because they are pre-transcoded. Default Setting is to transcode Videos to 720p which would save bandwith and would be enough on most mobile devies.

[craiq]

about the clearing problem mentioned in #700
what about tracking the last access to a transcoded file. All files with last access older then x months get deleted.
This would free space for deleted source files and very rare used files.
Also when storage gets short and a new transcode should start, the oldest accessed files will get deleted
To have plenty of storage is already mentioned in the docu, albeit I don't know the reason for now, as the files get deleted very fast.

[craiq]

additional to pre transcode, I would love to see already transcoded snippets stored and reused. So the pretranscode storage will fill itself. To continue this topic here, I'll close #907

In combination to #232 (comment) it would be great, when we could define the default transcoded quality (to eg 720p)