Tools and other software Media-Buddy - the MKV Buddy successor. (10 Viewers)

[Lehmden]

Hi.
It's done! Today I was able to complete a full workflow with Media-Buddy V2 for the first time without constantly having to type in the CLI. The GUI and the serial wizard are now fully functional.

The settings you make here will be applied. Everything you've configured will be saved so it's available the next time you start the program. Then simply click "Let's go," just like in the "old" Media Buddy, and the magic begins:

Now, the videos in the input folder are processed according to the specific needs of each video. This means they are either re-encoded or remuxed, the audio is handled as configured, the track selection for audio and subtitles is taken into account, and after all videos have been processed, the scraper is called, the necessary fanart is loaded, the .nfo file is generated, the files are renamed, and the season folders are created if needed. Finally, the Matroska tags are set, provided the final file is indeed an .mkv file. It's the same tried-and-tested process as in version 1. A dialog box then appears:

The dialog will close automatically after a few seconds, unless you close it yourself beforehand.

Before I implement post-processing, I'll first work on the other assistants. The foundation is now in place and only needs minor adjustments for music videos and feature films. However, the automatic generation of fan art for "other" videos, a unique feature of Media-Buddy, will be significantly more complicated to implement, as there's currently nothing available for that.

In any case, I can now use the new version in everyday life and test it extensively.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

The GUI has been further refined; it looks even better now and takes up less space.

In addition, it is now fully localized.

To this end, various (though not yet all) of the global settings have been implemented in the GUI:

And the movie wizard is also fully functional. For some reason, I don’t have a screenshot of it handy, but it looks virtually identical to the one for TV series. Since the TV series assistant is currently running, I can’t provide one right now. I’ll add it later when I get the chance.

Things are progressing in leaps and bounds. Much more smoothly and quickly than I had anticipated. Not only am I gradually bringing back all the features from the "old" Media-Buddy, but I’m also adding entirely new ones. Furthermore, the existing features have almost all seen technical improvements, in some cases, quite significant ones. It’s a huge help that I had already conceived, implemented, and, where necessary, refined the core concepts for V1. Because of that, I know exactly how everything is supposed to work. Next up is the music video assistant; this didn’t exist in the "old" Media-Buddy, but it’s definitely part of the "new" one.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

Another milestone was reached today. I actually used Media-Buddy on Linux Mint 22.3 today.

As proof:

PySide6 is truly fantastic. The GUI runs just as smoothly and effectively on Linux as it does on Windows, without requiring any adjustments whatsoever. All GUI elements function identically across both operating systems.

However—as is often the case with Linux—getting it up and running was a real struggle. To begin with, PySide6 couldn't be installed in the "standard" way; I absolutely had to set up a virtual environment (venv). Then, essential system components—which really should have been present in a Linux environment—were missing, preventing Media-Buddy from launching. Furthermore, MKVToolnix was installed as a Flatpak, which is completely useless for Media-Buddy. So, it was back to square one, involving endless, tedious typing in the shell... To top it all off, the package manager installed an ancient version of FFmpeg (v6) as the "current" release—a version that was essentially useless. Outside the Linux world, we’re already at v9... And the headaches didn't stop there. In reality, the only way to get a usable version of FFmpeg on Linux is to build and compile it yourself. Every "pre-built" version available is so heavily stripped down that it’s entirely unfit for purpose—or, at the very least, completely unsuitable for Media-Buddy. Just when I was on the verge of abandoning the whole cross-platform endeavor, I stumbled upon a working solution in the most unexpected place: Jellyfin. They provide an FFmpeg build that the Jellyfin developers have carefully optimized for specific requirements—such as support for QSV, NVENC, and AMF.

All these QSV encoders can be used within this version of Jellyfin, provided the underlying hardware supports them. On my Core i5, for instance, AV1 and VP9 are not available, as they are not implemented in the GPU. Furthermore, this version is installed in such an unconventional location that Media-Buddy’s standard tool-detection feature—which otherwise works really well—could not locate or integrate it. Nevertheless, with this specific FFmpeg version, I was successfully able to use Media-Buddy V2 to transcode videos via QSV on Linux.

The only part that went completely smoothly was the installation and integration of dovi_tool and its "sibling," hdr10plus_tool. I simply downloaded the compiled binaries from GitHub and placed them in Media-Buddy’s "tools" subfolder; the tool-detection feature found and integrated them immediately.

I reckon I’ll soon be at a point where I can bring some beta testers—or perhaps more accurately, "pre-alpha" testers—on board. I’m particularly interested (though not exclusively) in how Media-Buddy V2 performs on hardware that I don’t personally own and therefore cannot test myself. If you’re interested, feel free to get in touch!

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

Today was a very productive, yet also exhausting day. I spent a full 12 hours working on Media-Buddy alongside the AI. The results, however, are well worth it. Since Thursday’s successful Linux test, all the video-editing modules that existed in the old Media-Buddy have been implemented and are now fully functional in the "new" version.

The first "metadata" section has also been integrated into the GUI; it no longer needs to be accessed via the CLI if one wishes to use it independently. The other three sections will be integrated into the GUI shortly—likely tomorrow.

The assistants for series, movies, music videos, and "other" videos are now fully functional, as are the features for recoding, remuxing, normalization, and video merging. As expected, the section for "other" videos proved the most demanding, as it required building something entirely new from the ground up. Just like in V2, Media-Buddy can automatically generate posters and fan art for these "other" videos—a process that now even works for portrait-oriented videos.

All in all, video editing—in all its facets—has been almost entirely carried over from V1 to V2, while also being improved and modernized. And all of this remains completely platform-independent.