---
name: Convert Video
description: Convert video between containers through av-club — copying streams when the codec already fits, re-encoding when it does not.
category: Video
version: 1
mode: script
language: typescript
inline: ask
args:
  - file_path
inputs:
  file_path:
    type: string
    description: A video file, or a folder to convert recursively.
  target_format:
    type: string
    default: mp4
    options: [mp4, mkv, webm, mov]
    description: Container to convert to.
  delete_source:
    type: boolean
    default: false
    description: Delete each source file once its conversion has been written.
trigger:
  - type: file
    extensions: [mp4, mkv, webm, mov, avi, wmv, flv, m4v, mpg, mpeg, m2ts, mts, 3gp, ogv, vob, divx, asf, f4v]
  - type: directory
---

# Convert Video

Writes the result **beside the original** — `film.mkv` becomes `film.mp4` in the same folder.

**Streams are copied when they can be.** If the video and audio codecs already fit the target
container, this is a remux: lossless, and a hundred times faster than re-encoding. Only when a codec
does not fit is it re-encoded, at CRF 21 — constant quality, so the bitrate follows how difficult the
picture is rather than a number somebody guessed. Resolution and frame rate are never changed.

Skips a file already in the target container, and never overwrites an existing output.

## What this does not do yet

The version of this on the old machine also picked which audio and subtitle tracks to keep, downmixed
surround to stereo, and showed per-file percentage. None of that is here. Those belong with the
Jellyfin side of things rather than with basic conversion, and are deliberately left where they are
rather than half-ported.