ViCo - Recursive Video Compressor (TUI Edition)

ViCo (vicomp.sh) is a robust, menu-driven Bash utility for recursively optimizing video collections. It features a text-based user interface (TUI) for easy configuration, automatic hardware acceleration detection (NVENC, QSV, VAAPI), and intelligent error handling for robust batch processing.

Features

• Interactive Menu (TUI): A user-friendly text interface to browse directories and toggle settings without memorizing flags.
• Hardware Acceleration: Automatically detects and prioritizes:
  1. NVIDIA NVENC
  2. Intel QSV (Quick Sync Video) - Uses explicit iHD driver handling.
  3. VAAPI (Intel/AMD Generic)
  4. CPU (Software Fallback)
• Robust Path Handling: Safely handles filenames with spaces, special characters, and executes reliably even if the shell environment is unstable.
• Smart Audio: * Default: Copies audio streams bit-for-bit (no quality loss).
  • Downmix: Optional mode to re-encode and downmix multi-channel audio to Stereo AAC.
• Live Reporting: Generates a detailed HTML report (vico_report.html) that:
  • Auto-refreshes every 5 seconds during processing.
  • Tracks Original Size, New Size, Percentage Reduced, and Encoding FPS.
  • Summary: Displays total storage space saved (MB/GB) and total execution time upon completion.
• Safety: Includes signal trapping to clean up temporary files if the script is interrupted (Ctrl+C).

Prerequisites

The script will attempt to auto-install dependencies if they are missing (supports Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora/RHEL, Arch, OpenSUSE).

• bash
• ffmpeg (Required): For video encoding.
• ffprobe (Required): For video stream validation.
• dialog (Required): For the interactive menu interface.
• subliminal (Optional): Required only if using the -s flag for subtitles.

Usage

1. Interactive Mode (Recommended)

Simply run the script. It will launch a graphical menu in the terminal allowing you to browse for a folder and configure settings.

./vicomp.sh

2. Command Line / Headless

You can bypass the menu by providing flags or a directory argument.

./vicomp.sh [FLAGS] [DIRECTORY]

Flags

Flag	Description
-h, --help	Show help message.
--menu	Force launch of the interactive configuration menu.
-k, --keep	Keep Mode: Do NOT overwrite original files. Saves as _optimized.mp4.
-s, --subs	Subtitles: Download subtitles matching system language.
-r, --res VAL	Resolution: Target vertical resolution (720, 1080, 2160).
--no-hw	Force Software: Disable hardware acceleration.
--downmix	Downmix Audio: Re-encode audio to Stereo AAC (Default is Copy).
--no-recursive	Flat Scan: Process only the target folder, ignoring subdirectories.
--html	Report: Generate vico_report.html with live stats.

Examples

Open the Menu for the current directory:

./vicomp.sh

Headless 1080p compression (Overwrite originals, Copy Audio):

./vicomp.sh /media/movies

Process current folder only (no subfolders), Downmix audio:

./vicomp.sh --no-recursive --downmix .

Force CPU encoding for 4K files with HTML report:

./vicomp.sh --no-hw --html -r 2160 /path/to/videos 265 24

Installation

1. Save the script code to a file named vicomp.sh.
2. Make the script executable:

   chmod +x vicomp.sh

3. Run it:

   ./vicomp.sh