hydrohs/handbrake repository overview

⁠Docker container for HandBrake

This is a Docker container for HandBrake⁠. Based on this container⁠.

The GUI of the application is accessed through a modern web browser (no installation or configuration needed on the client side) or via ssh using Xpra⁠.

A fully automated mode is also available: drop files into a watch folder and let HandBrake process them without any user interaction.

HandBrake is a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs.

⁠Table of Contents

• Docker container for HandBrake⁠
  • Table of Contents⁠
  • Quick Start⁠
  • Usage⁠
    • Environment Variables⁠
    • Data Volumes⁠
    • Ports⁠
    • Changing Parameters of a Running Container⁠
  • Docker Compose File⁠
  • Docker Image Update⁠
    • Synology⁠
    • unRAID⁠
  • User/Group IDs⁠
  • Accessing the GUI⁠
  • Reverse Proxy⁠
    • Apache⁠
    • Nginx⁠
  • Shell Access⁠
  • Automatic Video Conversion⁠
    • Multiple Watch Folders⁠
    • Video Discs⁠
    • Hooks⁠
    • Temporary Conversion Directory⁠

⁠Quick Start

NOTE: The Docker command provided in this quick start is given as an example and parameters should be adjusted to your need.

Launch the HandBrake docker container with the following command:

docker run -d \
    --name=handbrake \
    -p 2200:2200 \
    -p 10000:10000 \
    -v $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys:/authorized_keys:ro \
    -v /docker/appdata/handbrake:/config:rw \
    -v $HOME:/storage:ro \
    -v $HOME/HandBrake/watch:/watch:rw \
    -v $HOME/HandBrake/output:/output:rw \
    .

Where:

• $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys:/authorized_keys:ro: Is the file which contains SSH public keys for connecting via SSH.
• /docker/appdata/handbrake: This is where the application stores its configuration, log and any files needing persistency.
• $HOME: This location contains files from your host that need to be accessible by the application.
• $HOME/HandBrake/watch: This is where videos to be automatically converted are located.
• $HOME/HandBrake/output: This is where automatically converted video files are written.

Browse to http://your-host-ip:10000 to access the HandBrake GUI, or from a client with Xpra installed xpra attach ssh://your-host-ip:2200/10. Files from the host appear under the /storage folder in the container.

⁠Usage

docker run [-d] \
    --name=handbrake \
    [-e <VARIABLE_NAME>=<VALUE>]... \
    [-v <HOST_DIR>:<CONTAINER_DIR>[:PERMISSIONS]]... \
    [-p <HOST_PORT>:<CONTAINER_PORT>]... \
    .

⁠Environment Variables

To customize some properties of the container, the following environment variables can be passed via the -e parameter (one for each variable). Value of this parameter has the format <VARIABLE_NAME>=<VALUE>.

⁠Data Volumes

The following table describes data volumes used by the container. The mappings are set via the -v parameter. Each mapping is specified with the following format: <HOST_DIR>:<CONTAINER_DIR>[:PERMISSIONS].

⁠Ports

Here is the list of ports used by the container. They can be mapped to the host via the -p parameter (one per port mapping). Each mapping is defined in the following format: <HOST_PORT>:<CONTAINER_PORT>. The port number inside the container cannot be changed, but you are free to use any port on the host side.

⁠Changing Parameters of a Running Container

As can be seen, environment variables, volume and port mappings are all specified while creating the container.

The following steps describe the method used to add, remove or update parameter(s) of an existing container. The general idea is to destroy and re-create the container:

1. Stop the container (if it is running):

docker stop handbrake

1. Remove the container:

docker rm handbrake

1. Create/start the container using the docker run command, by adjusting parameters as needed.

NOTE: Since all application's data is saved under the /config container folder, destroying and re-creating a container is not a problem: nothing is lost and the application comes back with the same state (as long as the mapping of the /config folder remains the same).

⁠Docker Compose File

Here is an example of a docker-compose.yml file that can be used with Docker Compose⁠.

Make sure to adjust according to your needs. Note that only mandatory network ports are part of the example.

version: '3'
services:
  handbrake:
    build: .
    ports:
      - "2200:2200"
      - "10000:10000"
    volumes:
      - "$HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys:/authorized_keys:ro"
      - "/docker/appdata/handbrake:/config:rw"
      - "$HOME:/storage:ro"
      - "$HOME/HandBrake/watch:/watch:rw"
      - "$HOME/HandBrake/output:/output:rw"

⁠Docker Image Update

If the system on which the container runs doesn't provide a way to easily update the Docker image, the following steps can be followed:

1. Fetch the latest image:

docker pull hydrohs/handbrake

1. Stop the container:

docker stop handbrake

1. Remove the container:

docker rm handbrake

1. Start the container using the docker run command.

⁠Synology

For owners of a Synology NAS, the following steps can be used to update a container image.

1. Open the Docker application.
2. Click on Registry in the left pane.
3. In the search bar, type the name of the container (jlesage/handbrake).
4. Select the image, click Download and then choose the latest tag.
5. Wait for the download to complete. A notification will appear once done.
6. Click on Container in the left pane.
7. Select your HandBrake container.
8. Stop it by clicking Action->Stop.
9. Clear the container by clicking Action->Clear. This removes the container while keeping its configuration.
10. Start the container again by clicking Action->Start. NOTE: The container may temporarily disappear from the list while it is re-created.

⁠unRAID

For unRAID, a container image can be updated by following these steps:

1. Select the Docker tab.
2. Click the Check for Updates button at the bottom of the page.
3. Click the update ready link of the container to be updated.

⁠User/Group IDs

When using data volumes (-v flags), permissions issues can occur between the host and the container. For example, the user within the container may not exists on the host. This could prevent the host from properly accessing files and folders on the shared volume.

To avoid any problem, you can specify the user the application should run as.

This is done by passing the user ID and group ID to the container via the UID and GID environment variables.

To find the right IDs to use, issue the following command on the host, with the user owning the data volume on the host:

id <username>

Which gives an output like this one:

uid=1000(myuser) gid=1000(myuser) groups=1000(myuser),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),46(plugdev),113(lpadmin)

The value of uid (user ID) and gid (group ID) are the ones that you should be given the container.

⁠Accessing the GUI

Assuming that container's ports are mapped to the same host's ports, the graphical interface of the application can be accessed via:

• A web browser:

http://<HOST IP ADDR>:10000

• Via Xpra:

xpra attach ssh://<HOST IP ADDR>:2200/10

⁠Reverse Proxy

Xpra provides example configurations for both Apache and Nginx

⁠Apache

<Location "/xpra">

  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteCond %{HTTP:UPGRADE} ^WebSocket$ [NC]
  RewriteCond %{HTTP:CONNECTION} ^Upgrade$ [NC]
  RewriteRule .* ws://localhost:14500/%{REQUEST_URI} [P]

  ProxyPass ws://localhost:14500
  ProxyPassReverse ws://localhost:14500

  ProxyPass http://localhost:14500
  ProxyPassReverse http://localhost:14500
</Location>

⁠Nginx

server {
  listen        443 ssl http2;
  listen        [::]:443 ssl http2;
  server_name   www.example.com;

  location ^~ /xpra/ {
    proxy_pass       http://127.0.0.1:10000/;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
  }

⁠Shell Access

To get shell access to the running container, execute the following command:

docker exec -ti CONTAINER sh

Where CONTAINER is the ID or the name of the container used during its creation (e.g. crashplan-pro).

⁠Automatic Video Conversion

This container has an automatic video converter built-in. This is useful to batch-convert videos without user interaction.

Basically, files copied to the /watch container folder are automatically converted by HandBrake to a pre-defined video format according to a pre-defined preset. Both the format and the preset are specified via environment variables:

See the Environment Variables⁠ section for details about setting environment variables.

NOTE: A preset is identified by its category and its name.

NOTE: All default presets, along with personalized/custom ones, can be seen with the HandBrake GUI.

NOTE: Converted videos are stored, by default, to the /output folder of the container.

NOTE: The status and progression of conversions performed by the automatic video converter can be seen from both the GUI and the container's log. Container's log can be obtained by executing the command docker logs handbrake, where handbrake is the name of the container. Also, full details about the conversion are stored in /config/log/hb/conversion.log (container path).

⁠Multiple Watch Folders

If needed, up to 4 additionnal watch folders can be used:

• /watch2
• /watch3
• /watch4
• /watch5

This is useful in scenarios where videos need to be converted by different presets. For example, one could use a watch folder for movies and another watch folder for TV shows, both having different encoding quality requirements.

By default, additional watch folders inherits the same settings has the main one (/watch). A setting for a particular watch folder can be overrided by adding its index to the corresponding environment variable name.

For example, to set the HandBrake preset used to convert videos in /watch2, the environment variable AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_PRESET_2 is used. AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_PRESET_3 is used for /watch3, and so on.

All settings related to the automatic video converter can be overrided for each additional watch folder:

• AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_PRESET
• AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_FORMAT
• AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_SOURCE_STABLE_TIME
• AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_SOURCE_MIN_DURATION
• AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_OUTPUT_DIR
• AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_OUTPUT_SUBDIR
• AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_OVERWRITE_OUTPUT
• AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_KEEP_SOURCE
• AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_VIDEO_FILE_EXTENSIONS
• AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_NON_VIDEO_FILE_ACTION
• AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_NON_VIDEO_FILE_EXTENSIONS

⁠Video Discs

The automatic video converter supports video discs, in the folllowing format:

• ISO image file.
• VIDEO_TS folder (DVD disc).
• BDMV folder (Blu-ray disc).

Note that folder names are case sensitive. For example, video_ts, Video_Ts or Bdmv won't be treated as discs, but as normal directories.

Video discs can have multiple titles (the main movie, previews, extras, etc). In a such case, each title is converted to its own file. These files have the suffix .title-XX, where XX is the title number. For example, if the file MyMovie.iso has 2 titles, the following files would be generated:

• MyMovie.title-1.mp4
• MyMovie.title-2.mp4

It is possible to ignore titles shorted than a specific amount of time. By default, only titles longer than 10 seconds are processed. This duration can be adjusted via the AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_SOURCE_MIN_DURATION environment variable. See the Environment Variables⁠ section for details about setting environment variables.

When the source is a disc folder, the name of the converted video file will match its parent folder's name, if any. For example:

⁠Hooks

Custom actions can be performed using hooks. Hooks are shell scripts executed by the automatic video converter.

NOTE: Hooks are always invoked via /bin/sh, ignoring any shebang the script may have.

Hooks are optional and by default, no one is defined. A hook is defined and executed when the script is found at a specific location.

The following table describe available hooks:

During the first start of the container, example hooks are installed in /config/hooks/. Example scripts have the suffix .example. For example, you can use /config/hooks/post_conversion.sh.example as a starting point.

NOTE: Keep in mind that this container has the minimal set of packages required to run HandBrake. This may limit actions that can be performed in hooks.

⁠Temporary Conversion Directory

A video being converted is written in a hidden, temporary directory under the root of the output directory (/output by default). Once a conversion successfully terminates, the video file is moved to its final location.

This feature can be useful for scenarios where the output folder is monitored by another application: with proper configuration, one can make sure this application only "sees" the final, converted video file and not the transient versions.

If the monitoring application ignores hidden directories, then nothing special is required and the application should always see the final file.

However, if the monitoring application handles hidden directories, the automatic video converter should be configured with the AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_OUTPUT_SUBDIR environment variable sets to a subdirectory. The application can then be configured to monitor this subdirectory. For example, if AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_OUTPUT_SUBDIR is set to TV Shows and /output is mapped to $HOME/appvolumes/HandBrake on the host, $HOME/appvolumes/HandBrake/TV Shows should be monitored by the application.