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What FileVerdict does

FileVerdict is a desktop app for tidying up video files before they go into a media server such as Plex or Jellyfin. It looks inside each file, works out what every audio and subtitle track really is, suggests which to keep, which to remove and what the file should be called, and then makes those changes once you have approved them. It can also re-encode video to make files smaller.

This page explains the problem it deals with, what it does about it, and how the app is organised. You don’t need to know anything about video files to read it.

What’s inside a video file

Section titled “What’s inside a video file”

A single video file usually holds more than one stream of content, each called a track:

  • one video track, the picture;
  • one or more audio tracks: the main soundtrack, perhaps in several languages, a commentary, or an audio description for blind and partially sighted viewers;
  • often several subtitle tracks: full subtitles, subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH), and short forced tracks that only translate the odd line of another language or a sign on screen.

Each track carries a few labels: a language, sometimes a name (“English SDH”, “Director’s Commentary”), and some flags. Two flags matter most. Default tells a player which track to start with. Forced marks a subtitle track that should show even when subtitles are switched off, because it translates something the viewer would otherwise miss.

Why the labels matter

Section titled “Why the labels matter”

A media server doesn’t watch the film to choose a track. It reads the labels and flags. When they are wrong, it picks the wrong track, and it does so every time the file is played:

  • a commentary track marked as the default audio, so the film starts with someone talking over it;
  • a forced track labelled simply “English”, which the server shows as the full subtitles, so almost nothing appears on screen;
  • a forced track that isn’t flagged as forced, so the translated lines never show unless you turn subtitles on;
  • the same subtitle track stored twice, or tracks in languages you will never use;
  • a filename like Some Movie_t00.mkv, which the server can’t match to a title, so it ends up unidentified or matched to the wrong thing.

Files often arrive like this. Fixing it by hand means inspecting each file with specialist tools and editing it track by track.

What FileVerdict does about it

Section titled “What FileVerdict does about it”

It reads the tracks, not just the labels. For a subtitle track it looks at how much text there is and how it’s spread through the running time: full subtitles have a line every few seconds, a forced track has a few dozen lines in total. It reads the words too, which is how it tells an SDH track from a plain one, or a subtitled commentary from the dialogue. Picture-based subtitles are read with text recognition. Audio tracks are judged from their language, channels, codec, length and name.

It gives each track a verdict. Subtitle tracks come out as Full, SDH, Foreign Language, On-Screen Text or Commentary; audio tracks as Main, Alternate, Commentary or Descriptive. Where it isn’t confident, it says so and marks the track Suggested for you to decide, rather than guessing. The Subtitles guide describes each verdict.

It proposes changes from those verdicts:

  • keep the tracks you want and remove the rest (other languages, commentary, duplicates), following rules you can change in Settings;
  • set the default and forced flags so the right track plays;
  • give tracks clear names;
  • rename the file to a name the media server recognises, such as Some Movie (2015).mkv or Some Show - S01E02.mkv, using a title looked up online, and optionally move it into a tidy library folder.

Nothing changes until you approve it. Every verdict and every rename is a proposal you can see, question and change. The evidence behind each verdict is shown beside it, so you can see why a track was judged the way it was.

It can also make files smaller. Re-encoding the video with a more efficient format can save a lot of disk space. This is optional, and slower, since it means processing the whole video.

How the app is laid out

Section titled “How the app is laid out”

Once you add some files, the app has three stages, shown as tabs across the top:

Stage What you do there
Organise Review the verdicts for each track and the suggested filename, change anything you disagree with, and apply the result
Compress Choose whether, and how, to re-encode the video to make files smaller. Optional
Queue Watch the work run, file by file, with progress and time remaining

Tidying tracks and names alone takes seconds and is done straight from Organise, because the video itself isn’t re-encoded. By default the changes are written to a new file and your original is left untouched. Re-encoding takes as long as encoding takes, and runs through the Queue.

Separately from the three stages, Tools holds extras. The library health check gives a quick overview of a whole library’s problems without changing anything.

What it doesn’t do

Section titled “What it doesn’t do”
  • It doesn’t play video or replace your media server. It prepares files for one.
  • It doesn’t download films or episodes.
  • It doesn’t connect to your media server. Once files are fixed, your server picks up the changes the next time it scans its library.
  • It doesn’t send your files anywhere. Everything is done on your PC; the only things sent online are a guessed title for the rename lookup, the licence check and the update check. The title lookup and the update check can be switched off. See Privacy and network access.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”