Feature Request: Automatic media transcoding for different devices/bandwidths

[bcordis]

Summary

Would automatic transcoding of self-hosted media files (audio/video) to multiple quality levels be useful for your church?

This would allow Proclaim to automatically convert uploaded media into multiple formats and bitrates, so visitors on slower connections or mobile devices get an appropriately sized version.

What it would include

• Server-side transcoding via FFmpeg for self-hosted audio/video files
• Multiple quality variants (e.g., 1080p, 720p, 480p for video; 320kbps, 128kbps, 64kbps for audio)
• Adaptive bitrate streaming (HLS/DASH) so the player auto-switches quality based on connection speed
• Transcoding queue with background processing (files processed after upload)

Considerations

• External platforms already handle this: YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, SoundCloud, and other streaming platforms already transcode and serve adaptive streams. This feature would only benefit self-hosted media files.
• Server requirements: FFmpeg would need to be installed on the hosting server, which many shared hosts do not support.
• Storage: Multiple quality variants multiply storage requirements (3-5x per file).
• Processing time: Transcoding a 1-hour sermon video can take 30-60+ minutes depending on server hardware.

Your input

If this would be valuable for your setup, please upvote this discussion (👍 reaction). Comments describing your use case are also welcome — especially:

1. Do you self-host media files, or use external platforms?
2. What percentage of your congregation accesses sermons on mobile vs desktop?
3. Does your hosting environment support FFmpeg?

If there is not enough community interest, we will deprioritize this feature in favor of other improvements.