#!/usr/bin/env python3 """Benchmark Video Concat's pipeline stages on real disks. Runs ffmpeg with exactly the flags src-tauri/src/concat.rs uses, so the numbers mean what the app will do. Nothing here touches the app itself. python tools/bench_concat.py --ffmpeg-dir "C:/Users/me/Documents/VideoConcat" --make 6 --src D:/bench --dst D:/bench/out python tools/bench_concat.py --ffmpeg-dir ... --src D:/recordings/session --dst E:/out --reps 3 Stages: probe_serial one ffprobe per file, one after another (the pre-5.1 behaviour) probe_parallel bounded parallel probing mp4_faststart -c copy -movflags +faststart -> .mp4 (the pre-5.1 default) mp4_plain -c copy -> .mp4 (the 5.1 default) mkv -c copy -> .mkv raw_copy byte-for-byte copy of the same input bytes: the I/O floor Measured 2026-09-25, 6 x 60 s H.264/AAC FLV segments, 1.7 GB: local NVMe -> NVMe faststart 1.77 s plain 1.47 s raw 1.39 s NAS -> NAS (10GbE) faststart 27.4 s plain 10.9 s raw 6.9 s Mind the OS file cache: a second run over the same inputs reads them from RAM. Compare variants within one run, not across runs. """ from __future__ import annotations import argparse import os import shutil import statistics import subprocess import threading import time from pathlib import Path NOWIN = 0x08000000 if os.name == "nt" else 0 def tool(ffdir: str | None, name: str) -> str: exe = name + (".exe" if os.name == "nt" else "") if ffdir and (Path(ffdir) / exe).is_file(): return str(Path(ffdir) / exe) found = shutil.which(name) if not found: raise SystemExit(f"{name} not found - pass --ffmpeg-dir") return found def make_segments(ff: str, dst: Path, count: int, seconds: int) -> None: """High-bitrate H.264/AAC FLV segments, shaped like a BiliBili recording.""" dst.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True) seed = dst / "_seed.flv" subprocess.run([ff, "-hide_banner", "-loglevel", "error", "-y", "-f", "lavfi", "-i", "testsrc2=size=1280x720:rate=30", "-f", "lavfi", "-i", "sine=frequency=440:sample_rate=48000", "-t", "10", "-c:v", "libx264", "-preset", "ultrafast", "-b:v", "40M", "-minrate", "40M", "-maxrate", "40M", "-bufsize", "40M", "-x264-params", "nal-hrd=cbr:force-cfr=1", "-g", "60", "-c:a", "aac", "-b:a", "128k", "-f", "flv", str(seed)], check=True, creationflags=NOWIN) reps = max(1, seconds // 10) lst = dst / "_seed.txt" lst.write_text("".join(f"file '{seed.as_posix()}'\n" for _ in range(reps)), encoding="utf-8") first = dst / "seg1.flv" subprocess.run([ff, "-hide_banner", "-loglevel", "error", "-y", "-f", "concat", "-safe", "0", "-i", str(lst), "-c", "copy", "-f", "flv", str(first)], check=True, creationflags=NOWIN) for i in range(2, count + 1): shutil.copyfile(first, dst / f"seg{i}.flv") seed.unlink() lst.unlink() def probe(fp: str, path: Path) -> float: out = subprocess.run([fp, "-v", "error", "-show_entries", "format=duration", "-of", "default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1", str(path)], capture_output=True, text=True, creationflags=NOWIN) try: return float(out.stdout.strip()) except ValueError: return 0.0 def probe_parallel(fp: str, files: list[Path]) -> None: ts = [threading.Thread(target=probe, args=(fp, f)) for f in files] for t in ts: t.start() for t in ts: t.join() def concat(ff: str, files: list[Path], out: Path, faststart: bool) -> float: lst = out.parent / f".bench_list_{os.getpid()}.txt" lst.write_text("".join(f"file '{f.resolve().as_posix()}'\n" for f in files), encoding="utf-8") args = [ff, "-y", "-f", "concat", "-safe", "0", "-i", str(lst), "-c:v", "copy", "-c:a", "copy"] if faststart: args += ["-movflags", "+faststart"] args += ["-nostdin", "-hide_banner", "-loglevel", "error", str(out)] t0 = time.perf_counter() r = subprocess.run(args, capture_output=True, text=True, creationflags=NOWIN) dt = time.perf_counter() - t0 lst.unlink(missing_ok=True) if r.returncode: raise RuntimeError(r.stderr) return dt def raw_copy(files: list[Path], out: Path) -> float: t0 = time.perf_counter() with open(out, "wb") as o: for f in files: with open(f, "rb") as i: shutil.copyfileobj(i, o, 8 * 1024 * 1024) o.flush() os.fsync(o.fileno()) return time.perf_counter() - t0 def main() -> None: ap = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__, formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter) ap.add_argument("--ffmpeg-dir") ap.add_argument("--src", type=Path, required=True, help="folder with seg*.flv (or where --make writes them)") ap.add_argument("--dst", type=Path, required=True, help="where outputs are written (deleted after each run)") ap.add_argument("--make", type=int, default=0, metavar="N", help="first generate N segments in --src") ap.add_argument("--seconds", type=int, default=60, help="length of each generated segment") ap.add_argument("--reps", type=int, default=3) ap.add_argument("--only", help="comma list of stages to run") a = ap.parse_args() ff, fp = tool(a.ffmpeg_dir, "ffmpeg"), tool(a.ffmpeg_dir, "ffprobe") if a.make: print(f"generating {a.make} x {a.seconds}s segments in {a.src} ...") make_segments(ff, a.src, a.make, a.seconds) files = sorted(a.src.glob("seg*.flv")) if not files: raise SystemExit(f"no seg*.flv in {a.src} - use --make") only = set(a.only.split(",")) if a.only else None want = lambda s: only is None or s in only # noqa: E731 a.dst.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True) total_mb = sum(f.stat().st_size for f in files) / 1048576 print(f"inputs {len(files)} files, {total_mb:.0f} MB | {a.src} -> {a.dst} | median of {a.reps}\n") def timed(fn): t0 = time.perf_counter() fn() return time.perf_counter() - t0 if want("probe_serial"): t = statistics.median(timed(lambda: [probe(fp, f) for f in files]) for _ in range(a.reps)) print(f"{'probe_serial':15s} {t * 1000:8.0f} ms") if want("probe_parallel"): t = statistics.median(timed(lambda: probe_parallel(fp, files)) for _ in range(a.reps)) print(f"{'probe_parallel':15s} {t * 1000:8.0f} ms") results = {} for name, ext, fs in (("mp4_faststart", ".mp4", True), ("mp4_plain", ".mp4", False), ("mkv", ".mkv", False)): if not want(name): continue runs = [] for _ in range(a.reps): out = a.dst / f"bench_{name}{ext}" runs.append(concat(ff, files, out, fs)) out.unlink() results[name] = t = statistics.median(runs) print(f"{name:15s} {t:8.2f} s {total_mb / t:6.0f} MB/s") if want("raw_copy"): runs = [] for _ in range(a.reps): out = a.dst / "bench_raw.bin" runs.append(raw_copy(files, out)) out.unlink() t = statistics.median(runs) print(f"{'raw_copy':15s} {t:8.2f} s {total_mb / t:6.0f} MB/s <- I/O floor") if "mp4_faststart" in results and "mp4_plain" in results: d = results["mp4_faststart"] - results["mp4_plain"] print(f"\n+faststart costs {d:.2f} s = {100 * d / results['mp4_faststart']:.0f}% of a faststart run") if __name__ == "__main__": main()