Profiles

Profiles define how Alchemist handles files in a given directory. Each watch directory gets its own profile.

Built-in presets

Profile	Codec	Best for
Space Saver	AV1	Old TV, content you rarely rewatch
Balanced	AV1	General libraries (default)
Quality First	HEVC	Movies, anything you care about
Streaming	H.264	Remote access, older or limited devices

What profiles control

• Output codec — AV1, HEVC, or H.264
• Quality profile — speed/quality tradeoff preset
• BPP threshold — minimum bits-per-pixel to transcode
• Size reduction threshold — minimum predicted savings
• Min file size — skip files below this (MB)
• Stream rules — which audio tracks to keep or strip
• Subtitle mode — copy, burn, extract, or drop
• HDR mode — preserve metadata or tonemap to SDR
• Custom video filters — optional FFmpeg filter chain for advanced per-library video handling

Assigning profiles

Select a profile when adding a directory in Settings → Library. Changeable at any time — jobs already queued use the profile they were planned with.

Smart skipping

Files already meeting the profile’s targets are skipped automatically. Every skip is recorded with a reason. See Skip Decisions.