Editing Openai/69505485-7d60-8001-98fc-66951636b1d8 (section)

=== Assistant: You can do this by lying to the container metadata duration / timescale while keeping almost no actual frames. ===
You can do this by lying to the container metadata (duration / timescale) while keeping almost no actual frames. Plex relies heavily on MP4 container metadata, not actual frame count.

The most reliable approach is FFmpeg with a very low framerate + stretched duration metadata.

==== This produces a valid MP4 that Plex will see as ~90 minutes, while staying ~1 MB. ====

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">ffmpeg -f lavfi -i color=c=black:s=16x16:r=0.000185 \
-c:v libx264 \
-pix_fmt yuv420p \
-t 5400 \
-movflags +faststart \
-profile:v baseline \
-level 1.0 \
-an \
90min.mp4

</syntaxhighlight>

===== - 5400 seconds = 90 minutes =====
* 0.000185 fps → only ~1 frame per 90 minutes
* Tiny resolution (16×16)
* No audio
* Baseline profile = Plex friendly

Result:
* ~500 KB – 1 MB
* Plex reports 1h 30m duration
* Plays instantly (or “ends” immediately depending on client)

==== If you want to keep exactly one frame and force duration metadata: ====

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">ffmpeg -loop 1 -i black.png \
-c:v libx264 \
-t 5400 \
-video_track_timescale 1000 \
-movflags +faststart \
-an \
90min.mp4

</syntaxhighlight>

Where black.png is a single black pixel or tiny image.

This relies on MP4 timing metadata, which Plex respects.

==== Run: ====

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">ffprobe 90min.mp4

</syntaxhighlight>

Look for:

<syntaxhighlight>Duration: 01:30:00.00

</syntaxhighlight>

If ffprobe sees it correctly, Plex almost certainly will.

==== - Plex does not validate frame density ====
* Plex trusts MP4 duration atom
* Avoid MKV — Plex recalculates duration sometimes
* No audio = smaller file and fewer playback issues

==== I can: ====
* Tune this to exactly 1.00 MB
* Make Plex think it’s TV-episode length instead
* Embed fake chapter markers
* Make it seekable or non-seekable
* Generate a version that never actually plays but still scans cleanly

Just say the word.