CodeIgniter FFmpeg Video Optimizer

My education platform is running on CodeIgniter, and I want every video that lands on the server—whether it comes from instructors or admins—to be automatically compressed and repackaged in several resolutions so students can choose the quality that fits their bandwidth. I’m planning to do this entirely with FFmpeg on our own server, no third-party SaaS.

Here’s what I need built directly into the existing upload flow:

• A server-side FFmpeg pipeline that fires as soon as an upload finishes, producing at least three renditions (for example 1080p, 720p, 480p—exact ladder is up for discussion).
• Clean storage logic: originals kept or discarded based on a flag, renditions named predictably and linked in the database.
• A simple, mobile-friendly quality selector added to the current player; a dropdown, radio set, or any equally intuitive control is fine.
• A queue, cron, or background-job approach so large files never time out the PHP request.
• Progress or status feedback during processing plus clear installation notes so I can replicate the setup on staging.

Acceptance test: I will upload a ~1 GB MP4; the site should show separate quality options, each file size must reflect real compression gains, and playback must be smooth on desktop and mobile.

If you’ve tackled FFmpeg, HLS, or multi-bitrate streaming inside CodeIgniter before, this should feel familiar. Let’s get this running so students can watch at any speed without clogging our storage.