Continue transcode/import feature work and fix bugs found by audit

These four files mix two things too interleaved to commit separately:
in-progress work on anime pipeline tuning (quality/preset/thread
config, per-pipeline parallelism caps), sampled decode verification,
and subtitle-codec-aware remuxing that predates this commit, plus a
set of correctness fixes from an independent Opus 5 review applied
directly on top of it:

- Attached-pic (cover art) streams could be probed as the real video
  stream when they came first, silently replacing the actual
  codec/height (ffprobe.rs)
- probe_failed rows (null codec/height) were enqueued for transcode
  and could never be claimed again, due to the unique partial index -
  should_enqueue now rejects them
- tokio::try_join! cancelled the sibling pipeline's in-flight
  spawn_blocking encode on the first Err instead of letting it finish
- Duplicate episode_file rows for the same media only had one swept on
  an upgrade swap, leaving stale rows/files behind
- File-swap and DB-write on transcode completion weren't atomic;
  wrapped in a transaction and made probe-refresh failure non-fatal
- In-progress transcode temp files were visible to library scans
  (video extension, no dotfile prefix) and could get imported mid-encode
- Remux temp files leaked on error paths; a Jellyfin refresh failure
  failed the whole import cycle instead of just logging
- insufficient_space could false-positive when the download and
  library dirs are on the same filesystem (rename is free there)
- Config validation for reference_height and min_size_reduction_pct,
  which previously could silently divide-by-zero or overflow deep
  inside an encode

breadarr-shared/src/config.rs

@@ -297,14 +297,42 @@ pub struct TranscodeConfig {
     pub poll_interval_secs: u64,
     #[serde(default = "default_vaapi_device")]
     pub vaapi_device: String,
+    /// Applies to both pipelines identically when Jellyfin reports an
+    /// active transcoding session — deliberately not split per-pipeline;
+    /// when someone's actually watching something, both the GPU (which
+    /// they're using) and CPU (contending for the same box) should back off.
     #[serde(default = "default_parallelism_min")]
     pub parallelism_min: usize,
-    /// Ramp-up ceiling for concurrent encode streams during a backfill —
+    /// The total concurrent **live-action** (`av1_vaapi`, GPU-bound) stream
-    /// tune this against how many simultaneous `av1_vaapi` sessions the
+    /// budget — not just "the batch job's cap", but the real ceiling the
-    /// target GPU can actually sustain before per-stream throughput starts
+    /// GPU can sustain at all, batch work and live Jellyfin viewers
-    /// dropping, not just picked arbitrarily.
+    /// combined. `transcode::live_action_parallelism_for` subtracts however
+    /// many Jellyfin transcode sessions are actually active from this
+    /// number to get the batch job's actual parallelism each cycle, so
+    /// real viewers get exactly the headroom they need rather than the
+    /// batch job dropping to a flat minimum regardless of how many people
+    /// are watching. Deliberately separate from `parallelism_max_anime` —
+    /// the two pipelines contend for genuinely different hardware (GPU
+    /// encode engine vs CPU threads), so raising one shouldn't raise the
+    /// other. Empirically calibrated on Hestia's Arc A380: per-stream
+    /// throughput stays above 1.5x realtime through 7 concurrent streams,
+    /// crosses below it at 8 (aggregate throughput itself plateaus around
+    /// ~12x realtime from 5-6 streams on, i.e. the GPU's actual saturation
+    /// point) — see [[breadarr-av1-transcode]] for the full scaling-test
+    /// numbers.
     #[serde(default = "default_parallelism_max")]
     pub parallelism_max: usize,
+    /// Ramp-up ceiling for concurrent **anime** (`libsvtav1`, CPU-bound)
+    /// encode streams — capped separately from `parallelism_max` (see its
+    /// doc comment) precisely because a single shared cap would let "raise
+    /// GPU parallelism" accidentally also raise anime concurrency, and
+    /// anime jobs are CPU-thread-hungry (`anime_svtav1_max_threads` each)
+    /// in a way live-action jobs aren't. Kept at the original
+    /// conservative shared-cap default (2) since concurrent-anime-job
+    /// memory/CPU behavior at higher counts hasn't been load-tested the
+    /// way the live-action GPU path has.
+    #[serde(default = "default_parallelism_max_anime")]
+    pub parallelism_max_anime: usize,
     /// The "looks fine, no complaints" calibration reference: a real
     /// bitrate (Mbps, in kbps here) from content already in the library at
     /// `reference_height` that the user is happy with. New AV1 encodes are
@@ -332,6 +360,82 @@ pub struct TranscodeConfig {
     /// anyway) — revisit once HDR handling is confirmed safe.
     #[serde(default = "default_exclude_min_height")]
     pub exclude_min_height: u32,
+    /// `global_quality` for the live-action `av1_vaapi` `QVBR` encode — the
+    /// actual quality driver now that rate control is quality-based rather
+    /// than a flat bitrate target (see `run_ffmpeg_encode_live_action`).
+    /// `reference_bitrate_kbps`/`av1_efficiency_factor` still compute a
+    /// `-b:v`/`-maxrate`/`-bufsize` ceiling alongside this, so a source that's
+    /// already unusually efficient doesn't get inflated up toward the
+    /// ceiling — QVBR only spends up to it on content that actually needs it.
+    #[serde(default = "default_quality_live_action")]
+    pub quality_live_action: u32,
+    /// Root folder path prefixes (exact string prefix match against
+    /// `episode_file.path`) routed to the anime encode pipeline
+    /// (`run_ffmpeg_encode_anime`) instead of the live-action one, regardless
+    /// of `anime_mapping`/`anime_tmdb_movie` metadata coverage — path is a
+    /// more reliable signal than TVDB/TMDB anime-list membership, which has
+    /// real gaps (e.g. Avatar: The Last Airbender and some Dragon Ball movies
+    /// were missing from those tables and slipped through as "not anime").
+    /// Empty by default (a no-op) — set per-deployment to match how the
+    /// library is actually organized.
+    #[serde(default)]
+    pub anime_root_folders: Vec<String>,
+    /// CRF for the anime pipeline's software `libsvtav1` encode (0-63, lower
+    /// = higher quality/larger). No hardware AV1 10-bit encode entrypoint
+    /// exists on Hestia's Arc A380 (`vainfo` only lists `AV1Profile0`,
+    /// 8-bit) — anime needs true 10-bit output to avoid banding in the flat
+    /// gradients the art style is full of, so this pipeline trades GPU
+    /// offload for CPU-based `libsvtav1` specifically to get it.
+    #[serde(default = "default_quality_anime")]
+    pub quality_anime: u32,
+    /// `libsvtav1` preset (0-13, lower = slower/better compression AND more
+    /// memory-hungry — SVT-AV1's lookahead/reference buffering scales with
+    /// preset, not just thread count). Raised from an initial guess of 6 to
+    /// 10 after a real validation run hit a genuine kernel OOM: preset 6 on
+    /// a single 1080p anime episode grew to 9.3GB resident memory on
+    /// Hestia's 6-core/12-thread box. This runs as unattended background
+    /// work, so trading some compression efficiency for a much smaller,
+    /// safer memory footprint is the right call — see
+    /// `anime_svtav1_max_threads` for the other half of that fix.
+    #[serde(default = "default_anime_svtav1_preset")]
+    pub anime_svtav1_preset: u32,
+    /// Passed to `libsvtav1` as `-svtav1-params lp=N` — caps how many
+    /// worker threads it uses, independent of preset. More parallel workers
+    /// means more concurrently-buffered frames, so this is the other lever
+    /// (alongside `anime_svtav1_preset`) for bounding the encoder's peak
+    /// memory to something predictable regardless of how many cores the
+    /// host actually has. Default is conservative (well under a typical
+    /// modern host's core count) after the same OOM incident that raised
+    /// the preset default.
+    #[serde(default = "default_anime_svtav1_max_threads")]
+    pub anime_svtav1_max_threads: u32,
+    /// Hard floor on what counts as "worth keeping": a transcode whose
+    /// output isn't at least this fraction smaller than the original is
+    /// discarded (job marked `skipped`, original left untouched) rather than
+    /// swapped in. Exists because quality-driven rate control can still
+    /// occasionally produce an output that's the same size as or larger than
+    /// an already-efficient source — this is the invariant that makes that
+    /// safe regardless of how good the rate-control tuning is, after a real
+    /// incident where flat-bitrate VBR targeting silently produced files
+    /// *larger* than the original on the majority of a backfill.
+    #[serde(default = "default_min_size_reduction_pct")]
+    pub min_size_reduction_pct: f64,
+    /// Skip attempting a transcode at all (no GPU/CPU time spent) when the
+    /// source's current bitrate is already at or below this fraction of the
+    /// resolution-scaled ceiling (`target_bitrate_kbps`) — a strong signal
+    /// there's little room left to save, so it's not worth the encode time
+    /// to find out (the `min_size_reduction_pct` check above would reject
+    /// most of these anyway, this just avoids paying for that finding).
+    #[serde(default = "default_skip_below_ceiling_ratio")]
+    pub skip_below_ceiling_ratio: f64,
+    /// Size (seconds) of each of the three start/middle/end windows
+    /// `ffprobe::verify_decodable_sampled` actually decodes, instead of the
+    /// whole file — a full decode verification was measured as the actual
+    /// CPU bottleneck of a transcode cycle (400%+ CPU per job, dwarfing the
+    /// GPU encode time), not the encode itself. Bounds verification cost to
+    /// a small constant regardless of source length.
+    #[serde(default = "default_verify_sample_secs")]
+    pub verify_sample_secs: f64,
 }
 
 impl Default for TranscodeConfig {
@@ -342,11 +446,20 @@ impl Default for TranscodeConfig {
             vaapi_device: default_vaapi_device(),
             parallelism_min: default_parallelism_min(),
             parallelism_max: default_parallelism_max(),
+            parallelism_max_anime: default_parallelism_max_anime(),
             reference_bitrate_kbps: default_reference_bitrate_kbps(),
             reference_height: default_reference_height(),
             av1_efficiency_factor: default_av1_efficiency_factor(),
             exclude_hdr: default_exclude_hdr(),
             exclude_min_height: default_exclude_min_height(),
+            quality_live_action: default_quality_live_action(),
+            anime_root_folders: Vec::new(),
+            quality_anime: default_quality_anime(),
+            anime_svtav1_preset: default_anime_svtav1_preset(),
+            anime_svtav1_max_threads: default_anime_svtav1_max_threads(),
+            min_size_reduction_pct: default_min_size_reduction_pct(),
+            skip_below_ceiling_ratio: default_skip_below_ceiling_ratio(),
+            verify_sample_secs: default_verify_sample_secs(),
         }
     }
 }
@@ -364,12 +477,25 @@ fn default_parallelism_min() -> usize {
 }
 
 fn default_parallelism_max() -> usize {
-    // Conservative on purpose: a real incident on a shared 15GB host
+    // The measured total GPU budget (not "batch cap plus a static
-    // running a dozen+ other containers showed concurrent 1080p/4K
+    // reservation") — `live_action_parallelism_for` dynamically subtracts
-    // decode+encode sessions can push memory pressure into swap fast
+    // real Jellyfin transcode sessions from this each cycle. Raised from
-    // enough to trigger the OOM killer well before the GPU itself is the
+    // an initial conservative guess of 2 after an actual concurrent-stream
-    // bottleneck. Raise this deliberately, per-deployment, once you've
+    // scaling test on Hestia's Arc A380 (see `parallelism_max`'s doc
-    // watched `free -h` under real load at the current setting.
+    // comment): per-stream throughput stays above 1.5x realtime through 7
+    // total concurrent streams, crossing below at 8.
+    7
+}
+
+fn default_parallelism_max_anime() -> usize {
+    // Kept at the original conservative shared-cap value — unlike
+    // `parallelism_max`, this hasn't been load-tested at higher counts.
+    // A real incident already showed a *single* uncapped anime job could
+    // hit 9.3GB resident memory; multiple concurrent anime jobs (each its
+    // own `anime_svtav1_max_threads`-sized thread pool) multiply both CPU
+    // thread contention and memory pressure in a way the GPU path doesn't
+    // have to worry about. Raise deliberately, per-deployment, only after
+    // watching `free -h` and CPU load under real concurrent-anime load.
     2
 }
 
@@ -393,6 +519,43 @@ fn default_exclude_min_height() -> u32 {
     2000
 }
 
+// Starting point for `av1_vaapi`'s `-global_quality` under `QVBR`, needs the
+// same real-hardware calibration pass as the bitrate reference did — this is
+// a reasonable guess (roughly x264/x265 "visually near-lossless" territory
+// on the encoder's internal QP-like scale), not a measured value.
+fn default_quality_live_action() -> u32 {
+    26
+}
+
+// SVT-AV1 CRF starting point for the anime pipeline — slightly lower
+// (higher quality) than the live-action guess above since flat-color/
+// gradient-heavy anime content shows banding more readily than live-action
+// grain/texture does at the same nominal quality level. Also unvalidated
+// against real hardware/content yet.
+fn default_quality_anime() -> u32 {
+    24
+}
+
+fn default_anime_svtav1_preset() -> u32 {
+    10
+}
+
+fn default_anime_svtav1_max_threads() -> u32 {
+    4
+}
+
+fn default_min_size_reduction_pct() -> f64 {
+    0.10
+}
+
+fn default_skip_below_ceiling_ratio() -> f64 {
+    0.5
+}
+
+fn default_verify_sample_secs() -> f64 {
+    20.0
+}
+
 /// TVDB v4 API key, exchanged for a short-lived JWT at request time.
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Default, Deserialize)]
 pub struct TvdbConfig {
@@ -416,9 +579,41 @@ impl Config {
 
         let raw = fs::read_to_string(&path)?;
         let cfg: Config = toml::from_str(&raw)?;
+        cfg.validate()?;
         Ok(cfg)
     }
 
+    /// Rejects a handful of `transcode` values that are individually
+    /// syntactically valid TOML but make the transcode pipeline's math
+    /// nonsensical — there's no other validation anywhere in this config,
+    /// so a typo here would otherwise only surface much later, deep inside
+    /// an encode.
+    fn validate(&self) -> Result<()> {
+        // `target_bitrate_kbps` divides by `reference_height` (via
+        // `reference_pixels`); zero makes that ratio `f64::INFINITY`, which
+        // saturates to `u32::MAX` on the cast back to `u32` — then
+        // `run_ffmpeg_encode_live_action`'s `bitrate_ceiling_kbps * 3`
+        // overflows that `u32::MAX` (panics in a debug build, silently
+        // wraps to a nonsense small value in release).
+        anyhow::ensure!(
+            self.transcode.reference_height > 0,
+            "transcode.reference_height must be greater than 0"
+        );
+        // `is_beneficial` computes `original_bytes * (1.0 -
+        // min_size_reduction_pct)` as the max allowed output size — a
+        // negative value here would raise that ceiling *above* the
+        // original, letting a transcode that actually grew the file still
+        // count as "beneficial." That's the exact failure mode
+        // `min_size_reduction_pct` exists to prevent (see its own doc
+        // comment: a real incident where flat-bitrate VBR silently produced
+        // files larger than the original).
+        anyhow::ensure!(
+            (0.0..=1.0).contains(&self.transcode.min_size_reduction_pct),
+            "transcode.min_size_reduction_pct must be between 0.0 and 1.0"
+        );
+        Ok(())
+    }
+
     pub fn db_path(&self) -> PathBuf {
         expand_home(&self.daemon.db_path)
     }
@@ -505,4 +700,37 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(cfg.daemon.log_level, "debug");
         assert_eq!(cfg.daemon.listen_addr, "127.0.0.1:7879");
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn default_config_passes_validation() {
+        Config::default().validate().unwrap();
+    }
+
+    // Regression test for a real gap found in review: `reference_height =
+    // 0` makes `target_bitrate_kbps`'s resolution-scaling ratio divide by
+    // zero, which eventually overflows a `u32` multiplication deep inside
+    // the live-action encoder's maxrate calculation — a config typo that
+    // used to only surface as a panic/garbage value in the middle of an
+    // encode, not at startup.
+    #[test]
+    fn rejects_a_zero_reference_height() {
+        let cfg: Config = toml::from_str("[transcode]\nreference_height = 0\n").unwrap();
+        assert!(cfg.validate().is_err());
+    }
+
+    // Regression test for a real gap found in review: a negative
+    // `min_size_reduction_pct` would let `is_beneficial` accept an encode
+    // that actually *grew* the file — the exact invariant this field exists
+    // to guarantee against.
+    #[test]
+    fn rejects_a_negative_min_size_reduction_pct() {
+        let cfg: Config = toml::from_str("[transcode]\nmin_size_reduction_pct = -0.1\n").unwrap();
+        assert!(cfg.validate().is_err());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn rejects_a_min_size_reduction_pct_above_one() {
+        let cfg: Config = toml::from_str("[transcode]\nmin_size_reduction_pct = 1.5\n").unwrap();
+        assert!(cfg.validate().is_err());
+    }
 }

breadarrd/src/importer/ffprobe.rs

@@ -14,6 +14,11 @@ pub struct AudioStream {
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq)]
 pub struct SubtitleStream {
     pub language: Option<String>,
+    /// mov_text (mp4's timed-text subtitle codec) isn't valid inside a
+    /// Matroska container — a transcode pipeline that always outputs `.mkv`
+    /// needs to know this per-stream to convert rather than blindly stream
+    /// copy. See `transcode::subtitle_codec_args`.
+    pub codec: Option<String>,
 }
 
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Default, PartialEq)]
@@ -109,6 +114,16 @@ pub fn probe(path: &Path) -> Result<MediaProbe> {
     let json: serde_json::Value =
         serde_json::from_slice(&output.stdout).context("ffprobe output was not valid JSON")?;
 
+    Ok(build_media_probe(&json, raw_json))
+}
+
+/// The actual JSON-to-`MediaProbe` mapping, split out from `probe` so it can
+/// be unit-tested directly against hand-built ffprobe-shaped JSON — real
+/// muxers are inconsistent enough about stream ordering/disposition (see
+/// `probe_finds_the_real_video_stream_even_when_attached_pic_comes_first`'s
+/// doc comment) that constructing every case as an actual file via `ffmpeg`
+/// isn't always practical.
+fn build_media_probe(json: &serde_json::Value, raw_json: String) -> MediaProbe {
     let format = &json["format"];
     let duration_secs = format["duration"]
         .as_str()
@@ -134,11 +149,18 @@ pub fn probe(path: &Path) -> Result<MediaProbe> {
             .as_str()
             .or_else(|| stream["tags"]["LANGUAGE"].as_str())
             .map(str::to_string);
+        let is_attached_pic = stream["disposition"]["attached_pic"].as_i64() == Some(1);
         match codec_type {
-            "video" if probe.video_codec.is_none() => {
+            // First non-attached-pic video stream — a second "video" stream
-                // First video stream only — a second "video" stream in a
+            // in a real-world file is almost always an embedded cover-art
-                // real-world file is almost always an embedded cover-art
+            // thumbnail, not a second picture track, and ffmpeg does not
-                // thumbnail, not a second picture track.
+            // guarantee it comes *after* the real content stream (some mp4
+            // remuxes and mkvmerge outputs put it first). Explicitly
+            // checking `disposition.attached_pic` rather than relying on
+            // stream order means a cover-art-first file no longer has its
+            // actual video codec/height silently replaced by the
+            // thumbnail's.
+            "video" if probe.video_codec.is_none() && !is_attached_pic => {
                 probe.video_codec = stream["codec_name"].as_str().map(str::to_string);
                 probe.width = stream["width"].as_i64();
                 probe.height = stream["height"].as_i64();
@@ -164,13 +186,14 @@ pub fn probe(path: &Path) -> Result<MediaProbe> {
                 });
             }
             "subtitle" => {
-                probe.subtitles.push(SubtitleStream { language });
+                let codec = stream["codec_name"].as_str().map(str::to_string);
+                probe.subtitles.push(SubtitleStream { language, codec });
             }
             _ => {}
         }
     }
 
-    Ok(probe)
+    probe
 }
 
 /// ffprobe reports frame rate as a "num/den" fraction string (e.g.
@@ -216,6 +239,59 @@ pub fn verify_decodable(path: &Path) -> Result<DecodeCheck> {
     }
 }
 
+/// Bounded, sampled variant of `verify_decodable` for callers where a full
+/// decode's O(duration) cost is the actual bottleneck — the transcode
+/// pipeline measured this in practice: two concurrent full-file decode
+/// verifications pinned two CPU cores at 400%+ each for the whole
+/// verification pass, dwarfing the GPU encode time itself for long files.
+///
+/// Decodes only fixed-size windows (`sample_secs` each) near the start,
+/// middle, and end of the file, rather than every frame — a deliberate
+/// trade of "catches most real corruption cheaply" for "bounded cost
+/// regardless of file length", not equivalent thoroughness to a full
+/// decode. Truncation specifically doesn't need this: `encode_and_verify`'s
+/// separate duration-match check against the original already catches that
+/// regardless of what this function samples, since a truncated output's
+/// container-reported duration comes up short either way.
+///
+/// Falls back to a full `verify_decodable` when `duration_secs` is small
+/// enough that sampling wouldn't save meaningful time anyway.
+pub fn verify_decodable_sampled(
+    path: &Path,
+    duration_secs: f64,
+    sample_secs: f64,
+) -> Result<DecodeCheck> {
+    if duration_secs <= sample_secs * 3.0 {
+        return verify_decodable(path);
+    }
+
+    let windows = [
+        0.0,
+        (duration_secs / 2.0 - sample_secs / 2.0).max(0.0),
+        (duration_secs - sample_secs).max(0.0),
+    ];
+
+    for start in windows {
+        let mut cmd = Command::new("ffmpeg");
+        cmd.args(["-v", "error", "-xerror"]);
+        if start > 0.0 {
+            cmd.args(["-ss", &format!("{start:.2}")]);
+        }
+        cmd.arg("-i").arg(path);
+        cmd.args(["-t", &format!("{sample_secs:.2}"), "-f", "null", "-"]);
+        let output = cmd
+            .output()
+            .context("failed to run ffmpeg for sampled decode verification")?;
+
+        if !(output.status.success() && output.stderr.is_empty()) {
+            return Ok(DecodeCheck::Corrupt(
+                String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stderr).into_owned(),
+            ));
+        }
+    }
+    Ok(DecodeCheck::Ok)
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
@@ -297,6 +373,78 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(result.is_err());
     }
 
+    fn generate_clip(dir: &Path, name: &str, duration_secs: u32) -> std::path::PathBuf {
+        let path = dir.join(name);
+        let status = Command::new("ffmpeg")
+            .args([
+                "-y",
+                "-f",
+                "lavfi",
+                "-i",
+                &format!("testsrc=size=320x240:duration={duration_secs}:rate=5"),
+            ])
+            .args(["-c:v", "libx264", "-preset", "ultrafast"])
+            .arg(&path)
+            .output()
+            .expect("failed to run ffmpeg to generate a test clip");
+        assert!(
+            status.status.success(),
+            "ffmpeg failed to generate a test clip: {}",
+            String::from_utf8_lossy(&status.stderr)
+        );
+        path
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn verify_decodable_sampled_passes_a_genuinely_intact_short_file() {
+        // Short enough to hit the "falls back to a full check" path.
+        let dir = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!(
+            "breadarr-ffprobe-sampled-short-{}",
+            std::process::id()
+        ));
+        std::fs::create_dir_all(&dir).unwrap();
+        let clip = generate_clip(&dir, "short.mkv", 2);
+
+        let result = verify_decodable_sampled(&clip, 2.0, 20.0).unwrap();
+        assert!(matches!(result, DecodeCheck::Ok));
+
+        std::fs::remove_dir_all(&dir).unwrap();
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn verify_decodable_sampled_passes_a_genuinely_intact_long_file() {
+        // Long enough (duration > sample_secs * 3) to actually exercise the
+        // windowed start/middle/end sampling path, not the short-file
+        // fallback.
+        let dir = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!(
+            "breadarr-ffprobe-sampled-long-{}",
+            std::process::id()
+        ));
+        std::fs::create_dir_all(&dir).unwrap();
+        let clip = generate_clip(&dir, "long.mkv", 10);
+
+        let result = verify_decodable_sampled(&clip, 10.0, 2.0).unwrap();
+        assert!(matches!(result, DecodeCheck::Ok));
+
+        std::fs::remove_dir_all(&dir).unwrap();
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn verify_decodable_sampled_flags_a_file_that_does_not_decode_at_all() {
+        let dir = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!(
+            "breadarr-ffprobe-sampled-corrupt-{}",
+            std::process::id()
+        ));
+        std::fs::create_dir_all(&dir).unwrap();
+        let path = dir.join("corrupt.mkv");
+        std::fs::write(&path, b"this is not a real video file").unwrap();
+
+        let result = verify_decodable_sampled(&path, 10.0, 2.0).unwrap();
+        assert!(matches!(result, DecodeCheck::Corrupt(_)));
+
+        std::fs::remove_dir_all(&dir).unwrap();
+    }
+
     /// Generates a tiny real video via ffmpeg's `lavfi` synthetic source —
     /// validates the actual JSON field extraction (width/height/codec/
     /// duration/audio language+default) against genuine ffprobe output,
@@ -376,4 +524,82 @@ mod tests {
 
         std::fs::remove_dir_all(&dir).unwrap();
     }
+
+    // Regression test for a real gap found in review: `probe`'s "first video
+    // stream wins" selection used to have no idea about
+    // `disposition.attached_pic` and just trusted stream order — a
+    // convention real muxers don't reliably follow (ffmpeg's own mp4 muxer
+    // was observed reordering an attached-pic stream to the *end*
+    // regardless of requested `-map` order, which makes constructing a
+    // genuine cover-art-*first* file via `ffmpeg` impractical — so this
+    // exercises `build_media_probe` directly against hand-built,
+    // real-shaped ffprobe JSON instead of a generated file, deterministically
+    // covering the ordering `ffmpeg`'s own tooling won't produce). Unlike
+    // `generate_clip_with_attached_pic` in `transcode::mod::tests` (cover
+    // art second, the already-handled case), this puts it *first* to prove
+    // the fix is order-independent, not just "skip the second video
+    // stream".
+    #[test]
+    fn probe_finds_the_real_video_stream_even_when_attached_pic_comes_first() {
+        let json = serde_json::json!({
+            "format": { "duration": "10.0", "bit_rate": "5000000", "format_long_name": "Matroska / WebM" },
+            "streams": [
+                {
+                    "index": 0,
+                    "codec_type": "video",
+                    "codec_name": "png",
+                    "width": 64,
+                    "height": 64,
+                    "disposition": { "attached_pic": 1 }
+                },
+                {
+                    "index": 1,
+                    "codec_type": "video",
+                    "codec_name": "h264",
+                    "width": 640,
+                    "height": 360,
+                    "disposition": { "attached_pic": 0 }
+                }
+            ]
+        });
+
+        let probe = build_media_probe(&json, "{}".to_string());
+        assert_eq!(probe.width, Some(640), "must pick the real content stream's width, not the 64x64 cover art's");
+        assert_eq!(probe.height, Some(360), "must pick the real content stream's height, not the 64x64 cover art's");
+        assert_eq!(probe.video_codec.as_deref(), Some("h264"), "must pick the real content stream's codec, not the cover art's png");
+    }
+
+    // Companion case: attached-pic *second* (the ordering the code
+    // previously assumed was the only one) must still work exactly as
+    // before — this fix is additive, not a behavior change for the
+    // already-handled ordering.
+    #[test]
+    fn probe_finds_the_real_video_stream_when_attached_pic_comes_second() {
+        let json = serde_json::json!({
+            "format": { "duration": "10.0", "bit_rate": "5000000", "format_long_name": "Matroska / WebM" },
+            "streams": [
+                {
+                    "index": 0,
+                    "codec_type": "video",
+                    "codec_name": "h264",
+                    "width": 640,
+                    "height": 360,
+                    "disposition": { "attached_pic": 0 }
+                },
+                {
+                    "index": 1,
+                    "codec_type": "video",
+                    "codec_name": "png",
+                    "width": 64,
+                    "height": 64,
+                    "disposition": { "attached_pic": 1 }
+                }
+            ]
+        });
+
+        let probe = build_media_probe(&json, "{}".to_string());
+        assert_eq!(probe.width, Some(640));
+        assert_eq!(probe.height, Some(360));
+        assert_eq!(probe.video_codec.as_deref(), Some("h264"));
+    }
 }