Fix Windows console crashes, portrait rotation detection, and timeline_view seek edge case; add CRF/preset overrides

[sameer99z]

• ASCII-only print output in transcribe_batch.py, render.py, grade.py, pack_transcripts.py to avoid crashes on the default Windows cp1252 console
• render.py: read rotation side-data and swap w/h when detecting portrait sources, fixing WhatsApp/phone clips with +/-90deg rotation metadata being misclassified as landscape and cropped to the wrong canvas
• render.py: add --crf/--preset CLI overrides for higher-quality renders
• timeline_view.py: pull the final sample frame back ~0.05s so it doesn't land past the container's last frame timestamp and fail the ffmpeg seek
• add uv.lock

---

Summary by cubic

Fixes Windows console crashes and incorrect portrait handling for phone clips, and makes timeline seek more reliable. Adds --crf/--preset overrides for quality control and includes uv.lock.

• Bug Fixes

  • Force ASCII-only CLI output in helpers to avoid cp1252 console crashes on Windows.
  • Read rotation side-data and treat +/-90° sources as portrait to prevent wrong canvas cropping.
  • Scale-to-cover plus center-crop to exact 9:16 or 16:9 to keep segments concat-safe.
  • Pull the final timeline sample back ~0.05s to avoid end-of-container ffmpeg seek misses.

• New Features

  • render.py: add --crf and --preset flags to override the default quality ladder.
  • Add uv.lock.

^{Written for commit 9611e36. Summary will update on new commits.}

[cubic-dev-ai]

1 issue found across 6 files

Prompt for AI agents (unresolved issues)

Check if these issues are valid — if so, understand the root cause of each and fix them. If appropriate, use sub-agents to investigate and fix each issue separately.


<file name="helpers/render.py">

<violation number="1" location="helpers/render.py:663">
P2: `--crf` and `--preset` are ignored for renders that composite overlays or subtitles: `build_final_composite` re-encodes with hard-coded `fast`/`18`. Thread both overrides into that final pass so CLI quality settings apply to the delivered file.</violation>
</file>

<sub>Reply with feedback, questions, or to request a fix.

Fix all with cubic | Re-trigger cubic</sub>

[cubic-dev-ai]

P2: --crf and --preset are ignored for renders that composite overlays or subtitles: build_final_composite re-encodes with hard-coded fast/18. Thread both overrides into that final pass so CLI quality settings apply to the delivered file.

Prompt for AI agents

Check if this issue is valid — if so, understand the root cause and fix it. At helpers/render.py, line 663:

<comment>`--crf` and `--preset` are ignored for renders that composite overlays or subtitles: `build_final_composite` re-encodes with hard-coded `fast`/`18`. Thread both overrides into that final pass so CLI quality settings apply to the delivered file.</comment>

<file context>
@@ -613,10 +659,11 @@ def main() -> None:
     segment_paths = extract_all_segments(
-        edl, edit_dir, preview=args.preview, draft=args.draft
+        edl, edit_dir, preview=args.preview, draft=args.draft,
+        crf_override=args.crf, preset_override=args.preset,
     )
 
</file context>