Common questions.

Cinax is a desktop app for Mac and Windows that bulk-renames video files, strips embedded metadata, and converts MKV to MP4 — in seconds. It's built for Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and Infuse users who rip their own media with MakeMKV and want their libraries to scan correctly without manual fixing.

Cinax Free does the mechanical work: bulk renaming with custom patterns, stripping embedded metadata, and converting MKV→MP4. Cinax Pro adds intelligence: automatic show detection via TVDB and TMDB lookups, one-click naming presets for Plex/Jellyfin/Infuse/Emby, persistent undo history across sessions, anime support via AniDB, and subtitle file pairing.

Cinax Free works entirely offline — bulk renaming, metadata stripping and MKV→MP4 conversion all happen on your machine using a bundled copy of FFmpeg. Cinax Pro uses online lookups to TVDB and TMDB for episode and show titles, but if you're offline it falls back to filename parsing so the app still works.

No, by default. Cinax keeps your original files untouched and writes the renamed/converted output as new files. If you want to delete originals after processing, you must explicitly opt in via Settings, and deleted files go to the Recycle Bin / Trash where they can be recovered. Cinax never bypasses the Recycle Bin.

Cinax never re-encodes video. MKV→MP4 conversion is a lossless remux — Cinax copies the existing video and audio streams into the new container without touching the actual data. This means it's instant (a two-hour film converts in seconds) and the quality is identical to the original.

Cinax processes everything locally — nothing uploads, no cloud, no telemetry by default. All file operations route through a single audited function (disposeSource) that's locked at the code level by a build-time linter so no future code path can accidentally delete a file outside the user's explicit consent. The codebase has automated tests specifically for "did we delete files we shouldn't have", which were added after a beta-build trust bug was caught and fixed before release.

Plex reads the embedded title metadata inside the file before it looks at the filename. MakeMKV writes the disc title (often something like HEY_ARNOLD_S1_DISC1) into this metadata field, and many encoders write their own junk strings too. Renaming the file alone doesn't fix this — you need to strip or blank the embedded title field. Cinax does this in the same pass as renaming, which is why a Plex scan after running Cinax produces correct matches.

Cinax handles any video format that FFmpeg supports as input. For MKV→MP4 conversion, Cinax detects the audio codec first — DTS, TrueHD and other MP4-incompatible codecs trigger a prompt offering either to skip the file or to transcode the audio to AAC. Video streams are always passed through losslessly regardless of resolution or HDR format.

MP4 containers don't natively support DTS, TrueHD, or some other audio codecs that are common in Blu-ray rips. When Cinax detects one of these, it offers to either skip the file (keep the original MKV) or transcode the audio to AAC (slower but produces a playable MP4). Video is never transcoded — only the incompatible audio stream.

FileBot is a mature, powerful renaming tool that's been around since 2010. Cinax was built specifically to handle MakeMKV's raw disc-rip filenames (like Show_Title_DISC1_t01.mkv), which FileBot can't parse without a custom format string. Cinax also bundles MKV→MP4 conversion and metadata stripping, which FileBot doesn't do. The price difference: Cinax is a one-time £9.99; FileBot is licensed per year of releases.

No. Cinax has no telemetry, no analytics, no crash reporting unless you explicitly opt in via Settings → Advanced. The Mac build is notarised by Apple, which means Apple verifies the binary signature at install time — this is a one-way trust check, not data collection. Cinax never makes outbound network calls except to TVDB/TMDB/AniDB when Pro lookup features are used, and only with show titles in the query.

Settings live in a local JSON file in your user data folder (~/Library/Application Support/Cinax on Mac, %APPDATA%/Cinax on Windows). The licence key lives in a separate license.json in the same folder, never transmitted except to validate. Both files are easy to back up or delete.

Yes. A single Cinax Pro licence covers personal and commercial use on your own machines. There's no "personal use only" trap that triggers an enterprise upgrade. Use it in a freelance video archive workflow, a video production house, a media archiving business — same licence.

Cinax never stores your email. The key itself is your entire identity in the app. Your purchase receipt from Stripe (the payment processor) contains the original key — search your email inbox for "Cinax" or "Stripe" to recover it. We can also resend it via the support page if needed.

No. Every update through v2 is free for existing Cinax Pro buyers. The module system (Connect, Posters, Subs etc) is the only thing that may require separate purchase as those launch — but existing Pro buyers get a permanent discount on every future module.