Features

Playback

• Play / Pause — toggle playback from server or any connected client device
• Stop — halt playback across all devices
• Browse while playing — click ⧉ Browse Library to shrink the current video to picture-in-picture and open the library without stopping playback
• Buffering & connection-quality notice — an on-screen overlay reports buffer fill and connection quality (Good / Weak / Poor) when playback stalls; a top-right badge appears on repeated stalls
• Seek forward / back — skip 10 s (arrow keys / J/L) or 30 s (Shift+arrow)
• Jump by percentage — press 0–9 to jump to 0%–90% through the video
• Playback speed — 0.5×, 0.75×, 1×, 1.25×, 1.5×, 2× (synced to all devices)
• Volume control — on the desktop player, adjust 0–300% in 5% steps (goes above 100% via the audio equalizer); browser viewers are limited to 0–100%
• Mute / Unmute — silence audio without disconnecting
• Next / Previous episode — jump between files in the active playlist or folder

Video Navigator (Poster Wall)

• Single-window design — poster wall, inline player, and TV drill-down all in one window
• Poster wall library browser — browse your entire library as a scrollable poster wall with auto-categorised rows
• Inline video player — video plays embedded in the main window; controls appear automatically
• TV series drill-down — season chip selector + episode list with per-episode progress bars
• Auto-categorised rows — Movies, TV Shows, Continue Watching, My List, Top 10 for You, Because You Watched, Recently Added, Browse by Genre
• Search — live filter across all titles as you type
• Filter tabs — narrow to All / Movies / TV / Recent / My List
• Auto-rotating spotlight hero — featured title banner rotates every 6 s
• Detail page — rich metadata card with Play, Queue, My List, and thumbs-up/down
• Double-click / Play on all devices — start the selected title on every connected screen instantly

Media Library

• Recursive library scan — walk a root folder and classify every video automatically ⚡ Hardware-intensive
• Smart classification — Movies vs TV, with TV auto-grouped by Series → Season → Episode
• Persistent index — scan results cached; only rescan when you ask
• Supported formats — MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, WMV, M4V, FLV, WebM, MPG, MPEG, TS, M2TS

Poster Art & Metadata

• Generated placeholder posters — gradient poster lettered with the title; works offline
• TMDb integration — optional: fetch real posters, synopses, genres, and ratings
• VLC frame thumbnails — automatic seek-frame thumbnail extraction per video ⚡ Hardware-intensive

Resume & Watch History

• Resume from last position — pick up where you left off; treats >95% as "watched"
• Continue Watching row — most-recently-played titles with progress bars
• Watch history — up to 200 titles tracked with timestamp and duration

Subtitles & Audio Tracks

• Subtitle / caption selection — built-in tracks or external .srt / .ass / .sub files; per-device
• Audio track selection — switch language or commentary tracks; per-device

Autoplay & Playlists

• Autoplay next — countdown before the next episode; one-click to cancel
• Skip Intro / Skip Credits — button appears at typical intro/credit segments
• Create & edit playlists — name, save, reorder, and delete playlists; persisted across restarts

User Profiles

• Multiple profiles — Standard or Kids profiles with emoji avatars
• Per-profile My List & ratings — each profile keeps its own watchlist and thumbs up/down
• Parental controls — Kids profiles hide mature titles
• PIN gate — optional PIN to leave a Kids profile

The Back Room

• 📿 The Back Room tab — password-gated view behind a beaded doorway at the end of the chip bar
• Move to The Back Room — right-click any card to hide it from the main library
• Secure password protection — your password is never stored in plain text
• Change Password / Clear List — managed from Preferences

Networking & Device Sync

• Synchronized playback — all devices stay in sync with automatic drift correction
• Automatic server discovery — client devices find the server on your network automatically; no manual IP entry needed
• Firewall-friendly connections — tries multiple connection methods automatically; works reliably even through Avast Business or strict Windows Firewall
• NAS / network share support — library can live on a NAS or SMB share; the server streams from it directly
• Clock-skew compensation — corrects latency and clock differences so all screens stay aligned
• Connected-devices counter — live count of connected devices shown in the server window

Browser Client

• Any browser on your network — open the LAN URL on any phone, tablet, or smart TV; no app to install
• Poster-wall library browser — same poster-wall grid as the server app, with movies and TV drill-downs
• HTML5 video playback — click any title to play it directly in the browser with seeking support
• Synced mode (default) — the browser automatically mirrors the server VLC; play/pause/seek/stop from the server propagates to all connected browsers; browser viewers are follow-only
• Independent mode — the browser plays its own library selection independently; a "Watch synced" banner offers one-click return to Synced mode while the server is playing
• Per-screen volume & mute — each browser viewer keeps its own volume and mute setting, remembered across sessions
• Late-joiner catch-up — a browser that opens mid-movie snaps immediately to the live playback position
• Drift correction — keeps all screens within ±150 ms of the shared clock automatically
• Server-as-peer — the server VLC is always part of the sync room; Synced browser viewers follow it automatically ⚡ Hardware-intensive
• Codec labels — each title shows whether it plays directly, needs a quick remux, or requires transcoding

Remote Watch Player Beta

Watch your home library from anywhere at homevidstream.com/watch — video streams direct from your home server without routing through any cloud relay. Remote access is currently available for approved beta users. Request access →

• Full library browse — the same poster-wall grid as the LAN browser client; browse and play any title while away from home
• P2P video delivery — video travels directly from your home server program to your browser over an encrypted WebRTC DataChannel
• Seek support — click anywhere in the seek bar to restart the stream from that position
• Automatic HTTP fallback — if WebRTC cannot negotiate, playback switches to the authenticated HTTP stream automatically
• Login gate — unsigned-in visitors are redirected to sign in first, then returned to /watch automatically

Encrypted Remote Streaming Beta

When watching from outside your home network, video travels directly from your home server to your browser over a DTLS-encrypted WebRTC DataChannel — no traffic passes through homevidstream.com. Available now for approved beta users.

• DTLS encryption — WebRTC mandates DTLS for all DataChannels; every byte of video is encrypted in transit
• Direct-only delivery — video streams home server → browser with no relay or cloud intermediary
• STUN NAT traversal — works through most home NAT/firewalls without manual port configuration
• Browser MSE playback — encrypted chunks feed the browser's built-in MediaSource Extensions decoder for smooth native playback
• Automatic HTTP fallback — if WebRTC cannot establish, playback falls back to the authenticated HTTP stream automatically
• LAN clients unaffected — local network viewers always use the fast direct HTTP path; WebRTC is only used for remote access

Remote Compatibility & Conversion Beta

Tools to check and prepare your library for encrypted browser streaming. Each title is analysed and labelled; incompatible files can be converted without modifying the originals. Available to beta users with remote access.

• Codec analysis — every library title scanned with ffprobe (or classified by extension) and labelled ✅ Ready, ↺ Quick Remux, or ⚠ Needs Conversion
• Remote Compatibility window — full library table with codec details, estimated conversion time, and per-file Convert action; open from View → Remote Compatibility…
• Quick remux — re-wraps browser-safe video/audio in the right container (e.g. H.264+AAC in MKV → MP4); fast and CPU-light
• Full transcode — re-encodes incompatible codecs (HEVC, MPEG-2, DivX, WMV, etc.) to H.264/AAC; originals are never modified ⚡ Hardware-intensive
• Conversion queue — "Convert All" queues every incompatible file with a single confirmation; runs sequentially with a live progress bar and ETA
• ffmpeg auto-detection — ffmpeg/ffprobe located automatically beside the exe or on the system PATH; a clear banner explains installation if not found

Requires ffmpeg + ffprobe (free). Place ffmpeg.exe and ffprobe.exe beside HomeVidStream.exe or install them on your system PATH.

Account Portal (homevidstream.com)

• Sign in / Sign out — website account login using your HomeVidStream credentials; session persists across browser restarts
• Remember me — check “Remember me” at sign-in to be logged in automatically on the next visit (90-day token)
• One-click auto sign-in — if Remember Me is active, the next visit logs you in instantly without entering credentials
• Caps Lock warning — a hint appears whenever Caps Lock is on while typing your password
• Account hub — the Account page shows your subscription details, home server status, profile, and settings in one place
• Open Library shortcut — when your home server is online, one click opens your video library directly in a new tab
• Subscription details — shows your active plan, seats used, renewal date, and links to upgrade or manage billing
• Home server status — live display of your server’s address, online / offline status, and last-seen time
• My Profile — store your name, company, job title, email, phone, website, and mailing address; editable any time
• Forget this browser — one-click removes the auto-login token for the current browser from Account Settings
• First-run onboarding tour — a 4-step guided overlay walks new users through downloading the app, setting up the server, and starting their first stream; can be skipped at any point and will not appear again

Site Administration (homevidstream.com)

• Admin Dashboard — KPI tiles (active licenses, MRR, orders, ledger entries) and integration-status cards; links directly into each Integrations tab
• Beta Access queue — requests submitted via the contact form are held in a pending queue; the admin can approve (sends a single-use invite email) or deny each one from /admin/beta
• Invite-based signup — invite links pre-fill the recipient’s email, skip CAPTCHA, and set the account tier + email-verified status in one step; tokens expire in 30 days and are single-use
• AI Chat configuration — enable a floating chat widget on marketing pages from the Integrations tab; choose Anthropic or OpenAI, supply your own API key (encrypted at rest), and select which pages show the widget
• Launch checklist — /admin/launch shows a 7-item go-live readiness check (free tier, email, signup, Terms, CAPTCHA, AI Chat, Stripe) with a score ring and per-item fix links
• Users section — paginated list of every account; detail page with Business Profile, Site Access (block/unblock), Active Sessions (revoke individually or all at once), and Recent Activity
• Analytics (8 tabs) — Dashboard, Audience, Acquisition, Behavior, Performance, Health, Real-Time, and Errors; the Errors tab includes IP banning and autoban rules
• Audit Log — searchable, admin-only log of important events; filterable by type, actor, and date range

AI Chat Assistant

• Floating chat widget — a chat button in the corner of marketing pages lets visitors ask questions about HomeVidStream and get instant answers
• Self-hosted — your key, your data — the server calls Anthropic or OpenAI with your own API key; your conversation is never routed through a third-party backend
• Scoped knowledge — the assistant is prompted to answer only HomeVidStream questions and refer other topics to the contact form
• Conversation history — the widget keeps context across turns so follow-up questions work naturally
• Admin-controlled — enable/disable per page (Home, Pricing, Features), choose the provider and model, and cap reply length from the Integrations admin tab

Fullscreen

• Full-screen playback — F key or double-click; auto-hides controls
• Correct-monitor fullscreen — opens on whichever display the window is on
• Fullscreen overlay controls — seek, volume, skip, and exit all accessible in fullscreen

Appearance & Settings

• Theme chooser — six colour themes applied after a quick restart
• Preferences panel — configure library root, network share path, and TMDb API key
• Persistent settings — config, theme, profiles, and history all saved between restarts

Desktop Client Mode

• Server or Client mode chooser — on first launch a mode picker lets you run HomeVidStream as a server (host videos) or as a client (join a server on the network)
• Mode memory — the chosen mode is saved and reused automatically; the chooser only appears the first time
• Mode badge — an always-visible gold (SERVER MODE) or blue (CLIENT MODE) badge at the top of the window shows the current mode at a glance
• One-click mode switch — clicking the badge opens a confirm dialog that switches modes and relaunches the app cleanly
• Single executable — one HomeVidStream.exe handles both server and client modes; no separate download needed

Keyboard Shortcuts

These shortcuts apply to the desktop app and the on-network browser player. The remote homevidstream.com /watch player uses the browser's built-in video controls.

System Requirements

• Operating system — Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit)
• VLC media player — VLC 3.x is required on the host PC; used for playback and thumbnail generation. Free download at videolan.org.
• RAM — host PC — 4 GB minimum; 8 GB or more recommended, especially when running multiple simultaneous streams or generating thumbnails for large libraries
• Disk space — approximately 200 MB for the application; additional space for the thumbnail cache (varies with library size)
• Network — LAN streaming — 100 Mbps wired LAN is sufficient for standard HD (1080p) streaming; Gigabit Ethernet recommended for 4K content or three or more simultaneous streams
• Network — remote streaming — Professional and Enterprise plans; requires a stable upload connection of at least 10 Mbps per remote stream (coming soon)
• Viewer devices — any device with a modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari); no app install needed. Same LAN as the host, or internet connection for remote-enabled plans.

⚡ Hardware-intensive features (initial library scan, thumbnail generation, running multiple streams at once) benefit from a faster CPU and more RAM. A machine used only as a HomeVidStream host should have at least a modern quad-core CPU.

Browser File Compatibility

Browsers can only play certain video formats natively. Files that aren't natively supported can still be watched using Server-as-peer mode, where the host PC's VLC player streams the video and syncs with browser viewers in Synced mode. Codec labels on each title tell you at a glance what's needed.

Server-as-peer streams the video through VLC on the host PC and syncs it with browser viewers in Synced mode. The server must be running and VLC must be installed. This mode is hardware-intensive on the host.

Licensing & Plans

• License activation — activate on first launch; verifies offline with 24-hour grace window
• Per-device binding — each seat tied to the machine; deactivate to free it or transfer to a new device
• Expiry & refresh warnings — notified when the license can't refresh or expires within a week

Remote streaming sends video direct from your home server — it does not pass through any relay server. Professional and Enterprise tiers are not yet available.