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
• Client control permissions — server can allow or restrict which devices can issue play/pause/seek commands
• 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

Watch your home library from anywhere at homevidstream.com/watch — video streams direct from your home server without routing through any cloud relay.

• 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

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.

• 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

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.

• 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

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 instantly
• 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 a Watch Party room. 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 a Watch Party room. 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.