StreamApp

A lightweight, personal media streaming server built with ASP.NET Core MVC (NET 10). Designed for local network streaming of your Movie and TV Series collection with a clean, modern interface.

Note: StreamApp uses Direct Play for maximum performance. It natively supports MKV containers, but relies on your browser for video decoding. Ensure your files use compatible codecs (like H.264) as no transcoding occurs.

Features

🎬 Media Management

• Automated Scanning: Scans configured folders for Movies and TV Series at startup.
• Smart Parsing: Detects seasons and episodes from folder structures.
• Metadata: Parses file names for titles/years and displays poster.jpg if present.

📺 Playback & Streaming

• Smart MKV Streaming: Specialized server-side handling for .mkv containers. Uses HTTP Byte-Range requests to enable smooth seeking and playback of large MKV files that typically fail on standard web servers.
• HTML5 Custom Player: Polished UI with auto-hiding controls, play/pause, seek, and volume management.
• Resume Playback: Automatically saves your watch progress (per video) so you can resume where you left off.
• Embedded Subtitles: Extracts and streams embedded subtitles (SRT/VTT) from MKV files (requires FFmpeg).
• Direct Streaming: Zero-transcoding pipeline for maximum performance.

🛠 Technical Highlights

• Framework: ASP.NET Core 10 MVC
• Database: SQLite (for tracking watch progress)
• Frontend: Vanilla JavaScript (no heavy frameworks), Bootstrap 5
• Backend: C# Service Layer for media scanning and subtitle extraction

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Prerequisites

1. .NET 10.0 SDK (Preview/RC depending on availability)
2. FFmpeg & FFprobe: Required for subtitle extraction.
   • Download from ffmpeg.org.
   • Ensure ffmpeg.exe and ffprobe.exe are available.
3. Modern Browser: Chrome, Edge, or Firefox (must support HTML5 Video).

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Configuration

The application is configured via appsettings.json. You must specify your media root directory and the paths to FFmpeg tools.

{
  "MediaRootPath": "E:\\Media",
  "FFmpegPath": "C:\\path\\to\\ffmpeg.exe",
  "FFprobePath": "C:\\path\\to\\ffprobe.exe"
}

Folder Structure Expectation

The scanner expects a specific structure to organize media correctly:

MediaRoot/
├── Movies/
│   └── Movie Name (2024)/
│       ├── Movie.mkv
│       └── poster.jpg
│
└── Series/
    └── Series Name/
        ├── poster.jpg
        └── Season 01/
            ├── Episode 01.mkv
            └── Episode 02.mkv

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Setup & Run

1. Clone the Repository

   git clone https://github.com/asc-17/StreamApp.git
   cd StreamApp

2. Update Configuration Modify appsettings.json with your actual paths.

3. Run the Application

   dotnet run

   The app will perform an initial scan of your media folders on startup.

4. Access in Browser Navigate to https://localhost:7193 (or the port specified in console).

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Limitations

• Subtitle Loading Delay: Due to real-time FFmpeg extraction, subtitles may take 20-30 seconds to appear after starting a video. This is a loading time only; once loaded, subtitles are perfectly synced with the audio.
• No Transcoding: Files with unsupported codecs (like heavy HEVC/H.265 profiles on some browsers) may fail to play or have no video. Use H.264/AAC for best compatibility.
• No Authentication: The app is open. Intended for use on a trusted local network only.
• Subtitle Support: Currently only supports embedded MKV subtitles. External .srt file support is under development.

Future Enhancements

• External .srt file support
• OpenSubtitles integration
• Multi-user support

License

Personal Project. Source code provided as-is.