What's new in v0.14.1

An episode no longer stops where encoding had to start again.

• A restarted stretch was still stamped at the beginning of the file, so the player closed the video and reported it missing. That stretch is put on the episode clock before it is played, and the opening of the file is left in place.

The same moment in an episode no longer closes the video.

• When encoding picked up again partway through, the next piece did not match the opening of the file. The player threw that video away and reported it missing. That piece now uses its own header, so playback continues.

An episode no longer dies half an hour in when a piece is slow to arrive.

• A segment that was not ready yet held the connection open until it was cut off, and playback threw the video away. That piece is retried and the episode stays where you were.

The picture no longer freezes for a second while the sound keeps going.

• A short gap in the video was leaving the last frame on screen while the audio continued, then the picture jumped ahead. That frame now moves with the sound.

Playing an episode no longer deletes the video out from under you.

• A few short pieces in a long episode were treated as a broken file, so playback deleted it while you were watching. That is the missing-file error. Those episodes stay on screen.

An episode you already started no longer keeps skipping.

• Opening an episode that was encoded with tiny pieces kept playing that copy. It is encoded again, in steady pieces, the next time you press play.

Episodes keep playing instead of jumping and hitching.

• A resumed episode was restarting its clock at zero every few seconds, so the picture jumped. Those pieces stay on the episode clock.
• Scene changes were cutting the video into tiny pieces, so playback hitched every few seconds. Cuts stay about four seconds apart again.

Episode progress follows you to other devices.

• Watching part of an episode is saved to your account. Opening that show on another device, or refreshing it, shows the same progress instead of marking the episode unwatched.

Scrubbing to a later time actually plays that time.

• Jumping ahead now loads the video at that spot. The seek is not treated as finished just because the clock moved.

Search finds the show that’s on, not only the channel name.

• A search for a game or episode checks the TV guide and lists the channel that’s airing it, including shows that start in the next few hours.

Skipping ahead in an episode loads the picture at that spot.

• Pieces made after encoding resumed still started their clock at zero, so jumping ahead found nothing to play. Those pieces are put on the episode clock before playback seeks.

Playback no longer freezes where an episode was resumed.

• Resuming an encode was repeating silent picture from that moment on, so the episode froze there every time. That stretch is thrown out and the episode continues with sound.

An episode plays again after encoding had to restart.

• The rest of the episode was being hidden once encoding restarted, so pressing play found nothing past that point. Those pieces are back in the playlist, with the restart marked.

A restarted encode no longer shows up as a missing file.

• Pieces made after encoding restarted did not match the opening of the episode, so the browser said the file was missing. Those pieces are rebuilt with an opening that stays.

Episode playback no longer jumps where an encode was restarted.

• Each time encoding stopped and started again, the next piece began its clock at zero and the picture skipped. Those joins are marked so playback stays on the right moment.

Resuming an episode no longer fails as a missing file.

• When encoding picked up in the middle, the next piece did not match the opening of the file. That join is labeled now, and a broken piece is left out instead of failing playback.

Pressing play after a pause stays where you left off.

• Coming back to a paused episode was jumping the picture forward over and over. It now continues from the pause.

Episodes keep playing through short gaps, and Play next starts the following title.

• A short gap between segments was pausing the picture until you skipped ahead. Playback steps across that gap on its own.
• Play next was still pointed at the episode that just finished, so that episode started over. It now loads the next one.

A cut-off episode file no longer ends playback with file not found.

• If the download stops halfway through, playback keeps the part already watched and downloads the episode again instead of asking for a missing segment.

Episodes play straight through instead of skipping a second or two.

• Each segment had a short gap at the edge, and the browser jumped it. Episodes are one continuous file again, with a fresh picture at the start of every segment so playback does not freeze or skip.
• An episode already encoded on the server is prepared again the next time you play it.

Live channels stay on the current segments when a provider revokes the older ones.

• Some live CDNs reject every segment except the newest few. Playback now keeps that live edge instead of requesting the dead window and filling the error log.

Series pages remember your season and can mark a whole season watched.

• Opening a show lands on the season and episode you were last on, instead of season 1. Mark season watched checks off every episode in that season in one tap.

Scrubbing backward in a movie or episode works while it is playing.

• Rewinding only stuck if you paused first. A playing episode treated the rewind as a glitch and jumped back to the old spot. The timestamp now stays where you put it.

Movies start encoding as soon as the download has an audio track.

• The audio check was rejecting every file, so playback sat on “first video segment still being prepared” until the entire movie finished downloading. It now sees the audio track and starts.

Movies and episodes start again when the opening segment is already encoded.

• Playback was stuck on “first video segment still being prepared” with a 503, even after the video file had been created. A blank playlist no longer blocks a segment that is ready to play.

Phones try the raw live stream before re-encoding a channel.

• On a phone, live TV opens the provider’s MPEG-TS stream directly. The server only re-encodes to H.264 and AAC when the phone still cannot decode the channel.

Episodes play as video again, with sound, and without the short replay.

• Episodes were advancing as a series of still pictures. They play as normal video again, keep the stereo soundtrack, and no longer replay about a second of picture as they move forward.

Episode picture no longer repeats itself while the soundtrack plays.

• After sound came back, the picture looped for about a second at a time and then carried on. Playback now stays smooth and keeps the stereo soundtrack.

Episodes play with sound, including ones opened from a plain link.

• Episodes still played the picture with no sound. Every episode now gets a stereo soundtrack the browser can play, including playlists and plain links.

Episodes play with sound, including ones that arrive as a playlist.

• Episodes still played the picture with no sound. Playlist episodes and MP4 files now get a stereo soundtrack the browser can play.

Episodes play with sound, including MP4, and each playlist keeps its own Continue Watching.

• Episodes still played the picture with no sound, including MP4 files. Those files now get a stereo soundtrack the browser can play.
• Switching playlists no longer leaves the previous provider's Continue Watching and My List on screen. Each playlist keeps its own list, including the episode you were on.

Episodes play with sound in the browser, and Continue Watching can be removed from Live TV, Movies, and Series.

• Episodes played the picture with no sound in the browser, including MP4 files. The soundtrack was in the file; the browser was skipping it.
• Continue Watching on Live TV, Movies, and Series can be removed the same way as on Home.

Search lists every matching channel, episode rows use the real titles, and North America leaves out Chile and the Dominican Republic.

• Continue Watching can be removed from Home or the full list, including on other devices that share the account.
• Episode lists show the real episode name instead of the filename a provider attached.
• The top search bar lists every matching channel, not just one.
• North America no longer includes Chile or the Dominican Republic, including 24/7 loops named for those places. Adult and XXX categories stay hidden while that filter is on.

Episode soundtracks that are surround play in the browser.

• Episode files whose real soundtrack is surround (AC-3) were copying a stub AAC track the browser plays as silence. That mix is re-encoded to AAC instead.

Next episode during the credits advances, and an episode can start while another title is warming.

• Play next during the credits stayed on the current episode and rewound it a little. The leftover playhead from the episode being left is ignored until the next title is actually on screen.
• Episodes were stuck on 503 while a next-episode warm held an encode slot. That warm no longer counts as a viewer, so a real play can take the slot. Playback also starts from the first ready segment instead of waiting through a string of 503s.
• Repeated play/pause taps, seeks that do not land, and reloading the same page are reported so a stuck control can be traced without a support message. The API health watch mail names encode slots that are full, and provider 5xx responses.

Skip intro shows during series openings, and movies in a series can be flipped from the info page or the credits.

• Skip intro appears in the opening of an episode. Chapter marks are used when the file has them; otherwise a standard opening window is used, and skipping it remembers that timing for the show.
• A movie that belongs to a series lists the prequels and sequels from your library on its info page.
• During the credits, the next movie in that series can start after a short countdown, the same way the next episode does.

A VOD episode that hits a brief server error keeps playing instead of jumping back to the start.

• When a segment fails to load, playback retries that moment instead of restarting the episode.
• If the playhead still snaps to the opening, it is put back where you were.

Next episode and skip intro show up during series, timed to the credits and the opening.

• The next-episode card appears when the credits start, then plays the next episode after a short countdown. Watch credits stays on the ending.
• Skip intro shows when the file has chapter marks, or after you skip an opening once. Later episodes of that show reuse the same timing.
• Those times are saved per episode, so the buttons do not depend on the last few seconds of a transcode.
• While the next-episode card is up, the following episode starts encoding from the beginning — only after this episode has finished downloading.

iPhone playback controls stay tappable while a channel is playing, including mute.

• Player buttons receive taps on iPhone instead of the video layer, so pause, close, and mute work while the stream keeps playing.
• The mute icon follows the real muted state. A saved volume no longer shows muted while iPhone audio is actually on.

Marking an episode watched stays on that season, watched episodes follow your account, and a live channel that keeps freezing is restabilized.

• Checking off an episode in a later season no longer jumps the list back to season 1.
• Watched episodes sync with your Streamly account, including titles the provider didn't give a runtime for.
• A frozen live channel is recovered without jumping the live edge, then copied into a short stable window after two stuck recoveries.

A VOD episode that lost its opening segment now starts over instead of failing to load.

• Playback waits and rebuilds when the first few seconds of a cached encode are missing.
• Only one encoder runs per episode, so the opening file is not deleted mid-play.

The remaining small VOD skip was one video frame repeated at every segment edge.

• New encodes use fragmented MP4 so segment edges no longer overlap by a frame.
• An episode already on disk is encoded again the next time you play it.

The VOD skip guard now runs on the player object that was actually seeking.

• Segment-boundary jumps were still coming from the live gap controller. That is the controller that is now turned off.

VOD no longer skips ahead when a segment boundary looks like a gap.

• The player was jumping the playhead forward at each segment, and pulling that jump back made it worse. The playhead stays put.

VOD playback no longer jumps ahead a second or two at each segment.

• A brief wait at a segment boundary was seeking the playhead forward. That jump is put back, and automatic nudges stay under a fraction of a second.

Replaying an episode no longer reuses a transcode full of one-frame scraps.

• A cached episode with lots of sub-second segments is thrown out and encoded again.
• New encodes no longer insert an extra keyframe that was creating those one-frame pieces.
• While an episode is still encoding, the player keeps a steady lead instead of catching the last segment.

VOD episodes keep a buffer instead of pausing at every segment.

• Finished transcode segments stay in the playlist. Only the newest one is held back, so playback is not stuck waiting on each 5–10 second piece.

VOD downloads stay within the disk cap, and episodes no longer hitch every few seconds.

• Source files played in the last few hours are still deleted once STREAM_VOD_SOURCE_MAX_BYTES is exceeded. Only an in-flight download is kept.
• Source and HLS caches also shrink when the volume has under 8 GB free, so the disk does not have to hit 100% first.
• Capacity samples keep recording when the disk is almost full, and the collector log moves off the root volume.
• VOD episodes no longer hitch for a split second every few seconds at each segment boundary.

TV live recovers a frozen fullscreen stream the same way flipping the channel does.

• TV live HLS no longer recaps quality when the player goes fullscreen (that wedged Tizen/webOS).
• Entering or leaving fullscreen resumes playback if the TV paused MSE.
• A freeze that survives play / media recover / reload now rebuilds the player pipeline — the same teardown as flipping away and back.

Live TV search puts the event you’re looking for above generic network channels.

• Searching “ufc” ranks a channel named or playing UFC 311 above UFC Network.
• On-air programme title matches now outrank channel-name-only hits.
• Numbered event names beat generic NETWORK / Fight Pass style channels.

Mark as watched actually marks the episode, and transcode mkdir retries after a full disk.

• Series mark-watched now treats the saved 92% bookmark as completed — uneven episode runtimes used to stay unwatched.
• The episode circle fills in as soon as you tap it, including rows with no Xtream runtime.
• Xtream duration_secs sent as a string still counts, so the toggle shows on more episode rows.
• If the VPS is out of space, creating a transcode folder sweeps old HLS cache and retries (Fixes JAVASCRIPT-NEXTJS-1K).

Stop the VPS disk from filling with old HLS transcodes, and stop capacity mail from staying red after a prune.

• Finished transcodes are LRU-evicted once the HLS cache hits STREAM_TRANSCODE_MAX_BYTES (default 20 GB; 15 GB on this VPS).
• Capacity disk alerts use the latest sample, so a cache prune does not keep firing upgrade_now.

VOD transcode no longer paints a grey, color-smeared picture, and keeps encoding if you pause.

• 1080p HEVC is scaled to a 16-aligned ~540p height (not a 540-pixel-wide smear).
• x264 stays Main profile so TVs and browsers can decode the stream.
• ffmpeg waits for more of the file, then keeps encoding after pause until the episode is done.

Live TV Auto quality is no longer stuck on the lowest rung, and movies can load panel sidecar subtitles.

• Chrome/Brave live Auto now uses the best H.264/AAC variant the browser can decode, instead of pinning 480p.
• Desktop live no longer downscales to the player window size; phones and TVs still do.
• Captions button lists HLS, CEA-708, and Xtream SRT/VTT sidecar tracks when the provider sends them. Live DVB/teletext still is not available in the browser.

Episode VODs stutter less — playback stays behind the transcode instead of freezing every few seconds.

• Transcoded series wait for a few HLS segments before starting, and hide the encode tip earlier.
• Default HLS segments are 4 seconds (was 2), so a stall is less frequent if the encode is still catching up.
• More of the episode is downloaded before ffmpeg starts, so the encoder is less likely to run out of source mid-play.

Mark episodes as watched from the series page and keep finished episodes tracked.

• Each episode row has a mark-watched toggle — tap again to mark unwatched.
• Finishing playback now saves a completion bookmark instead of clearing progress.
• Resume, scrub, close, and ended events share one persist path so watch state stays consistent.

Jumping ahead in a transcoded episode no longer freezes on a Cloudflare 524.

• Mid-file encode restarts return 503 quickly instead of holding the request until Cloudflare times out.
• Playback keeps going until the new playlist is ready; 524/504 are treated as “still preparing.”

Clicking the VOD seek bar on transcoded episodes (MKV series) now jumps to that time.

• The bar uses the same duration clock as ±10s, plus Xtream episode runtime when the probe is late.
• Clicks land on the track itself — a disabled range input can no longer swallow the seek.

Seek jumps work again — fragment loads no longer crash reading playlist text.

• hls.js media segments use arraybuffer XHRs; reading responseText threw and aborted those loads.
• Duration is still read from playlist responses and headers; ±10s was never affected because those segments were already buffered.

Clicking the VOD seek bar jumps to that time instead of restarting the title.

• Seek clicks use the pointer position on the track, not the range input’s stale playhead.
• Seeks are ignored until title duration is known, so an empty bar cannot send playback to 00:00.

The VOD seek bar stays visible even when title duration is still probing.

• Player: movies and episodes always show the seek bar — a late duration probe no longer hides it.
• Transcode playlists publish #EXT-X-STREAMLY-DURATION-SEC and the client reads the tag if the duration header is missing.
• Seek track and thumb stay visible on phones and TVs (no hover-only fade).

Desktop playback keeps going when you leave the tab, and GitHub plus Ko-fi are visible in the app chrome.

• Player: desktop and phone tabs keep playing on hide; Tizen/webOS/Silk still suspend after 5s; Picture-in-Picture is never paused.
• Home, login, blog, and the logged-in banner now link the GitHub repo next to Discord.
• Sidebar and mobile More: Support opens ko-fi.com/freeforall.

TV-safe share links play without login, and production Sentry errors from stream/xtream/img are fixed.

• Pasting a TV-safe /api/stream URL in Chrome (including incognito) opens a standalone player instead of a raw playlist.
• VLC, Infuse, Kodi, and other TV players are allowed through the stream proxy UA gate.
• Share menu opens the proxied stream in a new tab; provider URLs are copied instead of opened in Chrome.
• Sentry: client-abort / pipe-reset noise, invalid Xtream server URLs, oversized HLS rewrite, Safari login NotFoundError.
• TV-safe /api/stream browser redirect uses a relative /play Location so production is not localhost.

Stop Live TV from hanging in a React update loop, and stop /api/stream from crashing on HTTP 304.

• Live TV: stable empty scan-id list so idle programme-search cannot infinite-loop setState.
• Stream proxy: do not forward conditional cache headers; coerce 304 instead of throwing.
• Prefs: guard zustand persist.hasHydrated when the persist API is missing.
• Sentry: drop RSC client-manifest deploy races, extension removeChild, and Safari Load failed.

Stop Samsung / TV live from skipping: no live-edge catch-up seeks or hole nudges.

• TV live HLS: never seek to catch the live edge (max latency Infinity) and never nudge over playlist holes.
• TV live: no recoverMediaError / startLoad(-1) on stalls, wake, or video errors — play() only.
• Live network retries use startLoad() at the current position, not the playlist edge.

Stop live TV from repeating on Samsung and other smart TVs.

• TV live: remove the auto freeze watchdog (recoverMediaError / startLoad replayed the sliding window).
• TV live: wake and stuck-playhead paths only call play() — no media-recover or live-edge restart.

Stop Samsung / TV live from repeating and jumping after the freeze-recovery change.

• TV live: no automatic live-edge restart or player rebuild (those snapped playback backward).
• TV live: only nudge a true freeze; ignore normal rebuffers that still have buffer elsewhere.
• TV live: restore the pre-0.13.14 HLS sync settings that did not skip or bounce.

Keep live events playing on Samsung and other smart TVs without flipping channels.

• TV live: detect frozen playhead even when timeupdate stops (Tizen decoder stall).
• TV live: auto-recover gentle → reload → rebuild, the same path as flipping the channel.
• TV live: stay further behind the event edge and skip small playlist holes so MSE does not wedge.

Stop live TV skip/stall from Chromecast pre-warm hammering /api/cast/resolve.

• Live: castMedia no longer rebuilds on every timeupdate (was retriggering cast prep).
• Live: background Cast pre-warm only when Cast UI is open or already casting.
• Cast: 120s cooldown after prep failure so /api/cast/resolve cannot storm on 422.

Brazil-friendly Portuguese defaults, stronger IPTV Web Player SEO, and new guides.

• Geo: Brazil (and Brazilian timezones) default Movies/Series language to Português, not Spanish.
• VOD: BR/BRASIL catalog tags map to Portuguese; PT filter label is Português.
• Landing: title, H1, and hero lead target “Streamly — Modern IPTV Web Player for Xtream Codes.”
• Guides: Best IPTV Web Player for Xtream Codes in 2026; How to Use an IPTV Web Player; pt-BR Como usar o Streamly.

Fall back to server HLS when VOD has unsupported or silent AC-3/DTS audio.

• VOD: after swapAudioCodec / silent progressive play, request transcode=hls (copyVideo → AAC).
• VOD: clearer error when NEXT_PUBLIC_VOD_TRANSCODE is not enabled in the build.

Choose which Live/Movies/Series categories appear in pickers, plus Docker SQLite bootstrap fix.

• Settings: category visibility filter per Xtream login (Live, Movies, Series).
• Docker: create core SQLite tables on startup so signup works without db:push.

Download VOD episodes to disk before transcoding so playback no longer stalls or loops mid-episode.

• VOD: cache the source file locally, then ffmpeg from disk (single-connection safe).
• VOD: wait for enough downloaded bytes before seek/resume encodes; keep source across Try again.
• VOD: never treat early ENDLIST as finished when the episode is incomplete.
• Player: re-wire finale detection so series autoplay advances instead of live-sync looping.

Brave cast guidance, Continue Watching sync via PIN, and one clear search bar.

• Cast: Brave Media Router / Shields recovery tips; Samsung needs Chromecast built-in.
• PIN pairing carries Streamly session so Continue Watching syncs phone → TV.
• Search: single TopBar field on Live/Movies/Series; unified min length and retry on failures.

Quieter API health alerts and steadier VOD resume after background.

• Monitor: stop duplicate API health alert emails.
• Player: resume VOD after background at the saved position.

Resume VOD after a break at the right time — not 00:00.

• Player: long-background wake reinit keeps continue-watching position and tc_seek.
• VOD: serialize ffmpeg spawn so concurrent resumes cannot orphan duplicate encodes.

Stop mid-episode Unable to play when the VPS is briefly overloaded.

• Player: soft-retry mid-playback 502 on VOD transcode manifests instead of killing the episode.
• VOD: resume a failed encode from flushed segments instead of returning hard 502.
• VOD: default x264 preset ultrafast to cut CPU on small VPS hosts.

Stop VOD transcode playback from skipping a second when encode lags.

• VOD: hold the HLS playlist a few segments behind ffmpeg so clients stop racing the encode edge.
• Player: wait/retry on 503 segment prep instead of restarting load and jumping buffer holes.
• Player: stay further behind growing EVENT playlists and tighten maxBufferHole.

Live Trending on TV loads much faster from cache.

• Trending on TV: serve the warm assembled shelf even when the browser sends EPG hints.
• Trending on TV: stop React Query refetch storms as IndexedDB/shelf hints fill in.
• Trending on TV: skip the 2.5s shelf-hint wait when local titles are already warm.

Fix Live TV black screen on smart TVs after opening a channel.

• Player: delay background suspend so brief TV visibility flickers no longer pause HLS forever.
• Player: wake from pagehide/pageshow always resumes loading (not only bfcache).
• Player: after a real suspend, video.play() also restarts hls.js startLoad().

Favorite channels from the All Channels category popout.

• Live: heart toggle on category overlay channel rows (“See all”) to add or remove from My List.
• My List: same local prefs + cloud sync as the rest of the app.

Fix Chromecast title-only stall; add cast monitoring.

• Cast: always resolve a cast-safe H.264 ladder from the master — never reuse the browser’s HEVC/Dolby rung.
• Cast: live segments keep type=hls (Smarters UA) so Chromecast can fetch IPTV CDNs.
• Cast: 18s stall watchdog when the TV never reaches PLAYING.
• Ops: cast funnel in /api/metrics, client /api/cast/events, token-gated /api/cast/diag.

Cast to TV starts faster and more reliably; iPhone gets real AirPlay.

• Cast: pre-warm Chromecast-safe HLS while you watch so Cast to TV is near-instant.
• Cast: server resolve picks a playable media playlist — fixes title + cast icon with no video.
• Cast: persistent Cast button, auto-follow when already connected, poster metadata, MKV via HLS only.
• iOS: AirPlay picker from the player; Share copies a TV-safe proxied URL instead of the raw provider link.

Mobile live TV recovers when audio plays but the picture stays frozen.

• Player: auto-reload on audio-only live playback and native iOS frozen-frame recovery.
• Player: pin phone live streams to browser-safe HLS quality rungs (HEVC/Dolby drift).
• Player: Try again on the “hearing audio but no picture” banner.
• Infra: redirect www to apex in Caddy.

Mobile and desktop get stronger background recovery after tab sleep or bfcache restore.

• Player: listen for pagehide/pageshow and freeze/resume — covers mobile Safari bfcache and Android tab discard.
• Player: iPhone/iPad after long background now full pipeline reinit instead of a bare play() on a stale native HLS session.
• Player: shared recovery planner for all clients — gentle/soft HLS on Chromium, safe reinit everywhere.

TV browsers no longer freeze after overnight standby when leaving the player.

• Player: suspend HLS on TV/tab sleep (pause + stopLoad) instead of leaving a stale MSE session overnight.
• Player: wake recovery uses soft HLS reload — never sync video.load(), which froze Samsung/Fire TV after standby.
• Player: defer hls.destroy on close so browse remount does not race teardown and lock the whole browser.

Pause is respected during MKV transcode; no more random resume or skip.

• Player: stop calling play() on every transcode fragment — fixes unprompted resume while paused.
• Player: remove transcode edge watcher that nudged HLS and fired fake ended events.
• Autoplay: ignore synthetic ended while paused; do not advance on countdown when paused.

Stabilize series transcode playback and stop false autoplay skips.

• Player: only fire transcode ended near the real finale — HLS snap-backs mid-episode no longer advance.
• Player: simplify episode URL setup and stop prep UI from resetting mid-playback.
• Series: disable neighbor transcode warming and transcode-buffer autoplay polling.

Series playback no longer auto-advances when transcode encode stalls mid-episode.

• Player: only treat transcode as ended near the real episode finale — not when encode catches up mid-playback.
• Series: warm only the next episode (delayed) instead of prev/next MKV transcode jobs that stole the provider slot.
• Resume: fix timeline-hold race that cleared continue-watching position before the pipeline attached.

Series episodes no longer restart or skip on first play.

• Player: stop prefetching neighboring episodes as raw MKV — use transcode warm only.
• Player: bake resume seek into the first transcode URL so playback does not start at 0 and jump.
• Player: initialize transcode URL before the pipeline attaches to avoid a double restart.

VOD probing no longer exhausts single-connection IPTV panels.

• VOD: probe only MP4 (not four extensions) and stop immediately when the provider is busy.
• VOD: skip format probes when server MKV transcode is enabled; cooldown before fallback playback.
• Series: removed auto transcode warm on page load that stole provider slots before Play.

Live TV search finds channels across the full catalog.

• Live TV: server-side name search scans the full channel list instead of a 240-row sample.
• Live TV: programme (EPG) title search enabled by default on the Live page and shelf browse.
• Live TV: search results play correctly from shelf browse without a category context.

Discovery shelf filters, smarter For You rows, and gentler VOD format probing.

• Movies/Series: discovery shelves stay visible under filters — only non-matching titles drop out.
• For You: suggests new titles from genre taste instead of repeating Continue Watching.
• VOD: probe MP4/M4V/MOV/TS one at a time with lightweight upstream checks before MKV transcode.

Probe for MP4 and other browser-friendly VOD formats before MKV.

• VOD format probe when panel metadata says MKV — try MP4/M4V/MOV/TS before playback.

Sanitize player error messages when providers return HTML.

• Player errors: stop showing raw HTML or Cloudflare pages in the Unable to play overlay.

Player close freeze fix for mobile and desktop browsers.

• Player close: defer HLS teardown on every client — mobile and desktop match the TV non-blocking close path.

Fix TV player close freezing the app.

• Player close on TV: defer browse remount and HLS teardown so the overlay dismisses before heavy work.
• Guard double-close taps and history cleanup races when exiting playback.
• Floating X close control stays pointer-reachable; Backspace closes like other TV remotes.

Faster TV navigation between hub and Live/VOD/Series pages.

• TV hub prefetch: warm route chunks and slim catalogs on the home menu; tiles prefetch on D-pad focus.
• Shorter TV deferrals: catalogs, discovery shelves, live browse UI, and shelf loading start sooner.
• Back to Home: TV sub-nav prefetches the hub route on focus.

TV Live browse defaults and tighter North America region filtering.

• TV Live: open straight into category shelves — Guide/List toggle removed on living-room TVs.
• Live TV search: fix keyboard dropping after one letter; category lists scroll while filtering.
• North America: hide Arabic, Latin American, and other foreign shelves unless that region is selected.
• Live API: stop falling back to unfiltered channels when regional sampling returns empty.

VPS capacity monitoring — know when to upgrade your server.

• Host metrics collector (RAM, CPU, disk, egress) runs every 5 minutes on the VPS.
• Protected GET /api/metrics — stream-proxy concurrency, Node memory, upgrade signals.
• npm run monitor:report — human-readable capacity summary to paste into support chats.
• One-time scripts/vps-monitoring-setup.sh installs cron, secret, and vps-spec.json.

TV Live UI overhaul — readable 10-foot text, fixed category picker freeze.

• Categories on TV: full-screen grid picker — no more page freeze from the old modal.
• Samsung / TV browsers: fix root font scale so text is readable at 100% zoom.
• TV Guide: taller rows, larger channel names and programme blocks.
• TV Live: bigger toolbar controls; hide Continue Watching when viewing the guide.

Live TV layout fills wide screens — no more empty shelf gaps on TV.

• Live TV: inline “+N more” after channel cards — fixes huge blank bands on 4K TVs.
• Live TV browse: up to 10 channels per shelf row with responsive card widths.
• TV Guide: taller programme grid on living-room browsers.
• TV Live page: tighter padding and compact header for more content area.

TV discovery browse, cable-style live guide, and Balkan region filtering.

• TV Movies/Series: restore discovery rows (Continue Watching, For You, Trending) on the landing view.
• TV Live TV: category shelf rows with now-playing EPG subtitles and a full TV Guide grid.
• TV browse: full-width poster grids and denser category tiles — less blank space on large TVs.
• Live TV: recognize |BLN|, |HRV|, |MKD| and Balkan country names so North America no longer shows European shelves.
• TV settings menu expands to four columns on wide screens.

Chromecast live playback and TV-simple UI.

• TV hub: four large tiles (Live, Series, Movies, Settings) — zero catalog load on home.
• Fix TV application error on join — server/client TV hints prevent hydration crash.
• Fix Live TV crash on TV — live search provider always mounted on /app/live.
• TV settings: tile menu with playlist switch, add, rename, and remove.
• Web settings: restore inline Edit for saved playlists (server, login, name).
• Mobile: stop auto-loading heavy home shelves; defer catalog prefetch, cloud sync, and HLS preload.
• TV browse: region chips with geo default, paginated categories, compact channel list.
• Fix saved playlists not restoring when Streamly session loads after cached IPTV creds.
• Stronger D-pad focus ring and auto-focus on each TV screen.
• TV browse: pick a category, then channels or titles — no EPG/discovery shelves.
• TV UA skips marketing landing; no auto-rich home, prefetch, or perf HUD on living-room clients.
• Chromecast: media playlists only, active HLS level reuse, VOD proxy for segments.

Mobile playlist menu, episode flip, Chromecast live, and TV chrome fixes.

• Poll NextAuth before restoring saved playlists; retry activation and show errors on onboarding.
• Clear stale transcode timeline when flipping episodes — fixes next-episode freeze and rewind loops.
• Mobile playlist dropdown scrolls and stays on-screen; Playlists link in More menu and settings anchor.
• Hide Discord strip on TV; recursive Chromecast live HLS variant resolution with cast=1 URLs.

Saved playlists restore reliably when signing in on a new device.

• Wait for Streamly session before restoring encrypted provider accounts — fixes empty library on new devices.
• Auto-save cookie-only IPTV sessions to your Streamly account when you sign in later.
• Onboarding shows your saved playlists so you can pick one without re-entering credentials.

Fix series episodes looping at the end of transcoded playback.

• Stop hls.js manifest polling when a transcoded episode reaches the encode edge — prevents snap-back to segment 0.
• Detect backward playhead jumps and encode-caught-up finale even without reliable duration metadata.
• Finale autoplay countdown works when duration hints are wrong; resume lock resets on episode change.

Regional filtering fixes, release-date sort, and IP-based region/language defaults.

• North America filter no longer shows |EU|, |ALB|, and other foreign IPTV category blocks.
• Category see-all and list view respect the active TV region.
• Release date sort for Movies and Series; discovery shelves stay visible with language filters.
• Live TV region and VOD language default from IP geolocation (timezone fallback).

Smart TV onboarding, GitHub Discussions for feedback, and Live Continue Watching fixes.

• /tv setup page with QR code, PIN pairing, and Samsung/LG/Fire TV guides.
• GitHub Discussions — Feedback & Ideas thread linked from footer, Settings, and README.
• Live Continue Watching plays from recents when catalog lookup fails.
• TV PIN codes persist in SQLite across restarts and multi-instance deploys.

GitHub Discussions for low-friction feedback; changelog links across the site.

• GitHub Discussions enabled with a pinned Feedback & Ideas thread — share thoughts without opening an issue.
• Footer, Settings, blog shell, and README link to Discussions alongside Discord.
• CHANGELOG.md and /changelog stay in sync for release notes on GitHub and the live site.

Smart TV onboarding, persistent PIN pairing, and reliable Live Continue Watching.

• /tv setup page with QR code, PIN steps, and Samsung/LG/Fire TV guides.
• TV PIN codes persist in SQLite — survives restarts and multi-instance VPS deploys.
• Live Continue Watching plays from recents when catalog lookup fails; touch-friendly Watch buttons.
• tv-apps/ scaffolds for Samsung, LG, and Fire TV store wrappers.

Faster episode start and fix for series playback jumping backward and looping.

• Transcode warm (hover/focus) no longer blocks — ffmpeg starts in the background before Play.
• Single ffprobe pass, 2s HLS segments, and pre-warm on resume/next episode cut cold-start latency.
• Fix growing HLS manifest refresh resetting playhead to 0 (backward seek / loop on TV and desktop).
• Cache get_series_info for 5 minutes — series pages load faster on repeat visits.

Filter browser userscript errors out of Sentry so third-party scripts do not trigger production alerts.

• Client beforeSend drops extension and Tampermonkey-style stack frames (app://, *.user.js).
• Sentry automation prompt committed — noise issues auto-ignored with a comment.

Mobile player controls no longer sit under the tab bar; continue watching works after closing playback.

• Bottom navigation hides during playback so fullscreen and transport controls are tappable.
• Fix browse page stuck blank after closing the player (race in mount gate).
• History cleanup no longer cancels a new play session if you tap continue watching right after close.

Fix scroll-only freeze after dismissing the Discord banner.

• Removed touchend preventDefault that blocked all taps on iOS after dismiss.
• Live shelf rows no longer use content-visibility (misaligned touch targets after layout shift).
• Discord strip hidden on mobile; shelf EPG deferred on phones; category overlay cleared on dismiss.

Fix mobile freeze when dismissing the Discord community banner.

• Dismiss defers localStorage so large IPTV session blobs cannot block the main thread.
• Banner collapses smoothly and blocks iOS ghost taps on content below.
• Live shelf scroll loader ignores layout shifts for 450ms after loads settle.

Mobile page-to-page navigation stays responsive under heavy live shelf loads.

• Bottom nav uses React transitions so taps register immediately while the next page loads.
• Live shelf bootstrap loads one category batch then defers the rest — no more chained fetches blocking the main thread.
• Catalog prefetch waits longer on phones; leaving Live aborts in-flight shelf requests.

Fix mobile bottom navigation taps blocked by overlays and stacking.

• Bottom nav renders in a body portal at z-100 so page content cannot steal touches.
• Cookie consent and version badge offset above the nav bar on /app routes.
• Nav links use touch-manipulation and solid backdrop for reliable iOS taps.

Complete Live TV shelf 502 fix — stale-first catalog and graceful degradation.

• Expired disk catalog is served immediately while upstream refresh runs in the background.
• Shelf batch and preview APIs return empty shelves with catalogUnavailable instead of HTTP 502.
• Load-more and prefetch paths set in-page errors instead of unhandled promise rejections.

Discord links across logged-in app chrome; Live TV shelf 502 resilience.

• Join Discord in sidebar, mobile More menu, TV nav, and a dismissible strip on app pages.
• Live shelf batch uses stale catalog cache when upstream refresh fails.
• Shelf load failures show Try again instead of crashing the Live TV page.

Fix Chrome click blocking — defer EPG scans and home discovery until after interaction.

• EPG cache readiness stops polling after warmup instead of scanning the full store every 1.5s.
• Library home defers IndexedDB EPG hydration and prefs rehydrate so navigation stays clickable.
• Desktop Chrome no longer auto-loads heavy home shelves — opt in via Load recommendations.
• Slim catalog APIs parse with res.json() to avoid worker structured-clone overhead.

Fix Chrome freeze on initial load — eliminate remaining full-catalog client fetches.

• Home rich shelves use server discovery APIs instead of downloading entire VOD and series catalogs.
• Search uses paginated item APIs; live name search uses a capped channel sample with chunked indexing.
• Movie and series detail pages load a category preview for similar titles, not the full catalog.
• Catalog JSON parsing always prefers a Web Worker when available.

Paginated Movies and Series grids — 120 titles per page with load more.

• Catalog grids fetch 120 items at a time instead of 600 on first paint.
• Show more button and scroll sentinel load the next page from the VPS.
• Virtual grid renders all loaded pages without the old 400-item display cap.

Server-built Movies and Series discovery shelves — no 800-item preview fetch.

• New /api/vod/discovery-shelves and /api/series/discovery-shelves build top rated, new, for-you, trending, and genre rails on the VPS.
• TMDB trending matching runs server-side from the cached catalog bundle.
• Movies and Series pages no longer download an 800-title preview blob for discovery rows.

Server-side slim VOD/series catalogs with paginated item APIs.

• Movies and Series load category metadata only — titles paginate from /api/vod/items and /api/series/items.
• Disk-cached full bundles on the VPS; browser no longer downloads entire movie/series catalogs up front.
• P0 click-through tests for slim grid, genre filter, and search on Movies and Series.

Fix library and browse freezes on Chrome and desktop browsers.

• Defer discovery EPG and yield between batches on all clients — not only TV.
• Lazy/chunked VOD name indexes; skip heavy category maps until a genre is opened.
• Smaller catalog JSON uses Web Worker parsing sooner; home rich shelves load later.

Fix player close freezing on TV, Fire TV Silk, and mobile.

• Skip sync video.load() on teardown — avoids main-thread hangs on embedded browsers.
• Defer history.back() and browse remount when closing the player overlay.
• Always-visible exit control when TV/mobile chrome is hidden; Close on stall overlay.

Production release — cross-platform UX parity (P0–P3) and player polish.

• P0: TV EPG guide, tablet bottom nav at 1024px, Fire TV Silk remote hints.
• P1: Mobile EPG/PiP, compact top bar, TV movies/series shelf-first browse.
• P2–P3: useLivingRoomShell/useNativeTvUa, TvHomeHub, iPad policy, QA checklist.

Living-room architecture cleanup, TV home hub, and mobile polish.

• Split useLivingRoomShell vs useNativeTvUa — clearer TV shell vs native UA playback.
• iPad stays on mobile/desktop shell unless Comfort TV or a real TV browser.
• TvHomeHub wired into rich TV home; larger bottom-nav tap targets; compact landscape guide.
• scripts/qa-device-checklist.mjs — manual device QA list + optional P0 automation.

Mobile player controls, compact top bar, and TV VOD shelf browse.

• Phone player — EPG schedule and Picture-in-Picture buttons visible on small screens (hidden on TV).
• Top bar — route title on phones; icon-only playlist switcher below the sm breakpoint.
• Movies & Series on TV — shelf-first browse with D-pad-friendly rows; full grid when a genre is selected.

Cross-platform UX parity — TV guide, tablet nav, Fire TV hints.

• Samsung / TV live — List/Guide toggle now opens the full EPG grid (category rail + modal on guide).
• Tablet breakpoint unified at 1024px — bottom nav on phones and tablets, sidebar on desktop.
• Fire TV Silk — remote control hints banner in the player (same as native TV browsers).

README guides, changelog page, and release notes everywhere.

• GitHub README — Featured guides table linking all four blog posts.
• CHANGELOG.md on GitHub and /changelog on the site (What's new in v0.2.x).
• Version badge in the player links to release notes; footer and Settings links.

Guides, changelog, and community polish.

• Four blog guides live — weekend build log, $5 VPS costs, Docker self-host, Xtream vs M3U.
• Changelog page on the site plus CHANGELOG.md for GitHub.
• Discord community links across footer, settings, and welcome email.

Google Analytics actually collects data now.

• Default GA4 measurement ID for iptvwebplayer.org when env is unset.
• SPA page_view events on client navigations.

Official Discord community.

• Permanent invite linked from landing page, login, and Settings.
• Welcome email includes optional Join Discord CTA.

Binge UX and VOD playback hardening.

• Autoplay next episode overlay for series.
• VOD transcode seek/resume fixes and MKV/HEVC fallback path.
• Catalog sort toggles and genre bars on movies/series.
• Playback speed and multi-audio track selection in the player.
• Live Trending on TV shelf EPG hints and cache improvements.

First public Streamly release. These notes were first published as 1.0.0. That number is saved for a later release.

• Xtream Codes and M3U login with proxied HLS playback.
• Live TV shelves, movies, series, global search, and custom player.
• TV browser layout with D-pad navigation and TV pairing PIN.
• Three-tier EPG fallback chain and optional TMDB artwork.
• Docker Compose, SQLite accounts, and MIT open source.