goals.md

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+## Core Features
+
+- **Media Playback:** Support on-demand playback for media files in various formats.
+  - **Caching & Performance:**
+    - Use cached segments for seamless seeking and fast resume.
+    - If another user starts playback with the same parameters, reuse existing cached data to minimize transcoding and bandwidth usage.
+  - Includes CDN capabilities and P2P federation by Blint.
+- **Metadata Management:**
+  - Automatically identify and fetch metadata from databases like IMDb, TVDB, etc.
+  - Allow users to edit and correct metadata manually.
+- **Transcoding Options:**
+  - Pre-encode media into multiple formats for reduced compute load (at the expense of storage).
+  - Or use dynamic, on-the-fly transcoding for flexibility and storage efficiency.
+- **Clients**
+  - Web Client
+  - Native Clients: Desktop (Windows, Linux, MacOS), Mobile (Android, iOS), TV (Android TV, Apple TV, WebOS, Roku, Someone could create one for Xbox)
+  - Multiuser Support in clients: You are able to login with multiple users and change between them.
+- **Offline Access:**
+  - Clients can batch-download content for offline playback, respecting user permissions and device limits.
+- **Scalability:**
+  - Support distributed and remote ffmpeg-based transcoding pipelines for high availability and load balancing.
+- **User Management:**
+  - Authentication, profiles, access control, and session tracking.
+- **Library & Personalization:**
+  - Organize and manage libraries by media type (movies, shows, etc.).
+  - Create and manage playlists and collections.
+  - Track user history, progress, and play counts.
+  - Allow users to group media into watchlists, favorites, or custom categories.
+  - Provide statistics and usage insights (e.g., most watched, time spent, active users).
+    - Show statics for users about themselves
+  - Resume from last position across devices.
+
+## Nice to Have / Later
+
+- **Sync Play:** Watch movies or shows together in real time across multiple clients.
+- **Integration with ARR Stack:** Compatibility with Radarr, Sonarr, Lidarr, and similar automation tools.
+- **Parental controls**
+- **Jellyfin-Compatible API** and **Plex-Compatible API**
+- **Plugin Support:** Extend functionality with custom or third-party plugins.
+- **Smart Playback Features:**
+  - Intro, outro, recap skipper.
+- **Recommendations:** Personalized movie and series suggestions based on user history and preferences.
+- **External Sync:** Sync watch history, ratings, and metadata with services like Trakt.tv.
+- **Subtitle Management:** Automatic subtitle fetching, editing, and syncing with playback. - Probably bazarr is enough for that.
+- **Multi-Format Detection:** Detect multiple versions (e.g., 1080p, 4K, HDR) of the same media and show them in a unified view.
+- **IPTV / Live TV:** Stream and manage live channels alongside on-demand content.
+
+## Architecture
+
+- **Frontend/Backend Separation:** Clearly separated user interface and backend services.
+- **Microservice-Ready:** Modular, loosely coupled components that can scale independently.
+- **Extensible Protocol Support:** Easily add or replace streaming and media delivery protocols.
+- **Telemetry & Observability:** Built-in tracing, logging, and metrics collection.
+- **Plugin System:** Enable community and custom extensions.
+- **Robust API Design:** Clean, well-documented REST and gRPC interfaces for interoperability.
+
+## Patrik's Dreams (Not Necessarily Realistic Goals)
+
+- On-demand streaming over QUIC. *(WebRTC was suggested but may not fit our use case.)*
+- **Segmented Formats:** Support CMAF alongside traditional MPEG-TS for more efficient adaptive streaming.
+- **Streaming Standards:** Full compatibility with both HLS and MPEG-DASH.
+- **Processing Backends:** Flexible support for ffmpeg, GStreamer, or alternative media frameworks.