AstralPlay

AstralPlay is a local web streaming platform for organizing and watching web series from your own files. It detects episodes from S__E__ file names, arranges them by season, and saves watch progress, history, and thumbnails in the browser and folder DB.

URL: https://astralplay.pages.dev/

Features

• import videos through a single Import Media entry point
• detect episodes using S__E__ pattern
• ask thumbnail mode each import:
  • one uploaded image for all thumbnails
  • no thumbnails
  • generate thumbnails
• cache generated thumbnails and playback progress
• open episode in fullscreen YouTube-style custom player layout
• support sidebar views: Library, Continue, History
• Continue auto-opens last played episode from DB
• merge history entries for the same episode and keep the latest play timestamp
• clear history from the History view

Notes

• Browser playback support depends on codec/container. mp4 is safest.
• Many .mkv files may not play in browser even though they are detected.
• Progress/history/thumbnail cache are saved in localStorage.
• When running the local Node server, Open Folder uses the server APIs and writes .astralplay.db.json inside the selected media folder.
• On http://localhost:3333, Open Folder also writes cached thumbnails into .astralplay_thumbs in that same media folder.
• Open Files stays browser-only and does not write folder DB/thumb files.
• If the app falls back to browser folder access, it can also write .astralplay.db.json directly through the File System Access API.
• Thumbnail extraction is client-side; cached thumbnails are reused before generating missing ones.
• Cloudflare Pages is static hosting, so it cannot write .astralplay.db.json back into your deployed site.
• If you want the folder JSON database, run AstralPlay locally on your own machine.

Run Locally

node server.js

Open: http://localhost:3333

For LAN access on your phone:

• double-click astralplay.cmd
• open the AstralPlay LAN URL shown in the terminal on your phone browser

You can also launch it from terminal:

npm start

Import

Use the Import Media button:

• choose Open Folder on desktop browsers that support directory pick
• choose Open Files on mobile and as fallback

The scanner searches recursively and detects episode tokens like:

• S01E01
• S1E2
• S_01_E_03
• S-02-E-10