Web Portal
Since: 0.18.0
TIP
The Phlix web portal runs in any modern browser — no software to install. Navigate to your server's web address, sign in with your Hub account or enter a direct server URL, and start streaming immediately. Works on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
Install / Store Links
- No installation required — open the URL in your browser and start using it
- Supported browsers: Chrome 110+, Firefox 115+, Safari 16+, Edge 110+
- Mobile browsers: Fully functional but optimized for desktop
Bookmark your server's web portal URL:
https://your-server-domain.com/webOr for local access:
http://192.168.1.100:32400/webPlatform-Specific Notes
- The web portal requires the server's web address to be reachable from your browser — either on the local network or via a Hub relay / reverse proxy.
- Some browser extensions (ad blockers, privacy extensions) may interfere with playback. If playback does not start, try disabling extensions or using an incognito/private window.
- For best playback performance, use a browser with hardware acceleration enabled (Chrome and Edge have this on by default).
- Incompatible formats play automatically. Titles your browser can't play directly — non-web containers like MKV, or codecs like HEVC (including 10-bit HEVC) — are transcoded on the server on demand and streamed as HLS. The server transcodes them to 8-bit H.264 (High@4.1, yuv420p) so they decode in any modern browser. You'll see a brief "Preparing your stream…" message while the server starts the conversion, then playback begins. mp4/WebM titles play instantly with no conversion.
Setup Steps
Open the Web Portal
- Open your browser and navigate to your server's web URL.
- You land on the Phlix login screen.
Sign In With Hub (Recommended for Multi-Server Users)
- On the login screen, click Sign in with Hub.
- Enter your Hub URL (e.g.,
https://hub.phlix.example.com) and press Continue. - Enter your Hub username and password, then click Sign In.
- If your Hub account has multiple servers linked, a picker appears — select the server you want to access.
- The portal loads your selected server's libraries.
Sign In With Direct Server URL
- On the login screen, click Connect Directly.
- Enter your server's direct URL (e.g.,
http://192.168.1.100:32400) and press Connect. - Enter your server username and password.
- The portal loads your server's libraries directly.
No Downloads or Permissions
The web portal uses standard browser APIs and requires no plugins, extensions, or special permissions.
Browsing Your Media
Per-library Browse sections
The Browse home (/app) is organized as horizontal rails: a Continue Watching rail, any rows your server has configured for the home page, and then one rail per library — for example Movies, TV, and Anime. Libraries appear in the order the admin set (their display order), then alphabetically.
Each library rail has a See all link that opens a dedicated page for that library at /app/library/<library-id>. That page is the full grid for the single library, with the filter bar (search, genres, year range, ratings, cast) and pagination — so you can drill into one library at a time instead of one flat all-libraries grid. The media server's sidebar also shows a Browse link per library, so you can jump straight to any library's page from the nav.
The hub's web UI has no libraries, so it shows no per-library rails or links — its home is My Servers.
Adaptive Index Rail
The library page (/app/library/<id>) shows a fixed vertical jump rail on the right edge of the grid. Clicking a rail button jumps the grid directly to that bucket's first title — the same ensureRange() random-access mechanism that drives normal scrolling, so jumped-to skeleton slots fill with the correct titles.
The rail adapts its bucket labels to the current sort field:
| Sort field | Rail shows | Default order |
|---|---|---|
name | A–Z letters | asc |
year | Decade buckets (1990s, 2000s, …) | desc |
rating | MPAA rating buckets (G, PG, PG-13, R, …) | desc |
runtime | Duration buckets (0–30 min, 30–60 min, …) | desc |
date_added | Relative time buckets (Today, This week, …) | desc |
The rail re-fetches automatically whenever the sort field changes, so switching from name-asc to year-desc swaps the A–Z rail for a decade rail.
TIP
Server compatibility: On older servers that don't implement GET /api/v1/media/index, the rail silently hides (graceful 404 fallback). Browsing works normally.
TV & anime series
A series-type library (e.g. TV or Anime) lists shows, not a flat dump of every episode. Each card is a series; the rails and the library page show the shows only.
Opening a show goes to its series page: a hero with the show artwork and details, plus a season grid below it.
- The grid shows one card per season (and a Specials card, grouped last), each with the season poster, the "Season N" / "Specials" label, and the episode count.
- Click a season card to open its per-season page, which lists that season's episodes in order — episode number, title, and runtime — with a back link to the series page.
- Click any episode (or its play button) to start it. Play on the series hero starts the first episode.
Searching inside a series library still matches episodes by title — the "shows only" view applies to browsing, not to search.
Media-type sections
Each media type also has a dedicated set of browsing pages:
| Section | Pages | Entry URL |
|---|---|---|
| Music | Albums, album detail, artists, artist detail, all-tracks, and a standalone player | /music (albums), /music/artists, /music/tracks, /music/player |
| Books | Library grid, book detail, and a built-in reader | /books, /books/{id}, /books/{id}/read |
| Audiobooks | Library grid, detail with chapter list, and the player | /audiobooks, /audiobooks/{id}, /audiobooks/{id}/read |
| Photos | Date-grouped album grid, album view, single-photo view with EXIF, and a slideshow | /photo/albums, /photo/album/{id}, /photo/photo/{id}, /photo/slideshow |
Notes:
- The album and slideshow photo pages need a
library_idquery parameter; the links generated within the portal include it automatically. - Book covers and downloads are served from
/books/{id}/coverand/books/{id}/download; photo thumbnails and full-size images from/photo/photos/{id}/thumbnailand/photo/photos/{id}/full. - The music section uses generated cover-art placeholders; embedded album art is not yet rendered.
Playback
The web player runs in the browser and handles both direct-play (mp4/WebM) and on-demand transcoded (HLS) titles.
Autoplay
Opening a title from a Play click starts playback automatically as soon as the stream is ready — no extra click on the player. If your browser blocks autoplay with sound, playback retries muted; you can unmute from the player's volume control. If even muted autoplay is blocked, the center play button remains as a tap-to-play affordance.
Previous / Next episode
When you're watching an episode, the player shows Previous and Next episode buttons flanking play/pause. They follow the show's order and roll over across seasons — the last episode of a season is followed by the first of the next. Specials are excluded from the auto-advance chain (they remain reachable from the series page), and the buttons are hidden at the very first / last episode and for movies.
Subtitles
Embedded text subtitle tracks (ASS/SRT) in a transcoded title are extracted on the server to WebVTT and offered as selectable tracks in the player's captions menu, each with a language and label. Pick a track or turn captions off from the menu; your choice is remembered. (Bitmap subtitle formats such as PGS/dvdsub are not extracted.)
Player controls
The player's control menus (such as the speed and quality selectors) use a translucent dark styling that matches the player chrome.
Choosing your stream quality
For a transcoded title (anything that isn't played back byte-for-byte), the player offers a quality menu with Auto, a set of fixed resolutions (240p up to the source's native resolution), and Original:
- Auto (the default) climbs and drops between quality rungs automatically as your network conditions change — the same behavior you'd expect from YouTube or Netflix. The menu shows what Auto is currently playing, e.g. "Auto (720p)".
- Picking a specific resolution pins playback to that rung until you change it again or start a new title; your choice is remembered for next time.
- Original plays the source at its native resolution/bitrate. When the source is already web-compatible (H.264/AAC) this is a fast, low-CPU passthrough on the server; otherwise it's the highest quality rung the server can produce.
- The menu never offers a resolution higher than the source actually is — you won't see "1080p" offered for a title that was only ever 480p.
- The quality menu is currently available in the web player only. The mobile, Samsung Tizen, Windows, and Roku apps automatically pick the best sustainable quality ("Auto" behavior) but don't yet expose a manual quality picker.
Music playback
Music tracks play right in the web player. Press play on any track (or from an album's track list) and a now-playing bar appears with previous / play-pause / next controls, a seek slider, and elapsed time. Each track streams directly via a signed, expiring URL, so nothing extra has to be exposed for playback to work.
Two listening options from Settings → Playback take effect in the browser:
- Crossfade overlaps the end of one track with the start of the next by the duration you set, so songs blend rather than cut.
- Gapless pre-buffers the next track so consecutive tracks play with no silence between them.
Both are handled entirely by the browser player (two alternating audio elements) — there is no server-side audio processing involved, so they behave the same over a direct connection or a Hub relay.
Page titles
The browser tab title updates as you navigate — it reflects the current page or the title of the media you're viewing or playing (for example Assassination Classroom · Phlix), so tabs and history entries are easy to tell apart.
Hub Connection
- Click Sign in with Hub on the login screen.
- Enter your Hub URL → authenticate → select a server.
- The Hub relay provides remote access automatically — no router port forwarding or VPN required.
- When signed in with Hub, switch between your Hub-linked servers from the user menu in the top-right corner.
Hub login is the recommended way to access your server remotely because the Hub relay handles the connection without exposing your server directly to the internet.
What Can Go Wrong
Browser not supported
Symptom: The page looks broken or displays a banner "Browser not supported."
Fix: Your browser is outdated. Update to the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge. Internet Explorer is not supported — use Edge or another modern browser instead.
WebSocket blocked by network proxy
Symptom: The page loads and you can see the library, but playback never starts and the console shows "WebSocket connection error."
Fix: Your network is blocking WebSocket connections (ws:// or wss://). Try opening the portal from a different network. If you must use a restricted network, ask your network administrator to allow WebSocket traffic on port 443. As a workaround, use the Phlix mobile or desktop client.
SSL certificate invalid or self-signed
Symptom: The browser shows "Your connection is not private" and refuses to load the page.
Fix: Your server is using a self-signed SSL certificate. For production, replace it with a properly signed certificate — Let's Encrypt provides free automatic certificates. For local testing over HTTPS with a self-signed cert, type thisisunsafe on the Chrome warning page to proceed (Chrome only).
Next Steps
- Mobile app — iOS and Android
- Windows client — desktop app with system tray and media key support
- First-run wizard — complete server setup after your first login