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Kinoplex is a project for syncing media playback, aiming to be a simpler replacement for Syncplay without all the bloat, and without relying on Python.

The project is comprised of a procotol, server, mpv client, and web client. Clients targeted at other media players can easily be implemented thanks to the simple JSON protocol. There are no official servers or support for rooms, since the intended use case is syncing playback of videos and music for friend groups using a single shared server. The server hosts a web client, and the mpv client can be configured to connect to the server using a config file.

For user roles there can be only 1 admin that controls playback, acting as the anchor point for syncing time and state. The admin can let other users be jannies through a command, which gives them access to add URLs to the playlist.

Build

Compile using Nim 1.4.8 or higher (preferably 1.6.4).

Build the server (kino_server) and mpv client (kino_mpv):

nimble build -d:danger

Build the web client JavaScript:

nimble webclient

To run the mpv client, make sure you have mpv installed on your system. If you're on Windows or using a custom build, make sure to change binPath in the config file to point to the binary.

Config

Copy server.example.conf to server.conf and/or mpv_client.example.conf to mpv_client.conf, ideally in ~/.config/kinoplex and modify them to your needs. Allowed locations are next to the executable and in ~/.config/kinoplex/. The web client doesn't have a config.

mpv

mpv's native playlist functionality is used to synchronize the playlist across clients. The admin can go back and forth in the playlist without any issues, other clients will follow it perfectly. As non-admin pausing and skipping ahead doesn't work, the client constantly syncs time and state to be as close the admin as possible. Chat and server messages are displayed using mpv's built-in OSD overlay. If the OSD isn't visible at all, you may have to change your mpv configuration.

Keybindings

Enter	Open chat input, Enter again to send and/or exit
/	Open chat input with "/" already in the input (convenient for commands)
Ctrl + l	Clear chat
Ctrl + shift + l	Display recent chat messages
Ctrl + q	Fully quit mpv. Normal q will restart mpv.
Ctrl + v	Add clipboard to playlist (must be admin or janny)

Commands

Prefix for all commands is /. Press / to open the chat ready to type a command. The shorthand notation [c]md means /c is the same as /cmd

[u]sers	Show list of users in the server
[l]og n	Show n lines of the chat log. If n is empty, it shows 6 lines
[a]dd url	Add URL to playlist (admin and janny). Ctrl + v does the same.
[e]mpty	Empties the playlist (admin only)
[i]ndex n	Sets playlist index to n (number) (admin only)
[j]anny u	Grant janny role to user with username u (admin only)
unjanny u	Revoke janny role from user with username u (admin only)
[o]pen path	Replace current file or URL locally. Useful if you have a local copy of something being streamed
[c]lear	Clear chat, same as Ctrl + l
[r]eload	Reload playlist and state. Useful if mpv gets messed up
rename name	Change your display name to name
restart	If reload isn't enough to fix mpv, try this. Hitting q should do the same
quit	Same as Ctrl + q, fully quit mpv

Web

The web client can be accessed at the server's main path, e.g. http://localhost:9001/ or https://kinoplex.example.com/

You're prompted to pick a username, and optionally your password if you're admin. The web client has a chat overlay almost identical to mpv's, visible in fullscreen-mode. Press Enter to show it, and again to send/close.

plyr is used for playback which supports YouTube and Vimeo links, as well as video and audio file links. For broadest link support, consider using the mpv client instead since it uses youtube-dl to stream from almost any source. mkv files are generally not supported by browsers, but you can turn it into an m3u8 stream with ffmpeg easily, supported by all browsers using hls.