Tired of the limitations and costs of proprietary streaming platforms? Frames offers a modern, feature-rich solution to organize and stream your personal media collection from virtually anywhere. Built with the latest web technologies, Frames provides a stunning user experience and unparalleled flexibility.
Frames is a modern SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand) streaming service built with React and NestJS, evolved from its original version that was built around the Google Drive API. This new version allows you to stream MP4 files from virtually any provider including local storage, S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, and more.
The application enables you to share your media library without compromising the integrity of the original files. It organizes Movies and TV shows, providing you with trailers, HD images, and comprehensive information about your media. This new version includes significant improvements over the original, including expanded subtitle support for all languages and enhanced playlist functionality.
- Truly Universal Media Support: Stream your MP4 files from any cloud storage, including local drives, Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, and more.
- Free Forever, Unlike Plex: Frames offers all features, including remote play and group watch, without requiring any premium subscription.
- Stunning and Intuitive Interface: Experience your media through our modern, dark-themed UI designed for both aesthetics and functionality.
- Rich Media Information: Automatically fetches detailed information about your media using TMDB, Fanart, and Apple's artwork collection.
- Smart Recommendations: Using OpenAI embeddings, Frames provides intelligent content suggestions based on similarities.
- Watch Together with GroupWatch: Host virtual movie nights with friends with synchronized viewing.
- Comprehensive Media Organization: Sophisticated organization of your Movies and TV Shows with extensive metadata.
- Create and Share Playlists: Curate and share your favorite content with other users.
- ✨ Stunning UI: Modern, intuitive, and visually appealing interface
- ☁️ Universal Media Support: Stream from any cloud provider
- 💰 No Paywalls: All features free to use, unlike Plex
- ℹ️ Rich Media Information: Auto-fetched from TMDB, Fanart, and Apple
- 🧠 Smart Recommendations: AI-powered with OpenAI embeddings
- 🤝 GroupWatch: Synchronized viewing with friends
- 📂 Media Organization: Automatic organization with metadata
▶️ Advanced Player: Feature-rich with support for all subtitle languages- 📝 Playlist Creation and Sharing: Create and share with other users
Choose the installation method that best suits your needs:
The easiest way to get started with Frames is using Docker. You'll need to mount a directory for your media files and provide the necessary environment variables:
docker pull elevenam/frames:latest
docker run -p 3000:3000 \
-v /path/to/your/media:/media \
-e DATABASE_URL="postgres://username:password@host:5432/frames" \
-e DIRECT_DATABASE_URL="postgres://username:password@host:5432/frames" \
-e REDIS_HOST="redis-host" \
-e REDIS_PORT="6379" \
-e REDIS_TTL="86400" \
-e REDIS_DB="0" \
-e JWT_SECRET="your-secure-jwt-secret" \
elevenam/frames:latestReplace the values with your actual configuration:
/path/to/your/media: The local path where your media files are stored- Database credentials: Your PostgreSQL connection details
- Redis configuration: Your Redis server details
- JWT secret: A secure random string for authentication
For a more complete setup including PostgreSQL and Redis, you can use Docker Compose:
version: '3'
services:
frames:
image: elevenam/frames:latest
ports:
- "3000:3000"
volumes:
- /path/to/your/media:/media
environment:
- DATABASE_URL=postgres://frames:frames_password@postgres:5432/frames
- DIRECT_DATABASE_URL=postgres://frames:frames_password@postgres:5432/frames
- REDIS_HOST=redis
- REDIS_PORT=6379
- REDIS_TTL=86400
- REDIS_DB=0
- JWT_SECRET=your-secure-jwt-secret
depends_on:
- postgres
- redis
postgres:
image: pgvector/pgvector:pg14
environment:
- POSTGRES_USER=frames
- POSTGRES_PASSWORD=frames_password
- POSTGRES_DB=frames
volumes:
- postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
redis:
image: redis:alpine
volumes:
- redis_data:/data
volumes:
postgres_data: {}
redis_data: {}Save this as docker-compose.yml and run:
docker-compose up -dThis will start Frames along with PostgreSQL and Redis containers, with data persistence through Docker volumes.
Frames requires the following primary environment variables:
-
Database Configuration:
DATABASE_URL: PostgreSQL connection string (used for connection pooling)DIRECT_DATABASE_URL: Direct PostgreSQL connection string (used for migrations)
-
Redis Configuration:
REDIS_HOST: Redis hostREDIS_PORT: Redis port (default: 6379)REDIS_TTL: Redis TTL in seconds (default: 86400)REDIS_DB: Redis database number
-
Authentication:
JWT_SECRET: Secret key for JWT token generation
-
Optional Environment Variables:
TMDB_API_KEY: TMDB API key for fetching media informationFAN_ART_API_KEY: FanArt API key for fetching media artworkOPEN_AI_API_KEY: OpenAI API key for generating embeddings
Note If the optional environment variables are not set, the application will request them during the setup process. Unfortunately these API Keys are REQUIRED for the application to work properly. If you do not have them, you can create a free account on their respective websites.
The home page displays trending media with high-quality artwork, synopsis, and direct access to trailers. The clean, dark-themed interface provides an immersive viewing experience.
Each movie or TV show has a dedicated page with comprehensive information including:
- Synopsis and basic information (rating, genre, release year, duration)
- Cast and crew with profile images
- Production companies
- Episode listings for TV shows with thumbnails and descriptions
- Similar content recommendations
Browse all movies and TV shows in your library with easy filtering by genre (Action, Adventure, Animation, etc.), making content discovery simple and intuitive.
Create, manage, and share playlists with other users:
- Public and private playlist options
- Video count displayed for each playlist
- Playlist sharing with other users
- Shuffle and continuous playback
For optimal performance and organization:
- Movies: It's recommended to place movie files directly in their own folders e.g.,
MovieName (2023)/movie.mp4 - TV Shows: Each show should be placed in its own folder, with subfolders for each season:
- TV Episodes: You have two options:
-
Place each episode in its corresponding Season folder (Recommended)
-
Place them directly in the Show folder if they follow naming conventions like "S01E01" or "S01 - E01"
- Example:
Movies/ ├── MovieName (2023)/ │ └── movie.mp4 └── MovieName (2022)/ └── movie.mp4 TV Shows/ └── ShowName/ ├── Season 1/ │ ├── S01E01 - EpisodeName.mp4 │ └── S01E02 - EpisodeName.mp4 └─── Season 2/ ├── S02E01 - EpisodeName.mp4 └── S02E02 - EpisodeName.mp4
- Example:
-
Frames features a sophisticated video player with:
- AirPlay support (Chromecast support coming soon)
- Playlist management
- Volume controls
- Download capability (for authorized users)
- Subtitle support for all languages (significantly expanded from the previous version)
- Picture-in-picture mode
- Fullscreen mode
This feature allows you to watch media with friends at the same time:
- Create a session and share a link
- No limit to the number of people who can join
- Send messages to other viewers
- Synchronized viewing experience across multiple videos
Admin accounts can:
- Modify media information
- Manage authentication keys
- Create personalized categories for the home page
- Control download permissions
To enable transcoding, use the transcode Docker tag and provide the HLS_CACHE_DIRECTORY environment variable with a mounted volume for cache storage:
docker run -p 3000:3000 \
-v /path/to/your/media:/media \
-v /path/to/transcoding/cache:/transcoding \
-e DATABASE_URL="postgres://username:password@host:5432/frames" \
-e DIRECT_DATABASE_URL="postgres://username:password@host:5432/frames" \
-e REDIS_HOST="redis-host" \
-e REDIS_PORT="6379" \
-e REDIS_TTL="86400" \
-e REDIS_DB="0" \
-e JWT_SECRET="your-secure-jwt-secret" \
-e HLS_CACHE_DIRECTORY="/transcoding" \
elevenam/frames:transcodeNote: GroupWatch across multiple servers does not currently work in the transcoding branch.
- Chromecast Support: Cast your media to Chromecast-enabled devices (currently being redeveloped)
- Permissions System: Granular access control to specify which users can access specific media
Frames provides an API for developers who want to extend functionality or integrate with other services:
- API documentation is available at the
/swaggerendpoint on your Frames server - Contributions to the project are welcome!
We welcome contributions from the community! If you're interested in improving Frames, please:
- Check out our issues page for current needs
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch
- Submit a pull request
If you encounter any issues or have questions about Frames, please visit our GitHub repository.
Built with ❤️ using NestJS and React