VidStream

A minimal private video streaming service built with Rust and Svelte.

Upload video files in any common format, get a shareable link, and stream immediately. Non-native formats get a fast 480p preview for quick playback while full quality transcodes in the background.

Demo

See demo.mp4 for a quick walkthrough of the upload → processing → playback flow.

Features

• Upload videos up to 1GB in 11 supported formats
• Instant shareable links
• Streaming with HTTP range requests (seeking, buffering)
• Smart codec detection: H.264 sources are remuxed in seconds, not re-encoded
• Two-tier quality for non-native formats: 480p preview → full quality with seamless hotswap
• Single binary deployment with embedded frontend
• Docker support

Requirements

• Rust 1.85+
• Node.js 20+
• FFmpeg (with libx264 and AAC support)
• SQLite3

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/kirrarista/vidstream.git
cd vidstream
make build
make run
# Server starts at http://localhost:3000

Docker

make docker
# Or manually:
docker build -t vidstream .
docker run -p 3000:3000 vidstream

Development

Run the backend and frontend separately for hot reload:

# Terminal 1: Backend
cd backend
cargo run

# Terminal 2: Frontend (with API proxy to backend)
cd frontend
npm run dev

The Vite dev server runs on port 5173 and proxies /api requests to the backend on port 3000.

Project Structure

vidstream/
├── ARCHITECTURE.md          # Design document
├── Makefile                 # Build commands
├── Dockerfile               # Multi-stage build
├── demo.mp4                 # Demo video
├── backend/
│   ├── Cargo.toml
│   └── src/
│       ├── main.rs          # Server setup and routing
│       ├── handlers.rs      # Upload, stream, list, status endpoints
│       ├── transcode.rs     # FFmpeg transcoding pipeline
│       ├── db.rs            # SQLite initialization
│       └── error.rs         # Error types
└── frontend/
    ├── package.json
    └── src/
        ├── App.svelte       # Router
        ├── Upload.svelte    # Upload page
        ├── Watch.svelte     # Video player page
        └── main.js          # Entry point

API

Supported Formats

MP4, WebM, MOV, AVI, MKV, FLV, WMV, 3GP, OGV, M4V, TS

All formats are transcoded to MP4 (H.264 + AAC) for universal browser playback. Files already containing H.264 are remuxed without re-encoding.

Architecture

See ARCHITECTURE.md for detailed design decisions, transcoding pipeline, and scaling considerations.