Glossary
Terms that show up across the guides, explained without assuming you know them already.
Media & playback
Codec — the format a video or audio track is encoded in (H.264, HEVC, AV1, AAC, Opus…). A device must support the codec to play it.
Container — the file format that wraps the tracks (MP4, MKV, WebM…). A device can support the codecs but not the container.
Direct play — streaming the file untouched. Cheapest option, no server work beyond sending bytes.
Remux — copying the tracks into a different container without re-encoding. Used when codecs are fine but the container is not.
Transcode — decoding and re-encoding the video or audio. The heaviest option; used when the device cannot play the source.
HLS — HTTP Live Streaming, the format the player receives: a playlist plus short media segments. It is what makes seeking, adaptive streams and remote playback work.
ffmpeg / ffprobe — the tools the server uses to transcode and to inspect files. Both must be installed and on the PATH.
Hardware acceleration — using a GPU's encoder (Quick Sync, NVENC, AMF, VideoToolbox) instead of the CPU to transcode.
HDR / tone-mapping — high dynamic range video. If a screen cannot show HDR, the server tone-maps it down to SDR, which always requires a transcode.
Trickplay — the thumbnail previews that appear when you scrub through a video.
Marker — a timestamp range for an intro, recap or credits, used to offer a skip button.
Sidecar — a metadata file stored next to the media (for example .nfo) instead of in the database.
Server concepts
Library — a set of folders with a type (movies or tv_shows). Each library scans and identifies its own files.
Metadata item / title — a recognised movie or show, with its artwork, cast and descriptions.
Provider — a plugin that supplies metadata or subtitles (TMDB, OMDb, OpenSubtitles…). The server itself ships none.
Profile — a viewing identity inside an account: its own resume points, watchlist and preferences.
Session — an active playback, or a signed-in login. The context usually makes it obvious which.
Worker — a background component that runs jobs (scanning, probing, refreshing…).
Job / operation — a job is one unit of work; an operation groups related jobs so they can be tracked or cancelled together.
Plugins & SDK
Plugin — a directory that adds backend code and optionally frontend UI to the server. Runs in the server process.
Manifest — plugin.json, read before the plugin's code loads. Declares identity, capabilities and metadata.
Capability — a declaration of which host.* namespaces a plugin uses. Using an undeclared one aborts loading. Capabilities are the only access gate — there is no separate permission list.
Host — the server object handed to a plugin (PluginHost), and the term for the generic website that renders plugin UI.
Custom element — a Web Component a plugin defines for UI the declarative schema cannot express.
Declarative schema — data describing UI; the host renders it with its own components and it cannot run code.
SDK — the @reelvault/sdk package: a typed HTTP client, shared contracts, the plugin SDK and a test host.
Contract — a TypeBox schema in @reelvault/sdk/common and the TypeScript type inferred from it. Server and clients share the same definition.
Catalog — a static URL serving a reelvault-catalog.json; servers browse catalogs to install plugins.