Getting started

The container is up and you have signed up. The server is empty on purpose: it indexes nothing until you tell it where your libraries are. This page takes you from that blank screen to a shared, working server in about ten minutes. Every step links to the configuration pages for the details.

The first visit lands on the login page. Choose Sign up: the first account created on a server is its owner, with no extra step. A username needs two characters, a password six. After this, signing up requires an invite link (the default), so nobody else can create an account by finding your address.

Everything an owner does lives under the avatar menu, top right: Server is the admin hub, with Libraries, Sharing, Users and Federation inside it.

Step 2: Add your first library

Avatar menu → Server → Libraries → Add

A library is a folder inside your mounted media plus a format, which tells the indexer what to expect in it. Give it a name, pick the format, and use Browse to choose the folder (leaving it blank means the whole mount). The two checkboxes can stay at their defaults for now: new channels public, shown in the Recent feed.

Your folder holds	Format	What it expects
Creator channels: one folder per channel, videos with `.info.json` sidecars	channels	Any nesting; a video is a media file with a sidecar of the same name. Thumbnails next to the file.
TV shows: one folder per show, seasons, `SxxExx` filenames, Kodi/Emby `.nfo`	series	`tvshow.nfo` is optional; episodes read their own `.nfo` or fall back to the filename.
Films: `Name (Year)/` folders with `movie.nfo`, `poster.jpg`, `fanart.jpg`	movies	One poster wall per library. Trailers and samples are skipped; the largest file is the feature.

Save. Indexing starts immediately in the background; a spinning ring around your avatar shows progress, and the first items appear within seconds. Add as many libraries as you have kinds of folders. A mixed mount is fine: each library is its own subfolder. Details and every field the indexer reads: Libraries and formats.

Step 3: Look around

The home page is Recent: everything, newest first, across all libraries. One tab per library sits in the header; a movies library opens straight onto its poster wall. Open a video: it plays directly if your browser can decode it and falls back to a live transcode if not, with nothing for you to choose. Watched items disappear from the feed on their own; show watched brings them back. That behaviour, and every other rule about what shows where, is in Watching.

Step 4: Invite the household

Avatar menu → Invite someone → Generate invite link

Each link creates exactly one account and can be sent any way you like. Everyone gets their own sign-in, watch history, resume points and subtitle preferences, on every device they use. The owner can later reset a password, deactivate or delete an account from Server → Users (Accounts).

Step 5: Decide what is private

Avatar menu → Server → Sharing

By default every channel, show and collection is visible to every account. The Sharing page is a grid: one row per channel, one column per person. Tick Priv on a row to make it private, then tick the people who should still see it. Private means unreachable, not merely hidden: a guessed address gets a 404. If a whole library should be private by default, set that on the library itself so new arrivals start private. Full mechanics, bulk controls and the difference from a personal “hide from my feed”: Sharing and privacy.

Step 6: Connect the apps

The web player already works on every phone, tablet and laptop in the house. The native apps add remote-control navigation, background audio and offline downloads.

Phones and tablets: install the app, enter the server address exactly as you reach it in a browser (for example http://192.168.1.20:8700), sign in with the same account.
TVs: the TV shows a QR code; scan it with the phone app and it signs in by itself, nothing typed with a remote. Or enter the TV’s short code at Avatar menu → Link a TV in a browser.
Away from home: the apps need to reach the server. A VPN or tailnet is the simplest way; a public address behind a reverse proxy with TLS is the other (reverse proxy setup).

Apps installed before 1 November 2026 stay free forever; after that they are a 14-day trial and a one-time purchase. The web player and the Samsung TV app are always free (the Samsung app is still in Samsung’s review; owners who don’t want to wait can build and sideload it). Where to get each one: The apps.

Step 7: Three settings worth a look on day one

Hardware transcoding

Avatar menu → About shows how this server plays: direct play, live transcoding, and whether hardware acceleration is on a GPU, on the CPU, or was requested but not found. If you have an Intel iGPU and it says CPU, the device is not passed into the container yet (how to). Without one, transcoding still works on the CPU and only happens when a device cannot play a file directly.

Show in Recent

A library you browse deliberately, a film collection say, can stay out of the Recent feed while remaining fully searchable and reachable from its tab. Untick Show this library’s items in the Recent feed on the library.

Subtitles, per person

Each account sets its own caption size and colour under Avatar menu → Account, and those follow the person to every device. Sidecar .srt and .vtt files and text tracks embedded in the containers are picked up automatically (Subtitles and audio).

The map

Menu item	What it is
Account	Your password, subtitle preferences, your devices, and Plex linking.
About MytView	Version, library totals, how this server plays; a technical block for the owner.
Public links	Share links you have created, with views and expiry, and revoke.
Invite someone	Single-use signup links.
Server (owner)	Libraries, Sharing, Users, Federation, full rescan, last scan stats.
Rescan library	An incremental rescan, safe any time. New files are also picked up automatically every five minutes.