Viewscreen - a personal video streaming server

Features

• Stream to any device
  • Store your videos in the cloud and watch them from anywhere.
• Protect your IP address
  • Torrent remotely on your server instead of your computer.
• Torrent on your phone
  • Access the interface from any web browser on any device.
• Stream any video
  • Convert videos file to the streamable (AAC/H264) MP4 format.
• Download from your friends
  • See what your friends are sharing and copy their downloads directly to your server.
• Take your downloads offline
  • Store videos on your local device for offline access.

Help / Reporting Bugs

Email [email protected]

Run Viewscreen on a VPS

Running Viewscreen on a VPS is designed to be as simple as possible.

• Public Docker image
• Single static Go binary with assets bundled
• Automatic TLS using Let's Encrypt
• Redirects http to https
• Works with a reverse proxy or standalone

1. Get a server

Recommended Specs

• Type: VPS or dedicated
• Distribution: Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial)
• Memory: 1GB+
• Storage: 5GB+

Recommended Providers

• OVH
• Scaleway

2. Add a DNS record

Create a DNS A record in your domain pointing to your server's IP address.

Example: viewscreen.example.com A 172.16.1.1

3. Enable Let's Encrypt

When enabled with the --letsencrypt flag, viewscreen runs a TLS ("SSL") https server on port 443. It also runs a standard web server on port 80 to redirect clients to the secure server.

Requirements

• Your server must have a publicly resolvable DNS record.
• Your server must be reachable over the internet on ports 80 and 443.

4. Standalone

# Install ffmpeg.
$ sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:jonathonf/ffmpeg-3
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install -y wget ffmpeg x264

# Download the viewscreen binary.
$ sudo wget -O /usr/bin/viewscreen https://github.com/viewscreen/viewscreen/raw/master/viewscreen-linux-amd64

# Make it executable.
$ sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/viewscreen

# Allow it to bind to privileged ports 80 and 443.
$ sudo setcap cap_net_bind_service=+ep /usr/bin/viewscreen

# Enable Let's Encrypt using your domain for automatic TLS configuration.
$ viewscreen --http-host viewscreen.example.com --http-username $USER --download-dir $HOME/Downloads --letsencrypt
INFO[0000] viewscreen URL: https://viewscreen.example.com/viewscreen
INFO[0001] Login credentials: <username> / <password>

Usage

Example usage:

$ viewscreen --letsencrypt --http-host viewscreen.example.com --download-dir /home/ubuntu/Downloads

Usage of viewscreen-linux-amd64:
  -backlink string
    	backlink (optional)
  -debug
    	debug mode
  -download-dir string
    	download directory (default "/data")
  -http-addr string
    	listen address (default ":80")
  -http-host string
    	HTTP host
  -http-prefix string
    	HTTP URL prefix (not supported yet) (default "/viewscreen")
  -http-username string
    	HTTP basic auth username (default "viewscreen")
  -letsencrypt
    	enable TLS using Let's Encrypt
  -metadata
    	use metadata service
  -reverse-proxy-header string
    	reverse proxy auth header (default "X-Authenticated-User")
  -reverse-proxy-ip string
    	reverse proxy auth IP
  -torrent-addr string
    	listen address for torrent client (default ":61337")
  -version
    	display version and exit

Run as a Docker container

The official image is viewscreen/viewscreen, which should run in any up-to-date Docker environment.

Follow the official Docker install instructions: Get Docker CE for Ubuntu

# Your download directory should be bind-mounted as `/data` inside the container using the `--volume` flag.
$ mkdir /home/<username>/Downloads

$ sudo docker create                            \
    --name viewscreen --init --restart always      \
    --publish 80:80 --publish 443:443           \
    --volume /home/<username>/Downloads:/data   \
    viewscreen/viewscreen:latest --letsencrypt --http-host viewscreen.example.com

$ sudo docker start viewscreen

$ sudo docker logs -f viewscreen
time="2027-01-19T00:00:00Z" level=info msg="viewscreen URL: https://viewscreen.example.com/viewscreen"
time="2027-01-19T00:00:00Z" level=info msg="Login credentials: viewscreen / 924433342"

INFO[0000] viewscreen URL: https://viewscreen.example.com/viewscreen
INFO[0001] Login credentials: viewscreen / 398032092

Updating the container image

Pull the latest image, remove the container, and re-create the container as explained above.

# Pull the latest image
$ sudo docker pull viewscreen/viewscreen

# Stop the container
$ sudo docker stop viewscreen

# Remove the container (data is stored on the mounted volume)
$ sudo docker rm viewscreen

# Re-create and start the container
$ sudo docker create ... (see above)

Using screen to run in debug mode

If you're having problems, it might help to run viewscreen in a screen session with debug logging enabled.

# Install screen
$ screen || sudo apt-get install -y screen

# Launch in a detached screen session.
$ screen -S viewscreen -d -m viewscreen --debug --letsencrypt --http-host <your domain name>

# List all screen sessions.
$ screen -ls

# Attach to the running session.
$ screen -r viewscreen

# Press ctrl-a + ctrl-d to detach.

Building

The easiest way to build the static binary is using the Dockerfile.build file. You can also build a docker image for running the binary.

# Download the git repo.
$ git clone https://github.com/viewscreen/viewscreen.git
$ cd viewscreen/

# Compile the code and create a Docker image for it.
$ sudo docker build --build-arg BUILD_VERSION=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD) -t viewscreen:build -f Dockerfile.build .

# Create a container based on the image we just built.
$ sudo docker create --name viewscreenbuild viewscreen:build

# Extract the binary from the image.
$ sudo docker cp viewscreenbuild:/usr/bin/viewscreen-linux-amd64 viewscreen-linux-amd64

# We're done with the build container.
$ sudo docker rm viewscreenbuild

# Inspect the binary.
$ file viewscreen-linux-amd64
viewscreen-linux-amd64: ELF 64-bit LSB  executable, x86-64, version 1 (GNU/Linux), statically linked, for GNU/Linux 2.6.32, BuildID[sha1]=c2a6f5a9e12c8c35117ec52c3572bf844c510957, stripped

# Run the binary.
$ ./viewscreen-linux-amd64 --help

# Build a tiny alpine "runner" image.
$ sudo docker build -t viewscreen:latest .

Thanks

Thanks to all the projects and developers that made this project possible.

• The free certificate for your server comes from Let's Encrypt, which is doing a lot of good in the world. Get your company to sponsor them!