What 18 months building a self-hosted media server taught me about playback

Short summary

A developer shares 18 months of lessons building Quven, a self-hosted media server, focusing on the hardest problem: playback. Compatibility is not a boolean property but a negotiation between source and client across codecs, containers, subtitles, HDR, and network conditions. The practical hierarchy is direct play, then remux, then transcode only what must change — but making that reliable across native and web clients requires the client to own decisions the server cannot infer.

• •Playback compatibility is a negotiation between source and client, not a file property
• •Practical hierarchy: direct play > remux > transcode only what must change
• •Client must own decisions like selected tracks, HDR support, and codec acceptance that server cannot infer

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