Watcher Server

Spin up a local web server and watch movies from your computer on any device in your house.

Features

• Folder browsing — navigates your video folders and lists what's inside
• Local network streaming — open it on your phone, tablet, or TV, no app needed
• Dark UI — clean interface, nothing fancy
• Search — filters movies by name as you type
• Responsive — works on mobile and desktop

Requirements

• Node.js

• FFmpeg — must be installed and available in your PATH. Watcher uses it for video transcoding and compatibility.

  To check if you already have it:

  ffmpeg -version

Installation

1. Clone or download this repo
2. Open a terminal in the project folder
3. Install dependencies:

   npm install

Usage

Point it at your movies folder when starting:

npm start -- "/path/to/your/movies"

No path? It'll serve whatever directory you're currently in.

Accessing the app

After starting, the terminal will show two URLs:

• Local: http://localhost:3000 — for the machine running the server
• Network: http://192.168.x.x:3000 — for everything else on the same WiFi

Grab the network URL on your phone and you're good to go.

Supported Formats

MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, WEBM