iptvnator/docs/architecture/embedded-inline-playback.md

# Embedded Inline Playback

This document records the current contract for embedded playback in portal detail views.

## Summary

- Embedded web players are `videojs`, `html5`, and `artplayer`.
- `embedded-mpv` exists as a hidden desktop experimental harness backed by a native MPV addon. macOS and Windows use in-process `libmpv`; Linux uses an X11/Xwayland child window with an out-of-process `mpv --wid` backend.
- Controlled external players are `mpv` and `vlc`.
- macOS `.app` bundle paths are resolved only for real MPV/VLC apps. IINA may
  launch through the MPV path field when the user supplies an executable path
  such as `/Applications/IINA.app/Contents/MacOS/iina-cli`, but IPTVnator
  controls, position polling, and instance reuse are not guaranteed for IINA.
- Flatpak launches external players on the host via `flatpak-spawn --host`.
- Live playback stays inline in dedicated live layouts.
- VOD and series detail playback stays inline on canonical detail, collection,
  favorites, recent, and search surfaces.
- Xtream and Stalker series detail heroes expose a quick-start CTA driven by
  saved episode playback positions.
- Embedded playback UI is always hosted by the current view. `PlayerService`
  launches MPV/VLC only and does not open an embedded-player dialog.
- Browser-player failures are diagnosed client-side and produce ranked,
  user-triggered recovery actions without changing the saved player setting.

## Scope

Inline embedded playback is required for these VOD/series entry points:

- Xtream VOD detail route
- Xtream series detail route
- Stalker VOD detail view
- Stalker series detail view
- unified favorites collection details
- unified recently viewed collection details
- Stalker advanced search result details

Collection/search VOD surfaces that expose embedded playback must host
`ResolvedPortalPlayback` inline state locally. They must not call
`PlayerService.openPlayer(...)` or `PlayerService.openResolvedPlayback(...)` to
create embedded UI.

## Logical Playback Identity

Every inline playback host owns a required, URL-independent
`playbackSessionKey`. Live hosts derive it from the playlist/source and the
current channel identity; an M3U session uses `Channel.id` rather than a mutable
stream or catch-up URL. VOD and series hosts use the route or catalog
content identity, with series episode coordinates. Stalker episode identity
also includes the explicit series mode, normalized parent, exact season key,
season number, and episode number; synthesized episode hashes are not identity.
Mapped episodes retain the original provider command or episode ID for playback
resolution. Recovery ownership never serializes that value into the session
key or retained recovery state; its recovery-ownership use is limited to a
short-lived exact pending-request snapshot/guard that locates the selected
episode and rejects stale or out-of-order completion. This keeps token refreshes
in one logical session while ensuring colliding tracking hashes cannot select a
sibling episode.
After a Stalker episode mounts, the host retains only a frozen structural
identity (source, normalized parent, series mode, exact season key, season and
episode coordinates, and the credential-free session key). Each metadata,
navigation, or autoplay read resolves those coordinates against the current
`mappedSeasons()` value. Same-owner provider or TMDB refreshes therefore update
the mounted episode without changing its session key; if the episode disappears,
or if multiple episodes claim the same structural coordinates, the mounted
commands fail closed. The command/ID-bearing identity never outlives the pending
playback request.
Shared wrappers (`VodDetailsComponent` and `PortalInlinePlayerComponent`) pass
the key unchanged to `WebPlayerViewComponent`.

Hosts invalidate both committed playback and pending resolution when the
canonical owner changes (playlist/source, content, and mode where applicable).
Refreshing data for the same canonical owner preserves the mounted player.
Collection UIDs remain a separate persistence concern; legacy M3U collection
UIDs continue to use stream URLs so saved favorites ordering remains compatible.

Temporary portal URLs, catch-up URLs, headers, DRM data, and alternative source
payloads are transport details and must not change this logical identity. A
content or episode change must produce a different key. The serialized key is
created with `createPlaybackSessionKey()` from `@iptvnator/playback/util` so
delimiter-bearing provider IDs remain unambiguous.

The key is host-owned and stable only for the logical selection represented by
that mounted host. In particular, M3U identity uses the current playlist/source
identity and `Channel.id`; it does not claim durability across a refresh that
replaces either identity. Recovery state contains this credential-free key,
target IDs, generation counters, and a finite VOD resume position. It never
uses a playback URL, headers, DRM configuration, or credentials as identity.

Inline hosts capture this identity before asynchronous playback resolution. A
completion may mount only while the same owner is current; stale completions
and embedded starts without a complete canonical identity are ignored without
replacing an already committed session.

## Embedded MPV Harness

The repository now contains a first-pass native embedded MPV harness for Electron:

- shared setting id: `embedded-mpv`
- native addon owner: `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/apps/electron-backend/src/app/services/embedded-mpv-native.service.ts`
- IPC bridge: `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/embedded-mpv.events.ts`
- renderer host: `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/libs/ui/playback/src/lib/embedded-mpv-player/embedded-mpv-player.component.ts`
- native architecture and release-readiness details: `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/docs/architecture/embedded-mpv-native.md`

Current contract:

- desktop only: macOS, Windows x64, and Linux x64 under X11/Xwayland
- experimental opt-in
- enabled in local development only when `IPTVNATOR_ENABLE_EMBEDDED_MPV_EXPERIMENT=1`
- Linux Wayland sessions must start Electron through Xwayland, for example with `pnpm nx run electron-backend:serve-electron --args=--ozone-platform=x11` during local development or `iptvnator --ozone-platform=x11` for a packaged app
- enabled in packaged desktop builds only when the bundled native addon/runtime prerequisites are present; Linux additionally requires an `mpv` executable on `PATH`
- uses IPTVnator-owned controls and `ResolvedPortalPlayback` payloads
- uses the libmpv render API on macOS and renders through an IPTVnator-owned native `NSView`
- uses mpv `wid` embedding on Windows and Linux through IPTVnator-owned native child windows
- Linux starts `mpv --wid=<x11-window>` out of process so MPV does not share Electron's FFmpeg or graphics symbols
- Linux controls that out-of-process MPV instance through a private JSON IPC socket so duration, position, pause, volume, and seek state come from MPV instead of renderer guesses
- Linux starts that MPV process with `WAYLAND_DISPLAY` removed, `XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11`, and X11 video output options; otherwise MPV can pick Wayland inside a Wayland desktop session, ignore `--wid`, and open a separate window instead of embedding
- macOS/Windows default to libmpv's OpenGL render backend with `hwdec=auto-safe`
- keeps the previous software renderer as a debug fallback via `IPTVNATOR_EMBEDDED_MPV_RENDERER=sw`
- emits lightweight native diagnostics when `IPTVNATOR_TRACE_EMBEDDED_MPV=1` is set; Linux also writes MPV's own trace log to `/tmp/iptvnator-embedded-mpv.log`
- exposes an IPTVnator-owned fullscreen button that uses the renderer fullscreen API and resyncs the native MPV view bounds after fullscreen transitions
- auto-hides IPTVnator-owned controls while playback is active and restores them on pointer/focus interaction
- exposes audio-track metadata from MPV and switches tracks through the `aid` property without reloading the stream
- passes VOD/episode resume offsets to MPV through the `loadfile` options map; live catchup URLs are treated as already-positioned streams
- applies the initial volume during session creation and uses async libmpv control calls after startup where the in-process libmpv backend is active
- VLC remains external-only

Current limitation:

- the current feasibility harness is still experimental and platform-specific
- the original macOS `wid` embedding path produced audio with a black video surface inside Electron, so the harness now avoids foreign-window embedding on macOS
- Windows and Linux use the mpv `wid` path and still need OS-native packaged smoke coverage before public exposure
- Linux native Wayland is not supported in this implementation; the Electron process must have `DISPLAY` through X11/Xwayland and a real X11 window handle
- the OpenGL render path avoids the old per-frame `CGImage` copy path, but it still needs broader interaction, resize, and packaging coverage
- startup deadlocks seen during early macOS playback bring-up are mitigated, but the feature is still kept behind the explicit experiment flag until more interaction and packaging coverage is proven
- because of that, the setting is auto-sanitized back to the default inline player unless support detection reports that the experimental runtime is available
- this follows the rollout gate: keep the native work in-tree, but do not leave it user-facing until playback, resize, focus, and packaging are stable

## Two-State Detail Layout (Browse ↔ Watch)

Portal VOD/series detail pages are hosted by the shared
`PortalDetailShellComponent`
(`libs/ui/components/src/lib/portal-detail-shell/portal-detail-shell.component.ts`),
which owns the page scroll container and two layout states:

- **Browse** (`playbackActive=false`): the hero (`ContentHeroComponent`,
  now a natural-height, non-scrolling block) renders poster, title, chips,
  description, credits, and actions. Episodes render below.
- **Watch** (`playbackActive=true`, bound by hosts to
  `inlinePlayback() !== null`): the hero collapses (~300ms CSS morph,
  disabled under `prefers-reduced-motion`), the host-projected
  `[detail-player]` slot renders the inline player at full content width,
  and the shell renders an About block (`ContentAboutComponent`) below the
  `[detail-episodes]` slot so the hero metadata stays reachable.

Contracts:

- Hosts provide hero chips/meta/actions as `*appDetailTags` / `*appDetailMeta` /
  `*appDetailActions` templates; the shell stamps them into the hero and again
  into the About block. Degradation stays "missing → not rendered".
- The shell never wraps the `[detail-player]` slot in a conditional; the
  host's `@if (inlinePlayback())` is the only creator/destroyer of the
  player subtree, so shell state changes cannot recreate the `<video>`.
- **External MPV/VLC sessions do not flip the layout to watch** — browse
  layout stays, and the primary CTA keeps its "Stop <player>" behavior.
- The shell's sticky arrow emits the host-owned `backClicked` in browse and
  watch alike (unless `backAvailable=false`, when it is not rendered at all):
  hosts wire it to their route-level `goBack()`, straight back to the list —
  everything browse offers is also visible in watch, so a two-step unwind
  would be ceremony. Escape alone unwinds one level: in watch it emits
  `closePlayerRequested`, which hosts wire to `closeInlinePlayer()`; in browse
  it emits `backClicked`. Escape respects fullscreen, menus/dialogs, editable
  fields and hidden/inert surfaces, and consumes a handled key so one press
  performs only one action. See
  [Portal Detail Navigation](./portal-detail-navigation.md).
- The now-playing bar has one exit of its own: the "Close player" button
  emits `closed` and returns to browse without navigating. It carries no back
  arrow — a second arrow beside the sticky one, with a different meaning,
  was the duplicate this contract removes.
- Entering watch scrolls the shell to the top; leaving keeps the scroll
  position.

### Inline player stage (theater + ambient fill)

`PortalInlinePlayerComponent`
(`libs/ui/playback/src/lib/portal-inline-player/`) wraps the projected
`WebPlayerViewComponent` in a `.player-shell__viewport` "theater stage".
The stage spans the full content width and is capped at
`min(70vh, 720px)`; on wide-short windows it becomes wider than 16:9. The
player is sized as the largest 16:9 box that fits the stage height and is
centered, so the leftover is always the stage's own black background — never
a stray strip of app surface. This is the YouTube-style letterbox and is the
default behavior for every inline engine.

The optional `playerAmbientMode` setting (Settings → Playback, default off,
shown only for the built-in web players) renders a blurred, dimmed copy of the
poster (`ResolvedPortalPlayback.thumbnail`) behind the player via the
`--ambient-image` custom property, turning the letterbox margins into
atmosphere (YouTube "Ambient mode" / Netflix backdrops). The component also
enforces the web-player scope at runtime (HTML5, Video.js, ArtPlayer): with
Embedded MPV selected, a persisted `playerAmbientMode=true` never renders the
layer, keeping extra DOM out of the native-video compositing path. Live
channels are excluded (their `thumbnail` is a logo), and only
`http(s):`/`data:` poster URLs are accepted to avoid CSS `url()` breakout.

### Up Next side rail (series)

For inline **series** playback the stage can trade its centered letterbox for
a Netflix/Plex-style layout: the player docks left and the leftover column
becomes an "Up Next" episode rail (`app-up-next-rail`,
`libs/ui/playback/src/lib/portal-inline-player/up-next-rail.component.ts`).
The rail lists the currently playing episode (highlighted, click-inert)
followed by the rest of its season and a spillover into the following
seasons, with per-episode watch-progress bars from playback positions.

- Data flow: the hosts (Xtream `SerialDetailsComponent`, Stalker
  `StalkerSeriesViewComponent`) build the entries with
  `buildUpNextRailItems()` (`up-next-rail.util.ts`) from their
  season→episodes map, the inline episode state, and the playback-position
  map, and pass them into `PortalInlinePlayerComponent` via the
  `upNextEpisodes` input. Selection comes back through
  `upNextEpisodeSelected`, carrying the host's raw episode object, and is
  routed into the host's existing episode-play flow — the same path the
  season container uses.
- Width gating: a ResizeObserver on `.player-shell__viewport` feeds the
  component's `stageSize` with the stage's **border-box** size, and the gate
  computes the width the rail would actually receive — stage minus the docked
  layout's padding, minus the 16:9 player sized to the remaining height, minus
  the flex gap (`RAIL_STAGE_PADDING` / `RAIL_STAGE_GAP`, kept in sync with the
  stylesheet). The rail docks in only when that is ≥ 320px
  (`UP_NEXT_RAIL_MIN_WIDTH`). Measuring the border box matters: the docked
  modifier adds padding to the same element being observed, so a content-box
  measurement would change the input the moment the rail appears and could
  oscillate around the threshold. On near-16:9 or taller windows the rail
  auto-hides and the centered theater/ambient behavior above remains.
- Lazy Stalker seasons: Ministra VOD-series seasons carry no episodes until
  their tab is opened, so `StalkerSeriesViewComponent` prefetches the season
  after the playing one while inline playback is active — otherwise the rail's
  next-season spillover would silently stop at the current season's end. The
  prefetch is claimed synchronously and answered seasons (including genuinely
  empty ones) are never re-requested: a failed request leaves `episodes` empty
  with `isLoading` back to false, which would otherwise re-run the effect that
  issued it and loop. A _failed_ request releases the claim but is pinned to
  the episode that triggered it, so a transient portal error retries on the
  next playback change instead of either looping or giving up permanently.
- Gating mirrors ambient mode: the `playerUpNextRail` setting (Settings →
  Playback, **default on**, shown only for the built-in web players) plus a
  runtime web-engine check; the rail also requires
  `contentInfo.contentType === 'episode'` and non-live playback, so movies
  and live channels always keep the centered stage.
- Layering: the rail is an opaque panel rendered on top of the stage, so the
  ambient fill stays behind it and shows in the flexible gap between the
  docked player and the rail on very wide stages.
- Fullscreen: the rail cannot show over a fullscreen video, so the same
  host offers the whole series — season tabs plus the selected season's
  episodes — as the slide-in side panel of the player's fullscreen surface.
  `PortalInlinePlayerComponent` provides `FULLSCREEN_CHANNEL_PANEL` for the
  nested view from the hosts' `seriesEpisodes` / `episodePlaybackPositions` /
  `seasonLoadStates` inputs, an episode picked there travels the same
  `upNextEpisodeSelected` output as a rail click, and a season tab picked
  there travels `episodePanelSeasonSelected` into the host's
  `onSeasonSelected`. Contract: "Fullscreen episode panel" in
  `docs/architecture/player-controls-contract.md`.

Season navigation inside `SeasonContainerComponent` uses season tabs
(`SeasonTabsComponent`; a dropdown beyond 6 seasons) instead of the old
seasons-grid + "Back to seasons" level. A season is auto-selected
(inline-playing episode's season → most recently updated in-progress
episode's season → earliest season with unwatched episodes → latest
non-empty season; Stalker lazy-VOD series with unhydrated seasons pin
the fallback to the first season because their watched state is unknown,
and the empty→loaded positions flip caused by the session's own watched
toggles never re-resolves the selection) and the
auto-selection emits `seasonSelected`,
so host lazy-load/enrichment hooks (Stalker VOD-series episode fetch,
TMDB season fetch, Xtream `enrichSelectedSerialSeason`) fire on open
without a click. Switching tabs never stops playback; a "back to playing
episode" chip appears when the playing episode is outside the opened
season. Season descriptions come from `get_series_info` seasons (Xtream)
or `TmdbEnrichmentService.getSeason` (Stalker).

The tabs and description sit in a **season card** with an optional cover
column: the selected season's own poster (`seasonPosters` input, keyed like
`seasonDescriptions`; TMDB season poster first, provider `seasons[].cover_big`
next — see "Season/Episode Enrichment" in `tmdb-metadata-enrichment.md`).
The column is sized by `--season-cover-width` (96 / 120 / 144px for
`Settings.coverSize` small / medium / large, `apps/web/src/_cover-size.scss`;
medium matches the About block's poster) and is not rendered at all — the
card collapses to one column and the tabs render exactly as before — when
the selected season has no poster, when the item has a single season (that
poster is the show poster a few hundred pixels below the hero), or when the
image request failed. The hero poster never follows the season: the show
keeps its identity element, the season gets its own picture next to its own
text. The fullscreen episode panel shows the same poster as a compact season
strip (poster, season name, episode count — `PORTALS.EPISODE_COUNT_ONE` /
`PORTALS.EPISODE_COUNT_OTHER`) above its season tabs, under the
same gates, from `PortalInlinePlayerComponent.seasonPosters` through
`buildFullscreenEpisodePanelSeasons`.

Beyond six seasons the tabs become a `mat-menu` dropdown, and that dropdown
carries **season thumbnails** from the same `seasonPosters` map
(`SeasonTabsComponent.seasonPosters`, passed by the season container and by
the fullscreen episode panel): a 28×42 poster projected into the leading slot
of each menu row that has one, and the selected season's poster inside the
closed trigger (`season-tabs__dropdown--with-thumb` tightens the pill around
it). A season without a poster gets no placeholder tile — its row simply
starts with the text — and a poster whose image request fails is dropped from
both places rather than left as a broken-image frame (the component keeps its
own failed-URL set, independent of the container's cover column). The pill
row (six seasons or fewer) deliberately stays text-only: the design review
rejected per-pill thumbnails as a second poster rail, and the season cover
beside the tabs already shows the selected season's picture.

### Manual watched toggle for movies

Movies carry the same manual "watched" affordance as episodes, in the
detail action row of both portals: Xtream renders an icon square after
Favorite (`vod-details-watched.service.ts`), Stalker a labelled button
inside the shared `app-vod-details` component, wired by the routed
catalog detail and by the collection inline detail (Favorites / Recent).
Both hosts delegate to `createVodWatchedToggle()` in
`@iptvnator/portal/shared/util`:

- **Marking** writes a full-progress `vod` position row — the same shape
  playback leaves behind, so catalog badges, the dashboard and the
  Play/Resume rule need no new state. The duration is the stored row's
  (real), else the provider's `duration_secs` (Xtream), else 1 s: Stalker
  VOD details state no runtime, and "position === duration" is what
  "watched" means, whatever the number.
- **Unmarking** deletes the row, which also forgets the resume point —
  the trade the episode toggle already makes.
- Both writes use the rejecting `savePlaybackPositionOrThrow` /
  `clearPlaybackPositionOrThrow` boundary: the row on screen changes only
  after a confirmed write, and a refused write reports instead of showing
  the movie as (un)watched.
- The toggle is **disabled while the movie plays** (inline player mounted,
  external session live or launching for this content): the player
  persists its position every ~15 s and would overwrite a just-written
  row, silently flipping the movie back.
- It acts on the **route copy's row only**. Positions are keyed by
  (playlist, stream), so a pinned multi-source alternative keeps its own
  state, exactly as playback would leave it.
- A completion that lands **after navigation** (`stillCurrent`) still
  refreshes the playlist's catalog positions (the write did land), but
  neither patches the new page's row nor shows its snackbar.
- A watched copy shows **Play**, never "Resume 1:32:00" from its final
  seconds — `app-vod-details` folds `isWatched` into `hasPlaybackPosition`,
  which Xtream's route already did through its 90% rule.

Catalog cards derive their corner badge from one shared `PortalWatchState`
(`unwatched` / `in-progress` / `watched`, `portal-watch-state.ts`): both
facades map a movie's position through `watchStateFromProgressPercent` /
`resolvePortalWatchState` (90% threshold, shared with the Resume rule),
and a series through `resolvePortalSeriesWatchState`, which reports at
most `in-progress` — the list payload never carries the episode total, so
"every episode watched" is not decidable there.

The season header carries a season-level watched toggle next to
"Download season" (`season-watch-toggle.util.ts` builds the request:
marking touches only unwatched episodes so real durations survive;
a fully watched season flips the action to unwatch-all). The container
emits one `seasonPlaybackToggleRequested` and the host persists it:
Xtream through `SerialDetailsSeasonWatchService` and the batch IPC
(`DB_SAVE_PLAYBACK_POSITIONS_BATCH` / `DB_CLEAR_PLAYBACK_POSITIONS_BATCH`,
one SQLite transaction; the PWA data source rewrites its localStorage
blob once), Stalker as synchronous per-episode enqueues through the
existing position-mutation queue so legacy-row reconciliation still runs
and the queue coalesces to a single reload; partial failures surface a
direction-specific "{{count}} marked/unmarked · {{failed}} failed"
snackbar. A stale batch completion is discarded on the Xtream side: the
host captures the playlist/series identity before awaiting and, when
navigation changed it, skips both the rendered-state mutation and the
feedback snackbar (episode ids collide across playlists and the
contextless message would read as being about the new page; the DB write
itself carries its own playlistId). Stalker gates its snackbars on the
same captured playlist/series identity. After any Xtream toggle
(single or batch) the host refreshes `XtreamStore.loadAllPositions` —
the catalog reads series-progress badges from the store, which otherwise
loads positions once per playlist — unless the playlist changed
meanwhile. The host reports busy-state back through the
`seasonWatchBatchRunning` input.

A series-level counterpart lives in a `⋮` menu at the end of the same
header row (`SeasonWatchPresenter` in `libs/ui/components` owns the state
math for both scopes; the container component sits at the max-lines cap).
`buildSeriesWatchToggleRequest` flattens every LOADED season with the same
mark/unmark semantics, and the direction is always the one the label
advertised (`markWatched: !seriesFullyWatched()`), never re-inferred from
data at persist time. Hosts route the request through the same machinery
as the season toggle — Xtream via the scope-parameterized
`SerialDetailsSeasonWatchService.handle(..., scope)`, Stalker via the
extracted `runWatchToggleBatch` core — sharing the busy flag, the
ownership guards, and the catalog-badge refresh. Stalker lazy-VOD is the
special case: unopened seasons have empty episode lists, so the container
reports them through the `hasUnloadedSeasons` input (blocks the
"fully watched" verdict and switches the label to its countless variant),
and may emit an EMPTY mark request when every loaded episode is watched.
The Stalker host then hydrates the missing seasons sequentially through
`loadEpisodesForSeason` (aborting silently on navigation, and aborting
with zero writes plus the series failure snackbar if any season fails to
load). A season the portal ANSWERS for with zero episodes becomes
loaded-and-empty (`VodSeriesSeasonVm.episodesLoaded`), not pending —
`episodes.length === 0` alone would keep it counted as unloaded forever,
locking the label countless and re-fetching it on every series toggle.
Only a well-formed empty array earns that trust: `fetchVodSeriesEpisodes`
rejects a malformed envelope or an answer whose rows contain no
recognizable episode, so those fail the load instead of masquerading as
an empty season. `loadEpisodesForSeason` is single-flight per season — a
tab click, the spillover prefetch, the quick-start recursion, and the
series-toggle hydration join one in-flight request instead of
duplicating it (a second request's failure could abort a toggle whose
original request succeeded).
The host synchronously re-runs the position reconcile
(`applyReconciledSeriesPositions` — the effect-fed maps only update on
the next change-detection tick, and enqueuing against stale maps would
miss the hydrated episodes' legacy rows), rebuilds the request from the
now-complete seasons keeping the captured direction, and reports an
honest count-0 success if hydration reveals nothing left to mark.

## Components

Shared detail layout shell:

- `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/libs/ui/components/src/lib/portal-detail-shell/portal-detail-shell.component.ts`

Shared inline player shell:

- `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/libs/ui/playback/src/lib/portal-inline-player/portal-inline-player.component.ts`

Xtream detail hosts:

- `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/libs/portal/xtream/feature/src/lib/vod-details/vod-details-route.component.ts`
- `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/libs/portal/xtream/feature/src/lib/serial-details/serial-details.component.ts`

Stalker detail hosts:

- `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/libs/portal/stalker/feature/src/lib/stalker-catalog-detail/stalker-catalog-detail.component.ts`
- `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/libs/portal/stalker/feature/src/lib/stalker-series-view/stalker-series-view.component.ts`
- `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/libs/portal/stalker/feature/src/lib/stalker-collection-detail.component.ts`
- `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/libs/portal/stalker/feature/src/lib/stalker-search/stalker-search.component.ts`

Embedded playback does not have a fallback dialog path.
`PlayerService.openResolvedPlayback(...)` remains the MPV/VLC external launch
entry point; for embedded players it returns without creating UI.

Diagnostics, recovery policy, and recovery UI:

- `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/libs/playback/util/src/index.ts`
- `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/libs/ui/playback/src/lib/web-player-view/web-player-view.component.ts`

## Playback Decision Rule

When a detail view starts playback:

1. Resolve or construct a typed playback payload.
2. Check the active player setting.
3. If the player is embedded, render the inline player inside the current detail view.
4. If the player is external, hand the same payload to `PlayerService` for MPV/VLC playback.

The detail or collection/search host owns inline state. `PlayerService` is not
an owner of embedded UI playback state.

After a successful external episode launch, the detail host immediately
persists that episode as the latest playback-position entry, preserving an
existing resume offset or using zero for a newly opened episode. MPV/VLC
position telemetry overwrites this launch marker when available. This keeps the
last-watched season and episode correct even when an external player's progress
interface is unavailable; exact external timestamps remain best-effort.

## Series Quick Start CTA

Xtream and Stalker series detail views share the quick-start decision helper in
`libs/portal/shared/util/src/lib/series-quick-start.ts`.
The helper flattens the loaded season/episode map, sorts seasons and episodes in
natural order, and returns the hero CTA state.

Current contract:

- the CTA shows the action label plus a compact episode target such as
  `S01E02 · Episode title`
- if an episode is in progress, resume the latest updated in-progress episode
  with its saved offset
- if the newest episode entry is a successful external-player launch marker
  with no meaningful progress yet, target it with `Play episode N` instead of
  falling back to the first episode
- if no episode is in progress, play the first unwatched episode in season order
- if watched episodes end at a season boundary, play the first episode of the
  next loaded season
- if every loaded episode is watched, render a disabled completed state

The click path must continue through each detail host's normal episode playback
method so recent-item updates, inline/external player selection, resume offsets,
and playback-position saving keep the same behavior as manual episode clicks.

## Series Inline Episode Continuation

Xtream and Stalker series detail views own current-episode state and pass a
`SeriesPlaybackNavigation` payload through `PortalInlinePlayerComponent` and
`WebPlayerViewComponent` to the active embedded player.

Current contract:

- Video.js, HTML5, ArtPlayer, and embedded MPV emit `playbackEnded` only for
  real media EOF/`ended` events.
- Teardown, replacement, manual close, player reload, idle state, and playback
  errors must not emit `playbackEnded`.
- Series previous/next controls render only when the series navigation payload is
  present. Movies, live streams, radio streams, and non-series VOD must not show
  those buttons.
- The shared navigation payload contains `canPrevious`, `canNext`, and
  `autoplayEnabled`. Player controls disable previous on the first episode and
  next on the last episode of the current season.
- Autoplay is enabled by default for series playback. On `playbackEnded`, the
  portal detail host starts the next episode only when `canNext` is true for the
  current season.
- Autoplay and Next never cross season boundaries or lazy-load another season.
  Quick start remains the flow that may choose an episode from another loaded or
  newly loaded season before playback begins.
- Previous switches directly to the previous episode in the current season. It
  does not implement a restart-threshold behavior.

## Codec And Container Diagnostics

The shared `WebPlayerViewComponent` is the central browser-player viewport for
M3U, Xtream, and Stalker inline playback, including live streams opened from
favorites and recently viewed collections.

The mounted engine resolves in a fixed order: temporary recovery override →
host `playerOverride` input → the saved player read from the live
`SettingsStore` signal (Video.js as the last-resort default). The saved player
is deliberately NOT a mount-time storage snapshot: persisting a different
player — from the settings page or the command palette — re-applies to every
mounted `WebPlayerViewComponent` in place as a new playback application, and a
first mount reads the already-loaded store value so the default engine never
flashes before the saved one. Hosts that pass no `playerOverride` (the Xtream
and Stalker live layouts, the portal inline detail player) rely on this live
tracking. A saved switch to managed MPV/VLC is the one exception
(`resolveRenderableWebPlayer`): the viewport can neither render nor launch an
external player, so the mounted engine is retained and the external choice
applies when the host starts the next playback.

Video.js, HTML5, and ArtPlayer
report native media errors, hls.js errors, Video.js/VHS errors, Shaka errors,
mpegts.js errors, and HLS manifest codec metadata into the DOM-free classifiers
exported by `@iptvnator/playback/util`.

The canonical recovery flow is:

```text
engine public error
  -> sanitized PlaybackDiagnostic (@iptvnator/playback/util)
  -> recommendPlaybackRecovery(context)
  -> ranked maximum-three action model
  -> WebPlayerView session-local user action
```

Engine adapters own public-event collection and sanitation. The playback
utility owns diagnostic contracts, evidence classification, source/engine
mapping, capability contracts, and the pure recommendation policy.
`WebPlayerViewComponent` owns only the current session state and execution of a
user-selected action. Diagnostic producers do not decide which player to show,
and the recommendation policy does not inspect Angular, the DOM, settings,
storage, or Electron globals.

The diagnostics remain client-only:

- no ffprobe or server-side probing
- no extra manifest fetch beyond the active player
- no automatic failover to an external player
- no embedded MPV diagnostics

Supported diagnostic codes are:

- `unsupported-container`
- `unsupported-codec`
- `media-decode-error`
- `network-error`
- `browser-access-error`
- `drm-or-encryption`
- `unknown-playback-error`

Native `MediaError` code 4 alone is not codec evidence. A source with a known
browser-incompatible container remains `unsupported-container`; otherwise, a
code 4 error without stronger evidence is `unknown-playback-error`. An explicit
Video.js HTTP error is `network-error` and shows its status. Because an HTTP
status is server/network evidence rather than decoding evidence, external
decoding is not presented as a likely fix.

Video.js `8.24.0`, the default web player, runs HTTP streaming through bundled
VHS `3.17.5`. Its terminal `Player#error` crosses a separate allowlisted
boundary built only from the public Video.js `MediaError` code/status,
`metadata.errorType`, and the documented `player.tech().vhs` runtime property.
The engine type must exactly match an installed `videojs.Error` value;
unrecognized values remain unknown. Exact network identifiers, HTTP 4xx/5xx
status, and standard network code 2 produce `network-error`; exact
`streamingfailedtodecryptsegment` or standard encrypted code 5 produce
`drm-or-encryption`. A generic VHS code 3 remains
`unknown-playback-error` because VHS also assigns code 3 to terminal internal
objects and strings that do not establish a decode cause. Non-VHS native code
3 keeps its standard media-decode meaning.

VHS stage evidence is derived only where the public engine identifier names
the operation: HLS playlist parsing is `playlist`, DASH manifest parsing is
`manifest`, and select/decrypt/transmux/append segment errors are `segment`;
everything else is `unknown`. In particular, IPTVnator does not read internal
`requestType` values to guess manifest, playlist, segment, or key stages. VHS
handles retries, rendition exclusions/re-inclusions, segment timeout recovery,
and request aborts before a final player error; IPTVnator observes only the
public terminal event and does not subscribe to undocumented recovery events
or private loaders.

Video.js/VHS error messages, request or response URLs, headers, xhr objects,
response text/bodies, credentials, request types, and arbitrary metadata are
neither retained nor rendered. Technical details contain only the sanitized
stage, exact/unknown engine type, standard/unknown media error code, terminal
disposition, and validated HTTP status. The active playback URL remains
available only through the pre-existing playback metadata used by Retry, Copy
URL, and explicit external-player actions; it is never copied from VHS error
metadata.

HLS.js errors cross one shared sanitizer boundary before HTML5 or ArtPlayer can
emit a diagnostic. The boundary retains only allowlisted engine `type` and
`details` identifiers, the final fatal/recoverable disposition, a stage derived
from exact details (`manifest`, `level`, `segment`, `key`, `media`, or
`unknown`), a structured failure kind, and a validated `response.code`.
Recoverable events return no terminal diagnostic. Exact codec, decrypt/key
system, network/timeout/HTTP, and media/mux evidence select the corresponding
diagnostic; insufficient evidence stays `unknown-playback-error`.

HLS.js does not expose a reliable structured CORS, mixed-content, CSP, or
private-network-access cause. Status zero and generic fetch failures therefore
remain network/unknown evidence instead of becoming browser-access guesses.
Error URLs, request context and headers, loader/network objects, response
URL/text/body, error messages, reasons, and arbitrary provider payloads are
neither retained nor rendered. Technical details show only the sanitized stage,
failure, engine type/details, disposition, and HTTP status. The active playback
URL remains available to the pre-existing retry, copy, and explicit
external-player workflows; it is not copied from the HLS error payload into
the evidence or technical details. HLS startup development logs are event-only:
they do not include provider-supplied channel names or source URLs.

Shaka Player `5.2.4` errors cross a separate structured boundary before the
HTML5 or ArtPlayer DASH session emits a diagnostic. Version-locked tests assert
the installed Shaka version plus the public `Severity`, `Category`, and selected
online-playback `Code` values used by the boundary. Evidence retains only
validated severity/category/code, the lifecycle disposition, an exact
code-derived stage and failure kind, and a validated HTTP status. A direct
`Network.BAD_HTTP_STATUS` may expose `data[1]` as the status; the same status is
accepted from the documented nested networking error for
`Drm.LICENSE_REQUEST_FAILED` and
`Drm.SERVER_CERTIFICATE_REQUEST_FAILED`. For direct network errors, the
public request type also identifies the stage: `BAD_HTTP_STATUS.data[4]`,
`HTTP_ERROR.data[2]`, or `TIMEOUT.data[1]`. Only MANIFEST, SEGMENT and LICENSE
are mapped, with their numeric values checked against the installed Shaka
contract. Other types and malformed slots remain unknown; request URLs, bodies
and headers are never inspected to guess the stage.

A recoverable Shaka `error` event does not become a terminal playback
diagnostic because the engine continues its retry/recovery lifecycle. A
critical event is terminal. A rejected `Player.load()` is also terminal even
when its last networking error still carries recoverable severity, because the
load lifecycle has ended; the structured evidence preserves both facts as
`severity=recoverable` and `disposition=terminal`. Unknown event severity does
not prove terminal failure and is ignored. Exact public code/category pairs may
classify network, DRM/encryption, manifest/parsing, or media/decode failures.
Ambiguous evidence stays `unknown-playback-error`: in particular, the Manifest
category alone is not container incompatibility, and Shaka messages never infer
CORS, codec, DRM, container, or stage. The public critical
`STREAMING_ENGINE_STARTUP_INVALID_STATE` code remains exact evidence while its
stage and failure stay unknown because the code does not identify a user-facing
media cause. Public DASH text-parser codes are also retained exactly; their
`TEXT` category proves the parser subsystem, but not a safe manifest, segment,
or media cause, so stage and failure remain unknown.

A failed public `Player.isBrowserSupported()` preflight is not a Shaka error
and therefore retains fully unknown technical evidence instead of being
mislabelled as an unsupported container. The app adds only the exact,
enumerated `PlaybackRuntimeSupport.ShakaBrowserUnsupported` marker to that
otherwise unknown diagnostic. This Shaka/DASH runtime-preflight marker is the
sole unknown-code exception that can rank configured MPV/VLC actions, and only
for clear, externally transferable DASH in a managed-external runtime. Generic
unknown diagnostics remain Retry/alternative-source only. PWA capability and
KODIPROP DRM suppress the external actions because those players are absent or
the launch contract cannot transfer the key configuration.

Shaka messages, URLs, headers, request/response bodies, credentials,
license/key payloads, and arbitrary `error.data` objects are neither retained
nor rendered. Structured error details show only sanitized stage, failure, severity,
category, code, disposition, and optional HTTP status. Unsupported playlist
DRM uses a fixed safe description rather than echoing provider license
configuration. A recognized configured license type can add only its
allowlisted display name.

`network-error` is reserved for provider/network loading failures. Engines that expose concrete browser security evidence, such as CORS, mixed content, Content Security Policy, or private-network-access blocks, use `browser-access-error` so the UI can explain that the browser player was blocked before playback reached decoding.

mpegts.js `1.8.1` errors cross one shared structured boundary before the HTML5,
Video.js, or ArtPlayer owner emits a diagnostic. Version-locked tests compare
the installed public `ErrorTypes` and `ErrorDetails` exports with the accepted
contract. Evidence retains only an exact type/detail pair, terminal
disposition, a pair-derived stage and failure, and a validated HTTP 4xx/5xx
status from the top-level `info.code` slot of
`NetworkError + HttpStatusCodeInvalid`.

Exact public pairs classify HTTP/timeout/exception as network failures,
`FormatUnsupported` as an unsupported container, `CodecUnsupported` as an
unsupported codec, and `FormatError`/`MediaMSEError` as media failures.
`UnrecoverableEarlyEof` remains a `media-decode-error` that may rank a distinct
engine or external player:
mpegts.js has already exhausted its internal finite-source early-EOF recovery,
and another demuxer may tolerate the truncated transport stream. Mismatched or
unknown pairs fail closed to `unknown-playback-error`.

Arbitrary `info`, messages, URLs, headers, bodies, credentials, and provider
objects are neither retained nor rendered. A generic `Exception` does not
prove CORS, mixed content, CSP, or private-network access, so mpegts.js no
longer creates `browser-access-error` from message text. HTTP and other network
failures do not claim an external decoder will fix the provider response;
container, codec, truncated-stream, format, and MediaSource failures retain
evidence that can rank an explicit MPV/VLC action when the payload and runtime
permit it.

The diagnostic surface covers the inline player viewport when playback fails,
with a compact warning badge, one primary recommendation, at most two secondary
recommendations, and always-available Copy URL and Technical details utilities.
An alternative-source recommendation consumes one of those three slots even
when its bounded source list renders several rows. Technical details contain
the diagnostic code, reporting player/source, detected container/MIME,
video/audio codecs, native browser error fields, and sanitized structured
Video.js/VHS, HLS, Shaka, and mpegts.js evidence. HLS manifest codec metadata
also drives a concise browser-support hint for codecs that Chromium/Electron
commonly cannot decode inline, such as HEVC, AC-3, E-AC-3, DTS, and MPEG-2
video.

URL extension metadata is filtered before diagnostics and player selection use it. Web script extensions such as `.php` are not shown as stream containers; explicit media query metadata such as `extension=ts` or `format=m3u8` is preferred when present.

The HTML5 player and ArtPlayer choose their source engine from one URL rule,
`resolvePlaybackUrlSourceKind()` in `@iptvnator/playback/util`, which maps the
normalized media extension to `dash` (`mpd`), `hls` (`m3u8`/`m3u`), `mpegts`
(`ts`, `m2ts`, and extension-less proxy/script URLs) or `native` (every other
container: `mkv`, `webm`, `mp4`, `avi`, `mov`, `m4v`, audio files). hls.js
therefore only ever receives HLS manifests; it used to be handed every
unlisted container and raised a manifest error over media Chromium plays by
itself. ArtPlayer serves the `native` kind through a single
`ART_PLAYER_NATIVE_SOURCE_TYPE` custom type so `ArtPlayerSourceSession` keeps
owning engine teardown and controls binding; the HTML5 player appends one
`<source>` whose `video/mp4` MIME hint is set only for MP4-family files, since
a hint the browser's `canPlayType()` rejects makes it skip the source
(`resolveNativeSourceMimeType()`).

MKV sources are attempted through Chromium's native Matroska path. Video.js
receives `video/matroska` for `.mkv` URLs and explicit query metadata such as
`extension=mkv` or `container=mkv`. This is container support rather than a
universal codec guarantee: native source or decode failures still produce a
diagnostic whose ranked actions may include MPV/VLC.

Portal VOD and episode payloads with `contentInfo` are treated as non-live by the inline players unless `isLive` is explicitly set. If Chromium leaves the underlying MediaSource duration at `Infinity` for a finite TS VOD, the Video.js wrapper normalizes its UI duration from the finite `seekable` or `buffered` range. Embedded MPV uses the same live decision rule and shows an unknown duration placeholder for VOD/episode snapshots until MPV reports a finite duration. This removes the misleading `LIVE` control state without changing stream decoding, diagnostics, or external fallback behavior.

### Source metadata in diagnostics

The existing technical-details list has localized failure-stage and declared-DRM
rows. Unknown stages are omitted from the dedicated row and remain visible as
`unknown` in raw structured details. These rows do not change the original
failure classification or recovery ranking.

`ShakaManifestMetadata` observes the active Shaka networking engine's existing
MANIFEST responses through a public response filter. It reads only DASH
`AdaptationSet`/`Representation` codec attributes and `ContentProtection`
scheme IDs, before licensing can fail. Inspection is bounded to 2 MiB and
bounded element/codec counts. Non-DASH, malformed, DTD-bearing and oversized
XML is ignored; the response is never changed, and an inspection failure never
fails playback. No internal Shaka manifest API or extra fetch is used.

Only known Widevine, PlayReady, ClearKey and FairPlay identifiers are retained.
Generic CENC/common PSSH does not prove a particular DRM system. Configuration
may also supply a known system name, including ClearKey; these are source facts,
not proof that EME initialized or that a license is usable. No manifest body,
key ID, key, license URL, header or arbitrary provider string enters the added
metadata. Each observer belongs to one engine, unregisters on teardown and
ignores late callbacks; switching channels cannot reuse the previous evidence.

Fatal HLS errors retain the current hls.js level codec metadata, Video.js reads
its current VHS representations, and MPEG-TS errors read the current engine's
`mediaInfo`. DASH lists the advertised manifest codecs, which may include
alternative renditions, rather than claiming they were successfully decoded.
All added codec values pass a bounded identifier allowlist. An unrecognized or
unavailable codec is omitted. Metadata does not itself trigger a failure or
prove that a browser supports a codec.

### Evidence-backed summaries and support reports

The shared diagnostic panel refines its description only from owned evidence:
`drm-configuration-unsupported` marks an app-rejected DRM configuration; Shaka
6001 means the requested DRM configuration is unavailable (including denied
permission or unsupported features, not proof that a particular CDM is absent).
Shaka 6007, 6008 and 6012 distinguish license acquisition failure, a rejected
license response and missing license-server configuration. An owned license
network request also identifies acquisition failure. Confirmed segment requests
with HTTP 401/403 report access refusal, without asserting token expiry. Source
DRM names and arbitrary messages never select these explanations. Existing
classification, recovery ranking and generic descriptions remain the fallback.

**Copy diagnostics** writes a versioned JSON report to the local clipboard on
explicit activation. The report allowlists app version, coarse OS/runtime,
player/engine, diagnostic and numeric error codes, stage, HTTP status, container,
codec identifiers and declared DRM names. Unknown values are omitted or marked
unknown. It never serializes the diagnostic object, raw user agent, URL, title,
provider message, headers, credentials, key IDs or licenses. It issues no network
request and sends nothing to support automatically. The independent **Copy URL**
action still copies the original stream URL and may include access credentials.
Copy success/failure is announced accessibly; changing diagnostics refreshes the
report and clears the prior result. The report contains source facts, not proof
that a license, codec or stream is playable.

## Recovery Recommendation Policy

Recommendations change playback paths only when structured evidence supports
that conclusion. A different skin over the same engine family is not a distinct
recovery target.

| Source path                              | Active engine family            | Distinct built-in recommendation |
| ---------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | -------------------------------- |
| HLS in Video.js                          | Video.js/VHS                    | HTML5 through hls.js             |
| HLS in HTML5 or ArtPlayer                | hls.js                          | Video.js/VHS                     |
| MPEG-TS in any web player                | shared mpegts.js                | None                             |
| DASH in HTML5 or ArtPlayer               | Shaka                           | None                             |
| DASH in Video.js                         | unsupported recommendation path | None                             |
| Native media/container in any web player | browser native-media            | None                             |

HTML5 is the canonical hls.js alternative to Video.js/VHS; ArtPlayer is not a
second independent hls.js choice. MPEG-TS, DASH/Shaka, and native media never
offer a same-family built-in alternative. Unknown source or engine-family facts
also suppress built-in recommendations.

The pure policy builds the following order, filters the current, unavailable,
incompatible, and already attempted inline targets, and then returns at most
three actions. It projects attempted inline target IDs through the validated
canonical source/target capability matrix and filters every engine family that
has already been attempted. HTML5 and ArtPlayer therefore cannot be offered as
separate hls.js recovery attempts. External MPV/VLC attempts remain eligible;
the view reranks them by per-target attempt count instead of removing them. The
first surviving action is primary and later actions are secondary.

| Sanitized evidence                        | Candidate order                                              |
| ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| HTTP, timeout, or generic network failure | Retry -> Alternative source                                  |
| Generic unknown playback error            | Retry -> Alternative source                                  |
| Exact Shaka browser-unsupported preflight | MPV -> VLC -> Alternative source                             |
| Browser access/CORS/CSP-class failure     | MPV -> VLC -> Alternative source                             |
| Unsupported codec or container            | MPV -> VLC -> Alternative source                             |
| Media/decode/engine processing failure    | Distinct built-in family -> MPV -> VLC -> Alternative source |
| DRM/encryption failure                    | Compatible built-in path -> Alternative source -> MPV -> VLC |

Network and generic unknown evidence fail closed: they never claim that
changing a decoder will repair the provider response. The exact app-owned
Shaka browser-unsupported runtime-preflight marker above is the only
unknown-code exception. Contradictory or incomplete capability facts fail
closed to Retry and an available alternative source.
External targets require both managed external-player support and a transferable
payload. PWA builds therefore never rank MPV/VLC. Any ClearKey/KODIPROP DRM
payload is non-transferable and suppresses both external targets; the policy
does not infer transferability from a message or URL. Eligible Electron portal
fallback requests keep using the original `ResolvedPortalPlayback`, so the
existing host path can forward its required headers and playback metadata.

## Recovery Session Lifecycle And Privacy

Each mounted `WebPlayerViewComponent` owns one in-memory recovery session for
its required `playbackSessionKey`. Retry and an alternative source for the same
logical content keep the key and attempted-target set. A different channel,
movie, or exact episode changes the key and synchronously clears the diagnostic,
attempts, temporary player override, and handoff position. Destroying the
component also ends the session; the same key in a later component is a new
session. Applying a different source under the same key, including another
catch-up programme, clears only the VOD handoff position; attempts and the
temporary player override remain available for the recovery session.

On a terminal failure, the current binding is accepted only when both its
generation and inline target still match. The current target becomes attempted,
the sanitized diagnostic is stored, and recommendations are reranked. The
`PlaybackBinding` contains exactly `{ generation, target }`. Changes to the
playback URL, headers, DRM, live/VOD mode, target, or reload generation are
instead correlated with a fieldless opaque `Symbol` application token. Source
applications also advance a second fieldless source-revision `Symbol` that
resets the VOD handoff position; target-only switches and Retry leave that
revision stable. None of these ownership objects embed source material, and
recovery ownership state never stores URLs, headers, DRM keys, error payloads,
or credentials. Each rendered web or Embedded MPV application captures the
nullable binding, both opaque tokens, and its live/VOD flag. A time update can
change the resume position only while that exact capture still owns the current
application, so a replaced source cannot repopulate cleared handoff state.

A separate fieldless intent token invalidates on each new source, target, or
reload intent. The application effect synchronizes the content session before
tracking that intent, so clearing a temporary player override is incorporated
into one application instead of scheduling a duplicate Electron header handoff.
Each application start clears both the diagnostic owner and backing signal,
making the prior diagnostic neither retained nor actionable before asynchronous
header setup completes. False or rejected current handoffs leave it clear, and
a stale success, false result, or rejection cannot erase a newer owned
diagnostic or mutate the newer application state.

Selecting a built-in recommendation records the target, immediately detaches
the diagnostic, and installs a temporary local override ahead of the host
override and saved player setting. The new engine receives the latest finite
VOD position as a best-effort resume point; live playback starts at the live
edge. Retry reloads the active target without clearing attempts. Selecting MPV
or VLC records the external target before emitting the existing fallback
request. Both external actions remain mounted while their per-target state
moves through `launching`, `started`, `playing`, or `error`; an attempted idle
target becomes an explicit reopen action and a failed target becomes Try again.
Only an exact correlated Electron `playing` session update earns the Playing
label. A single external launch handshake owns the session: duplicate actions
are ignored, other external actions wait, and an existing live external session
must close before a different player can start. Play, Restart, and secondary
provider launch actions all observe the same local guard before Electron has
returned a session. Xtream VOD also records the diagnostic fallback's
route-scoped destination and pending generation before invoking MPV/VLC, so a
subsequent route cannot start a second detached player while the first launch
is being correlated. The source-owning host binds
its returned launch promise to the fieldless current intent, so only that exact
result supplies the initial session ID; a late result from a timed-out attempt
cannot take over a retry. Later global updates must match the exact ID. A
replacement does not launch until teardown of the exact spawned process is
confirmed, and the old target is settled synchronously before the new launch so
coalesced signal effects cannot preserve stale feedback. Teardown waits through
bounded graceful and forced-exit windows, and reusable MPV also bounds its IPC
quit command before entering those windows. If any stage cannot confirm exit,
close rejects and keeps the exact session live so a replacement cannot overlap
it. A process-wide teardown gate starts before any potentially slow teardown
preparation, including VLC position flush and a reused player's MPV IPC or VLC
RC quit command, and rejects both player launches until that exact child
reports exit; `ChildProcess.killed` is never treated as proof. If
bounded teardown fails while a fresh launch IPC is pending, the IPC rejects and
the exact session becomes a closable error instead of remaining in Opening.
If a pre-content reuse failure has no still-live displaced session to restore,
the replacement error keeps its attached closer so Stop can retry teardown of
the orphaned reusable child. A terminal error without a closer is never
restorable.
A rejected close promise is cached only while that attempt is pending, so the
dock's Stop action can retry teardown of the same exact child after an
unconfirmed bounded attempt. Reusable children are mapped to the current
content session; a stale older closer becomes a no-op after MPV `loadfile` or
the VLC enqueue handoff remaps the process. Closing an already terminal session
is also idempotent: it returns the closed snapshot without invoking the saved
closer, and a later process error cannot revive it as a visible failure. Reused
MPV commands use the socket captured for their exact child, so a delayed close
cannot send `quit` to a replacement process through a newer global socket.
If Stop is observed before a pending MPV content command or VLC enqueue command
is dispatched, that command is skipped. A source handoff also fails closed
while a live session has no closer (`canClose: false`); renderer Dismiss is not
accepted as process-teardown confirmation. That denial advances neither the
multi-source switch token nor the playback generation, so it cannot cancel the
sole launch already in flight.
VLC rechecks that gate immediately around every concrete spawn after
asynchronous port allocation or reuse fallback work. If a post-start VLC
fallback is blocked by the gate, the already-opened session transitions to
error instead of continuing to claim that the player started. If RC-port
allocation fails, reuse ownership is never claimed: the spawned VLC child
keeps its exact one-shot session closer so Stop still confirms its teardown.
During reusable-player handoff, a failure before the content command restores
the globally displaced renderer session—not the reusable process's prior
owner—through an exact `restoredFromSessionId` transition, but only while that
displaced replacement is still the active session.
After MPV `loadfile` or VLC `clear` has been dispatched, the attempted session
owns the possibly changed process and stays a closable error instead of
restoring stale content metadata. Such an error still participates in every
replacement close. Stop during an in-flight MPV or VLC reuse command, including
the teardown wait after a failed command and VLC's subsequent fallback
port-allocation wait, settles that exact close and cancels the fallback spawn.
If a partially applied reuse
command is instead recovered by a fresh spawn, the old child's exit is retired
under its previous session so it cannot close the replacement session. A
during-start Stop also settles VLC's launch IPC when a spawn error reports
`close` without `exit`. The dock keeps Stop as the only global teardown action
while that exact closer remains live; safe Dismiss is available only after an
error becomes terminal and has no closer. If diagnostic ownership changes during close, the
unlaunched intent is cancelled without a false launch error; an exact stale
launch whose close fails keeps its credential-free owner for the next close
attempt. Route Play/Resume cancels older source resolution immediately but
captures the initiating playlist/VOD route before awaiting teardown; navigation
cancels that start. Accepting a diagnostic fallback cancels the same older
source resolution before opening MPV/VLC, and a fallback resolving on the new
route closes its exact returned session. The route commits its source badge and playback
evidence only after start succeeds. If the local
handshake timeout fires after Electron has supplied an exact session ID, the ID
stays correlated so a later `opened`, `playing`, or `error` update can reconcile
the action with the global dock.

The global external-playback dock uses the same Electron session status. It
shows Opening player with progress during launch, Player started for `opened`,
and Playing only for `playing`. An error with a live closer remains visible with
Stop until teardown is confirmed; an unclosable terminal error remains visible
until dismissed. The dock deliberately has no retry because it does not own the
original headers or credentials required to reconstruct a safe launch request.

No recommendation mutates `Settings.player` or another persisted setting.
Recovery recommendations never auto-switch a player or source and do not
replace the separate source-owner auto-failover feature. The narrow Xtream
live Auto format contract is separate: a source owner may supply one advertised
TS transport to the same web player on an initial terminal HTTP failure. It
never chooses another engine, and its pending callback waits for the old
transport's render teardown. See [Initial Auto HLS failure](./xtream-portal-compatibility.md#initial-auto-hls-failure)
for eligibility, session ownership and the external/Embedded MPV/VHS limits. Attempts, overrides,
resume handoff, and diagnostics are session-local: there is no persistent
history, cross-session learning, correlation, or telemetry.

Only allowlisted public engine evidence crosses the structured sanitizers.
Provider/engine messages, request and response objects, arbitrary `error.data`
or `info`, bodies, URLs copied from error payloads, headers, DRM material, and
credentials do not enter recommendation evidence or recovery ownership state.
The active playback URL remains available only through the pre-existing
playback metadata needed by Retry, Copy URL, and eligible explicit
external-player actions.

`PortalPlayer.openExternalPlayback(playback, player)` remains the forced
external launch API. It sends the resolved playback payload to MPV or VLC
regardless of the current saved player setting, so a recommendation never
mutates preferences.

## External Player Arguments

Electron settings expose optional MPV and VLC command-line argument fields only
when the corresponding external player is selected. The executable path remains a
path-only setting; extra flags are stored separately as `mpvPlayerArguments` and
`vlcPlayerArguments`.

Argument fields are line-oriented: one non-empty trimmed line becomes one argv
entry. IPTVnator prepends those custom entries before its stream-specific runtime
arguments. This avoids shell parsing, keeps paths with spaces safe, and preserves
existing settings for users who never configured extra arguments.

The arguments apply only when IPTVnator spawns a new external player process. If
MPV or VLC instance reuse is active and an existing process is reused, subsequent
streams are loaded through MPV IPC or VLC RC commands and new process arguments
are not re-applied until a fresh process starts.

VLC enables its TCP RC interface when content metadata requires progress
tracking or instance reuse is enabled. On Windows, these managed RC launches
also append `--rc-quiet` after custom arguments to suppress VLC's DOS console
while retaining TCP control. macOS/Linux and launches without an allocated RC
port receive no automatic quiet flag. Both launch-error and exit-code-1 retries
remove the app-generated RC flags, including `--rc-quiet`; custom arguments
continue to be prepended unchanged.

## Electron External Player Ownership

External MPV/VLC integration is split across focused main-process modules:

- `apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/player.events.ts` registers IPC handlers
  and settings updates only.
- `apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/external-player-launch-context.ts`
  resolves Flatpak spawning, default executable paths, macOS `.app` bundles,
  custom argv merging, spawn specs, and reuse decisions.
- `apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/external-player-playback-request.ts`
  builds the effective playback request, including Stalker direct-stream fallback
  metadata and external-player request headers.
- `apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/external-player-runtime.ts` owns shared
  session tracking, trace logging, renderer notifications, playback-position
  forwarding, and user-facing start errors.
- `apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/mpv-session.service.ts` owns fresh MPV
  launches and progress polling; `mpv-reusable-process.ts` owns the tracked
  child, captured socket, remapping, retryable close, and reuse handoff.
- `apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/vlc-session.service.ts` owns fresh VLC
  launches and progress polling; `vlc-reusable-process.ts` owns the tracked
  child, RC-port remapping, retryable close, and reuse handoff, while
  `vlc-rc.ts` owns bounded RC commands, parsing, and playback snapshots.

Keep player-specific reusable-process state in the focused MPV/VLC managers.
Shared spawn, request-header, session-registry, and notification helpers belong
in the `external-player-*` modules so IPC registration stays small and
reviewable.

## Flatpak External Players

Flatpak cannot execute host-installed `mpv` or `vlc` binaries directly from the sandbox.

Current contract:

- Flatpak launches external players through `flatpak-spawn --host`.
- AppImage, deb/rpm, snap, macOS, and Windows keep the existing direct process spawn flow.
- VLC keeps the current external-session flow in Flatpak, including the RC port used for progress polling.
- MPV is intentionally reduced in Flatpak: the app does not reuse an existing MPV instance there and does not open the Unix socket bridge used for non-Flatpak progress polling.
- VLC instance reuse is also gated off in Flatpak. Outside Flatpak the user can opt in via the "Reuse VLC instance" setting; the app then keeps a single tracked VLC process and drives subsequent stream loads through its RC interface (`clear` + `add <url> :http-*`) instead of spawning a new window per click.

This keeps non-Flatpak behavior unchanged while allowing Flatpak builds to open host-installed external players.

## Typed Playback Payload

Shared playback payloads live in:

- `/Users/4gray/Code/iptvnator/libs/shared/interfaces/src/lib/portal-playback.interface.ts`

Types introduced:

- `PlayerContentInfo`
- `ResolvedPortalPlayback`

These provide a single shape for:

- `streamUrl`
- `title`
- optional thumbnail and resume start time
- playback-position metadata
- optional external-player headers and request metadata

## Xtream Behavior

Xtream detail views already own canonical routes, so they construct playback locally and decide inline vs external locally.

Behavior to preserve:

- resume/playback position continues saving from `timeUpdate`
- back navigation clears inline playback with the route
- favorites, recent, and search still route into canonical Xtream detail screens before playback

## Stalker Behavior

Stalker previously resolved playback and opened UI in the same method.

Current contract:

- `resolveVodPlayback(...)` returns a `ResolvedPortalPlayback`
- `createLinkToPlayVod(...)` remains as a compatibility API but collection,
  search, and canonical detail views use the resolver directly
- Stalker detail, collection, and search views decide inline vs external locally

This keeps:

- inline/store-state detail navigation intact
- series and VOD-as-series support intact
- external MPV/VLC launches unchanged

## Recently Viewed Confirmation

Selecting or resolving an item is not watching it. A channel, movie or series
becomes a recently viewed item — and with it the dashboard hero — only once
its stream has really played, so a stream that fails straight away never
reaches history.

- Writers do not persist on selection. They hand the write to
  `PlaybackHistoryGate` (`@iptvnator/playback/data-access`) with
  `defer(target, commit)`, where the target is what the playback will be
  known by: the host's `playbackSessionKey` (M3U) and/or stream URLs. The Stalker resolver defers
  by the resolved (possibly temporary) link; the persisted row still stores
  the portal `cmd`, never that link. Writers capture the item and its
  playlist when they defer, so navigating meanwhile cannot misfile it; an
  Xtream write confirmed after a switch to another playlist (only a slow
  MPV/VLC launch can) is saved to its own playlist without reloading the
  store's recent list, which belongs to the other playlist by then.
- Matching: a write deferred with a session key is confirmed only by that
  same key — the same URL in two playlists must not let playback in one
  (inline, or in MPV/VLC) record a failed attempt in the other. Writes
  without one (portal resolvers) match any confirmation of their stream URL.
  The global live tab defers with its own playlist-scoped session key, which
  also survives a switch to catch-up, when the row plays inline; a row that
  goes to MPV/VLC defers by URL, the only thing that launch confirms.
- `WebPlayerViewComponent` confirms its `playbackSessionKey`, `streamUrl`
  and `playback.streamUrl` once the owned engine's reported position has
  advanced by 2 seconds while playing (`PlaybackProgressConfirmation`).
  Engines report `playing` (not paused, not seeking) with each time update,
  so seeks of paused media do not count; neither do steps above 3 seconds
  (seeks, a resume jump, live-edge catch-up), stalls or backwards jumps. A
  report of a new stream never adds to the progress of the previous one; an
  engine or format swap of the same stream keeps its progress. The radio
  `AudioPlayerComponent` confirms the same way (with the host's session key
  when given).
- MPV/VLC cannot report whether a live stream plays, so the gate itself
  subscribes to the Electron external-player session updates and confirms a
  session's `streamUrl` once it is `opened` or `playing`; a launch that ends
  in `error` is not recorded. (Subscribing in the gate, which the first
  deferred write creates, keeps it off the initial bundle.) That
  confirmation carries no session key, so an "Open in MPV/VLC" recovery
  launch is also confirmed by the `WebPlayerViewComponent` that requested
  it, under its own session key, once the launch has opened. M3U keeps
  recording on selection when MPV/VLC is the configured player.
- A confirmation commits every write matching it, once. Unconfirmed writes
  are bounded (oldest dropped) and simply never commit. The global live tab
  moves a confirmed row to the top of an open Recently Viewed list even if
  another row was selected meanwhile.
- A committed write updates the source while the item keeps playing. Hosts
  must not hand the player a new but identical playback for it: the M3U
  host's `embeddedPlayback` also reads the playlist meta, so it is compared
  by value — a new object would remount the engine and restart the stream.

## Playback Position Saving

The old dialog path saved playback positions from inside the removed Xtream
player dialog.

The new contract is:

- inline detail hosts listen to `timeUpdate`
- each host throttles saves
- each host persists via existing playback-position infrastructure

This avoids coupling inline UI state to a global dialog.

## Future Migration Rule

If a non-detail surface needs embedded playback:

- give that surface a canonical inline host
- switch it to `ResolvedPortalPlayback`
- do not move portal-specific navigation into `PlayerService`

The preferred direction is view-owned inline playback, not a larger dialog manager.