Cautch

A self-hosted movie streaming app built with Blazor Server and MudBlazor. Stream movies from your NAS with authentication, watch tracking, and gamification.

Features

• Movie Browsing - Search by name, filter by genre, and multiple sorting options
• Watchlist - Save movies to your personal watchlist
• Video Playback - Stream with progress tracking and resume
• Authentication - Registration with admin approval
• Gamification - Earn XP and coins from watching, level up, unlock avatars
• User Profiles - Watch time stats, level, and avatar collection
• Admin Panel - Approve/reject registration requests

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Framework	.NET 9.0 / Blazor Server
UI Components	MudBlazor 8.x (Material Design)
Database	PostgreSQL 17 with Entity Framework Core 9
Auth	ASP.NET Cookie Authentication
Video Player	Blazored.Video
Hosting	Docker
CI/CD	GitHub Actions + Docker Hub
Media Storage	SMB/CIFS network share (NAS)

Setup

1. Install Docker

Download and install Docker.

2. Download the required files

Download compose.yaml and compose.override.yaml, create a .env file, and place them in the same folder:

cautch/
├── compose.yaml
├── compose.override.yaml
└── .env

3. Fill in the .env file

POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your_postgres_password   # PostgreSQL password
SMB_HOST=your_nas_hostname_or_ip           # NAS hostname or IP
SMB_SHARE=your_share_name                  # NAS shared folder name
SMB_USER=your_smb_username                 # NAS username
SMB_PASSWORD=your_smb_password             # NAS password

Note: Never share or commit your .env file.

4. Start the app

Open a terminal, navigate to your folder, and run:

docker compose up -d

This starts three containers:

• db — PostgreSQL database
• server — web app on port 8080
• adminer — database browser on port 8081

To view logs: docker compose logs -f To stop: docker compose down

5. Add movies

Use Adminer at http://localhost:8081 to insert rows into the movie table:

Column	Description
name	Movie title
year	Release year
video_url	Video file path relative to NAS share
image_url	Cover image path relative to NAS share
file_size_bytes	File size in bytes
upload_date	Date added
runtime	Duration in minutes
vote_average	Rating (e.g. 7.500)

To assign genres, insert into genre_movie first, then link in moviegenre_rel.

6. Create the first admin user

1. Register at http://localhost:8080.
2. Open Adminer at http://localhost:8081 and log in with:
   • System: PostgreSQL
   • Server: db
   • Username: postgres
   • Password: devpassword
   • Database: mudblazor_cinema_dev
3. Copy your entry from requested_user into user and set is_admin to true.
4. Log in. You can now approve future registrations from /requestedusers.

License

MIT