Configure playback

Set playback policy in Settings → Playback. Start with Automatic. It uses Direct playback when the device supports the source and falls back to remuxing, audio conversion, or HLS transcoding when needed.

Select a playback mode

Choose Default playback:

• Automatic is the recommended direct-first choice.
• Direct never transcodes. It is useful when every target device supports the source.
• Compatibility favors a broadly supported format and can use more Server capacity.

Select whether Subtitles are On or Off. Enable Play the next Episode automatically when you want episode autoplay. Save the form after you change a value.

Configure automatic skip

Select any of these options in Playback:

• Skip intros automatically;
• Skip recaps automatically;
• Skip commercials automatically;
• Skip outros automatically; and
• Skip credits automatically.

Kinosail applies detected markers to the playback timeline. Analyze markers first from Settings → Playback segment analysis. A marker can be absent or incorrect when the source does not provide enough evidence.

Select video conversion policy

In Settings → Video conversion, choose Conversion preference:

• Automatic (Recommended) balances interactive playback and output quality.
• Prefer speed reduces waiting and uses less complex processing.
• Prefer quality favors output quality and can use more capacity.

Choose a Video format. Automatic per device (Recommended) tries newer formats when the device and Server support them. Otherwise, Kinosail uses H.264.

Choose Speed up with. Automatic (Recommended) shows the selected processor or graphics path below the control. The other choices depend on usable Server hardware.

Select Improve HDR colors on non-HDR screens when a target device cannot display high dynamic range (HDR). Save the setting.

Run Run quick check under Quick compatibility check. The check makes a small test video. It does not use Library Content. A passed check does not certify every file or playback device.

Open Video compatibility for detected formats, available conversion methods, and focused setup guidance.

Control Viewer capacity

In Settings → Profiles, clear Allow transcoding for a Viewer who must not consume transcoder capacity. A Viewer without permission receives the policy denial. Direct playback still depends on the device and source.

Clear the cache from Settings → Automatic maintenance → Clear transcode cache when prepared files are stale. Kinosail can recreate this cache; it is not a recovery backup.

Source of truth

Sources: internal/server/settings_http.go, internal/server/transcoder_support_html.go, internal/server/playback_timeline.go, README.md, and compose.release.yaml.