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cipherStream
Bring your movies, shows & music together on your own server
cipherStream solves privacy and complexity issues in personal media streaming by letting users host, organize and securely stream their own content. Built for privacy-conscious viewers, families and self-hosting enthusiasts, it offers encrypted streaming, no server transcoding, movies/music/photos libraries, cross-device playback, watch parties, phone-to-TV control, offline downloads, user profiles, parental controls and interactive games.
I started building cipherStream because, quite honestly, I wasn’t fully satisfied with the existing media server solutions available.
There are some great options out there, but I felt there was still room for something different, particularly when it came to privacy, security, playback performance, and the overall user experience.
As a software engineer, I’ve always enjoyed building things that solve real problems. With cipherStream, I wanted to create a self-hosted media platform that puts privacy at the heart of its design without sacrificing the features and convenience people expect from a modern streaming experience.
One of my biggest priorities was encryption. I wanted media streams to be protected beyond standard HTTPS, which is why cipherStream uses application-layer encryption on top of TLS. I also wanted to eliminate the need for server-side transcoding, allowing even relatively modest hardware to serve media while supported client devices handle playback.
But I didn’t want cipherStream to be just another media server.
I wanted it to be something people genuinely enjoy using, whether they’re organizing their movie collections, listening to music, watching with friends through synchronized watch parties, or controlling their TV from their phone.
cipherStream is developed by IoTSoftworks, a small independent startup. We’re still growing, and there’s a lot more I want to build.
What Feedback Would Help Me Most?
At this stage, honest feedback is incredibly valuable to me, especially from people who already use Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, or other self-hosted solutions.
I’d particularly appreciate feedback on:
First impressions and setup: Was installing the server and connecting your devices straightforward? Was anything confusing or unnecessarily complicated?
Playback experience: How does cipherStream perform with your media library? Have you encountered buffering, subtitle issues, unsupported formats, or playback problems?
User interface: Does the app feel intuitive? Are there areas where navigation, organization, or the overall experience could be improved?
Missing features: What functionality do you rely on in your current media server that you’d like to see in cipherStream?
Privacy and security: Does our approach address your concerns? Are there additional controls or protections you’d find useful?
Overall experience: What do you genuinely like, dislike, or think needs improvement?
I’m especially interested in hearing about the little frustrations that people have simply learned to live with in other applications. Sometimes those are the most interesting problems to solve.
If you encounter a bug, knowing your device, operating system, media format, and what happened would help enormously.
And please don’t feel the need to sugarcoat your feedback. I’d much rather hear constructive criticism than receive compliments that don’t help me improve the product.
I don’t expect cipherStream to be perfect, and I’m not claiming it is. I’m building something I believe in, and I want it to keep getting better.
If you decide to give cipherStream a try, I’d genuinely love to hear what you think.
Thanks for taking the time to check out something I’ve put a lot of work into.
“Bring your movies, shows & music together on your own server”
cipherStream was submitted on Product Hunt and earned 0 upvotes and 1 comments, placing #555 on the daily leaderboard. cipherStream solves privacy and complexity issues in personal media streaming by letting users host, organize and securely stream their own content. Built for privacy-conscious viewers, families and self-hosting enthusiasts, it offers encrypted streaming, no server transcoding, movies/music/photos libraries, cross-device playback, watch parties, phone-to-TV control, offline downloads, user profiles, parental controls and interactive games.
On the analytics side, cipherStream competes within Android, Apple and Entertainment — topics that collectively have 75.5k followers on Product Hunt. The dashboard above tracks how cipherStream performed against the three products that launched closest to it on the same day.
Who hunted cipherStream?
cipherStream was hunted by iotSoftworks. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
For a complete overview of cipherStream including community comment highlights and product details, visit the product overview.
iotSoftworks
Why I built cipherStream?
I started building cipherStream because, quite honestly, I wasn’t fully satisfied with the existing media server solutions available.
There are some great options out there, but I felt there was still room for something different, particularly when it came to privacy, security, playback performance, and the overall user experience.
As a software engineer, I’ve always enjoyed building things that solve real problems. With cipherStream, I wanted to create a self-hosted media platform that puts privacy at the heart of its design without sacrificing the features and convenience people expect from a modern streaming experience.
One of my biggest priorities was encryption. I wanted media streams to be protected beyond standard HTTPS, which is why cipherStream uses application-layer encryption on top of TLS. I also wanted to eliminate the need for server-side transcoding, allowing even relatively modest hardware to serve media while supported client devices handle playback.
But I didn’t want cipherStream to be just another media server.
I wanted it to be something people genuinely enjoy using, whether they’re organizing their movie collections, listening to music, watching with friends through synchronized watch parties, or controlling their TV from their phone.
cipherStream is developed by IoTSoftworks, a small independent startup. We’re still growing, and there’s a lot more I want to build.
What Feedback Would Help Me Most?
At this stage, honest feedback is incredibly valuable to me, especially from people who already use Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, or other self-hosted solutions.
I’d particularly appreciate feedback on:
First impressions and setup: Was installing the server and connecting your devices straightforward? Was anything confusing or unnecessarily complicated?
Playback experience: How does cipherStream perform with your media library? Have you encountered buffering, subtitle issues, unsupported formats, or playback problems?
User interface: Does the app feel intuitive? Are there areas where navigation, organization, or the overall experience could be improved?
Missing features: What functionality do you rely on in your current media server that you’d like to see in cipherStream?
Privacy and security: Does our approach address your concerns? Are there additional controls or protections you’d find useful?
Overall experience: What do you genuinely like, dislike, or think needs improvement?
I’m especially interested in hearing about the little frustrations that people have simply learned to live with in other applications. Sometimes those are the most interesting problems to solve.
If you encounter a bug, knowing your device, operating system, media format, and what happened would help enormously.
And please don’t feel the need to sugarcoat your feedback. I’d much rather hear constructive criticism than receive compliments that don’t help me improve the product.
I don’t expect cipherStream to be perfect, and I’m not claiming it is. I’m building something I believe in, and I want it to keep getting better.
If you decide to give cipherStream a try, I’d genuinely love to hear what you think.
Thanks for taking the time to check out something I’ve put a lot of work into.
Ashvin
Founder & Developer, IoTSoftworks
https://cipherstream.iotsoftworks.com