TechStreamTV 5.5.0 Release

TechStreamTV 5.5.0 is now available.

This release introduces a major evolution in how TechStreamTV delivers its Web experience, with modular Web Theme support, expanded Server configuration, improved application storage organization, and a substantial collection of playback reliability improvements.

TechStreamTV 5.5.0 establishes the foundation for multiple Web experiences while preserving the Server's authoritative library, streaming, metadata, authentication, and playback synchronization services.

Modular Web Theme Support

TechStreamTV now supports independently installed Web Themes.

Previously, the Server primarily delivered a single bundled Web interface. Version 5.5.0 introduces a modular architecture that allows compatible Web Themes to be discovered and served from separate directories.

The new system includes:

Automatic discovery of compatible installed Web Themes

Web Theme selection through Server Settings

Refresh Themes without restarting the application

Persistent theme preferences

Controlled theme activation through Server restart

Automatic fallback handling for missing or invalid themes

Theme-aware Web UI version and compatibility reporting

Web Themes are presentation layers that consume the existing TechStreamTV Server APIs.

The Server remains authoritative for library information, media delivery, authentication, metadata, and synchronized playback history.

Introducing the Modern Web Theme

The cinematic Web experience introduced in TechStreamTV 5.4.0 is now officially packaged as Modern, the bundled Web Theme included with TechStreamTV 5.5.0.

Modern provides cinematic browsing, media details, artwork, search, library navigation, custom playlists, and synchronized playback.

It supports desktop browsers, mobile devices, tablets, televisions, keyboard navigation, touch controls, and D-pad navigation.

The modular theme system provides a foundation for alternative Web experiences without requiring changes to the Server's core library and streaming architecture.

Redesigned Server Settings

TechStreamTV 5.5.0 introduces an updated Server Settings workspace.

Settings are now organized into dedicated sections for:

Network

Authentication System

Web Theme

Startup & Tray

TMDB Metadata

Updates

The new Web Theme management controls are integrated directly into the Server application.

Users can select installed themes, refresh available themes, and apply their preferred Web experience through the existing Server restart process.

Theme changes are not silently forced on connected users during normal operation.

Improved Play and Resume Reliability

The Modern theme receives important corrections to Play and Resume behavior.

For supported TV collections, selecting Play now follows the appropriate ordered starting item rather than unintentionally beginning at a later episode based on previous viewing activity.

Resume continues to use the appropriate saved playback progress.

Fresh playback information is retrieved through the Server's existing playback APIs, preserving accurate media identity and synchronized playback state.

These improvements make returning to television series and other ordered media collections more predictable.

Improved TV and Movie Playlist Progression

Automatic playback progression has been strengthened throughout the Modern theme.

TV episodes now follow the appropriate ordered sequence, including numeric season and group ordering.

Playback can continue across season boundaries while preserving the established media sequence within each group.

Multi-movie playlists also receive improved automatic next-item handling.

When the final item finishes, playback stops normally instead of wrapping back to the beginning.

Manual Stop, Back, Escape, Close, and playback failures do not intentionally trigger unwanted progression.

Playback Completion and Synchronization

TechStreamTV 5.5.0 improves playback completion handling and synchronization with the Server.

When the final item in an ordered sequence finishes, the Modern theme synchronizes completion and returns to the appropriate Details view.

Additional improvements include:

More reliable final-item completion

Protection against duplicate completion processing

Improved handling of rapid playback transitions

Completion-save error detection

Retry options when completion updates fail

Corrected behavior when seeking directly to the end of media

These changes reduce incorrect replay behavior and improve the reliability of watched status and playback history updates.

LIVE / HLS Playback Improvements

The Modern theme now provides more appropriate playback controls for non-seekable LIVE streams.

When a stream does not support seeking or a defined duration, the player avoids displaying misleading progress bars, scrubbers, and duration information.

Supported controls such as Play/Pause, Volume, Fullscreen, and available subtitles remain accessible.

Seekable video-on-demand and supported DVR-style playback continue to retain their appropriate seeking functionality.

HLS compatibility remains available for supported media sources.

Clearer Browser Playback Errors

Browser playback error messages have been refined to better identify playback limitations and failures.

The Modern theme now presents messages appropriate to the browser playback experience instead of referring unnecessarily to unrelated native-player software.

These changes make playback failures easier to understand and troubleshoot.

Simplified Application Storage

TechStreamTV 5.5.0 standardizes application-managed library resources and artwork storage.

Application resources are now organized under the Server's installation directory:

library/ — Application-managed library resources

library/artwork/ — Managed artwork

data/techstream.db — Persistent SQLite database

The previously configurable application Library Path setting has been removed.

Users do not need to move their personal video collections into the TechStreamTV installation directory. Existing media can remain in its current location.

Obsolete automatic startup-import behavior and older genre-cache migration paths have also been removed.

Manual M3U/M3U8 import, export, and compatible playlist serving remain supported.

Database and Upgrade Compatibility

TechStreamTV 5.5.0 continues to use SQLite schema version 8.

No new database schema migration is required when upgrading from TechStreamTV 5.4.1.

The existing database backup, migration, integrity-checking, and recovery mechanisms remain available.

Users upgrading from installations with a customized legacy Library Path should verify that any required managed resources are available in the new application-managed location.

Continued Server Performance and Reliability

TechStreamTV 5.5.0 retains the Server performance, artwork efficiency, catalog synchronization, and large-library browsing improvements introduced throughout the 5.4 release series.

The Modern theme continues to maintain a synchronized local catalog, reducing unnecessary complete-library requests during normal browsing.

Playback state remains authoritative on the TechStreamTV Server, allowing supported clients to share resume positions, watched status, completion, play counts, and playback history.

TMDB remains optional.

TechStreamTV continues to support local media management, organization, playback, and LAN streaming without requiring cloud media hosting or an external database server.

TechStreamTV Media Server 5.5.0 is available now for Windows 11 (64-bit).

Your library.

Your hardware.

Your network.

Your experience.