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55 lines
3.8 KiB
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55 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
# Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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<p class="page-description">Answers to common questions regarding the Vyla ecosystem, self-hosting, platform compatibility, and legal policies.</p>
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## General Questions
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### What is Vyla?
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Vyla is a community-built, decentralized media platform and developer ecosystem. It provides client applications (Desktop, Android, Android TV), a multi-provider scraping resolver SDK (`@vyla-entertainment/sdk`), and a self-hostable HTTP/SSE streaming gateway (Stream API).
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### Does Vyla host or stream any media?
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**No.** Vyla does not host, upload, cache, or distribute copyrighted video files or media streams. The software functions purely as a client-side indexing and scraping engine that queries publicly accessible third-party providers on demand.
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### Is Vyla free and open source?
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Yes. All components of the Vyla ecosystem are open source, licensed under standard permissive open-source licenses, and free to inspect, fork, and self-host.
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---
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## Technical & Developer Questions
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### Why do I need a TMDB API Key?
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The Movie Database (TMDB) provides authoritative metadata, cover artwork, cast details, and standardized numeric identifiers for movies and TV episodes. Several provider scrapers require converting TMDB IDs to IMDb IDs or episode names. You can obtain a free API key at [themoviedb.org](https://www.themoviedb.org/).
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### Why do some sources work on my home PC but fail on a datacenter VPS?
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Many public upstream video hosts employ Cloudflare or proprietary anti-bot protections that block known datacenter IP subnets (e.g. AWS, DigitalOcean, Hetzner, OVH) while allowing residential IP connections. When self-hosting Stream API on a VPS, some scrapers may encounter IP-based challenges that do not appear on residential connections.
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### What is the difference between Vyla SDK and Stream API?
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- **Vyla SDK (`@vyla-entertainment/sdk`)**: A Node.js library you install directly in a backend application using `npm install`. It runs scrapers directly in your process.
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- **Stream API**: A standalone, self-hostable HTTP/SSE microservice that wraps the SDK, providing a web API for mobile apps, smart TVs, and browser frontends that cannot execute Node.js modules natively.
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### What is the 120-byte segment de-masking routine?
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Certain streaming providers mask video chunks by prepending a 120-byte fake image header (such as a PNG or JPEG file signature) to disguise traffic. Stream API inspects video chunks and automatically slices off the fake header, restoring valid MPEG-TS video for standard video players.
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---
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## Application & Platform Questions
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### Which desktop operating systems are supported by Vyla Home?
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Vyla Home officially supports 64-bit Windows (Windows 10/11), macOS (Universal binary supporting Apple Silicon and Intel), and Linux (via source compilation and Flatpak packages).
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### Can I run Vyla TV on Amazon Fire TV devices?
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Yes. Vyla TV is built for Android TV (API 26+) and is fully compatible with Amazon Fire TV devices (Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV Cube, etc.). You can sideload the APK using tools like Downloader.
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### What should I do if Vyla Home fails with a WebView2 error on Windows?
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Ensure the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Evergreen Runtime is installed. If running a portable version, verify that `WebView2Loader.dll` is present in the `bin/` directory adjacent to the application executable.
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---
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## Policies & Community
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### How do rights holders request removal of a source?
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Rights holders can submit source removal requests directly to our team. We promptly review and disable scrapers for requested domains. See our [DMCA Policy](/misc/project/dmca) for contact instructions.
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### How can I contribute to Vyla?
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We welcome code contributions, documentation improvements, and bug reports on [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/vyla-entertainment). Check out the [Contributing Guide](/sdk/vyla-sdk/contributing) to learn how to author and submit new provider scrapers.
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