ɳTV Cloud MAX

The MAX tier activates Cloud-only ɳTV features that are not available on self-hosted installs. These build on top of the same ɳTV plugin bundle you already know — they are additive, not a replacement. Your library, watchlists, and user accounts remain fully yours and can be exported at any time.

Cloud-only features in detail

Geo-distributed streaming edge

On a self-hosted ɳTV install, all streaming traffic originates from your single VPS. With MAX, your media is automatically cached at 40+ edge Points of Presence (PoPs) operated in partnership with our CDN provider. First-byte latency for viewers drops from a typical 150ms (single-origin) to roughly 20ms (nearest edge PoP).

Edge distribution is handled at the Nginx layer. Cache headers are rewritten automatically when the MAX capability token is active. Your media files are not duplicated to all PoPs simultaneously — they are cached at the nearest PoP on first request (pull-through caching) and evicted after a configurable TTL or when storage capacity requires it.

# Check edge cache status for a file
nself cloud ntv myapp cache-status /media/movies/my-movie.mp4

# Output:
# File:         my-movie.mp4
# Edge cache:   HIT (cached at 7 PoPs)
# Last cached:  2026-05-06T14:22:11Z
# Cache TTL:    72h
# Closest PoP:  fra1 (Frankfurt) — 12ms
# Purge:        nself cloud ntv myapp cache-purge /media/movies/my-movie.mp4

Shared acquisition worker pool

In self-hosted mode, downloads run on your VPS — competing with your Postgres, Hasura, and Auth services for CPU and network bandwidth. On MAX, acquisition tasks are offloaded to a dedicated fleet of workers we operate. Typical acquisition speed is 10× what a single CX41 VPS can achieve.

The shared pool handles torrent seeding, Usenet downloads, direct HTTP fetches, and YouTube-DL compatible sources. All downloads are quarantined and virus-scanned before being written to your library. Your VPS only receives the finished file.

# Add an acquisition job (routes to shared pool on MAX)
nself cloud ntv myapp acquire --source "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:..." --category movies

# View acquisition queue
nself cloud ntv myapp queue

# Output:
# ID     Source   Status      Progress  Speed      ETA
# 001    torrent  Downloading   43%      847 MB/s   4m 12s  ← shared pool
# 002    usenet   Queued          —          —       —
# 003    http     Completed    100%          —       done

Hot and cold storage tiers

MAX automatically manages two storage tiers for your media library:

• Hot tier (SSD): Recently played and recently added files stay on SSD for fast random-access streaming. The hot tier holds up to 100 GB within your monthly allowance at no additional cost.
• Cold tier (object storage): Files not accessed in the last 30 days are automatically tiered to S3-compatible cold storage at $0.004/GB-month. Cold storage holds up to 500 GB within your monthly allowance. Retrieval is automatic on first access — the file is promoted back to hot tier transparently. Expect a 2–5 second delay on the first play request after a cold retrieval.

# Check storage tier breakdown
nself cloud ntv myapp storage

# Output:
# Hot tier (SSD):    78 GB / 100 GB allowance
# Cold tier (S3):   312 GB / 500 GB allowance
# Total library:    390 GB
#
# Files on hot tier:  2,847
# Files on cold tier: 8,124
# Auto-tiering:       enabled (30-day inactivity threshold)

# Move a file to cold manually
nself cloud ntv myapp tier-cold /media/movies/old-film.mp4

# Promote from cold to hot
nself cloud ntv myapp tier-hot /media/movies/old-film.mp4

# Change auto-tier threshold
nself cloud ntv myapp auto-tier --days 14

Dedicated transcoding queue

Transcoding on a self-hosted VPS runs on shared CPU — a long H.265 encode blocks other jobs. MAX gives your instance a dedicated transcoding queue backed by GPU-accelerated hardware. Jobs are processed at hardware speed with no contention from other customers.

Supported output formats: H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), AV1, VP9. Subtitle burn-in, audio remux, and chapter markers are all supported. Your monthly allowance includes 1,000 transcoding minutes; overage is billed at $0.05/minute.

# Transcode a file (runs on dedicated cloud queue)
nself cloud ntv myapp transcode /media/movies/raw.mkv \
  --output h265 \
  --quality crf:22 \
  --subtitles burn-in \
  --audio aac

# View transcoding queue
nself cloud ntv myapp transcode-queue

# Output:
# ID   File              Format  Status      Progress  ETA
# 001  raw.mkv           H.265   Processing     67%    8m 31s
# 002  episode-s01e01    H.264   Queued           —    —
#
# Usage this month: 312 / 1000 minutes

EPG and metadata enrichment

MAX includes managed refresh of TMDB, TVDB, and EPG XMLTV feeds. The enrichment service runs on our infrastructure (not your VPS) and pushes metadata updates to your Postgres library database on a schedule you configure. Your library metadata is always current without any cron jobs or API quota concerns on your side.

# Configure EPG feed URLs
nself cloud ntv myapp epg --add "https://iptv-org.github.io/epg/guides/us/tvguide.com.epg.xml"

# Set enrichment schedule
nself cloud ntv myapp metadata --refresh-interval 6h --sources tmdb,tvdb

# Force metadata refresh for a specific file
nself cloud ntv myapp metadata refresh /media/movies/my-movie.mp4

# Output:
# Enriched: my-movie.mp4
# Title:    The Movie Title
# TMDB ID:  12345
# Year:     2024
# Poster:   https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/...
# Artwork:  downloaded and stored in MinIO

Activation and capability tokens

ɳTV Cloud MAX activates automatically when your MAX subscription is active. The mechanism works through signed capability tokens:

1. When your MAX subscription is created or renewed, the Cloud control plane writes a signed capability token to your server's Hasura cloud_capabilities table with kind = "ntv_max" and your subscription ID.
2. The ɳTV plugin checks the token on startup and on each plugin request. When the token is present and valid, acquisition, storage, and delivery are routed through the Cloud control plane automatically.
3. Edge distribution is activated in your Nginx configuration. Cache headers are adjusted for multi-PoP delivery.

Tokens are rotated monthly. If a token fails validation (e.g. subscription lapsed), the ɳTV plugin falls back to standard self-hosted mode immediately — no data loss, no service interruption.

# Check capability token status
nself cloud ntv myapp capabilities

# Output:
# ntv_max:     ACTIVE (expires 2026-06-01)
# Subscription: MAX (ID: sub_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
# Edge PoPs:    enabled (40+ PoPs)
# Acquisition:  routed to shared pool
# Storage:      hot/cold tiering enabled
# Transcoding:  dedicated queue

Downgrading from MAX

If you downgrade from MAX to a lower plan, the capability token is revoked at the end of the billing period. ɳTV returns to standard self-hosted mode:

• Edge delivery reverts to single-origin (your VPS)
• Acquisition returns to running on your VPS
• Files on cold storage are retrieved back to hot storage (may take up to 24 hours)
• Dedicated transcoding queue is disabled; transcoding runs locally
• All library metadata, watchlists, user accounts, and play history are preserved
• No data is deleted — only the Cloud-only routing features turn off

Monthly allowances and overage

Usage is metered hourly. The dashboard shows a live tracker under Server → ɳTV → Usage. Set soft caps (email alert) and hard caps (halt at limit) in Settings → Usage Limits.

# Check current ɳTV usage
nself cloud ntv myapp usage

# Output:
# Bandwidth:      142 GB / 1024 GB  (13.9%)
# Hot storage:     78 GB / 100 GB   (78.0%)  ← approaching limit
# Cold storage:   312 GB / 500 GB   (62.4%)
# Transcoding:    312 min / 1000 min (31.2%)
# Cycle resets:   2026-06-01

# Set a soft cap alert at 80% bandwidth
nself cloud limits myapp --bandwidth-alert 80

# Set a hard cap on transcoding (halt at 900 minutes)
nself cloud limits myapp --transcoding-hard-cap 900

Quick links

• Cloud overview — plans and what is included
• Getting started — provision your first server
• Billing and subscriptions — MAX plan pricing and overage rates
• Provisioning — what gets built on your server
• Cloud CLI reference — all nself cloud commands