Vellum/internal/engine/engine.go

// Package engine describes the playback engines a client can offer and decides
// whether a particular file can be direct-played by that client.
//
// Vellum never transcodes: the server is a headless, GPU-less Xeon, and measured
// against real files, playability turned out to be a property of the CLIENT, not
// the file. Chrome on Linux plays an MKV carrying H.264 perfectly well, yet
// cannot decode an MP4 carrying HEVC at all. So the server's job is only to
// report what is inside each file (see internal/probe) and to match it against
// what the client says it has.
//
// This package is the registry of those engines and the matcher. The web app's
// only engine is "html5"; native clients (mpv, libvlc, MDK) declare their own.
// Adding a native engine later is a registration, not a re-architecture — the
// native libraries themselves can only live inside a native client, never in a
// browser.
package engine

import (
	"sort"
	"strings"
)

// Engine kinds. A "browser" engine is an HTML5 media element and is bound by
// what the browser's decoders support; a "native" engine links a real media
// library (mpv/libmpv, libvlc, MDK) and can therefore live only inside a native
// client.
const (
	KindBrowser = "browser"
	KindNative  = "native"
)

// HTML5ID is the built-in browser engine every client can be assumed to have.
const HTML5ID = "html5"

// Engine declares one playback backend and the media it can open.
//
// The JSON tags are the frozen EngineSupport contract in web/src/lib/api.ts and
// must not change without changing that file too.
type Engine struct {
	// ID is the stable identifier clients pass in their declared engine list.
	ID string `json:"id"`
	// Name is the human label shown in the UI.
	Name string `json:"name"`
	// Kind is KindBrowser or KindNative.
	Kind string `json:"kind"`
	// Containers are lowercase extensions, without a leading dot ("mkv").
	Containers []string `json:"containers"`
	// VCodecs are ffprobe video codec names ("h264", "hevc", ...).
	VCodecs []string `json:"vcodecs"`
	// ACodecs are ffprobe audio codec names ("aac", "opus", ...).
	ACodecs []string `json:"acodecs"`
}

// builtins are the engines Vellum knows out of the box. html5 is the browser
// baseline; the native engines are registered so a native client can name them,
// and are never selectable from a browser.
var builtins = []Engine{
	{
		ID:   HTML5ID,
		Name: "HTML5",
		Kind: KindBrowser,
		// A deliberately CONSERVATIVE browser baseline. The real answer comes
		// from the client: MediaCapabilities (see web/src/lib/capabilities.ts)
		// can distinguish "cannot decode at all" from "decodes but will
		// stutter", and only the client's GPU knows that. This list is what the
		// server can honestly assume of a browser with no other information.
		//
		// Note what is absent: hevc/h265 and mpeg4 are measured as undecodable
		// in Chrome, so they must not be claimed here. Container support is
		// broad because mkv/mov play fine when the video track is h264.
		Containers: []string{
			"mp4", "m4v", "mov", "mkv", "webm",
			"mp3", "m4a", "m4b", "aac", "flac", "ogg", "opus", "wav",
		},
		VCodecs: []string{"h264", "vp8", "vp9", "av1"},
		// pcm appears under several ffprobe names (pcm_s16le, ...); the aliases
		// are listed so a WAV is not rejected over a naming detail.
		ACodecs: []string{"aac", "mp3", "opus", "vorbis", "flac", "pcm", "pcm_s16le", "pcm_s24le", "pcm_f32le", "pcm_u8"},
	},
	{
		// mpv (libmpv) handles essentially every ffmpeg demuxer and decoder.
		// Registered for NATIVE clients only: a browser cannot link libmpv.
		ID:   "mpv",
		Name: "mpv",
		Kind: KindNative,
		Containers: []string{
			"mkv", "mp4", "m4v", "mov", "webm", "avi", "wmv", "flv",
			"ts", "m2ts", "mpg", "mpeg", "ogv", "ogm", "3gp", "vob",
		},
		VCodecs: []string{
			"h264", "avc1", "hevc", "h265", "mpeg4", "mpeg2video", "mpeg1video",
			"vc1", "wmv3", "av1", "vp8", "vp9", "theora", "prores", "dvvideo",
		},
		ACodecs: []string{
			"aac", "mp3", "opus", "vorbis", "flac", "ac3", "eac3", "dts",
			"truehd", "alac", "wma", "pcm", "pcm_s16le", "pcm_s24le", "pcm_f32le", "pcm_u8",
		},
	},
	{
		// libvlc is similarly broad. Registered for NATIVE clients only.
		ID:   "vlc",
		Name: "VLC",
		Kind: KindNative,
		Containers: []string{
			"mkv", "mp4", "m4v", "mov", "webm", "avi", "wmv", "flv",
			"ts", "m2ts", "mpg", "mpeg", "ogv", "ogm", "3gp", "vob", "asf", "rm",
		},
		VCodecs: []string{
			"h264", "avc1", "hevc", "h265", "mpeg4", "mpeg2video", "mpeg1video",
			"vc1", "wmv3", "av1", "vp8", "vp9", "theora", "prores", "dvvideo", "rv40",
		},
		ACodecs: []string{
			"aac", "mp3", "opus", "vorbis", "flac", "ac3", "eac3", "dts",
			"truehd", "alac", "wma", "pcm", "pcm_s16le", "pcm_s24le", "pcm_f32le", "pcm_u8", "cook",
		},
	},
	{
		// MDK is a cross-platform multimedia SDK (ffmpeg-based). Registered for
		// NATIVE clients only.
		ID:   "mdk",
		Name: "MDK",
		Kind: KindNative,
		Containers: []string{
			"mkv", "mp4", "m4v", "mov", "webm", "avi", "wmv", "flv",
			"ts", "m2ts", "mpg", "mpeg", "ogv", "ogm", "3gp", "vob",
		},
		VCodecs: []string{
			"h264", "avc1", "hevc", "h265", "mpeg4", "mpeg2video", "mpeg1video",
			"vc1", "wmv3", "av1", "vp8", "vp9", "theora", "prores", "dvvideo",
		},
		ACodecs: []string{
			"aac", "mp3", "opus", "vorbis", "flac", "ac3", "eac3", "dts",
			"truehd", "alac", "wma", "pcm", "pcm_s16le", "pcm_s24le", "pcm_f32le", "pcm_u8",
		},
	},
}

// registry is built once from builtins. Read-only after init, so All/Get need no
// lock; if runtime registration is ever added it must grow a mutex.
var registry = func() map[string]Engine {
	m := make(map[string]Engine, len(builtins))
	for _, e := range builtins {
		m[e.ID] = e
	}
	return m
}()

// All returns every registered engine, sorted by ID so the response is stable.
func All() []Engine {
	out := make([]Engine, 0, len(registry))
	for _, e := range registry {
		out = append(out, e)
	}
	sort.Slice(out, func(i, j int) bool { return out[i].ID < out[j].ID })
	return out
}

// Get looks up one engine by ID. The second result is false for an unknown ID,
// which callers treat as "this client has no such engine" rather than an error.
func Get(id string) (Engine, bool) {
	e, ok := registry[strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(id))]
	return e, ok
}

// Facts packs a file's codec facts into the positional slice Resolve expects:
// container, video codec, audio codec. An empty video codec means there is no
// video track (audio, or a comic).
func Facts(container, vcodec, acodec string) []string {
	return []string{container, vcodec, acodec}
}

// canPlay reports whether an engine can direct-play a file with these facts.
//
// A missing codec ("" for an audio-only file's video track) is not a blocker:
// there is simply no such track to decode. Container is always required.
func (e Engine) canPlay(container, vcodec, acodec string) bool {
	if !contains(e.Containers, container) {
		return false
	}
	if vcodec != "" && !contains(e.VCodecs, vcodec) {
		return false
	}
	if acodec != "" && !contains(e.ACodecs, acodec) {
		return false
	}
	return true
}

// contains reports membership, case-insensitively, so "H264" and "h264" match
// and a stray leading dot on a container extension does not.
func contains(list []string, want string) bool {
	want = strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(want))
	want = strings.TrimPrefix(want, ".")
	if want == "" {
		return false
	}
	for _, v := range list {
		if strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(v)) == want {
			return true
		}
	}
	return false
}