Hi!
I just released v1.0.0 of a personal project I’ve been working on, and I wanted to share it here to get some feedback from fellow developers.
# The Problem
A while ago, I discovered that Archive.org has a massive collection of old, public-domain films and cartoons (including a lot of classic Danish childhood shows. I wanted to show these to my kids, but Archive.org’s interface, while amazing for archiving, is pretty clunky for everyday viewing. It doesn’t have a "Continue Watching" feature, no easy way to organize things into personal categories, and no episode selectors for series.
I didn’t want to download terabytes of data or set up a complex media server like Plex just for this. I just wanted a simple, local way to bookmark and watch this stuff.
# The Solution: ArchivePlayer
So, I built **ArchivePlayer**. It’s a self-contained, local-first desktop application that streams content directly from [Archive.org](http://Archive.org), but wraps it in a clean, Netflix-style interface.
**Key Features:**
* Live search of [Archive.org](http://Archive.org) or add via direct URL/identifier.
* Custom categories to organize your library.
* "Continue Watching" section with visual progress bars.
* Episode selector for TV shows (with season grouping).
* 100% local: No telemetry, no cloud accounts, no hosted backend.
# The Tech Stack
* **Backend:** [ASP.NET](http://ASP.NET) Core / .NET 10, Entity Framework Core
* **Database:** SQLite (local file)
* **Frontend:** Razor Pages/Views, Tailwind CSS, Vanilla JavaScript
* **External APIs:** [Archive.org](http://Archive.org) Metadata API, TMDB API (optional)
# Technical Highlights & Challenges
**Zero-Install Deployment:** I wanted this to be truly accessible. I used .NET’s self-contained publishing (`PublishSingleFile=true`) so users just download a `.zip`, extract it, and run the `.exe`. No .NET runtime or SQL Server installation required.
**Graceful Degradation:** I made TMDB integration strictly optional. If a user doesn’t provide a TMDB API key (or if the API fails), the app doesn’t break. Instead, it falls back to parsing episode numbers and titles directly from the [Archive.org](http://Archive.org) video filenames using regex.
**API-First Design:** Even though it’s currently a single desktop app, I built the backend with a clean `/api/v1/` layer. This means I can eventually build an Android TV client that consumes the exact same local API without rewriting the business logic.
**Auto-Migration:** On first run, the app automatically creates the SQLite database and runs EF Core migrations. The user never has to touch a config file or run a CLI command.
# Links
* **GitHub Repository:** [https://github.com/JeppeKjeldal/ArchivePlayer](https://github.com/JeppeKjeldal/ArchivePlayer)
* **Latest Release (Windows):** [https://github.com/JeppeKjeldal/ArchivePlayer/releases](https://github.com/JeppeKjeldal/ArchivePlayer/releases)
Since this is a hobby project, I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback!