Video Player
Use the video player to watch movies and TV episodes from your libraries.
If Safari shows Playback is taking longer than usual, it keeps loading the same video. If Safari blocks automatic playback, select Play video to continue with the same video and any media already loaded.
Playback controls
Move the mouse or tap the screen to bring up the control bar. It hides again while you watch.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Play / Pause | Starts or pauses playback |
| Rewind 10s | Jumps back ten seconds |
| Forward 30s | Jumps forward thirty seconds |
| Previous chapter | Jumps to the start of the previous chapter |
| Next chapter | Jumps to the start of the next chapter |
| Volume | Mute, unmute, and adjust the level |
| Settings | Audio track, subtitles, quality, playback speed, and episode auto-advance |
| Picture in picture | Pops the video out into a small floating window |
| Fullscreen | Fills the screen |
The chapter buttons only appear when the thing you are watching has chapters, and when you have chapters turned on.
Tip
Hovering over a skip button tells you exactly how far it jumps.
The progress bar
The progress bar shows how far through you are. Drag it, or click anywhere on it, to jump to that point.
Hovering over the bar shows the time at that position, along with the name of the chapter you are hovering over. On files that have preview thumbnails, you also get a picture of that moment.
Chapter markers
When a movie or episode has chapters, they appear as dots along the progress bar. Dots on the part you have not watched yet are teal, and dots on the part you have already watched are light, so they stay visible against both halves of the bar.
Hover over the bar anywhere between two markers and the chapter name appears, not just when you land exactly on a dot.
Scrub preview thumbnails
Preview thumbnails are the small images that appear above the progress bar as you drag or hover, so you can find a scene without guessing.
The Extract Trickplay Thumbnails background task prepares these images ahead of time. Existing previews remain available. If a video has no previews yet, you can play and scrub without them; they become available after the task finishes processing that video. Playing or scrubbing does not start generation. See Library Maintenance for quiet-window and Run now controls.
Note
Preview thumbnails are generated from keyframes, so a thumbnail may be from a moment very slightly before the exact position you are pointing at. This keeps generation fast.
Chapters
Many films include chapter markers. Norri reads them from the file and uses them for the chapter buttons, the markers on the progress bar, and the chapter name that appears when you hover.
Not all chapters are useful. Some files carry chapters that are nothing more than timecodes, or a generic list along the lines of “Chapter 1”, “Chapter 2”, and “Chapter 3”. Those add clutter without telling you anything, so Norri hides them by default and shows chapters only when they have real names.
Go to Settings → Playback → Chapters and choose On, Off, or the inherited setting. Click Save Changes. When chapters are on, Norri shows chapter sets with meaningful titles; generic numbering and timecodes stay hidden.
Norri never changes the file. This setting only controls what you see.
Audio, subtitles, and quality
Open the Settings button in the control bar to switch the audio track, choose subtitles, or change playback speed. Quality choices depend on the playback method and browser; a fixed-quality session may offer only its selected quality. See Transcoded Video Quality for connection handling and automatic adjustment.
Your language preferences decide what gets picked automatically each time you start something new. For how automatic selection works, along with subtitle types and language settings, see Audio & Subtitle Tracks.
Auto-advance
Auto-advance is Off by default. During episode playback, open Settings → Auto-Advance and turn on Enabled to play the next numbered episode in the current season, when available. Auto-advance stops at the end of the season.
This saves the same Web clients override found in Settings → Playback → Auto-advance, shared by all web browsers signed in to your account. The menu shows whether the value is saved for your web clients or inherited. Choose Use inherited setting to return to your account or server default. See Configuration Options for the separate account and web settings.
The countdown starts after the entire episode file ends, including its credits. It defaults to 10 seconds; use Countdown to choose between 5 and 15 seconds, or Default 10s to reset it. The countdown duration is saved in the current browser.
When the countdown appears, choose Play now to start the next episode immediately or Cancel to return to the episode details. With auto-advance off, playback returns to the episode details when the file ends.
Playback settings
Go to Settings → Playback to control how the player behaves. Alongside the audio and subtitle preferences, you will find:
- Chapters, to show or hide meaningful chapter markers, names, and navigation
- Scrub preview thumbnails, which turns the hover previews on or off
Each setting can follow the inherited default, or you can save your own choice. Chapter and thumbnail choices follow your account across web browsers. The Transcoded video connection setting is saved separately for your account in the current browser.
Note
Administrators set the server defaults. Anything you have not overridden follows those defaults, so a change made on the server reaches everyone who has not chosen their own value.