> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://nostalgiatv.gitbook.io/user-guide/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://nostalgiatv.gitbook.io/user-guide/basics/settings/profile-configuration.md).

# Profile Configuration

The Profile Configuration screen houses the core identity, playback, data handling, and fine-tuning parameters for your NostalgiaTV application. Modifying the properties on this page adjusts the global behavior of your broadcast network simulation.

#### 👤 1. Identity & Content Sources

These options at the absolute top of the menu dictate who is watching and which media pools are pulled into the guide matrix.

* **Current Profile:** Displays the active authenticated user profile. Selecting this allows you to toggle accounts or update specific credential sets.
* **Select Libraries:** Allows you to explicitly check or uncheck specific folders synced from your media server (e.g., TV Shows, Movies). Unchecked libraries are completely excluded from channel construction loops.

#### 🔗 2. Media Server Integration & Playback Reporting

This section controls how the simulation pipeline talks back to your backend host data logs.

* **Subtitles:** Sets the global default behavior for text subtitles across all channels.
* **Send Plex Server Playback Status:** When enabled, reports live background playback positions straight back to your host server's real-time dashboard log.
* **Mark Media as Watched:** Automatically pushes a permanent "Watched" status flag to your server once a linear program passes the active completion runtime threshold.

> ⚠️ Watch History Alert: Activating server playback reporting or watch history triggers while running continuous, multi-episode channel loops will instantly refresh your server's Continue Watching hub. To prevent randomized background programming from populating your personal watch queues, it is highly recommended to leave these features turned off.

#### 🎮 3. Control Layouts & Navigation Behavior

These settings dictate how the interface reacts to user navigation inputs and remote control commands.

* **Auto Change Channel on Navigation:** When checked, scrolling through different rows in your guide window instantly tunes the background video feed to that station. Unchecking this keeps your active broadcast running smoothly in the background until you explicitly press your remote's "Select" button on a new choice.
* **Auto Fullscreen on Startup:** Forces the application to automatically bypass the menu grid and launch straight into active, fullscreen video playback upon startup.
* **Allow Background Playback (Mobile Only):** When disabled, audio/video pipelines freeze instantly when minimizing or exiting the application space on a mobile device.
* **Swap D-pad Controls for Changing Channels:** Modifies hardware remote button mapping. When enabled, Left/Right navigation strokes immediately swap live channels, Up/Down button clicks seek forward/backward 10 seconds within the active program timeline, and a long-press on the Back button jumps back to the previous station.

#### 📅 4. Guide Architecture & On-Screen Display (OSD)

This group governs the visual rendering, behavior, and formatting properties of your Electronic Program Guide (EPG).

* **Guide Block Size Scaling:** Fully resizes the guide interface grid parameters between 70% and 150% to adjust EPG visibility on large displays.
* **Override Channel Schedule:** Forces the engine to strictly sync playback assets directly to the live wall-clock time code, ensuring the channel always streams exactly what is scheduled to be airing at that absolute minute.
* **Show Player Controls:** Toggles the visibility of common overlay tracking buttons (Play, Pause, Seek bars) on the screen.
* **Guide Idle Action:** Controls what happens when the guide screen is left unattended. Options include *Auto Scroll* (mimicking a classic local cable preview channel after 1 minute of inactivity), *Fullscreen* (jumping straight into the active stream), or turning the display *Off*.
* **Show TV Rating at Start:** Displays a brief, classic content rating splash graphic (such as *TV-G* or *TV-14*) in the upper corner of the screen at the exact start of every new program block.
* **Hide Channel Numbers:** Strips all explicit station numbering characters from the EPG grid matrix, leaving only the clean channel logo graphics visible in the guide columns.
* **Detailed EPG:** Expands guide cells to display comprehensive, two-line contextual info modules containing specific episode details, season indexes, and specialized movie badges.
* **Dim Ended Programs:** Visually shades out or lowers the opacity of grid cells for shows that have already finished airing in the current time block, allowing you to instantly focus on live tracks.
* **EPG Time Indicator:** Renders a dynamic vertical bar overlay across the timeline grid to show your precise current time position on the guide layout.
* **Scrolling EPG Titles:** Automatically triggers horizontal marquee text scrolling for long program titles when they are highlighted/focused.
* **24 Hour Clock:** Flips the timeline navigation headers from a standard 12-hour AM/PM layout to military/international time formatting.

#### 🖼️ 5. Channel Logo Formatting

These tools isolate the placement, aesthetic variables, and motion rules of your station watermark stamps.

* **Channel Logo:** Sets whether channel graphics appear permanently on-screen as a channel bug (Always On), stay hidden until the info overlay is brought up (Off), or flash periodically (Periodic).
* **Animate Channel Logo:** Adds subtle animated transitions or movement passes to station bugs during program transitions, preventing screen burn-in on classic displays.
* **Logo Position:** Anchors the fixed screen corner coordinates for your channel identifier overlays.
* **Logo Opacity:** Blends the alpha transparency of channel artwork from deep solid fills down to faint watermarks.

#### 🔊 6. Audio Pipelines & Hardware Optimization

These options adjust technical audio/video decoders to prevent playback stuttering or formatting sync failure across various streaming devices.

* **Disable Dolby Vision:** Disables HDR Dolby Vision handshakes. Turn this on if your specific display experiences harsh color distortion or green/purple tinting glitches during high-dynamic-range file transitions.
* **Audio Normalization:** Utilizes a dynamic compressor/limiter to smooth out sudden jumps in volume—ensuring vintage commercials don't blast out your speakers compared to quiet show dialogue tracks.
* **Auto Transcode DTS Audio:** Automatically re-encodes multi-channel DTS audio paths into universal stereo formats in the background, ensuring smooth sound delivery on stereo television setups.
* **CRT Display Mode:** Activates vintage video shader overlays (such as phosphor scanlines, subtle curved screen warping, and adjustable CRT static intensity sliders) on television layouts for an authentic retro monitor look.
* **Auto Sign-Off:** Automatically pauses broadcast simulation streams after a set duration of user inactivity ("Are You Still Watching?") to save network bandwidth and processing power. Set to `Off` for continuous 24/7 background playback.
* **Disable Sound Effects:** Mutes all user interface navigation sounds, including clicking effects when browsing grid cells or system menus.

#### 🎛️ 7. Hardware Media Player & Decoders

These parameters configure the foundational system binaries decoding your video files.

* **Transcode Resolution:** Establishes hard caps on real-time optimization scales. Keeping this locked to `Automatic` or `Original` allows clean Direct Play streams without forcing your host media server to re-encode the video.
* **Video Player:** Sets the software engine running your streams.
  * *ExoPlayer:* Optimized for native Android TV architectures, Direct Play stability, and effortless 4K decoding.
  * *MPV:* Advanced alternative pipeline engine. Use this if heavy custom audio codecs or vintage file frameworks encounter parsing limits under ExoPlayer. *(Note: Changing this requires an app restart).*
* **Preferred Audio Codec & Surround Sound:** Selects your target system audio codec priorities and multi-channel surround parameters, dictating playback behavior for both direct stream feeds and transcode fallback logic.
* **Default Language:** Locks in your preferred global language parsing rules for multi-track audio files and embedded subtitles.

#### 💾 8. Profile Portability & App Actions

These administrative controls sit at the absolute bottom of the layout for profile maintenance.

* **Import / Export:** The core gateways for manual or local system migrations. Allows you to package your entire layout state or pull in external system templates over-the-air using a local pairing PIN.
* **Report Issue:** Packages a localized system diagnostic log to help trace and troubleshoot playback crashes or sync discrepancies.
* **Reset to Default:** Flushes out all visual adjustments, custom player overrides, and menu states—instantly restoring NostalgiaTV back to factory fresh out-of-the-box parameters.
* **Logout:** Disconnects the application from your authenticated media server hub and clears the active session state.