VideoTube - YouTube Clone

A full-stack video sharing platform built with Next.js 15, featuring video transcoding, real-time features, content moderation, and YouTube-style UI.

✨ Features

Core Video Platform

• 🎥 Video Upload & Processing

  • Multi-quality transcoding (360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p)
  • Automatic thumbnail generation
  • FFmpeg-based processing pipeline
  • Queue-based background processing with BullMQ

• 👤 User Authentication

  • Email/password registration
  • Secure session management
  • Profile customization
  • Avatar uploads

• 🎨 Modern UI

  • Dark mode YouTube-style interface
  • Responsive design (mobile & desktop)
  • Custom gradient logo
  • Horizontal scrolling content rows (Trending, New, Recommended, Subscriptions)

Social Features

• 💬 Comments System

  • Nested comments with replies
  • Real-time updates
  • Like/dislike comments

• 👍 Reactions

  • Like/dislike videos
  • View counts
  • Engagement tracking

• 🔔 Subscriptions

  • Follow channels
  • Subscription feed
  • Subscriber counts

• 🔍 Search & Discovery

  • Full-text video search
  • Trending videos
  • Personalized recommendations
  • New videos feed

Content Moderation & Legal

• 🛡️ Hash-based Content Safety

  • SHA256/MD5 hashing of all uploads
  • Blocked content database (CSAM, terrorism detection)
  • Automatic rejection of flagged content

• 📋 Reporting System

  • Public content reporting form
  • Anonymous reporting support
  • Priority flagging for critical violations
  • Rate limiting to prevent abuse

• ⚖️ DMCA Compliance

  • Copyright takedown notice submission
  • 24-hour response commitment
  • Full 17 USC 512(c) compliance

• 👮 Admin Moderation Dashboard

  • Review pending reports
  • One-click video takedowns
  • Three-strike user system
  • Complete audit logging

Technical Features

• ⚡ Performance

  • Redis caching
  • Rate limiting on all APIs
  • Optimized database queries
  • CDN-ready architecture

• 🔒 Security

  • JWT session tokens
  • XSS/CSRF protection
  • Input validation & sanitization
  • SQL injection prevention
  • Secure file uploads

🏗️ Tech Stack

Frontend

• Next.js 15.5.4 - React framework with App Router
• TypeScript - Type safety
• Tailwind CSS - Utility-first styling
• Lucide React - Icon library

Backend

• Next.js API Routes - RESTful API
• MySQL 8.0 - Primary database
• Redis - Caching & sessions
• BullMQ - Job queue for video processing

Video Processing

• FFmpeg - Video transcoding
• Fluent-FFmpeg - Node.js wrapper
• Multiple quality outputs - 360p to 1080p

Infrastructure

• PM2 - Process management
• Nginx - Reverse proxy
• Linode - Hosting platform

📁 Project Structure

video-platform/
├── src/
│   ├── app/                    # Next.js App Router pages
│   │   ├── api/               # API endpoints
│   │   ├── admin/             # Admin dashboard
│   │   ├── upload/            # Upload page
│   │   ├── watch/             # Video player
│   │   ├── channel/           # Channel pages
│   │   ├── search/            # Search page
│   │   ├── dmca/              # DMCA form
│   │   ├── report/            # Report form
│   │   └── terms/             # Legal pages
│   ├── components/            # React components
│   │   ├── layout/           # Header, Logo
│   │   ├── video/            # VideoCard, VideoPlayer
│   │   └── ui/               # Reusable UI components
│   ├── lib/                   # Utilities & services
│   │   ├── db/               # Database connections
│   │   ├── auth.ts           # Authentication
│   │   ├── storage.ts        # File storage
│   │   └── contentSafety.ts  # Content moderation
│   └── middleware/            # Request middleware
├── workers/                   # Background job workers
│   └── video-processor.ts    # Video transcoding worker
├── scripts/                   # Utility scripts
│   ├── setup-database.sql    # Database schema
│   └── grant-moderator.sh    # Admin access script
└── public/                    # Static assets

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• MySQL 8.0
• Redis
• FFmpeg

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/videotube.git
   cd videotube

2. Install dependencies

   npm install

3. Setup environment variables

   cp .env.example .env.local

   Edit .env.local with your configuration

4. Setup database

   mysql -u root -p < scripts/setup-database.sql
   mysql -u root -p < scripts/add-moderation-tables.sql

5. Run development server

   npm run dev

6. Start video processing worker

   npm run worker

Visit http://localhost:3000

📊 What I Learned Building This

This project taught me about:

• Video processing pipelines - FFmpeg transcoding, queue management
• Real-time features - Live updates, subscriptions
• Content moderation - Hash-based detection, legal compliance
• Scalability challenges - Database optimization, caching strategies
• Infrastructure costs - Why YouTube loses money!

⚠️ Production Considerations

Running a production video platform requires:

• Significant infrastructure costs ($1000s/month for storage)
• Legal compliance (DMCA agent registration)
• Content moderation team
• CDN for global delivery
• Scalable storage solution

This is a learning/portfolio project, not production-ready without major investment.

📄 License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built as a learning project to understand full-stack development and video platform architecture.

---

Note: YouTube loses money for a reason! This project helped me understand why. 😅