release: 0.78.0 — Plex transcode playback + player polish (E6)

VERSION

@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.76.0
+0.78.0

frontend/src/lib/releaseNotes.ts

@@ -14,6 +14,25 @@ export interface ReleaseEntry {
 }
 
 export const RELEASE_NOTES: ReleaseEntry[] = [
+  {
+    version: "0.78.0",
+    date: "2026-08-30",
+    summary:
+      "The Plex player now plays any format. Videos in codecs your browser can't open natively — HEVC/H.265, VP9, AV1, MPEG-2 and older formats — are transcoded on the fly, hardware-accelerated on a supported server GPU with an automatic software fallback. Plus three player touches: an up-next card at episode end, on-screen 10-second skip buttons, and a stats overlay.",
+    features: [
+      "Play any Plex video in the browser, even formats it can't open natively (HEVC/H.265, VP9, AV1, MPEG-2, older codecs). Siftlode re-encodes the video on the fly to something every browser plays, with seeking, subtitles, audio-track switching and audio offset all still working. It uses a supported server GPU when available (barely touching the CPU) and falls back to software automatically, so playback just works.",
+      "At the end of an episode, an up-next card shows the next one with a ~10-second countdown — let it advance, hit “Play now”, or Cancel to stay on the finished frame. Binge on your terms instead of an instant jump (on by default; togglable).",
+      "On-screen 10-second rewind and forward buttons now flank Play/Pause, matching the ← / → keys — a discoverable control for touch and mouse, distinct from the previous/next-episode buttons.",
+      "A “stats for nerds” overlay (press D) shows the live playback mode (direct / remux / transcode), resolution, dropped frames, buffer and more — handy for seeing exactly how a video is being served.",
+    ],
+    fixes: [
+      "While a transcoded stream warms up, the player shows an honest “Preparing stream…” instead of a plain spinner, so a slightly longer start doesn't read as a hang.",
+      "The browser (and mouse) Back button now closes the stats or up-next overlay first, instead of jumping straight out of the player.",
+    ],
+    chores: [
+      "The transcode path uses VAAPI hardware encoding on a supported Intel GPU, with a de-prioritised, concurrency-capped software fallback so it never starves the rest of the app. The whole epic went through a multi-agent deep-review — findings fixed and re-reviewed each round until a round came back clean.",
+    ],
+  },
   {
     version: "0.76.0",
     date: "2026-08-29",