Private installation and updates
Understand the current private Finetic installation, entitlement, compiled release and browser-managed update workflow.
Current availability#
Finetic is privately distributed. There is no legitimate public installer, container image, source archive or app-store build. Selected testers receive a time-bounded entitlement and a private release handoff after manual review.
What an approved installation receives#
An approved installation receives a compiled server release, public verification material, an installation-specific entitlement and instructions for the supported host. It does not receive the private source repository, build credentials, release signing keys or operator services.
Activation#
The entitlement is associated with one installation identity. Finetic validates the current entitlement before enabling the application runtime. Revoked or expired installations fail closed and show an explicit licence state instead of continuing with hidden partial functionality.
The commercial service does not require your media titles, paths, users or viewing history to make that decision. See Privacy and data boundaries.
Browser-managed updates#
Administrators use Software Updates to:
- Check the selected release channel.
- Review version and release notes.
- Download an entitled compiled archive.
- Verify its signature and checksum.
- Create a recoverable pre-update backup.
- Stage and install the release.
- Restart Finetic and report the result.
Stable is intended for validated releases. Preview channels may contain active development and should not be selected on a server where interruption is unacceptable.
Recovery boundary#
Media files are not part of a Finetic application update. Persistent configuration and PostgreSQL data are protected through the backup workflow. Generated cache content can be discarded and recreated.
If an update fails before activation, the previous release remains the recovery target. Do not manually replace individual files from different versions; a mixed runtime is harder to diagnose than a clean rollback.
Before requesting access#
Prepare the target host and a small representative library. Early testing is most useful when it includes ordinary H.264/AAC files plus at least one HEVC, multi-audio, subtitle or HDR title that reflects your real collection.