/libremdb

A free & open source IMDb front-end.

Primary LanguageTypeScriptGNU Affero General Public License v3.0AGPL-3.0

libremdb

A free & open source IMDb front-end.

Inspired by projects like teddit, nitter and many others.

Some Features

  • No ads or tracking
    Browse any movie info without being tracked or bombarded by annoying ads.

  • Modern interface
    Modern interface with curated colors supporting both dark and light themes.

  • Responsive design
    Be it your small mobile or big computer screen, it's fully responsive.

  • Lightweight
    Up movie page
    (tested on Firefox v104; without scroll; simulated regular 4g)

    Network tab stats libremdb IMDb
    no. of requests 22 180
    data transfered(gzipped) 468KB 1.88MB
    load event fired in 6.22s 10.01s

Instances

Clearnet

Instance URL Region Notes
1. Clearnet
libremdb.iket.me Canada Operated by me
libremdb.pussthecat.org Germany Operated by PussTheCat.org
libremdbeu.herokuapp.com Europe Operated by toyboatcash
lmdb.tokhmi.xyz U.S. Operated by Tokhmi
libremdb.esmailelbob.xyz Canada Operated by Esmail EL BoB
ld.vern.cc Canada Operated by ~vern
2. Onion
libremdb.esmail5pdn24shtvieloeedh7ehz3nrwcdivnfhfcedl7gf4kwddhkqd.onion Canada Operated by Esmail EL BoB
ld.vernccvbvyi5qhfzyqengccj7lkove6bjot2xhh5kajhwvidqafczrad.onion Canada Operated by ~vern
3. I2P
vernz3ubrntql4wrgyrssd6u3qzi36zrhz2agbo6vibzbs5olk2q.b32.i2p Canada Operated by ~vern

Questions you might have

  • How do I use it?
    Replace imdb.com in any IMDb URL with any of the instances. For example: 'imdb.com/title/tt1049413' to 'libremdb.iket.me/title/tt1049413'.
    To avoid changing the URLs manually, you can use extensions.

  • Why is it so slow?
    Whenever you request info about a movie/show on libremdb, 4 trips are made(2 between your browser and libremdb's server, and 2 between libremdb's server and IMDb's server) instead of the usual 2 trips when you visit a website. For this reason there's a noticable delay. This is a bit of inconvenience you'll have to face should you wish to use this website.

  • It doesn't have all routes.
    I'll implement more with time :)

  • I see connection being made to some Amazon domains.
    For now, images and videos are directly served from Amazon. If I have enough time in the future, I'll implement a way to serve the images from libremdb instead.

  • Will Amazon track me then?
    They may log your IP address, useragent, and other such identifiers. I'd recommend using a VPN, or accessing the website through TOR for mitigating this risk.

  • Why not just use IMDb?
    Refer to the features section above.

  • Why didn't you use other databases like TMDB or OMDb?
    IMDb simply has superior dataset compared to all other alternatives. With that being said, I'd encourage you to check out those alternatives too.

Privacy

  • Information collected:
    None.

  • Information stored in your browser:
    A key named 'theme' is stored in Local Storage provided by your browser, if you ever override the default theme. To remove it, go to site data settings, and clear the data for this website. To permamently disable libremdb from storing your theme prefrences, either turn off JavaScript or disable access to Local Storage for libremdb.

  • Information collected by other services:
    libremdb connects to 'media-amazon.com' and 'media-imdb.com' for fetching images and videos. So, Amazon might log your IP address, and other information(such as http headers) sent by your browser.

To-Do

  • add advanced search route

  • add did you know and reviews on movie info page

  • add a way to see trailer and other videos

  • implement movie specific routes like:

    • reviews(including critic reviews)
    • video & image gallery
    • sections under 'did you know'
    • release info
    • parental guide

  • implement other routes like:

    • lists
    • moviemeter
    • person info(includes directors and actors)
    • company info
    • user info

  • use redis, or any other caching strategy

  • implement a better installation method

  • serve images and videos from libremdb itself

Installation

As libremdb is made with Next.js, you can deploy it anywhere where Next.js is supported. Below are a few other methods:

Manual

  1. Install Node.js and Git.
    for Node.js, visit their website.
    for Git, run sudo apt install git if you're on a Debian-based distro. Else visit their website.

  2. Clone and set up the repo.

    git clone https://github.com/zyachel/libremdb.git # replace github.com with codeberg.org if you wish so.
cd libremdb
# optional configuration
cp .env.local.example .env.local
# replace 'pnpm' with yarn or npm if you use those
pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm start

libremdb will start running at http://localhost:3000.
To change port, modify the last command like this: pnpm start -- -p <port-number>.

Docker

There's a docker image made by @TheFrenchGhosty for PussTheCat.org's instance. You can use that in case you wish to use docker.

Miscellaneous

Automatic redirection

  • Redirector
    config:

    Description: redirect IMDb to libremdb
Example URL: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258463/?ref_=tt_sims_tt_t_4
Include pattern: https?:\/\/(www\.)?imdb\.com\/([^\?]*)
Redirect to: https://libremdb.iket.me/$2
Pattern type: Regular Expression

  • LibRedirect

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Contact

I'm availabe on [matrix] and email in case you wish to contact me personally.

License

Licensed under GNU AGPLv3.
See License for full legalese.