How-to guides
Stremio Add-ons in UHF: Your Guide to Manifest Playlists
Discover how to use Stremio add-ons—known in our app as Manifest Playlists. Learn the difference between Stream and Catalog resources, how to combine multiple add-ons into one link, and how UHF's clever TMDB integration automatically builds beautiful menus for your content.
If you've been exploring the different ways to load your content into the UHF app, you might have noticed an option called "Manifest Playlists." While the name might sound a bit technical, it is actually one of the most powerful, flexible, and popular features we offer.
But what exactly is a Manifest Playlist? If you are familiar with the broader streaming community, you might actually know this feature by its original name: the Stremio protocol.
Many modern media players use this universal format to manage streaming resources, but they often rename it to fit their own platforms. In UHF, we call them Manifest Playlists. Here is a simple, non-technical breakdown of how this format works and how you can use it to supercharge your UHF experience.
The Two Halves of a Manifest: Catalogs and Streams
To understand how these Stremio-based playlists work, it helps to think of a restaurant. When you sit down, you first look at the Menu to see what's available (the pictures, the descriptions). Then, you place your order with the Kitchen to actually get your food.
Manifest Playlists work the exact same way. They are built using two main "resources":
The Catalog (The Menu): This is the visual interface. It provides the movie posters, plot summaries, cast lists, and episode guides.
The Stream (The Kitchen): This tells the app where the actual video file is located so you can press play and watch it.
Ideally, a great Manifest Playlist will combine both the Catalog and the Stream in one single link. But what happens if your playlist is missing the menu?
The UHF Magic: Built-in TMDB Fallback
Sometimes, you might find a Stremio add-on that only provides the Streams (the video sources), but no visual Catalog. In many other apps, this would leave you with a blank screen or an ugly list of raw text files.
UHF handles this much better. If your Manifest Playlist only provides video streams, UHF will automatically step in to do the heavy lifting. As long as the playlist uses standard identifiers (specifically, "tt" prefixes, which are standard IMDb ID codes), UHF will seamlessly connect to TMDB (The Movie Database).
The app will use TMDB as your default visual catalog, instantly pulling in gorgeous movie posters, rich plot summaries, and backdrops. You get a beautiful, premium browsing experience even if your playlist didn't provide one!
Pro Tip: Combine Your Add-ons
One of the best things about the Stremio format is its flexibility. If you have several different Stremio add-ons that you love, you don't have to load them all into UHF individually.
There are several free tools and services available online that allow you to bundle multiple Stremio add-ons into one single, master Manifest link. Simply combine your favorite add-ons online, paste that single combined link into UHF, and you’ll have all your sources neatly organized and ready to play!
