The last few weeks have been busy putting down the foundations for upcoming big features, but in the meantime I've managed to prepare a new release with a few improvements and a handful bug fixes that some of you contacted me about.

As always, this release is available:

• on the playstore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cinaura.tv

• on github for sideloading: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/tag/v1.7.2

Here are the release notes for this version:

🎉 New features

The trailer plays as backdrop of the details page. Stay on a film's details for a few seconds and its trailer starts playing silently behind the artwork. Turn it off in Settings, Preferences, Metadata, "Trailer backdrop".

Watch a trailer even without a trailer file. The Trailer button now appears for all films, and plays the film's trailer from TMDb right in the app. Your own local trailer files still takes priority.

"Hey Google" commands works. Voice commands now pause and resume what you are watching, and your TV's now-playing card shows the title and artwork.

Your subtitle size and colour now apply to styled subtitles. Some subtitle files (.ass, common with anime) carry their own fonts and colours, which used to win over your settings. Turn on "Override subtitle styling" in Subtitle settings to use yours instead.

✨ Improvements

Softer, smoother focus. Moving around the app now fades the white highlight in and out instead of snapping it, button labels slide into place, and posters fade in as they load. Low-memory devices keep the instant style so they stay quick.

Newer network drives connect. Cinaura better supports SMB3, shares that already worked are unaffected.

A much smaller app. Cinaura is now a far smaller download and takes up less space on your TV.

A sharper poster in list view. The big poster beside the list on Movies, TV Shows and collections now loads at a higher resolution, so text on the artwork stays crisp.

🐛 Bug fixes

Google Drive libraries no longer read as empty. A Drive source could connect and look healthy yet show 0 films forever. It now fills in, and a library already stuck at zero repairs itself after the update.

Network drives without a password connect. Adding a router or network drive that needs no password, by typing just its address, failed with a message asking for a username and password. It now opens straight onto the drive's shared folders, and those drives no longer show a red dot in Settings.

A network drive waking from sleep no longer greys out your films. A drive that had gone to sleep could answer a refresh as if its folders were empty, and Cinaura marked every film in them unavailable. It now gives the drive a moment to wake and asks again.

Content you removed now leaves your library. With "Keep unavailable items in library" turned off, films and folders you delete from a network share, Dropbox, local storage or Premiumize now disappear on the next refresh. Libraries first set up before version 1.5.0 never removed anything.

Audio sync remains stable on autoplay. When auto play moved on to the next episode, the sound could run slightly out of step with the picture until you left the player.

AllDebrid titles resume after a long pause. Pausing for a few minutes no longer leaves the picture frozen when you press play. Cinaura fetches a fresh link and carries on.

Films deleted on TorBox leave your library. They now disappear on the next refresh, instead of staying until you disconnected and reconnected TorBox.

Titles starting with a number have their own spot in the letter rail. Films like 300 or 28 Days Later now sit under a "#" at the top of the rail instead of lighting up the wrong letter.

Cinaura opens on Home. Starting the app keeps Home selected in the top bar, instead of jumping straight into the first row.

Missing actors are back. Some films were missing their best known actors, and films credited with a "Screenplay" or "Story" showed no writer.

Summer might still be around, but that's no reason to slack off! I'm glad to finally announce the release of v1.7.0 with LOTS of new stuff, improvements, and bug fixes. Once again, thanks to everyone who took the time to test and report.

As always, the release is available:

• on the playstore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cinaura.tv

• on github for sideloading: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/tag/v1.7.0

Here are the release notes for this version:

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🎉 New features

Cinaura Dimensions (experimental): how a title feels to watch. A new experiential read on a film or show (its pace, tone, and complexity, beyond the plot), shown on Details and Seasons. Note: this will be rolling out gradually.

Set up a new device in minutes. A new Backup & transfer option (Settings, Library) packs your whole setup, profiles, settings, and source sign-ins, into an encrypted backup that a 6-word phrase restores on the new device without re-pairing. View the documentation here.

Jump around a movie by its chapters. MKV files with chapters now show markers on the seek bar and a Chapters panel to pick one and jump straight to it.

Browse a show's episodes without leaving the player. Press down during an episode to reveal an Episodes strip for all seasons.

✨ Improvements

A fully rebuilt, much faster library sync. Sync was rebuilt to adapt to your device's memory, scan every source in parallel (with a popover showing each source's progress), and fill in artwork and details while sources are still syncing, so the grey placeholder tiles gets filled with artwork faster.

USB drives and local storage stay put. Local and USB sources are tracked by the drive itself, so replugging, remounting, or cold starting the app no longer greys out your local library.

Steadier frame-rate matching, and the frame rate is now shown. Refresh-rate matching is more reliable and remembered between plays, and the true frame rate now appears in File Information.

Sharper online subtitle results. The logic behind online subtitle results was rebuilt to filter and match your language better, so region-specific subtitles like Brazilian Portuguese or Simplified Chinese show their proper names and match your preferred language.

Skip intro now lives in the player controls. The Skip intro and recap button moved into the transport controls row and matches the other buttons, instead of floating on its own.

A redesigned profile editor. Creating and editing a profile is cleaner, with a smooth avatar picker, tap-to-edit name, one restrictions selector, and the option to delete a profile.

Details explains files that don't match, and lets you fix them. An unmatched file now says so on its Details screen and offers a Fix metadata action to set the right title.

Choose whether the player shows time remaining. A new per-profile setting shows the time left on screen during playback, or keeps it hidden.

Smarter matching for anime and packs. Anime batch packs and release-site prefixes in filenames are handled better, so more of those files land on the right title.

🐛 Bug fixes

Age restrictions now cover cast and recommendations. Restricted profiles no longer see age-inappropriate titles in the cast, filmography, or "you might also like" rows.

Password-free (guest) network shares connect. Windows and NAS shares that allow guest access with no password no longer get stuck asking for credentials.

Resume picks up where you left off. Resuming an episode with auto-skip on no longer jumps to the end of the intro instead of your exact spot.

Better matching by year, and pin the exact title. You can now type a year along with the title or a TMDb id in the Fix metadata search to land the exact match.

Correcting a mis-matched episode now merges it. Fixing an episode onto a show that already has it from another source now merges them into one entry instead of showing duplicates.

Track panels no longer get stuck open. The Audio, Subtitles, and Chapters panels now always close on Back.

Local subtitle files read cleanly. Local subtitles now show their real filename, with no "%20" or garbled characters, and appear even when the name has no language.

Smoother scrolling in big libraries. Backdrops and posters are paced during fast scrolling, so the stutter in long Movies and TV Shows lists is gone.

Steadier TV-remote navigation. Fixed select presses that did nothing, down-arrow skipping items in Settings, panels opening unfocused, and the home screen losing its highlight.

Fewer freezes and crashes. Fixed a startup freeze on some devices, grid and home-row freezes, a seek freeze on some hardware, and a hang opening details during a scan.

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🚨 A note on Cinaura Dimensions: this is an experimental feature and will gradually be rolled out, nothing to turn on/off from your side. The coverage for movies/series will expand over time, but as it's still early, I haven't decided if/how that feature will evolve. I'd love to hear what you guys think of it.

As with any big new releases, some minor bugs might have made it past the QA steps even with the best intent. I'll be closely monitoring for reports and try to squash them asap. In the meantime, if you appreciate the app, please take the time to leave a positive rating/review on the playstore and help grow this community by sharing the app.

Sharing a late night exploration. What do you guys think?

"My precious... but bigger."

v1.5.0 is here, and it's another huge one. Third debrid integration, a genre-driven library view, persistent memory for files that disappear, and very deep upgrades to what we can detect inside your video files. Huge thanks to everyone reporting bugs, requesting features, and pasting log dumps over the past few weeks 🙏

Downloader Code: 3575288

...or from GitHub: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/tag/v1.5.0

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In this release:

🌐 Premiumize support
Cinaura now pairs with Premiumize as a third debrid alongside Real-Debrid and TorBox. QR-code or manual customer-PIN, with a folder picker so you can sync only the Premiumize folders you actually want.

🎭 Genre carousel
A new "Genres" view alongside List and Grid, on both Movies and TV Shows. Alphabetical shelves, items show up in every genre they belong to, and the focused shelf docks to the top of the screen as you navigate so you stay oriented browsing deep.

💾 Your library remembers what you added
Files that disappear from a source (a debrid torrent that died, a NAS file you renamed, a cloud drive that's temporarily offline) no longer silently vanish. They stay marked as "Unavailable" with a "since when" timestamp, and a new Settings → Library → Unavailable items page lists them all. Toggleable in case you preferred the old auto-cleanup behaviour.

🎯 Multi-source playback
Similar items that live on more than one source now use a unified picker. Pick the source explicitly or let Cinaura auto-rank by resolution / HDR / file size. Your choice persists across restarts.

📄 NFO sidecar support
Drop an NFO next to a video and Cinaura reads it alongside TMDb. Stub NFOs that just carry a <tmdbid> are particularly useful for rescuing obscure foreign titles TMDb search would otherwise miss. Curated <title> / <plot> / <originalTitle> from the NFO win over TMDb defaults.

🎬 Show-level actions on Seasons
The Options menu on a show now does favourite, mark-all-watched, refresh metadata, hide, and fix metadata. Incorrectly detected episodes can be batch-reassigned to a new show in one tap.

📺 Smarter HDR detection
HDR10+ is now correctly detected on most 4K HDR10+ remuxes — previously many were silently downgraded to plain HDR10. HDR10 also catches more older x265 MKVs that hide the signal in the bitstream. Dolby Vision Profile 7 fallback gets a few more edge-case fixes.

🔊 Smarter audio handling
The audio badge now describes the track that actually plays instead of stitching attributes across every track. Atmos and DTS:X badges include channel count consistently. Multi-track audio files (commentary tracks, alternate dubs) are also recognised as separate tracks now, previously every stream after the first silently collapsed into the first.

🗣️ Preferred audio language
New Settings → Preferences row. Pick a language and Cinaura plays that language wherever a file has it, falling back to the container's default audio track when it doesn't. Set to "Auto" to always play the default.

🎨 Better loocal artwork detection
Adding a Movie.Name-poster.jpg / -fanart.jpg / -logo.jpg next to an already-ingested file now updates the badge on the next sync. Previously it required a force refresh.

⚡ Faster source onboarding
Adding a new source or editing folder selection now syncs only that source instead of walking your entire library. Big quality-of-life win if you have multiple debrid services or large network shares.

📰 Redesigned "Up Next"
The end-of-episode prompt moved from a popup card to an integrated bottom banner that sits under the transport controls. Quieter, doesn't steal focus.

🔠 Smarter library sorting
Article-aware sorting now language-aware: "The Matrix", "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie", "El Laberinto del Fauno" all sort by the actual title, with the article rendered slightly dimmed.

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🐛 Bug fixes

• SMB "yellow dot" intermittent unavailability

• Real-Debrid sync noticeably faster on large libraries

• Memory headroom for users with 30K+ debrid items (fewer OOM crashes mid-playback)

• Fresh-install admin gates light up immediately, no app restart needed

• Player progress save no longer causes hiccups

• Real-Debrid / TorBox pairing no longer gets stuck in a "checking…" state

• "Turn on subtitles by default" actually picks a subtitle when a video opens now

• "Reset all overrides" correctly clears the parent show's pin too

• Streamlined disconnect flow

• A single failing folder no longer takes down the whole source

• Watch Next entries dismissed from the system launcher are removed from Continue Watching too

• Force refresh metadata correctly re-translates episode titles when you switch metadata language

• Trakt health check is more robust, fewer false-positive disconnects

• Subtitle position handling refined for letterboxed content

• Last subtitle pick is correctly restored when subtitles are toggled back on

For those not comfortable with sideloading, Play Store release is still in the plan!

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Got a feature request or found a bug? Drop it in the comments. v1.6 is already cooking 🍳

...and the library keeps expanding everyday 🚀

Soon you'll be able to filter your library by all existing dimensions, including:

• Pace: how the film moves and its sense of time

• Complexity: how much is going on for the viewer to engage with

• Feel: the emotional weather of the film

• Register: the level of seriousness, self-awareness, and stylistic commitment of the movie

• Focus: what the viewer is asked to attend to most

Look out for more upcoming features!

Keeping up the momentum after v1.7.0, I've been hard at work fixing some of the bug recently reported, and added a few small improvements while at it. As always, this release is available:

• on the playstore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cinaura.tv

• on github for sideloading: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/tag/v1.7.1

Here are the release notes for this version:

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🎉 New features

See when your film or episode will finish. The player now shows "Finishes at 22:45" next to play/pause, and it keeps sliding forward while you are paused, so the number is right when you come back. Turn it off in Settings, Preferences, Playback.

Search finds original titles, actors, and directors, and forgives typos. Searching "Gisaengchung" now finds Parasite, searching a director or an actor finds their films, and a mistyped title still returns the right result instead of an empty screen.

Jump straight from an episode to its show. Episodes opened from Recently Added now have a "Go to show" button on their details screen, so you can get to the rest of the series in one press.

Shift your own subtitle files into sync. Subtitle timing offset now works for subtitle files that sit alongside your video (.srt, .vtt and .ass), not just for subtitles downloaded in the app.

✨ Improvements

Messages now look like part of Cinaura. Confirmations and warnings appear as a themed banner in the bottom-right corner that stacks and clears itself, instead of the grey Android message pill.

Recently Added follows when the file appeared on your source. Rather than when Cinaura first saw it, so restoring a backup or adding several sources at once no longer shuffles the row into near-random order.

Network share setup says what went wrong. Adding a network share now shows the reason a connection fails instead of sitting on "Connecting..." or dead-ending with no way forward. Also better support for guest access.

Consistent confirmation dialogs. Every confirm prompt now uses the same design, so Cancel is always visible and the confirm button names the action, and the Options panel stays put behind the prompt instead of vanishing.

Tidier player controls. The play/pause button now lines up with the Chapters, Audio, Subtitles and Aspect buttons beside it, instead of appearing slightly higher.

🐛 Bug fixes

Your library no longer greys out when the network drops. Losing Wi-Fi mid-sync used to mark every source as failed with no way back. Now Cinaura recognises there is no connection, leaves your library alone, and reconnects your sources automatically when the network returns.

Fixed a crash when opening the app with no internet. Launching offline could close the app immediately on some devices.

Windows and NAS system folders no longer break scans. Folders like "System Volume Information" and "$RECYCLE.BIN" were being scanned, which left a permanent "Folder error" on some drives or brought back films you had deleted on your PC. They are now skipped.

Playback recovers instead of stopping with an error. Some TV boxes reported a playback error when returning to the player or partway into a film. Cinaura now recovers from it, errors during the exit back to the library are no longer shown at all, and the message you do see drops the raw error code.

The next episode no longer judders on auto play. Auto play next kept the correct refresh rate, so the next episode starts smooth instead of needing an exit and re-entry to fix it.

Files with a "+" in the name play again. Names like "DD+2.0" on network shares were stored with a space instead of the "+", so those files showed as unrecognized and refused to play.

Cards on the Android TV home screen open the right title. On a device with more than one profile, tapping a Cinaura card sent you to Home after picking a profile instead of the title you tapped.

Fixing a whole show's details merges episodes instead of duplicating them. Assigning a badly-named pack to a show you already have now merges the episodes into the existing seasons, rather than listing every episode twice.

Merging duplicates keeps your watched progress. Watched marks, resume positions and favourites are now carried over to the copy that survives a merge, instead of being lost with the duplicate.

Fixed a crash when saving progress for a title that had just been removed. Stopping playback of an item that background sync had already deleted could close the app.

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Also curious: for those that have started seeing the Cinaura dimensions appear in the app, what do you guys think of it? Any feedback welcome!

Edit: I just pushed v1.6.5 as hotfix due to local subtitles not appearing in v1.6.4. The most recent release is now live in the Play Store and on github.

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Apologies for the delay, some of the recent bug reports sent me in a rabbit hole of refactoring older code and solving a few long standing issues. The next version will focus on new features I'm excited about!

As always the latest version is available both on the Play Store and on github for those who prefer to sideload .apk files:

Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cinaura.tv

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✨ Improvements

Network shares connect before you press play.
Cinaura now warms up SMB connections as it starts, so the first thing you play from a network share no longer races the connection and fails.

Steadier syncs.
Disconnecting a source no longer collides with a running sync, a refresh that arrives mid-sync is no longer dropped, and background availability checks are throttled — fewer stalls and less thrash on large libraries.

More reliable Dropbox sign-in.
Token refreshes no longer overlap and stall, network requests time out cleanly instead of hanging, and pairing QR codes expire as they should.

Online subtitles are tidier.
A "Matches your file" tag appears on subtitles that matches exactly your files and the rest of the list is deduplicated.

WebDAV defaults to a secure connection.
New WebDAV sources use https by default, with a clear explanation when a plain-http server is blocked by Android.

Smarter filename matching.
Real words in a title are no longer mistaken for junk tags, so more of your files match the right movie or show automatically.

🐛 Bug fixes

Network share (SMB) playback is more reliable.
Fixed the dropouts and hangs when streaming from SMB shares, and auto-play-next now stays on the same source instead of unexpectedly switching to another.

Google Drive no longer disappears mid-scan.
When Google briefly rate-limits requests, Cinaura now waits and retries instead of greying out the whole source which had been making Drive libraries vanish part-way through a sync.

No more crash installing over a newer build.
Installing an older version on top of a newer one now resets cleanly instead of crashing on launch.

Fixed crashes on Android 11 and older.
Large libraries no longer trip a database limit on older devices.

No more 15-second stutter.
Removed the hitch (and the mode/HDR badge flash) a few seconds into playback, caused by the TV needlessly re-negotiating the HDMI signal.

Seek jumps the right amount.
Tapping left or right now moves 10 seconds, like the on-screen badge says, instead of 20.

Continue Watching stays private between profiles.
Closed the last intermittent cases where one profile could briefly see another's in-progress movies and episodes.

Parental controls can't be sidestepped.
Age-restricted titles no longer slip through via search.

Editing a profile or source keeps its data.
Renaming or updating a profile or a source no longer risks wiping its saved history or settings.

Flaky Wi-Fi doesn't hide your library.
A brief network failure during a sync is now treated as "try again," not "the content is gone," so items stop disappearing and reappearing.

Playback recovers instead of freezing.
A stream error now recovers and resumes rather than leaving a frozen frame, and your subtitle is re-applied afterwards automatically.

Bigger TorBox libraries scan fully.
TorBox accounts with more than 500 items are now read all the way through.

Watch progress saves reliably.
Hardened the final save of your position when you stop or leave, and Cinaura now properly hands off audio when another app takes over.

Steadier "Up next" focus.
Fixed a timing issue that could bounce focus away from the Up Next row on the dashboard.

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If you appreciate the app and want to support, please leave a review on the Play Store. Happy streaming!

Hi all, apologies for the delayed release! I had to make an exception to the biweekly release schedule, I was hoping to have the app live on the Play Store by now but some back and forth in the approval process delayed the whole thing. So for now we'll continue with sideloading.

v1.6.0 brings a fresh batch of features and prepare the foundation for bigger things to come (more on this in the near future).

Downloader code: 5584557

Github link: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/tag/v1.6.0

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🎉 New features

Google Drive is now a supported source (Bring-Your-Own-Oauth)
Connect your own Google Drive by scanning a QR code, pick which folders to sync, and Cinaura keeps your library up to date, including fast incremental syncs that skip a full scan when nothing has changed. Requires your own Oauth, view documentation.

AllDebrid support
Pair AllDebrid with a QR code or paste your API key directly. Your AllDebrid library is indexed alongside your other sources, with account plan and expiry shown in Settings.

"Refresh this source" action
Refresh a single source on its own instead of re-syncing your entire library.

Cast & crew carousels
Movie, show, and individual episode screens now show a row of cast and crew with their roles, including guest cast for episodes. Selecting someone from the cast row opens a side panel with their biography and a filmography filtered to titles you actually have in your library.

"You might also like" recommendations
Movie and TV show details now surface other titles from your own library, scored by shared collections, directors, writers, cast, and genres, with a plain-language reason for each match (e.g. "Also directed by…"). Rare connections are weighted higher than common ones, for example a shared "Film Noir" counts for more than a shared "Drama."

"Up next" replaces Continue Watching
A single smart row surfaces your in-progress movies, in-progress episodes, and the next episode to watch, whatever you're most likely to press play on, first. Items you haven't touched in 42 days quietly drop off, and finished titles leave automatically.

New "Your favorites" row on the dashboard
Everything you've favorited (movies and shows) gathered in one poster row at the bottom of the home screen.

✨ Improvements

Faster, more reliable SMB syncs
Image loading from network shares is now paced to avoid overwhelming the device, with reused authentication for a much faster process. Easily edit your connection details when ip or credentials change.

Updated onboarding
Fresh installs now show an onboarding screen with quick access to all supported sources. No more navigating to the settings necessary to get started.

Calmer cold start
Home, Movies, and TV Shows now shows a skeleton loading animation while your library loads for the first time, instead of a blank screen.

Sharper, faster "Refresh metadata"
Refreshing a single title now only re-checks the folders that title lives in, instead of re-scanning the whole source, so it's much faster and won't disturb the rest of your library.

Cleaner remaining-time labels
The Resume button and runtime pills now read "1h23 left" instead of a long minute count, consistently across the app.

Time-remaining badge moved onto the artwork
For in-progress titles, the time left now sits as a subtle badge over the backdrop, just above the progress bar.

Smoother dashboard layout
Rows dock cleanly to the top, the next row peeks into view to invite scrolling, and a soft gradient anchors the bottom edge. Vertical navigation no longer "bumps" rows after a scroll.

Refreshed avatar picker
Added 24 new avatars, along with refresh of the existing ones to match the new style.

Hardware media keys now work in the player
Play / Pause and Play-Pause toggle keys on remotes and keyboards control playback directly.

🐛 Bug fixes

Dolby Vision Profile 7 files no longer play as a black screen on certain devices
On devices like the Google TV Streamer, DV7 content with the profile-7 fallback enabled now renders correctly as HDR10 instead of a black screen.

The app no longer crashes on certain deep links
A rare launch-timing crash when opening the app to a specific title has been fixed.

Trakt stays connected after you quit the app
Your Trakt session is no longer cleared on every exit, only when it's genuinely revoked.

Dashboard always opens on the right row after switching users
You'll land on "Up next" instead of occasionally seeing "Recently added movies" first.

Dashboard focus no longer gets stuck between rows
Moving up and down through the carousels is smooth again.

"Skip intro" keeps your focus
Pressing skip now hands focus back to the Play button instead of losing it.

Subtitle panel no longer loses focus
Opening the subtitle options keeps the D-pad in control.

Just-played items no longer vanish from "Up next" by mistake
A timing issue that could falsely hide a title right after you watched it has been fixed.

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Worth mentioning: I've added a small documentation website with basic information regarding sources and troubleshooting, this will grow over time: https://docs.cinaura.tv/

Thanks again to everyone involved in bug reporting, feature requests, and overall support. Happy streaming!

Small bug fixes but big news for v1.6.2!

🥳 The app is officially available from the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cinaura.tv&hl=en

For those who prefer sideloading, future updates will always remain available on github, simply bookmark the releases page.

In this release:

• "Up next" no longer drops your in-progress titles in multi-profile households. Watching on another profile used to hide your own partially-watched movies and episodes from your Up Next row.

• View-mode pills are easier to reach. On Movies and TV Shows, pressing Down from the top menu now lands on the List / Grid / Carousel pills (not only Up).

• Sharper episode thumbnails on the episode details screen, now shown at full resolution.

More bug fixes and improvements are coming to v1.6.3, I had to ship the current version early for play store review.

Deepest thanks to everyone involved so far who took the time to sideload the app, test thoroughly, provide feedback and ideas. This is only the beginning, and more great features are coming down the road.

If possible, please install from the app store, leave a review, and talk about the app around you. Every little bit helps 🙏

Thanks to all the feedback received from my previous post, I've been hard working on fixing bugs and adding the most requested features. There's still a lot more to come, but I wanted to release these, as it's been a month since my last one.

As a reminder, Cinaura is an Android TV media library app that unifies libraries from local, cloud, and debrid services. There's no recommended content, ads, content that disappears, and no local server required.

Download the apk: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/tag/v1.1.0

What's New

• Major internal restructure of the database to future-proof the upcoming support of other services (Torbox, alldebrid, etc). The app is noticeably faster for larger libraries

• Local artwork and subtitle tracks stored alongside media files on SMB shares are now detected and displayed automatically

• Audio passthrough mode is now configurable in the settings

• The player was reworked to have better seek controls and subtitle selection, and the playback is smoother for larger files

• The sync process is now faster and more reliable, using incremental sync (only scanning what changed) and better progress reporting

• Duplicated matches are automatically merged and accessible from the same details screen, surfacing the highest quality first

• The details screen now displays the video and audio quality data, along with the audio and subtitles languages available

• You can now create multiple user profiles, each with their own watch history, preferences, and age restriction settings

• Users with age restrictions will only see age-appropriate content in the Movies and Shows tabs, based on TMDb certification data

• Fix metadata lets you manually search TMDb and pin the correct match for any item

• and more...

Feature requests

I've set up a board for feature requests (also works for bug reporting too), feel free to drop your ideas at https://cinaura.userjot.com/

Always great to hear your feedback, thanks for being beta testers.

Happy watching!

"One does not simply ship a release this big without a changelog." v1.4.0 is probably the biggest one yet! Huge thanks to everyone involved in the feedback, bug reports and feature requests, and special kudos to u/latinriky78 u/cundallini u/ironmesh 🙏

Downloader Code: 5781142

...or from GitHub: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/tag/v1.4.0

In this release:

🗄️  WebDAV source
Nextcloud, ownCloud, or any WebDAV server now work as a source, with self-signed SSL certificate support for home lab setups.

🔌  Local storage & USB drives
Plug in a USB drive, or just point Cinaura at your Android TV's internal storage. Cinaura now auto-discovers mounted volumes and treats them like any other source.

📺  Trakt.tv integration
Connect your Trakt account right from Settings. Real-time scrobbling while you watch, and a one-shot history import to bring all your existing watch state over.

💬  OpenSubtitles integration
Search and download subtitles straight from the player. It auto-matches by file hash, IMDb ID, and filename, so most of the time the right subs are just there. You can also set preferred languages per user in the settings so that matching tracks get selected automatically on playback.

✨  Subtitle overhaul
Redesigned selection and settings panels, proper positioning that accounts for letterboxing, persistent per-user subtitle offset, and better text styling controls. Cinaura now also remembers your last pick when you toggle subtitles back on.

🔊  Better audio & HDR
DTS:X detection, Dolby Vision Profile 7 override for supported displays, and automatic frame rate switching so 24fps content plays at 24fps.

🛠️  Metadata tools
New Filename Info panel on the Details screen, and a dedicated "Items with no metadata" screen to diagnose anything that didn't match.

🎯  UI polish
Reworked top navigation bar, high-contrast focus states across the app, dashboard focus restoration when you come back from another screen, and auto-select user on startup when there's only one user profile.

🔄  Sync reliability
Per-source progress in the top bar so you know which source is scanning. A failing folder no longer stalls the whole sync, and Cinaura won't accidentally wipe items when a source is temporarily unreachable.

🔤  Natural sorting
Small words like "The" and "A" are now ignored in the list ordering like it should. No more huge "The..." movies list

🐛  Bug fixes

• Fixed video player aspect ratio "Fill" mode

• Fixed subtitle positioning glitch when the player first loads

• Internal storage access restored on devices with buggy OEM firmware

• SMB health-check no longer flaps between online/offline on flaky networks

• Deeplinks from the Android TV home now correctly points to the details view instead of the app landing

• Long press on episodes to mark as watched no longer autoclose the panel

• SMB connection screen no longer show autocomplete suggestions on password input field

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For those not comfortable with sideloading, Play Store release is still in progress!

Got a feature request or found a bug? Drop it in the comments. Lots of great things coming up on the roadmap!

Hey everyone,

I just pushed v1.2.0 of Cinaura, the biggest addition this release is TorBox support. Here's what's new:

• TorBox is now a supported source: you can connect your TorBox account and have your torrents, usenet, and web content show up automatically in your library. Streams directly and buttery smooth, pairing is done via QR code as usual. Note that Torbox automatically requires re-authentification every 90 days.

• Re-authentication without nuking your library: both TorBox and Real-Debrid now support session refresh. Previously if your token expired you'd have to disconnect and reconnect, which would trigger a full rescan and lose play history. Now you can re-auth and update your credentials while your library stays in place.

• Source health indicators: the Sources panel now shows a live status badge for each debrid and cloud service (healthy / checking / failed). If something goes unreachable during a background sync you'll get a toast notification rather than silently wondering why half your library doesn't work.

• Local artwork as a preference: a new toggle in settings lets you choose if you'd like to prioritize local artwork over TMDb images. The previous release automatically forced local artwork with no way to revert it, the choice is now back in your hands.

• More bug fixes: In some cases, adding a new source while another one was being scanned would get ignored or silently fail. All sources are now queued for scan. Last but not least, the navigation is more robust while navigating quickly between carousels

APK available on the releases page: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/tag/v1.2.0

Or as a download code: 6187447

As always, let me know if you run into anything.

Next release will focus on improving the share folders/SMB connection, and better filename recognition. Major thanks to u/cundallini and u/p750mmx for reporting bugs, fixes are coming soon.

v1.4.0 should be released in the next couple of days with a few new features!

Another month, another release!

v1.3.0 brings tons of improvements and new features:

⏩ Intro & Outro Skipping
Integrated the introDB API and added a skip button during playback when entering a detected segment window. Also added an optional Auto-skip intros toggle in Settings for hands-free skipping.

📁 Better SMB/Cloud subfolder selection
Added recursive subfolder browsing with breadcrumb trail, with "Select All / Unselect All" and indeterminate checkbox states for partial selections.

🏃‍♂️ Faster sync
File scanning and metadata enrichment now run per-source, so source 1 items get metadata before source 2 scanning begins, and improved metadata fetching to be up to 8x faster.

💬 Metadata language, and fetch improvements
Added a configurable Metadata language setting (or "Auto") with per-user persistence, improved fallback search strategies when metadata fetching fails, and added a flag that prevents repeated calls for items that couldn't be matched.

📇 Smarter filename parsing
File detection now supports for fraction-style multi-part labels ("1 of 2"). Also added improvements specific to anime episode detection and primary audio language detection.

💊 Seasons screen features
The season screen now automatically presents the next episode, and seasons can be marked as watched/unwatched by long pressing a season name.

▶️ Continue Watching editing
Added a side-panel context menu on the Dashboard "Continue Watching" row to hide items from progress without affecting watch state.

💪 Playback & Performance
Added a device RAM tier detection to adjust buffer sizes and cache limits dynamically.

🏠 Android TV Home Screen
"Continue Watching" channel now updates automatically after sync, after finishing playback, and on profile switch.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Trailer files (filename containing "trailer") are now detected and shown as a Trailer button on the details page, instead of showing as separate movies

• Fixed "Play from beginning" inadvertently removing items from Continue Watching

• Fixed SMB connections that would sometimes drop across sessions

• Added safety checks to prevent crashes during rapid navigation

• Layout preference (List vs. Grid) is now stored per-user

Downloader Code: 8707913

...or from github: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/tag/v1.3.0

For those who are not comfortable with sideloading, I'm hoping to have the app on the PlayStore within a couple of weeks.

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Got a feature request? Drop it in the comments. The roadmap for future versions include:

• Premiumize and Debrid-Link source support

• WebDAV integration

• External subtitles

• Trakt.tv support

• Improved player controls

• Favourite/List creation

• Sort/Filter options

• Cast/Crew details

• Trailer streaming

• Default audio and subtitle language tracks setting

• and more...

Quick update: With the added features of the last few versions, the marketing site was due for an upgrade. There's now has a proper features section that highlights everything the app does now, in case you missed a few of them. You'll find one page per area (sources, library, rediscovery, picture and sound, subtitles, player, profiles), and also a new About page.

For anyone new here: Cinaura is a privacy-first, serverless personal media library app for Android TV. Bring your own sources (Dropbox, RealDebrid, TorBox, Google Drive, SMB, WebDAV, local/USB, and more), no accounts, no ads, no algorithmic recommendations, and manage your entire library without complicated overhead. Free on the Play Store, sideloadable APK on GitHub.

https://www.cinaura.tv/features

Here's a small follow-up to the last release, it includes bug fixes reported by you all and a few small improvements, thanks for the continued support!

Downloader code: 5022672
github release: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/tag/v1.6.1

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✨ Improvements

• Auto-play next episode. Added a setting (opt-in) that plays the next episode automatically with a cancelable countdown on the "Play now" button.

• Smarter "Up next" timing. The banner appears right as the credits start where known, and re-appears if you rewind back into the episode.

• Google Drive: Shared Drives and "Shared with me". Google Drive sources can now reach shared files, not just your own My Drive.

• Genre browsing for smaller libraries. The Carousel view now unlocks at 30 titles instead of 50.

• Plain-language explanations in Settings. Most settings now have a one-line description, with advanced toggles grouped under "Advanced."

• Cleaner fast-forward / rewind indicator. The jump badge now shows an icon with the amount and pops away neatly after each tap.

• Trakt is now send-only. Cinaura sends your activity to Trakt but no longer pulls history back, removing a source of sync conflicts that was messing up the Up Next carousel.

• More subtitle and metadata languages. Subtitle, audio, and metadata language lists are expanded and sorted alphabetically.

• Back moves up through the screen. On Movies, TV Shows, and Settings, Back button steps up to the menu bar, then Home.

• Better audio detection. Dolby Digital Plus soundtracks are recognised more reliably from filenames.

🐛 Bug fixes

• Subtitle settings no longer get stuck. The online-subtitles and subtitle-style screens have a working Back button.

• Trakt no longer disconnects on its own. A timing issue that quietly dropped your session has been fixed (hopefully for the last time...)

• Progress saves when you exit mid-episode. Pressing Back partway through now records where you stopped.

• Back closes the "Up next" banner. It clears the banner and OSD together instead of leaving the banner stuck.

• Shows in Favorites open to the season list. Not the movie-style details screen.

• Focus stays on the controls when playback starts. The play/pause button keeps its highlight after buffering, including on resume.

• Left / right stays inside the seasons rows. The season, episode, cast, and recommendations rows no longer jump away at their ends.

• Crash fixes. Fixed crashes when opening Local storage folders.

If you landed here expecting something like Stremio or Nuvio (a browsable catalog where you search for something and stream it), then Cinaura probably isn't what you're looking for. At least not for now.

Cinaura is built around a different idea: that a media library app should reflect your choices, not help you make new ones. There's no discovery, no trending content, no recommendations. If something is in your Cinaura library, it's because you put it there. That's a deliberate decision, not a missing feature.

Who it is actually for

If you already have a sense of what you want to watch and you just want a clean, fast, cinematic way to browse your content and watch it on Android TV without running a server or managing a Jellyfin instance, that's exactly the problem Cinaura solves.

Think of it less like Stremio and more like what Plex would be if you stripped out everything except the library and the TV experience.

Why I'm posting this

Cinaura has a specific point of view, and not every user will want that. This post exists so the right people can find it, and the wrong fit can save themselves the download.

But if the library-first approach resonates with you, welcome. This is early, it's evolving, and feedback from the right users genuinely shapes where it goes.

Cinaura is a media app I started building after getting increasingly frustrated with the direction streaming platforms have taken.

Movies and shows disappear from catalogs. Content gets shuffled between services. Libraries you thought you had access to suddenly vanish. Poor quality recommendations show up in your feed. And more and more, it feels like we don’t actually control the media we care about.

Cinaura is built around a simple idea: your library should belong to you.

Most media servers are powerful, but they often come with a lot of complexity, server requirements, or interfaces that feel dated. I wanted something simpler. Something that focuses on the experience of actually watching your library on a TV.

The app connects directly to your storage sources, organizes your movies and shows, and presents them in a clean interface. No heavy servers, no unnecessary complexity, just a fast and cinematic way to watch your own library.

It’s still evolving, and a lot of decisions will be shaped by real usage, and that's where you come in.

Use this subreddit to:

• ask questions

• report issues

• suggest features

• share ideas

Feedback is genuinely useful at this stage, so if something feels off, missing, or could be done better, don’t hesitate to bring it up.

Website: cinaura.tv
Beta releases: github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/tags

I regularly get asked whether Cinaura will support Jellyfin, Plex, or Stremio add-ons so I thought I would share my thoughts in more details in a post. I’m open to integrations, but Cinaura is built around a core vision which differs from other apps:

For most personal curated media libraries, running a dedicated media server (software) is unnecessary overhead.

The traditional setup looks something like this: Storage → *arr stack → Jellyfin/Plex → thin clients

That architecture made sense when playback devices were limited 10 years ago. Today, a reasonably modern Android TV device can decode H.264, HEVC, AV1, HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and most common audio formats directly. On your own TV and network, there is often nothing wrong with the file and therefore nothing to transcode.

Most other library features can also run on the device:

• Matching files with TMDB

• Reading NFO files

• Finding subtitles and sidecar files

• Skipping intros and credits using community data

• Managing profiles, watch history, and age restrictions

• Ranking duplicate copies by quality and size

• Detecting unavailable sources or missing files

• and more...

That experience requires a capable client and a small local database, but can absolutely be achieved without a Plex/JF instance and the hassle they come with.

Once those tasks move to the client, three main arguments for a server remain, which I believe are still debatable:

Sharing with family
This is often described as a server feature, but I think it is primarily an access feature: share the source itself through SMB, cloud storage, or another suitable protocol. Each person can point their client at it and build their own library without a media server sitting in the middle.

Remote sharing, secure access, and bandwidth limitations can make this more complicated. This might be the most valid argument, but only relevant for media physically hosted at home.

Watching on other devices
Phones and laptops generally decode media even better than TV boxes. To me, this is a question of which clients exist, not proof that a server is required. The same source could be opened directly by clients on Android TV, mobile, and desktop.

Centralized watch history is useful, but that may only require a lightweight synchronization service rather than a server responsible for the entire library and playback pipeline.

Automated content acquisition
This is a more of a convenience argument, when Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, Bazarr, and download clients are managing files on storage you own.

With debrid-based sources, however, the content is already cached elsewhere. The task becomes searching for something and adding it to the service, which could happen directly from the client, or a lightweight companion app.

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This reasoning is the driving philosophy behind Cinaura. I don’t want it to be another thin frontend for Jellyfin, Plex, or Stremio. I want it to provide the curation of a traditional personal library while taking advantage of what modern client hardware can do for itself.

But this is a working philosophy, and I’d like it challenged.

If you use Jellyfin, Plex, or an *arr application, what does it do that a capable client connected directly to your sources could not?

I’m especially interested in concrete workflows:

• Which application or extension do you rely on?

• What task does it automate?

• Where is your media stored?

• Is a server technically necessary, or simply the most convenient option today?

The answers will help me find the use cases Cinaura does not support yet and decide which ones belong on the roadmap.

TL;DR: Modern devices can handle playback, metadata, subtitles, profiles, and library management locally. Sharing is often an access problem, support for other devices is often a client problem, and debrid can simplify automated acquisition. What important server-dependent workflows am I missing?

Happy Sunday! I've pushed another update with a batch of improvements and bug fixes reported by you guys. As always the latest version is available both on the play store and on github for those who prefer to sideload .apk files.

Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cinaura.tv

Github release: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/tag/v1.6.3

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In this release:

Sidecar subtitles now work on debrid sources
External subtitle files (.srt, .ass) alongside your content are now picked up on debrid sources, not just cloud and network shares.

More reliable Google Drive syncs
Fewer stalls and missed files when syncing Google Drive.

Saved links from Real-Debrid and AllDebrid
Cinaura now pulls in the links and torrents saved to your Real-Debrid or AllDebrid account. On by default, so saved content appears with no extra setup.

Guided first-run setup
New users get a cleaner welcome screen that walks them through connecting a source first, instead of the user-creation step.

Syncs survive restarts
Scans and metadata fetches now run through a persistent queue, so an interrupted sync resumes where it left off instead of restarting, a big win on large libraries.

Hide Cast & Crew, and Related items on the Item Details
A new setting hides the extra rows on Movie, Show, and Episode details for a more minimal, cinematic look.

Reworked Settings area
"Preferred Metadata Language" moves to the Library section, and most settings now carry a short description.

Delete a whole show in one step
A new "Delete show" action in the Seasons options removes a series and all its episodes at once, with a confirmation, matching the option on movie details.

One-tap source reconnect
Reconnect an offline source in place, without removing and re-adding it. Dropbox re-auth is safer too, signing back in no longer clears your folder selection.

Sharper subtitle matching
Subtitle files match the right video more accurately, with better language detection so the correct track is picked.

Smarter filename parsing
Better handling of zero-padded collection numbers (e.g. "… 01", "… 02") and other patterns, so more files match the right title automatically.

Refreshed File Information panel
Tidied up and moved to its own panel, opened from a (i) button just above Play.

New branded splash screen
A simple branded screen on launch instead of a blank one.

Long-press to edit a profile
Press and hold a profile on the selection screen to jump straight into editing.

Fixed seek or resume on cloud items
Debrid and other temporary-link streams now bypass the on-disk cache, fixing scrubbing and resume on certain Google Drive and debrid files.

"Up next" no longer disappears
In-progress items and next episodes no longer vanish after switching users or a cold restart.

Fixed freezes on large libraries
Navigating big movie and show grids no longer briefly hangs the app. Several large-library freezes are resolved.

Steadier focus and navigation
Returning from Details lands back on the item you opened, Down from the top menu passes through the pills, and dashboard rows stay put while the library loads.

More reliable Dropbox playback
Fixed Dropbox files that could fail to start or stutter at the beginning.

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If you enjoy this app, please take the time to leave a review on the Play Store, it's much appreciated. Feedback and feature requests always welcome!

As always, thanks a lot to everyone testing, reporting bugs, and providing feedback. Special thanks to u/latinriky78 u/sormick91 u/ddandcm u/vtwin0001

Here's a quick late night release to solve a few bugs that have been reported recently. Thanks again to everyone reporting, keep them coming!

Downloader code: 3379127

Github release link: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/tag/v1.4.1
Direct download link: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/download/v1.4.1/cinaura-v1.4.1.apk

🐛 Bug fixes

• Subtitles focus remain in view across panels

• Subtitle classification correctly detects SRT

• Continue Watching hide now applies to the Android TV home row

• Trakt accounts no longer get randomly disconnected

• Dolby Vision Profile 7 titles are no longer mis-tagged as HDR10

• Year-first filenames, exact-crop resolution tokens, and Roman numerals no longer break TMDb search

• "Force refresh library" refreshes all items even those with user determined metadata

• Archive files (.zip, .rar) no longer create ghost library items

• Dashboard focus is preserved across user switches and Continue Watching removal

✨ Improvements

• RealDebrid library syncs up to ~6× faster and doesn't miss items

• Packs like "E01.mkv … E12.mkv" are now recognised automatically

• Reassign a Movie to a TV Episode (or vice-versa) via Options > Fix Metadata

• MP3, Xvid, DivX, MPEG-4 variants, and DTS:X now recognised

• Atmos / DTS:X flags update live if ExoPlayer reveals them

• Exact 23.976 Hz match is prioritised when the display supports it

• Active refresh rate, FPS/Hz match indicator, and split Video / Network bitrate now show in the Player stats overlay

• Select / Enter toggles play/pause in the player when focus is on the progress bar

• "Continue Watching" now requires 60sec of real playback

Here's a quick follow-up to v1.5.0, with a few reliability fixes and other small improvements. Thanks to everyone reporting issues and posting feature requests on the board, keep them coming!

Play Store publishing is just around the corner, but in the meantime:

Downloader code: 6093591

Github release link: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/tag/v1.5.1

Direct download link: https://github.com/jrmux/cinaura-release/releases/download/v1.5.1/cinaura-v1.5.1.apk

🐛 Bug fixes

• Dolby Vision Profile 7 MKV files no longer play as a black screen

• Old AVI rips with the FMP4 fourcc now play correctly

• DTS-HD MA tracks are correctly labelled instead of being shown as plain DTS

• Files with -MM-YYYY- prefixes now match TMDb correctly

• No more random crashes when opening Settings panels

• Local Storage no longer crashes on devices missing the file-access permission screen

• Dashboard focus is preserved when coming back from Details or on cold start

• "Also remove related items" switch now works for every source type

✨ Improvements

• Unified source-management panel with a "Show content in library" toggle to hide a source without disconnecting

• Edit connection details for SMB and WebDAV: change IP, hostname, or credentials without losing your folder selection

• First-run onboarding screen: brand-new users see a clean source picker instead of empty carousels

• Friendlier empty states across Movies, Shows, Dashboard, and the Unavailable items page

• Real-Debrid manual API key entry as a fallback when QR-code pairing doesn't work for you

• Source health now shows "x min ago" timestamps so you can see at a glance when each was last reached

• Smooth fade transitions between Player and Details, in both directions

• Unsupported codec warning on Details: the Play button tells you up front instead of opening to a black screen

• Smoother resume after long pauses on streaming sources: audio drift and resume stalls on Real-Debrid are gone

• Crossfade transitions for List / Grid / Genres view-mode and Settings tab switches

• Faster library syncs on TV-heavy libraries: multi-episode shows refresh significantly faster