Why it exists
I had a few hundred video files sitting on a drive and no real idea what was in them. My file browser showed me The.Batman.2022.2160p.UHD.BluRay.HDR-GROUP.mkv. Every player I tried showed me the same string in a list. I could not remember which episode I had stopped on, or whether I already owned the second film in a series. Plenty of those files also opened, showed picture, and played complete silence, so I kept a second player around just for them. I wanted what a streaming service hands you for nothing: posters, a Continue Watching row, and the next episode ready.
What it does
Point it at the folders where your films and episodes live, and it becomes a library you browse from the sofa: posters, plots, cast, seasons, episodes, and whatever you left half-finished. Files that defeat other players still open, and subtitles match your exact copy, so they stay in step. It can also add public domain films. Your phone plays the same library, or keeps titles for a flight.
- See a library, not filenames Folders of video files turn into tiles with posters, plot, ratings and episode lists, and films in a series collapse into one cover.
- The library does not wait on a connection Browsing, searching and playing all work with nothing connected. A file dropped into a watched folder appears on its own within seconds and plays straight away, with real artwork filling in later.
- Resume, then roll into what's next Stop under thirty seconds in and it starts over rather than dropping you back mid-scene. Past that it resumes, and a countdown you can cancel rolls into the next episode or the next film in a series.
- Subtitles matched to your exact file Matched against the copy you actually have rather than the title, so the timing lines up. When it has to fall back to a title search, it says so on the subtitle.
- Browse an open film archive Search a catalogue of freely available films, compare the real resolution and file size of each copy, queue one, and start watching before it has finished arriving. Every item shows its licence, including when the uploader never stated one.
- Watch the library on your phone Pair by scanning a code on the desktop screen, then browse and play the same library over your home network. Where you stopped follows you, in both directions.
The approach
I settled playback before drawing a single screen. The straightforward route shows picture and plays silence on most of the files I own, so I proved the hard part worked before building anything on top of it. That choice cost me things I wanted: no video preview when you hover a poster, and no shrinking the film into a corner while I browse the rest of the library. I took the trade, because a library that cannot play what it lists is a spreadsheet with posters.
Where it is now
1.0 is shipped and it is what I use every evening. The desktop install is around 650MB, which is absurd for something that shows posters and plays files. Matching still guesses wrong on odd releases, so every title has a Fix match button. Sending a title to the phone puts the file on the phone but still plays it back from the desktop machine, so it is not much use on a plane yet. The phone app I install by hand rather than through a store. No firm plans past that.