mpvNova

mpvNova is an Android TV-first fork of mpv-android, built on libmpv. It keeps mpv's playback core while reshaping the app around couch-friendly navigation, a custom TV shell, and fast access to the controls that matter during playback.

The goal is simple: keep mpv powerful, but make it feel natural on a TV from the moment it opens.

• TV-first home screen and launcher integration
• Remote-friendly player HUD with strong D-pad focus behavior
• Custom subtitle, audio, chapter, decoder, and settings panels
• Smart subtitle matching for binge-watching, tied to persisted subtitle settings
• Multiple built-in color themes, AMOLED mode, and pure black surfaces
• Dialogue-focused audio tools for stereo and surround playback
• Device-aware decoder paths including gpu-next and Shield Anime handling
• In-app update checks backed by GitHub releases
• Leanback launcher support and TV banner assets
• Built for sideloading on Android TV, Google TV, and Android-based Fire OS TV devices

For the inherited playback feature set, scripting support, and core behavior that mpvNova builds on top of, see upstream mpv-android.

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TV Devices Only

mpvNova is built for Android TV, Google TV, and Android-based Amazon Fire TV / Fire TV Stick devices running Fire OS. Android phones and tablets are out of scope, and mobile UI support will not be added.

Newer Vega OS Fire TV sticks are a different non-Android target. mpvNova's APK builds support Fire OS devices, not Vega OS devices that do not install Android APKs.

Fire OS support is best-effort. Fire OS is not an official upstream mpv / mpv-android target, so device-specific playback, decoder, MediaCodec, graphics driver, or native library bugs usually need fixes in upstream mpv/mpv-android, FFmpeg, libplacebo, Android's media stack, or device firmware. mpvNova can ship app-level compatibility fixes and safe defaults, but it cannot directly fix Fire OS playback issues that live in the upstream playback stack or vendor platform.

For mobile-focused Android mpv options, use projects such as mpvEx or mpvKt.

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Showcase

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Installation

Download the latest APK from the GitHub releases page.

• Use the universal APK if you want one build that works across device architectures
• Use an ABI-specific APK only if you already know the target device architecture
• On Android-based Fire TV / Fire TV Stick devices, use the universal APK or the armeabi-v7a APK for most stick models
• After installation, future releases can also be checked from Settings > App updates

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What mpvNova Adds

mpvNova inherits mpv-android's playback foundation: hardware/software decoding, gestures, libass subtitles, dual subtitles, advanced rendering settings, URL playback, background playback, Picture-in-Picture, and keyboard input. The additions below are the TV-focused layer built for this fork.

• Android TV, Google TV, and Fire OS launcher support with leanback entry points, TV banner assets, and a couch-first home screen
• Redesigned player HUD with stronger D-pad focus, chapter markers, title display, TV-scale timing, and a compact chapter picker
• Single-click chapter skipping, with remote/D-pad hold opening the chapter picker after a fixed delay
• Custom subtitle panel with dual-track display, one-tap primary/secondary swap, independent position, size, delay, and secondary subtitle controls
• Smart subtitle memory: when Persist subtitle settings is enabled, mpvNova remembers a manually selected subtitle track and matches the closest language/title on the next file
• Audio panel with Voice Boost, Volume Boost, DRC, Audio Normalization, Channel Downmix, surround-state feedback, and filter persistence
• In-player decoder picker with HW+, HW, SW, G-NEXT, and Shield Anime (Hi10P) modes
• Live G-NEXT path display for direct, copy, or software-backed playback paths, plus automatic decoder fallback for known trouble cases
• Appearance themes for White, Crimson, Ocean, Violet, Emerald, Amber, and Rose, plus AMOLED mode and pure black surfaces
• Home-screen update prompt, manual update checks, APK handoff to Android's installer, and release-note history from Settings
• Resume-position handling, media-title cleanup for launcher/stream sources, readable stats overlays, and support/debug export tools

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Building

Prerequisites

• JDK 21
• Android SDK with current build tools
• Git for version information in builds
• Gradle wrapper 9.5.0
• Android Gradle Plugin 9.2.0
• Kotlin 2.3.21

App-only build

Use this when the bundled native libraries are already present and you mainly want to build or test the Android app layer.

Windows

cmd /c gradlew.bat :app:assembleDefaultDebug

Linux / macOS

./gradlew :app:assembleDefaultDebug

Full native rebuild

Use this when you need to rebuild libmpv, FFmpeg, or the JNI/native layer.

The native rebuild flow lives in buildscripts/README.md. It is supported on Linux and macOS and is not intended to run natively on Windows.

Native rebuilds are only needed when updating or changing bundled native components such as mpv, FFmpeg, libass, or related JNI code. Regular Android UI work can use the app-only Gradle build.

APK Variants

The Gradle config currently builds:

• universal: all bundled ABIs in one APK
• arm64-v8a
• armeabi-v7a
• x86
• x86_64

There is also an api29 flavor for older-target compatibility builds.

For Amazon Appstore or Fire OS distribution, use the default flavor because it targets the current SDK while keeping minSdk low enough for older Android-based Fire TV devices.

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Releases

Release signing

Release signing is optional for local debug builds, but required for signed release APKs.

• Keep your real signing files in keystore.properties and keystore/
• Start from keystore.properties.example for the local file shape
• In CI or other non-local environments, use MPVNOVA_STORE_FILE, MPVNOVA_STORE_PASSWORD, MPVNOVA_KEY_ALIAS, and MPVNOVA_KEY_PASSWORD

App updates

mpvNova checks GitHub releases from the home screen and from Settings > App updates. Update prompts are intentionally kept out of active playback so a release dialog never appears over the player UI.

The updater chooses the best APK asset for the device ABI when possible, opens Android's installer with a FileProvider URI, and cleans cached update APKs after the newly installed version relaunches.

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Official Builds And Branding

Official mpvNova builds are distributed through this repository's GitHub Releases.

The mpvNova name, app icon, TV banner, package name app.mpvnova.player, release assets, and built-in update endpoint are reserved for official builds. Forks and redistributed builds must use their own app name, package name, signing key, artwork, and update source.

Do not upload mpvNova-branded builds to app stores or third-party stores without permission.

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Privacy

The project privacy policy is available at docs/privacy.html.

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Acknowledgments

• mpv-android
• mpv
• everyone whose work made the upstream Android port and playback stack possible