Playhead 0.1.0 — test build 18

Stability and speed, especially on TVs

• Detail and series pages no longer search for sources or test torrents as soon as they open. That's what made the TV freeze after a few seconds and then crash. Searching starts only when you press Play or Choose source.
• Background preloading looks up links only (no data), for a single title: your most recent Continue Watching or Up Next episode. It runs after about 10 s of idle and stops when you start playing. It also actually keeps its result now.
• Source ranking no longer runs on the thread that draws the screen, so the interface stays responsive while results come in.
• Searches are lighter: at most 4 requests at once across all indexers, and identical searches run only once and share their results. Leaving a page stops its search.
• Images are decoded at the size they're shown and fetched from TMDB at smaller sizes. On TV the image cache is capped and cleared when Android runs low on memory.
• On low-memory and 32-bit Android devices the torrent engine uses fewer peers and threads. The player's in-memory buffer is sized to the device's RAM; the engine still keeps about 45 s on disk.
• Less redrawing when focus moves, and no entrance animations on TV.
• TMDB details are kept in memory, so opening the same title again is instant.

Playhead 0.1.0 — test build 9

Smooth playback on Android (TV, Google TV sticks, phones, tablets)

• New playback engine on Android: ExoPlayer, the player Plex uses. It decodes on the device's video hardware and draws straight to the screen, which keeps CPU use low. If a file isn't supported, Playhead switches to the compatibility player automatically, at the same position.
• Change it in Settings → Playback → Player engine.
• The player's stats overlay shows the active decoder and any dropped frames.
• Auto picks 1080p at most on Fast start and Balanced. Best quality may pick 4K, but only if the device can hardware-decode it.

Player

• New Quality picker in the player (the "1080p" button). It lists every available quality with its size and approximate data use per hour, and you can pick any of them.
• TV remote:
  • OK plays or pauses.
  • Left/Right seek 10 s.
  • Up/Down open the controls. They no longer change the volume.
  • The remote's media keys work.

Android TV navigation

• Left from the first item of any row goes back to the sidebar.
• Your profile is at the top of the sidebar.
• Opening a page lands on its first item at the top.
• Text fields open the keyboard only when you press OK.
• No more zoom on focus. Focus rings have a small gap from the item and aren't cut off.
• The detail page's info table can be reached with the remote.

New

• Kids profiles with a PIN:
  • Each kids profile has an age band (Up to 6, 7–12, 13–15, 16–17), based on TMDB age ratings for your country. Unrated titles are hidden.
  • The PIN guards leaving a kids profile, opening Settings, and blocked titles. You can change it in Settings → Profiles & data.
• Activity shows your watch history: resume, remove one entry, or clear it all.

Security

• Playhead only ever downloads and plays the video file. Torrents containing programs, scripts or disguised files are blocked.
• Downloads get the system's "downloaded from the internet" mark.

Android phones and tablets

• Real app icon.
• The player goes fullscreen in landscape.
• The keyboard no longer covers fields.
• The back gesture works.
• Touch targets are larger.

Also

• Settings → Profiles & data → Reset Playhead deletes everything on this device and starts over from setup. It asks for the PIN if one is set.
• The built-in Internet Archive source finds the Blender open movies again (Sintel, Big Buck Bunny…). It was only searching the feature-films collection, and its search timed out before results came back.
• During onboarding on TV, Next has focus as soon as the catalogue is ready.
• Back from a detail page returns to the poster you opened, not the sidebar.
• Old update files are deleted after updating.
• Appearance settings appear only on devices that support them.

Windows stays on build 6 for this test release.

Playhead 0.1.0 — test build 8

Android TV: remote navigation

• Text fields never trap focus. Arrows and Back always leave them, including after the keyboard closes (add indexer, search, every form). Fields don't open the keyboard by themselves.
• Sidebar:
  • Settings and the profile avatar are reachable; the sidebar scrolls instead of overflowing.
  • No collapse/reopen flicker when changing pages.
  • The focus ring isn't cut off, and the avatar is aligned.
  • Keyboard shortcut hints are hidden on TV.
• Back on the sidebar asks "Exit Playhead?" instead of closing the app.
• The Settings section list scrolls to the focused item.
• Adding indexers works with the remote alone:
  • Browse and search the catalogue, then pick an indexer.
  • Settings use proper toggles and option lists.
  • Save, Test, Update definitions, and edit or remove an indexer.
  • Add source.
• Player:
  • Error and notice panels and every sheet focus their main button.
  • The double yellow underlines on player messages are fixed.
• Detail page: the header fits the TV screen, so the title no longer covers the poster.
• Focus rings are no longer clipped in rows and cards.
• The update card takes focus when it appears. Back on it means "later".

Desktop and phones

• The TV changes stay on TV. The desktop sidebar doesn't pop open for mouse users, and arrow keys edit text normally. Space still pauses while buffering. Back on phones isn't swallowed.

Windows stays on build 6 for this release.

Playhead 0.1.0 — test build 7

Android TV

• This is the first build delivered through the in-app updater: Playhead on Android shows "Install update". The first time, Android asks you to allow Playhead to install apps.
• Remote navigation: Left always reaches the sidebar, and Back goes to the sidebar before leaving the app. The rail expands with labels while you're in it.
• On TV, the update card's "Install update" button takes focus when the card appears.
• The indexer catalogue and sources load on Android. HTTPS was failing with "expect rustls-platform-verifier to be initialized".
• Onboarding keeps the focused button on screen when the step changes.

macOS

• Same fixes. Updates arrive through the usual update window.

Windows stays on build 6 for this release.

Playhead 0.1.0 — test build 17

Subtitles from the internet, no account needed

• When a video has no subtitles in your language, Playhead finds them online by itself, from OpenSubtitles through Stremio's public add-on. No key, no login.
• It never holds up playback. When it finds some, you see "Subtitles: English (online)".
• For files you've fully downloaded, Playhead picks subtitles timed for that exact release. For streams, it picks the closest release name.
• In the player: Settings → Subtitles → Find subtitles online → Search lists what's available. Results that match your file are marked, and OK adds one.
• Stremio add-ons you've added that offer subtitles are searched too.
• Settings → Subtitles → "Find subtitles online" turns it off. Your own OpenSubtitles key is now optional; when it's set, it's used first.
• Downloaded subtitles are text only. They are size-checked, converted to UTF-8 and stored locally before the player reads them.

Playhead 0.1.0 — test build 16

Smoother playback on Android TV

• Video goes straight to the screen through its own hardware layer, as in Plex. Before, Flutter redrew every frame, which was the lag on large files.
• If that fails, Playhead falls back to the old output by itself. You can also pick it in Settings → Playback → Video output.
• The player keeps 30–120 s buffered. After a stall it waits for 8 s of buffer, so it doesn't stall again straight away.
• A short drop in peers no longer brings up the stall screen while plenty is buffered.
• Stats overlay: dropped frames, download speed vs. the file's bitrate, buffer seconds, and the number of stalls.

Season packs

• Episode searches also look for season packs ("Show S02", "Season 2") and complete-series packs.
• Inside a pack, the episode is found even when the season is only in the folder name. Only that file downloads, starting with its beginning and end.
• Choose source labels them "Season pack", "Seasons 1–3 pack" or "Complete series pack".
• If a pack doesn't have the episode, the player moves to the next source and says why.

Series

• TV Shows from the sidebar opens at the top, with Play focused, like Movies.
• Seasons switch when you press OK, not just on focus. Only the episode list reloads; the page, its scroll position and focus stay where they were.
• The Play button at the top always shows your next episode, wherever you browse.

Skip intro and credits

• A "Skip intro" / "Skip credits" button appears when the video's chapters mark them. On TV it takes focus, so one press of OK skips.
• Settings → Playback has "Skip intros automatically" and "Skip credits automatically".

Faster start

• Continue Watching and Up Next search for the best source in the background while you browse, so pressing Play starts sooner.
• Back on the Android loading screen now leaves for good. The loading screen no longer comes back.
• When playback switches to a backup source, the torrent that's already playing is never stopped.

Playhead 0.1.0 — test build 15

Finding and starting sources

• The automatic pick puts healthy torrents first: more seeders and peers win, and near-dead releases are used only when nothing better is left.
• While a source starts, the next two are tried alongside it. If the first delivers nothing within 8 s, playback switches to whichever already has data. The others are dropped at once.
• Faster failover: a source that failed is never retried.
• Choose source can sort by Recommended, Seeders, Size or Quality, and remembers your choice.

Player

• Subtitles show on Android with both players.
• Less background work while the controls are hidden (about 1 update a second instead of 4).
• On narrow portrait screens the controls use two rows, so nothing gets squeezed.

Kids profiles

• TV rows also check each show's age rating in the background; anything unconfirmed disappears.

Polish

• Sheet titles line up with their content.
• The person page is centred on phones.
• The player settings sheet uses the shared corner sizes.

Windows

• Back in sync with macOS and Android.

Playhead 0.1.0 — test build 14

Design polish

• Dialogs, sheets, menus and the update card sit on a near-solid surface, so text stays readable over any content (including over video in the player).
• One consistent set of corner radii and one height per control type across the app.
• Detail and person pages start at the top instead of floating mid-screen.
• A cleaner search field, evenly inset dividers in Settings, a tidier onboarding card, and see-through cards in the source list.

Windows stays on build 6 for this test release.

Playhead 0.1.0 — test build 13

Phones and tablets

• Back goes back through pages; only Discover closes the app.
• The player is truly fullscreen: no clock or battery bar.
• New Fit/Fill button to fill tall screens (W on a keyboard).

Player

• A dark loading screen while the video starts, which fades into playback.
• Leaving the player saves your progress immediately, so Continue Watching is up to date.
• Downloads play in Playhead's own player.

Finding sources

• Much smarter title matching, Sonarr/Radarr-style. Oddly formatted release names (spaced-out letters, dots, years, "Part 1") are no longer filtered out, while genuinely different titles still are.

TV navigation

• Arrows stop at the edges of the sidebar and the Settings list instead of jumping somewhere random.
• Long text-only sections can be scrolled through with Up/Down.
• One smooth scroll per press, no double movement.
• Activity now shows only History and Downloads.

Windows stays on build 6 for this test release.

Playhead 0.1.0 — test build 12

Player

• No volume control in the player on any device. Use the device's own volume; M still mutes on a keyboard.
• TV: Left/Right reach every button in the bottom row (the volume slider was catching them).
• Seeking: the focus ring sits on the seek dot.
• The Back button in the player leaves it right away.

Resume

• Continue Watching, Up Next and history now open the exact episode and start playing from where you stopped.
• The page underneath no longer steals the remote from the player.

Windows stays on build 6 for this test release.