Nettle 0.4.2 — now on Android TV

Nettle 0.4.2 — beta: now on Android TV 📺

A fast, beautiful Jellyfin client for Windows, Linux and now Android TV. Direct play only: Nettle never asks your server to transcode.

📺 Introducing Nettle for Android TV

Nettle now runs natively on Android TV and Google TV. It isn't the desktop window squeezed onto a TV: the whole app was rebuilt for the remote in Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, with the same look, the same sixteen themes and the same features as the PC version.

Original quality on your TV

• Direct play of the original file, always, through Media3 and your box's hardware decoders. No transcoding, no remuxing, no server load.
• HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision go to the TV as they are. On TVs without Dolby Vision, profile 7 and 8 files play their HDR10 layer instead.
• Refresh-rate matching: the TV switches to 23.976 / 24 / 25 / 50 / 59.94 Hz to match each video, so films don't judder. It can match the resolution too.
• Audio passthrough sends Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus / Atmos, TrueHD and DTS to your receiver. With passthrough off, Dolby audio is decoded on the box.
• Verified format badges (4K · HDR10 · DOLBY ATMOS…) that say what your TV really received, not what the file claims.

Live TV that feels like cable (NostalgiaTV)

• The full program guide, scrolled with the D-pad.
• Surf with Up / Down while the picture is full screen; with the controls showing, the D-pad works the controls instead.
• Type a channel number on remotes with number keys; Last channel jumps back.
• A tuning screen with the channel's logo covers each switch, so letterboxed films never flash stretched while the next program starts.
• The channel's logo sits quietly next to the format badges.
• Programs play from your Jellyfin server's original files, joined at the live position.

Everything else you know from the PC version

Home with the spotlight banner, Continue Watching, Next Up and Recently Added · libraries with sort, filters and an A–Z strip · details with seasons, episodes, cast and extras · search · Seerr requests · intro and credits skipping · Up Next · "Are you still watching?" · chapters · subtitle and audio menus · Quick Connect · multiple profiles with auto sign-in · "Play on Nettle" from other Jellyfin apps.

Made for cheap boxes

Tuned on a 2 GB onn 4K box: about 0.8 s from a cold start to a usable Home screen, and smooth scrolling through Home, libraries and the Live TV guide.

Private by design

• Saved sign-ins are encrypted with a key that never leaves the TV's secure hardware (Android Keystore), and never go into cloud backups.
• No Google Play Services, Firebase, analytics or crash reporting. The build fails if any such library appears.
• Every connection, including video and images, goes through one allowlist: only the servers you set up.

Install on Android TV / Google TV

Works on Android 9 or newer (TVs with Google TV built in, onn 4K, Chromecast with Google TV, Google TV Streamer, NVIDIA Shield…). Nettle isn't on the Play Store, so you install the app file yourself:

1. On the TV, install Downloader (by AFTVnews) from the Play Store.
2. Allow it to install apps: Settings → Apps → Security & restrictions → Unknown sources (on some TVs Settings → Device preferences → Security), and turn on Downloader.
3. Open Downloader and enter:
   https://github.com/devall96/Nettle/releases/latest/download/Nettle-AndroidTV.apk
4. Choose Install, then Open.

With a computer and adb instead: download Nettle-AndroidTV.apk below and run adb install Nettle-AndroidTV.apk.

Tip: sign in with Quick Connect. Pick Use Quick Connect and enter the 6-digit code on your phone or PC in Jellyfin.

Updating later: install the newer Nettle-AndroidTV.apk the same way; it replaces the old one and keeps your settings and sign-ins. (There's no in-app updater on the TV yet.)

Note

First release, tested on one device. The Android TV app has been tested on an onn 4K box (Google TV, Android 14) only. Other boxes and TVs should work, but if you try one, a test report, even "it works", would really help. Logs: adb logcat -d -s Nettle.

Known limits on the TV: no music yet (music libraries are hidden) · with passthrough off, DTS and TrueHD only play if the box can decode them · subtitle tracks that an MKV stores compressed (common for Blu-ray PGS) aren't offered yet, though the file plays · switching Live TV to a 4K remux can take several seconds.

Windows and Linux

Nothing changes in the desktop apps in 0.4.2 apart from the version number and the new "Android TV" line in the artwork. Update whenever you like with Settings → Updates → Check now.

Warning

The Linux build is still untested by hand. The Linux test bench is being reconfigured, so this release was only tested on Windows. The AppImage still passes the automated decode tests on clean Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and Arch machines. If you're on Linux, a test report would really help.

Install on Windows

1. Download Nettle-win-Setup.exe below and run it. It installs for your user only, with no admin rights needed.
2. Windows may show "Windows protected your PC" because Nettle isn't code-signed yet. Click More info → Run anyway.

Prefer not to install? Use Nettle-win-Portable.zip.

Install on Linux

1. Download Nettle.AppImage below and make it executable (right-click → Properties → Allow executing as program, or chmod +x Nettle.AppImage).
2. Double-click it. Nettle offers to add itself to your applications menu.

Which file do I download?

You're on	Download
Android TV / Google TV	Nettle-AndroidTV.apk (see the install steps above)
Windows	Nettle-win-Setup.exe (or Nettle-win-Portable.zip to run without installing)
Linux	Nettle.AppImage

Ignore the other files. The .nupkg and .json files and RELEASES are read by the desktop app's built-in updater. They keep the old internal name (SlopfinApp) so existing installs keep finding their updates. "Source code" is added by GitHub to every release.

The desktop builds include mpv and the libraries it uses (FFmpeg, libplacebo and others), unmodified. The Android TV app uses AndroidX Media3, Jetpack Compose, OkHttp and Coil (all Apache-2.0). All licenses and source locations are listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

Found a bug? Open an issue.