v1.5

zanzibarr v1.5 — updates that install themselves, RARs that seek while they decode

Stream anything from Usenet. Own nothing. Wait for nothing. zanzibarr plays NZB content without downloading it — instant start, frame-accurate seek, and nothing left behind on your disk.

Downloads

Platform	File	Notes
Windows (x64)	zanzibarr-windows-x64.zip	Extract anywhere, run zanzibarr.exe
macOS (Apple Silicon)	zanzibarr-macos-arm64.zip	Unzip, drag to Applications; first launch: right-click → Open
Linux (x64)	zanzibarr-linux-x64.tar.gz	Links the system libmpv — sudo apt install libmpv2 (Ubuntu 24.04 verified)
Android phone/tablet	zanzibarr-android-arm64-v8a.apk	armeabi-v7a for older devices, x86_64 for emulators
Android TV	zanzibarr-android-arm64-v8a.apk	Same APK — sideload it; leanback launcher & remote-friendly UI included
iOS (unsigned)	zanzibarr-ios-unsigned.ipa	Sideload with AltStore/Sideloadly; TestFlight distribution planned

What's new in v1.5

• In-app updates. zanzibarr now checks GitHub Releases for new versions and tells you right in the app. On Android, one tap downloads and installs the update in place; on desktop you get a direct link to the release page. No more hunting threads for the newest APK.
• Compressed RAR, seekable. RAR volumes that actually compress (not just STORE) now stream like everything else: volumes spool to a temp dir, a patched libunrar decodes ahead into a growing file, and the player is served the decoded prefix instantly — seek works while decoding continues, and the temp disk space is reclaimed the moment you close the video.
• Android: silent-start fixed. Releases with multiple audio tracks no longer start muted — the selected track is re-asserted explicitly once playback begins.
• Android: fit ↔ fill button. A new top-bar toggle switches between fitting the whole frame and filling the screen, for releases whose aspect ratio doesn't match your display.
• Android TV: remote focus fix. When the on-screen controls hide, focus now returns to the player root instead of getting lost — no more dead directional pad after the overlay fades.
• Android: engine-start crash fixed. libc++_shared.so is now packaged into the APK, resolving the dlopen failed crash seen on some devices (notably armeabi-v7a).

Already inside

• Play instantly, never download — the Rust engine fetches only the segments you actually watch
• Built-in indexer search — Newznab search with quality badges, tap-to-play inside the app
• True seek — yEnc begin/end segment mapping, accurate even on 100+ GB releases
• Archive-aware — multi-volume RAR5/RAR4 (incl. -hp encrypted) and 7z (STORE, LZMA/LZMA2 solid, AES-256) reassembled in memory
• PAR2 repair — missing/corrupt segments rebuilt with Reed-Solomon, byte-exact against par2cmdline
• Full picture pipeline — SDR / HDR / HDR10 / Dolby Vision selector with BT.2390 tone mapping; TrueHD/Atmos, DTS-HD MA, AV1
• Continue watching — playback positions remembered per title, with a resume row on the home screen
• Smart Canvas — draw your own crop with live aspect preview, applied on the GPU
• Player essentials — PiP, frame stepping, speed, audio sync, external audio/subtitle loading, double-click ±10 s seek, subtitle color picker
• 14 languages — EN, TR, ES, DE, FR, PT, IT, RU, ZH, JA, KO, HI, AR, FA (RTL included), dark & light themes
• Private by design — NNTP credentials live only in the OS keychain; no accounts, no telemetry, no cloud

Getting started

1. Install the build for your platform.
2. Open the settings gear and enter your Usenet provider's NNTP details.
3. Open any .nzb (or search with the built-in indexer) and press play.

zanzibarr v1.4 — pick up where you left off, on every screen

zanzibarr v1.4 — pick up where you left off, on every screen

Stream anything from Usenet. Own nothing. Wait for nothing. zanzibarr plays NZB content without downloading it — instant start, frame-accurate seek, and nothing left behind on your disk.

Downloads

Platform	File	Notes
Windows (x64)	zanzibarr-windows-x64.zip	Extract anywhere, run zanzibarr.exe
macOS (Apple Silicon)	zanzibarr-macos-arm64.zip	Unzip, drag to Applications; first launch: right-click → Open
Linux (x64)	zanzibarr-linux-x64.tar.gz	Links the system libmpv — sudo apt install libmpv2 (Ubuntu 24.04 verified)
Android phone/tablet	zanzibarr-android-arm64-v8a.apk	armeabi-v7a for older devices, x86_64 for emulators
Android TV	zanzibarr-android-arm64-v8a.apk	Same APK — sideload it; leanback launcher & remote-friendly UI included
iOS (unsigned)	zanzibarr-ios-unsigned.ipa	Sideload with AltStore/Sideloadly; TestFlight distribution planned

What's new in v1.4

• Continue watching. zanzibarr now remembers where you left every title: playback position is saved locally (OS keychain store) and the home screen gains a continue-watching row with progress bars — tap to resume, swipe away when done. Titles you finish drop off automatically.
• Subtitle color picker. The subtitle bar gains a palette — white, yellow, amber, green, cyan, red, purple — remembered per title. Applies to text subtitles; styled ASS tracks keep their authored look.
• Dolby Vision P5, now on Windows & Linux too. The GPU reshape (libplacebo) runs beyond macOS/Android: Windows and Linux get correct P5 colors with a software-decode fallback ladder and the same live diagnostics — no pink/green, no silent failures.
• Official Linux build. Every release now ships zanzibarr-linux-x64.tar.gz (links the system libmpv; Ubuntu 24.04 verified, build guide in docs/BUILDING.linux.md).
• iOS build (unsigned). zanzibarr-ios-unsigned.ipa is now produced on every release for sideloading — iPhone and iPad covered.

Already inside

• Play instantly, never download — the Rust engine fetches only the segments you actually watch
• Built-in indexer search — Newznab search with quality badges, tap-to-play inside the app
• True seek — yEnc begin/end segment mapping, accurate even on 100+ GB releases
• Archive-aware — multi-volume RAR5/RAR4 (incl. -hp encrypted) and 7z (STORE, LZMA/LZMA2 solid, AES-256) reassembled in memory
• PAR2 repair — missing/corrupt segments rebuilt with Reed-Solomon, byte-exact against par2cmdline
• Full picture pipeline — SDR / HDR / HDR10 / Dolby Vision selector with BT.2390 tone mapping; TrueHD/Atmos, DTS-HD MA, AV1
• Smart Canvas — draw your own crop with live aspect preview, applied on the GPU
• Player essentials — PiP, frame stepping, speed, audio sync, external audio/subtitle loading, double-click ±10 s seek
• 14 languages — EN, TR, ES, DE, FR, PT, IT, RU, ZH, JA, KO, HI, AR, FA (RTL included), dark & light themes
• Private by design — NNTP credentials live only in the OS keychain; no accounts, no telemetry, no cloud

Getting started

1. Install the build for your platform.
2. Open the settings gear and enter your Usenet provider's NNTP details.
3. Open any .nzb (or search with the built-in indexer) and press play.

zanzibarr v1.3 — subtitles that show up, errors that speak your language

zanzibarr v1.3 — subtitles that show up, errors that speak your language

Stream anything from Usenet. Own nothing. Wait for nothing. zanzibarr plays NZB content without downloading it — instant start, frame-accurate seek, and nothing left behind on your disk.

Downloads

Platform	File	Notes
Windows (x64)	zanzibarr-windows-x64.zip	Extract anywhere, run zanzibarr.exe
macOS (Apple Silicon)	zanzibarr-macos-arm64.zip	Unzip, drag to Applications; first launch: right-click → Open
Android phone/tablet	zanzibarr-android-arm64-v8a.apk	armeabi-v7a for older devices, x86_64 for emulators
Android TV	zanzibarr-android-arm64-v8a.apk	Same APK — sideload it; leanback launcher & remote-friendly UI included

What's new in v1.3

• Embedded subtitles now actually show up on Android. Text subtitles (SRT/ASS) were silently invisible on Android because libass couldn't resolve any font without fontconfig. zanzibarr now bundles a wide-coverage subtitle font (Noto Sans, OFL-1.1) and hands it to the playback engine — pick a track, read along. Image-based PGS/VobSub tracks were unaffected and still work.
• Engine errors now speak your language. All Rust engine error messages were moved behind Flutter's localization, so playback/stream errors appear in the app's display language across all 14 supported languages — no more Turkish-only diagnostics on an English UI. (Community issue #1)
• Ubuntu 24.04 build guide. Community-contributed notes for building zanzibarr from source on Linux now live in docs/BUILDING.linux.md, linked from the README. (Community issue #2 — thanks @sanderjo)

Already inside

• Play instantly, never download — the Rust engine fetches only the segments you actually watch
• Built-in indexer search — Newznab search with quality badges, tap-to-play inside the app
• True seek — yEnc begin/end segment mapping, accurate even on 100+ GB releases
• Archive-aware — multi-volume RAR5/RAR4 (incl. -hp encrypted) and 7z (STORE, LZMA/LZMA2 solid, AES-256) reassembled in memory as one virtual, seekable file
• PAR2 repair — missing/corrupt segments rebuilt with Reed-Solomon, byte-exact against par2cmdline
• Dolby Vision done right — P5 GPU reshape on macOS (Vulkan → Metal) and Android (custom mpv 0.41 + FFmpeg 8.1.2 + libplacebo engine, 8-bit path that survives Xclipse/Adreno drivers)
• Full picture pipeline — SDR / HDR / HDR10 / Dolby Vision selector with BT.2390 tone mapping; TrueHD/Atmos, DTS-HD MA, AV1
• Smart Canvas — draw your own crop with live aspect preview, applied on the GPU
• Player essentials — PiP, frame stepping, speed, audio sync, external audio/subtitle loading, double-click ±10 s seek
• 14 languages — EN, TR, ES, DE, FR, PT, IT, RU, ZH, JA, KO, HI, AR, FA (RTL included), dark & light themes
• Private by design — NNTP credentials live only in the OS keychain; no accounts, no telemetry, no cloud

Getting started

1. Install the build for your platform.
2. Open the settings gear and enter your Usenet provider's NNTP details.
3. Open any .nzb (or search with the built-in indexer) and press play.

zanzibarr v1.2 — Dolby Vision, everywhere

zanzibarr v1.2 — Dolby Vision, everywhere

Stream anything from Usenet. Own nothing. Wait for nothing. zanzibarr plays NZB content without downloading it — instant start, frame-accurate seek, and nothing left behind on your disk.

Downloads

Platform	File	Notes
Windows (x64)	zanzibarr-windows-x64.zip	Extract anywhere, run zanzibarr.exe
macOS (Apple Silicon)	zanzibarr-macos-arm64.zip	Unzip, drag to Applications; first launch: right-click → Open
Android phone/tablet	zanzibarr-android-arm64-v8a.apk	armeabi-v7a for older devices, x86_64 for emulators
Android TV	zanzibarr-android-arm64-v8a.apk	Same APK — sideload it; leanback launcher & remote-friendly UI included

What's new in v1.2

• Dolby Vision Profile 5 on Android — correct colors, at last. P5 releases (no HDR10 base layer) used to render pink/green, then a black screen. zanzibarr now ships a custom-built playback engine for Android: mpv 0.41 + FFmpeg 8.1.2 + libplacebo 7.351 with Vulkan linked in. DV metadata is decoded on the dovi-preserving software path, reshaped on the GPU, and tonemapped to clean SDR on any display.
• Works on real-world GPUs, not just the reference ones. The reshape path deliberately runs 8-bit textures, so it survives drivers that lack 16-bit linear sampling (Samsung Xclipse) as well as Adreno — verified on a Samsung Galaxy S23 FE and a Poco F6.
• No more black screens on DV content. Playback startup no longer races the surface re-creation; the filter engages after the first frame instead.
• Honest diagnostics in the player. The dynamic-range row in Video and audio settings now reports live engine status (applying / active / unavailable) with a tap-to-open technical detail panel — if a device can't run the correction, the app tells you instead of failing silently.

Already inside

• Play instantly, never download — the Rust engine fetches only the segments you actually watch
• True seek — yEnc begin/end segment mapping, accurate even on 100+ GB releases
• Archive-aware — multi-volume RAR5 (incl. -hp encrypted) and split 7z (STORE, AES-256) reassembled in memory as one virtual, seekable file
• Full picture pipeline — SDR / HDR / HDR10 / Dolby Vision selector with BT.2390 tone mapping; TrueHD/Atmos, DTS-HD MA, AV1, TrueHD 7.1
• Smart Canvas — draw your own crop with live aspect preview, applied on the GPU
• Player essentials — PiP, frame stepping, speed, audio sync, external audio/subtitle loading, double-click ±10 s seek
• 14 languages — EN, TR, ES, DE, FR, PT, IT, RU, ZH, JA, KO, HI, AR, FA (RTL included), dark & light themes
• Private by design — NNTP credentials live only in the OS keychain; no accounts, no telemetry, no cloud

Getting started

1. Install the build for your platform.
2. Open the settings gear and enter your Usenet provider's NNTP details.
3. Open any .nzb and press play.

zanzibarr v1.1 — Dolby Vision, done right

zanzibarr v1.1 — Dolby Vision, done right

Stream anything from Usenet. Own nothing. Wait for nothing. zanzibarr plays NZB content without downloading it — instant start, frame-accurate seek, and nothing left behind on your disk.

Downloads

Platform	File	Notes
Windows (x64)	zanzibarr-windows-x64.zip	Extract anywhere, run zanzibarr.exe
macOS (Apple Silicon)	zanzibarr-macos-arm64.zip	Unzip, drag to Applications; first launch: right-click → Open
Android phone/tablet	zanzibarr-android-arm64-v8a.apk	armeabi-v7a for older devices, x86_64 for emulators
Android TV	zanzibarr-android-armeabi-v7a.apk	Same APK — sideload it; leanback launcher & remote-friendly UI included

What's new in v1.1

• Dolby Vision Profile 5, correct colors at last — P5 releases (no HDR10 base layer) used to render pink/green. The engine now ships mpv 0.41 + a custom FFmpeg 8.1 build with libplacebo, reshaping P5 on the GPU via Vulkan → Metal. HDR10-based DV profiles keep the natural decoder path.
• macOS playback crash fixed — under the hardened runtime, the embedded LuaJIT's executable pages got the process killed the moment a player was created. Entitlement corrected; playback is rock solid on signed builds.
• Encrypted RAR streaming — RAR5 archives with -hp header encryption stream natively, using the NZB's embedded password metadata.
• Android TV remote — full D-pad and media-key support; tested on Homatics Box R 4K Plus.
• Stability & session fixes across the engine.

Already inside

• Play instantly, never download — the Rust engine fetches only the segments you actually watch
• True seek — yEnc begin/end segment mapping, accurate even on 100+ GB releases
• Archive-aware — multi-volume RAR5 and split 7z (STORE, AES-256) reassembled in memory as one virtual, seekable file
• Full picture pipeline — SDR / HDR / HDR10 / Dolby Vision selector with BT.2390 tone mapping; TrueHD/Atmos, DTS-HD MA, AV1
• Smart Canvas — draw your own crop with live aspect preview, applied on the GPU
• Player essentials — PiP, frame stepping, speed, audio sync, external audio/subtitle loading, double-click ±10 s seek
• 14 languages — EN, TR, ES, DE, FR, PT, IT, RU, ZH, JA, KO, HI, AR, FA (RTL included), dark & light themes
• Private by design — NNTP credentials live only in the OS keychain; no accounts, no telemetry, no cloud

Getting started

1. Install the build for your platform.
2. Open the settings gear and enter your Usenet provider's NNTP details.
3. Open any .nzb and press play.

zanzibarr v1.0

zanzibarr v1.0 — first public release

Stream anything from Usenet. Own nothing. Wait for nothing. zanzibarr plays NZB content without downloading it — instant start, frame-accurate seek, and nothing left behind on your disk.

Downloads

Platform	File	Notes
Windows (x64)	zanzibarr-windows-x64.zip	Extract anywhere, run zanzibarr.exe
macOS (Apple Silicon)	zanzibarr-macos-arm64.zip	Unzip, drag to Applications; first launch: right-click → Open
Android phone/tablet	zanzibarr-android-arm64-v8a.apk	armeabi-v7a for older devices, x86_64 for emulators
Android TV	zanzibarr-android-arm64-v8a.apk	Same APK — sideload it; leanback launcher & remote-friendly UI included

Highlights

• Play instantly, never download — the Rust engine fetches only the segments you actually watch
• True seek — yEnc begin/end segment mapping, accurate even on 100+ GB releases
• Archive-aware — multi-volume RAR5 and split 7z (STORE, AES-256) reassembled in memory as one virtual, seekable file
• Full picture pipeline — SDR / HDR / HDR10 / Dolby Vision selector with BT.2390 tone mapping; custom libmpv + full FFmpeg build (TrueHD/Atmos, DTS-HD MA, AV1)
• Smart Canvas — draw your own crop with live aspect preview, applied on the GPU
• Player essentials — PiP, frame stepping, speed, audio sync, external audio/subtitle loading, double-click ±10 s seek
• 14 languages — EN, TR, ES, DE, FR, PT, IT, RU, ZH, JA, KO, HI, AR, FA (RTL included), dark & light themes
• Private by design — NNTP credentials live only in the OS keychain; no accounts, no telemetry, no cloud

Getting started

1. Install the build for your platform.
2. Open the settings gear and enter your Usenet provider's NNTP details.
3. Open any .nzb and press play.

You need your own Usenet provider account and NZB sources — zanzibarr is the player, not the library.

Known limitations

• Compressed (non-STORE) RAR/7z and RAR4 archives are declined for now — see the roadmap.
• macOS build is Apple Silicon (arm64) only.
• iOS and Linux builds are on the roadmap; Android TV covers the living-room use case today.

Full details, screenshots and architecture notes: README