Zerk Play 2 (beta 8)

If you already have the beta installed on Windows or Android TV, the app offers this update when it starts (or use Settings → Diagnostics → Check for updates).

Coming to Google Play: I've submitted the Android TV app to the Play Store and it's in review now. Once it's approved, nobody on your server has to sideload an APK anymore.

For server owners: the Zerk Play Dashboard

If you run an Emby or Jellyfin server for family or friends, you know the routine: send them the server address, explain where the Seerr key goes, paste the live TV details on every device, and do it all again when something changes. The Zerk Play Dashboard ends that.

Set your server up once, on the web. Add your Emby or Jellyfin server, Seerr, TMDB, MDBList and live TV (Xtream or M3U). Each one is checked as you save it. Then choose which features are on.

Hand out a sync code. Your people open Zerk Play, type a 12-character code and sign in with their own username and password. That's the whole setup. Codes can be one per household or one per friend, expire after a while, be limited to a few devices, or be turned off at any time. Change a setting in the dashboard and every app picks it up.

What your users get on top of the free app:

• Seerr requests without your API key on anyone's device. The key stays on the hub, and each request is made as the person who asked for it.
• Watch together: a 4-letter room code keeps play, pause and seek in sync for everyone, live TV included.
• Profiles and My list: a name and picture for each person, and a list to save things for later.
• Report a problem: if a file is broken, the user can have it deleted and downloaded again through your Radarr or Sonarr.

What you get:

• Server admin for Emby and Jellyfin: users, libraries, transcoding, scheduled tasks, plugins, devices and logs, in the same place. It signs in from your browser, and the hub never holds admin access to your server.
• A list of linked devices, and the ability to turn any code off when someone shouldn't have access anymore.

Plans: $5 a month or $40 a year, both with a 7-day free trial, or $150 once for lifetime. Every plan has everything. Only the person who runs the server needs a plan; their users never pay, and the app itself stays free and open source. If a plan ends, linked apps sign out and can still be set up by hand.

Start the free trial at zerk.digital.

Also in beta 8

Asked for on Discord:

• Favorites has its own entry in the sidebar.
• Group into collections in Movies shows each collection as one tile. It uses your server's collections and fills the gaps from TMDB, so a series like Men in Black groups even without a collection on the server.
• Clock on the home screen (Settings → Content → Home).
• Choose the Radarr/Sonarr folder when requesting, for servers with more than one root folder.
• Buffer bar on the Android TV progress bar, and clearer on Windows and Linux.
• Subtitle search shows the file name above the results.
• Live TV: channel up/down only switches once you stop pressing, so flipping through doesn't keep cutting the picture.

Fixes:

• Trailers no longer get stuck on the spinner when started again quickly.
• Trailers skip HDR and 10-bit streams, and Android TV only uses H.264, which should fix the colour glitches some devices showed.

Without a sync code, nothing changes: Set up manually on the sign-in screen is the same setup as before, with the server address and the phone QR code.

If something goes wrong, Settings → Diagnostics → Send logs to the developer gives you a short code to post on Discord with your report.

Downloads

• Windows 10/11: ZerkPlay-Public-Windows-setup.exe
• Android TV / Google TV: ZerkPlay-Public-Android.apk (sideload with Downloader, Send Files to TV or adb until the Play Store version is out)
• Linux x64: ZerkPlay-Public-Linux-x64.tar.gz. Install mpv (it provides libmpv) and GTK 3, extract the archive and run zerk-play/zerk_play. On Arch, linux/packaging/PKGBUILD in the repo builds a package from this release.

Zerk Play 2 (beta 7)

If you already have the beta installed on Windows or Android TV, the app offers this update when it starts (or use Settings → Diagnostics → Check for updates).

What's new

Zerk Play on Linux

Zerk Play now runs on Linux, as requested in #1.

• Same app and same player as on Windows: the on-screen controls, subtitles, trailers, picture settings and your own mpv.conf all work.
• Hardware decoding with VA-API (Intel / AMD) or NVDEC (NVIDIA), picked automatically.
• Works on Wayland and X11.
• Xbox-style gamepads and the UI sounds are supported.
• Not on Linux yet: HDR passthrough, refresh rate matching and exclusive audio. Updates are installed with your package manager instead of the in-app updater.

It's new, so reports about how it runs on your distro and GPU are very welcome.

Fixes

• The Emby dashboard now shows the Zerk Play icon next to your sessions.
• The server now sees the real app version instead of 2.0.0, and the device shows as Windows, Android TV or Linux.

Downloads

• Windows 10/11: ZerkPlay-Public-Windows-setup.exe
• Android TV / Google TV: ZerkPlay-Public-Android.apk (sideload with Downloader, Send Files to TV or adb)
• Linux x64: ZerkPlay-Public-Linux-x64.tar.gz. Install mpv (it provides libmpv) and GTK 3, extract the archive and run zerk-play/zerk_play. On Arch, linux/packaging/PKGBUILD in the repo builds a package from this release.

Zerk Play 2 (beta 6)

If you already have the beta installed, the app offers this update when it starts (or use Settings → Diagnostics → Check for updates).

What's new

Four more languages

• The app is now available in French, German, Spanish and Polish (Settings → Languages → App language). Choosing one also switches TMDB titles and descriptions to that language, and trailer search to it.
• 51 subtitle languages to pick from and to search for, up from 10.

Projectors and scope screens

Everything below is in the new Settings → Picture section, on Windows and on Android TV.

• Screen shape: for 2.35, 2.37 or 2.40 scope screens. The picture and the player controls stay inside the scope area, so you don't need lens memory or a custom resolution. Zoom to fill now fills the scope area too.
• Remove black bars: finds black bars that are part of the video at the top and bottom, and crops them so wide films fill a scope screen or a zoomed picture.
• Anamorphic lens: stretches the picture vertically (1.25×, 1.33× or 1.5×) for projectors with an anamorphic lens.
• Default picture size: Original, Zoom to fill or Stretch, for every video. You can still change it in the player.
• Display target (Windows): for calibrated displays and projectors, set the colour space, transfer curve and peak brightness that every video is converted and tone mapped to.
• Use only mpv.conf (Windows): leave all picture and decoding options to your own mpv.conf.

Android TV

• Refresh rate matching now works on Android TV too (Settings → Picture → Match display refresh rate). The TV switches to 23.976 / 24 / 25 / 50 / 59.94 Hz to match the video, which removes judder.

Subtitles

• Forced only: a new subtitle mode that shows only the forced subtitles (foreign lines and signs) and never full subtitles. And if you switch to the forced track during an episode, the next episode now keeps it instead of going back to full subtitles.
• Smaller sizes and a slider: subtitle size now goes down to 25%, and it's a slider in Settings and in the player instead of a long list.
• Subtitle position: new setting, including Bottom of the screen, which keeps subtitles at the very bottom edge, in the black bars below widescreen films.
• Subtitle search on Jellyfin: a downloaded subtitle now switches on correctly. Before, the player could switch to a different track, so you saw subtitles in the wrong language. It also waits longer for the server to add the new subtitle, and tries again when a search comes back empty.

Playback

• Separate skip forward and skip back: set each one on its own, from 5 seconds to 2 minutes (Settings → Playback).
• Clock while paused: pausing or resuming with OK now shows the clock with the progress bar. The Android TV player shows the clock with its controls as well.
• Home Assistant and other automation: Zerk Play can call a webhook when playback starts, pauses, resumes or stops, for example to dim the lights (Settings → Connected services → Automation).

Browsing

• Full synopsis: long descriptions on movie, episode and series pages open in full with the new Synopsis button, or by clicking the text.
• Library layouts: Movies and Shows can show Posters, Cards or a List with the description. Switch with the new button in the library toolbar, or in Settings → Interface.

Reorganised settings

Settings are now grouped into Playback, Picture, Audio, Subtitles, Languages, Interface, Content & trailers, Connected services, Live TV, Account and Diagnostics. Picture options that used to be Windows-only now show on Android TV too, and all the language choices are together under Languages.

Downloads

• Windows 10/11: ZerkPlay-Public-Windows-setup.exe
• Android TV / Google TV: ZerkPlay-Public-Android.apk (sideload with Downloader, Send Files to TV or adb)

Zerk Play 2 (beta 5)

If you already have the beta installed, the app offers this update when it starts (or use Settings → Diagnostics → Check for updates).

What's new

Android TV player settings

The player on Android TV / Google TV now has a Settings button, like the Windows player:

• Aspect ratio: Original, Zoom to fill (crops the edges to fill the screen) or Stretch. The choice is kept for the next episode, and it works in Live TV too, which is handy for 4:3 channels.
• Playback speed: 0.5x to 2x.
• Playback info: video and audio format, resolution, frame rate and bitrate, the hardware decoders in use and dropped frames.

Quicker remote controls

• Double Back to exit. Press Back twice quickly anywhere in the app to open the exit menu, instead of backing out page by page. Works with the Android TV remote, a keyboard (Esc) and a gamepad (B) on Windows. It's off during playback.
• OK to pause. During playback, with the controls hidden, OK (the middle button) now pauses and resumes instead of opening the controls. Up/Down still show them.

Downloads

• Windows 10/11: ZerkPlay-Public-Windows-setup.exe
• Android TV / Google TV: ZerkPlay-Public-Android.apk (sideload with Downloader, Send Files to TV or adb)

Zerk Play 2 (beta 4)

If you already have the beta installed, the app offers this update when it starts (or use Settings → Diagnostics → Check for updates).

What's new

Subtitles

• Finer subtitle size control. Size now goes from 50% to 150% in 5% steps. Change it with left/right in Settings → Subtitles, where a live preview shows exactly how big subtitles will look on screen.
• Change subtitle size during playback. The Subtitles panel has a new "Subtitle size" option. The size changes live as you move through the list; Back cancels.
• Search and download subtitles. "Search subtitles" at the top of the Subtitles panel searches through your Emby/Jellyfin server's subtitle providers (e.g. OpenSubtitles). Pick a result and playback continues with the new subtitle once the server has it.

Ratings

• Rotten Tomatoes scores (critics and audience) on movie, series and request pages. Episodes and seasons show their series' scores.
• MDBList support. Add a free MDBList API key in Settings → Services (or from your phone via the setup QR code) for the most complete Rotten Tomatoes coverage. Without a key, scores come from *Seerr when available.

Requests

• Choose the quality profile when requesting. Users with advanced request rights in *Seerr can pick the Radarr/Sonarr profile and server, including 4K servers, instead of always getting the default.

Live TV

• M3U + XMLTV playlists. Add any M3U playlist with an optional XMLTV guide (Tunarr, NostalgiaTV and similar) in Settings → Live TV or from the phone setup page. Its channels and guide appear alongside your other Live TV.

Home & browsing

• Unwatched episode counts on landscape cards (e.g. Continue watching, Latest shows).
• New quality and sound icons on title pages: SD/HD/4K, HDR10/HDR10+/HLG/Dolby Vision and audio format with channels.
• Smoother browsing on TV. Card trailers redraw far less while you move around Home, and the "Trailers in cards" option (cards widening and playing trailers) is now off by default on Android TV. You can turn it back on in Settings.

Setup

• TMDB API key is always available on the phone setup page and during onboarding, even when using your server's metadata. It powers trailers, collections and discovery.

Fixes

• Pressing Play on a series or season from Home, search or collections no longer fails with a server error; it starts Next Up or the first episode.
• A trailer no longer keeps playing in the background after you start an episode from a series page.

Downloads

• Windows 10/11: ZerkPlay-Public-Windows-setup.exe
• Android TV / Google TV: ZerkPlay-Public-Android.apk (sideload with Downloader, Send Files to TV or adb)

Zerk Play 2 (beta 3)

Hotfix for beta 2. If you already have the beta installed, the app offers this update when it starts (or use Settings → Diagnostics → Check for updates).

Fixes

• Settings → Video → Advanced video and Settings → Content → Collections on Home can now be used with the keyboard, remote and D-pad straight away. Before, arrow keys did nothing until you clicked a row with the mouse.

Downloads

• Windows 10/11: ZerkPlay-Public-Windows-setup.exe
• Android TV / Google TV: ZerkPlay-Public-Android.apk (sideload with Downloader, Send Files to TV or adb)

Zerk Play 2 (beta 2)

Second beta of Zerk Play 2. If you already have the beta installed, the app offers this update when it starts (or use Settings → Diagnostics → Check for updates).

New

• Trailers in cards: stay on a movie or show for a moment and the card widens to play its trailer. Works on Windows and Android TV. Turn it off under Settings → Content → Trailers in cards; the Trailer sound setting applies.
• Trailers on Android TV: background trailers on details pages now play on Android TV too.
• Chapters: a Chapters button and list in the player on Windows and Android TV, with markers on the progress bar, for both Emby and Jellyfin. Titles with named chapters also get a Chapters row on their details page.
• Your collections on Home: pick collections under Settings → Content → Collections on Home, and their films show as rows right after Continue watching, in the order you choose.

Fixes and improvements

• Fixed details, series and request pages sometimes not scrolling back up to the top after reaching the bottom.
• Search shows your library results right away, without waiting for TMDB or Jellyseerr/Overseerr.
• Home makes fewer server requests when Jellyseerr/Overseerr isn't set up.

Downloads

• Windows 10/11: ZerkPlay-Public-Windows-setup.exe
• Android TV / Google TV: ZerkPlay-Public-Android.apk (sideload with Downloader, Send Files to TV or adb)

Zerk Play 2 (beta)

First public release of Zerk Play 2, a full rewrite. This is a beta: expect rough edges, and please report anything that breaks. See the README for screenshots and the full feature list.

Downloads

• Windows 10/11: ZerkPlay-Public-Windows-setup.exe
• Android TV / Google TV: ZerkPlay-Public-Android.apk (sideload with Downloader, Send Files to TV or adb)

Highlights

• Discovery-first home: Because you watched, What are you in the mood for?, Picked for you, taste rows and Top 10 trending
• TMDB tags, tag pages, More like this, background trailers, Calendar and TMDB collections
• Jellyseerr / Overseerr requests everywhere: Request badges, a request page with season picking, requestable search results, and request status
• mpv playback on Windows with HDR output and automatic Windows HDR switching; Media3 on Android TV; audio passthrough
• Live TV with a full guide for your own Xtream Codes account
• D-pad / remote / gamepad first, including on Windows, where the mouse cursor hides during D-pad navigation
• Set up a TV from your phone with a QR code
• New: Jellyfin support. Choose Emby or Jellyfin at sign-in. It has only been tested lightly, so please report issues.

You bring your own server and API keys. Nothing is preset in these builds.