Media

Media

Argosy can connect to a Jellyfin server and put your films and shows alongside your games -- on the home screen, in search, and in the library.

Media arrived in v2.8.0 and reached the second screen in v2.9.0. It has had limited testing outside the developers' own servers, so if something misbehaves, report it.

Media is entirely optional. Argosy works exactly as before if you never connect a server, and the media rows and tabs stay hidden until you do.

Connecting a server

Settings > Media holds everything on this page.

1. Media Server -- enter your server address, or pick one Argosy found on the local network.
2. Argosy shows a Quick Connect code. Open Jellyfin on any device where you are already signed in, go to your user menu, choose Quick Connect, and type the code. Argosy signs in when you approve it.
3. Sync Library pulls your libraries in. Run it again whenever you have added a lot to the server.

If your server has Quick Connect turned off, Sign In With Password takes a username and password instead.

Browsing

Your Jellyfin libraries appear in the library grid next to your consoles, and each one can have its own row on the home screen. Search covers games and media together, so one query finds both.

Opening a film or show gives you a detail page with its artwork, description, cast, and titles like it. A show adds a season list; picking a season lists its episodes.

From the detail page:

• A plays. It reads Resume when you are part way through something, and Play otherwise.
• Y favourites a film or show, or marks an episode watched or unwatched.
• Holding A on something you are part way through offers Start Over as well as resuming.

Playing

Playback uses Argosy's own player rather than handing off to another app.

• Subtitles and audio tracks, including tracks your server provides separately from the file
• Chapter markers, where the title has them
• Resume, shared with the server, so where you stopped follows you to your other Jellyfin clients
• Skipping an intro when the server has marked one

Streaming Quality (Settings > Media) sets a ceiling for playback over the network:

Setting	What it does
Original - Auto	Sends the file as it is wherever possible. Your server only converts when the device cannot play the format
High - 1080p	Caps at 1080p and 8 Mbps
Medium - 720p	Caps at 720p and 4 Mbps
Low - 480p	Caps at 480p and 2 Mbps

A capped tier is skipped when the file is already smaller than the cap, so a 720p file is not re-encoded to reach a 1080p ceiling.

The setting is a starting point, not a lock. Quality in the player changes resolution, frame rate and bitrate for the title you are watching, without stopping playback. Only the combinations your server can actually produce are offered.

Prompt Before Leaving Player (Settings > Media) asks you to confirm when you back out of something you are watching. It does not interrupt a title that ends on its own or a series that runs out of episodes.

Audio Language and Subtitles pick which tracks are chosen first when a title carries more than one. Burn In Image Subtitles covers picture-based subtitle formats, which have to be drawn into the video rather than laid over it.

Downloading

Downloads share the same queue and the same Downloads screen as your games, and behave the same way: progress on the cover, a count next to the nav entry, and pause, resume and cancel.

• A film downloads as one item.
• A show downloads as one item too. Before it starts, you pick what you want -- a whole season, the next few episodes, or individual episodes chosen season by season. Episodes then download one after another, and the screen shows both the file in flight and how far through your selection it is.
• Pausing takes a download out of the active list and marks the cover with a pause badge, rather than leaving it sitting there appearing to run.

Download Quality works like Streaming Quality, with Original File in place of Auto. Downloading at Original stores exactly what is on the server.

Media Location chooses where downloaded media is written. It is separate from where your games go; see Storage and Paths.

Downloaded titles play with the server switched off or out of reach.

On the home screen

Media reaches the home screen three ways:

• Library rows -- one row per Jellyfin library, drawn in whichever home layout you use.
• Next Up and Continue Watching -- the next episode of a show you are working through, and anything you are part way into. Both can be turned off in Settings > Interface > Home Screen.
• Favourites -- a favourited film or show sits in your favourites row with your games.

You can also pin a title to the Custom Grid, where it can play in the tile itself. See Home Screen Layouts.

On the second screen

On a dual-screen handheld, video plays on one screen while the other stays useful. See Dual-Screen for how the two screens divide up in general.

• Video opens on the larger of the two screens, unless a game is already running there, in which case it takes the other one.
• While a film or show plays, the second screen browses the same library. For a show it lists seasons and episodes, marks the one playing, and starts any episode you pick without going back to the detail page.
• Episodes of a show play one after another on their own. You can jump around from the second screen at any point instead of waiting.
• Swapping which screen leads carries the video with it.

The controller stays with playback rather than following your browsing, so the shoulder buttons keep skipping through the film while the second screen is doing something else. The second screen takes touch.

If the second screen sits untouched during playback it dims to 40% after 30 seconds, and goes fully dark after a minute, so it is not shining at you in a dark room. Touching it brings it back without pressing whatever was under your finger.

Privacy

Show What You're Watching controls whether what you are playing is shared with friends, the same way playing a game is. Turn it off and media playback stays private while game presence carries on as before.

Known rough edges

Reports are especially useful for:

• video that will not play, particularly formats your server has to convert
• downloads that report the wrong size, or save somewhere other than the location you chose
• episodes turning up under the wrong season