v2.1.0

Unplugged 2.1.0

2.1.0 builds on the 2.0.0 native player: non-linear stretch now behaves as a
set-once tool, the library is more reliable, and support has a one-click
diagnostics report.

Non-Linear Stretch (NLS)

• Auto now fills clean 16:9/scope sources as well as letterboxed ones...
• Bars removed drives every fill mode...
• Max distortion is the warp budget...
• Post NLS X-Crop / Y-Crop: per-axis crop after the stretch, whole frame incl. bars, real time.
• Crop mode follows Bars removed (0 keeps bars, 100 fills).
• Scope<->IMAX transitions: band tracked per frame; no stale crop or NLS drop-out.
• Tuning with the rail up shows the full-screen composition; same INFO numbers.
• Axis defaults to Horizontal; Split/Vertical remain opt-in (vertical elongation).

Library

• Row-based season/episode/movie views with posters, plot, facts and IMDb chips...
• Ratings always present (N/A until fetched).
• Back returns to the full titles page...
• All episode thumbnails.
• Themed right-click Hide/Restore; removed-folder duplicates hidden.
• Now Playing year consistent.
• Poster/art: Wikipedia fallback for films and TV; series poster applied to every episode; poster retry with a 900/day OMDb budget (large libraries fill over time).

Known limitations

• At least one IMAX frame during transition still follows aspect ratio NLS

Upgrade

• Installs over 2.0.0; library, presets, calibration preserved.

v2.0.0

Unplugged 2.0.0

Unplugged is now one native Windows application — no Python runtime — with a
native settings rail, scope-friendly non-linear stretch, self-saving presets, a
daily update check, and correct Dolby Vision reporting over HDMI.

Highlights

• Native app. One executable, no Python, faster start-up. Every settings
  change reaches the picture live, including on a paused frame.
• Non-linear stretch. Off by default; switching it on fills a letterboxed
  scope title immediately. Bars removed, Axis (Horizontal / Vertical / Split),
  Split, Strength, Centre protection, Curve, Max distortion, Fill mode
  (Auto / Stretch / Crop / Off), Fill limit and Lock band. N toggles it.
• Presets. Default is a read-only baseline; custom presets save themselves.
  First start creates Preset 1–5 and activates Preset 1. Playback and Source
  always stay available and are never part of a preset.
• Library posters. Cached posters are reused from disk; missing ones retry
  in the background with backoff and survive folder removal/re-add.
• Update check. Once a day, notify-only, with a start-up card. Can be
  disabled in System → App.
• The full settings guide ships with the app in docs\settings-guide.md.

Upgrading from 1.2.0

Uninstall the old version first. Your settings live in
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Unplugged and are kept: on first start they are copied into the
five ready presets and Preset 1 becomes active. New installs start from the
compiled defaults.

Requirements

Windows 10 or 11, x64. The Microsoft VC++ 2015–2022 x64 runtime is bundled. A
Blackmagic DeckLink card is required for live capture; file playback needs none.

Download

Unplugged-setup-2.0.0.exe — 127,017,620 bytes

SHA-256: 666AA55491E39B764AC2D5980876D9072653350D5E1690896426C361EF26BAED

Source: github.com/spedagadi/unplugged-mpc-hc, tag v2.0.0.

v1.2.0

Unplugged 1.2.0

A new poster library for your films and TV shows, a simpler settings panel, and Super Resolution as a single switch.

What's new

Poster library

• The Media Library is now a poster grid with Movies, TV Shows and Folders tabs.
• Multiple library folders. Add or remove folders from the library screen. Your existing media folder from 1.1.x is added automatically.
• Stays up to date. Each time Unplugged starts it checks your folders in the background. New files appear and removed ones disappear, and you can watch while it works. Films on a drive that's switched off or unplugged stay in the library until it comes back.
• Uses your own artwork first: poster files next to your films, folder art, and covers stored inside MKV/MP4 files. Kodi, Plex and Jellyfin file names are recognised.
• Downloads missing posters from OMDb (IMDb data) for titles with no artwork. A poster is used only when the title and year match, so you get a plain tile rather than the wrong film's poster.
• Downloaded posters are saved next to your media (for example Film (2021)-poster.jpg), so other players can use them and they survive a reinstall. If the folder is read-only they are kept only in Unplugged's own cache.

Settings

• Clearer section headers, and every section starts collapsed: open one section at a time.
• The Output tab now shows only what most people need: Calibration LUT, scaling, Super Resolution and Save as PNG. The advanced settings are still kept and still apply.
• Super Resolution is now an On/Off switch. Turning it on also sets the related settings it needs, so it works without further tuning.

Upgrading from 1.1.x

• Install over your existing version; your settings are kept.
• The first start builds the library and fetches posters, which can take a few minutes for a large collection. You can use the app meanwhile.

Good to know

• Super Resolution needs an NVIDIA RTX or a recent Intel GPU, and applies to SDR, 8-bit video only. HDR and 10-bit sources play normally without it.

Known limitations

• TV shows get a show poster only; no individual season posters from OMDb yet.
• Very new or obscure titles may not be on OMDb and keep a plain tile.

Download

File	Size	SHA-256
Unplugged-setup-1.2.0.exe	185,974,630 bytes	65600E1A01637F142E6D709AF95ABF5147BB30993A44353771DA770FEB65F7D3

v1.1.1

Unplugged 1.1.1

This hotfix fixes Media Player mode not playing files on some PCs, and makes problems much easier to report.

Fixes

• Media Player mode now works on PCs with other codec packs installed (for example K-Lite). Before, another codec pack could take over .mkv/.mp4 playback and the file would not play. Uninstalling such a pack could also break Unplugged. Unplugged now always uses its own bundled playback components, whatever else is installed.
• Fixed a crash when closing Unplugged after a file failed to play.
• Fixed a freeze of up to 40 seconds when closing Unplugged after a file failed to play.

Improvements

• Clear error messages: if a file can't be played, Unplugged now says why in plain language instead of silently returning to the library.
• Warning banners: a banner now appears when playback works but something is wrong, such as no audio or HDR tone mapping not available.
• Library shows only .mkv and .mp4 files, so unsupported files can't be picked by mistake.
• Version number is shown in the top bar.
• Installation check at startup: if program files are missing or damaged, Unplugged asks you to reinstall.

Reporting a problem

• A new Report a problem button (top bar, and in the error message) saves a diagnostics file to your Desktop. It holds logs, settings, and details of your graphics card, displays and other installed codec software. It also includes the names of files you played.
• It then opens an email to fossunplugged@gmail.com with the details filled in; please attach the file. If no email program opens, copy the address from the window.
• Unplugged now keeps a playback log and saves crash reports automatically, so problems can be diagnosed from the file you send.

Upgrading

• Install over 1.1.0; your settings are kept.
• If you had problems with 1.1.0 and another codec pack, no extra steps are needed: just install 1.1.1.

Download

File	Size	SHA-256
Unplugged-setup-1.1.1.exe	184.9 MB	D388D6689A046D2D6FD6788526FE4467B91B2BF5C1DACEF5E23DC2FF545A9C0E

v1.1.0

Unplugged 1.1.0
This release improves PCM audio playback and subtitle handling.

What’s new
Better PCM volume on stereo outputs: Multichannel audio is mixed to match the active Windows audio output layout. For example, 7.1 audio is downmixed for a stereo HDMI monitor, while multichannel layouts are retained when the output supports them.
Subtitles start off: Playback opens with subtitles disabled. Choose a subtitle track when you want to display them.
Improved subtitle track detection for DirectShow text and subtitle media types.
Safer audio setup recovery: The installer removes a previous Unplugged renderer registration only when it can confirm the registration belongs to that exact Unplugged install.

v1.0.0

unplugged_install_debug.zip

Unplugged 1.0.0

HDR capture and playback for the HTPC. Unplugged takes live HDMI in through a
Blackmagic DeckLink card, or plays local files, and tone-maps HDR to your display
with a grade you control. Same renderer, same grade, both paths.

Open source, built on MPC-HC's filter architecture with the Unplugged video
renderer and a fork of LAV Filters.

---

Two ways to use it

Video Processor — live HDMI in, processed and presented full screen.
Acquisition is automatic and self-healing: plug, unplug, or have the source
renegotiate from SDR to HDR mid-film, and the picture follows without you
touching anything. Brief dropouts wait out a grace window instead of bouncing
you to a spinner.

Media Player — a library of local files with the same renderer and the same
grade behind it.

Pick one in the first-run wizard, switch at any time afterwards. Switching
restarts the app into the other mode: the two run different graphs on the
same engine, and a fresh process is the only way to guarantee the next thing you
open doesn't inherit the wreckage of the last. Settings, port names and the
input you clicked are all written to disk before the restart happens.

Live capture

• Every port on every DeckLink card is listed with its own name ("Apple TV",
  "Projector box"…) and a live badge: locked with SDR / HDR PQ / HDR HLG /
  Dolby Vision, or no signal.
• Click a port to switch input on the fly. Rename ports from the same page;
  names persist and appear everywhere the port does.
• Dolby Vision over HDMI is recognised as its own case — the card reports a DV
  signal as SDR, so the badge and the tone map read the frames, not the
  InfoFrame.
• HDR10 static metadata (MaxCLL, MaxFALL, mastering display) is read from the
  card when the source carries it.

File playback

• MKV, MP4 and friends, with HEVC/AVC video and TrueHD/Atmos, DTS-HD and AC-3
  audio.
• Embedded subtitles, rendered in-picture — text tracks (SRT/ASS/SSA) and
  bitmap tracks (PGS, VobSub), with the full track list, language and format,
  plus Off. Switching is live and stays where you were.
• Audio tracks switch in place, without restarting the file.
• Bitstream passes the encoded audio to your receiver; PCM decodes here. In
  bitstream the receiver owns the level, so the app's volume and mute dim
  themselves with a tooltip saying so rather than pretending to work.
• A setting that needs a graph rebuild re-opens the file at the position you
  were at, not from zero.

Picture — the grade

The tone map is the key contribution, and it lives on the settings rail.

• Tone curve. Unplugged is the default for every HDR source, HDR10 and
  Dolby Vision alike. GT7 Adapt is the manual choice when you want a master's
  own MaxCLL to size the highlight mapping instead of the house shape.
• Taste dials, all exact no-ops at zero, so a look you like is never
  disturbed by the dials you don't touch: Exposure (input gain in thirds of a
  stop, applied before the curve so the shoulder absorbs it), Shadow detail
  (spreads dark values apart without lifting black), Contrast (symmetric about
  mid grey — black, mid and white stay exactly put), Highlight desat and
  Gamut capacity.
• Display Target — the numbers that describe your screen, set once from a
  measurement report and not per film: measured peak, measured black, and where
  diffuse white sits. The ratio between peak and white is your highlight headroom.
• Calibration LUT — load a DisplayCAL/HCFR .cube; applied as the final pass,
  separate from the tone mapper, with an enable toggle so you can A/B it without
  losing the loaded file.
• ML grading (Zion Core) — model-driven highlight rolloff, shadow recovery and
  skin preservation.

Interface

• Up arrow shows or hides all on-screen chrome from any window.
• Settings rail in nodes: Playback, Source, HDR, Zion, Output, System.
• Transport bar: play/pause, position, seek, duration, mute, volume — seek and
  volume are disabled where they have no meaning (live capture has no position to
  seek; a bitstream receiver owns the level).
• Status panel with the live pipeline: what the signal actually is, what the
  renderer is doing with it, frames delivered, peak in use.
• First-run setup wizard, re-runnable from the Source tab and from System.

Installing

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. A Blackmagic DeckLink card for live capture; file
  playback needs no card.
• The Microsoft Visual C++ 2015–2022 x64 runtime is bundled and installed
  silently. It is skipped only when the machine already has the files the ML
  grade's inference engine links against — either way the install log says which.
• The installer needs administrator rights and says so up front rather than
  failing halfway. Two licence pages are mandatory: the Blackmagic DeckLink SDK
  licence and Unplugged's own end-user terms. DirectShow filters are registered
  at install and unregistered at uninstall.
• Your tuning lives in %USERPROFILE%\.unplugged\ and survives uninstall and
  reinstall — re-installing never costs you a grade.

Known limitations, stated plainly

• Dolby Vision is a capture-path feature (profile 7/8 over HDMI). DV in files
  (profile 5) is not supported in Media Player mode.
• No disc images: ISO and BDMV folder/playlist playback are not supported.
  Rip to a file.
• Subtitle styling applies to text tracks; bitmap tracks arrive pre-rendered.
• A rebuild-only setting change re-opens the source; playback resumes at the same
  position after a brief re-buffer.
• A calibration LUT describes one display. Moving the box to another panel means
  another measurement.

Download

Unplugged-setup-1.0.0.exe — 184,760,167 bytes
SHA-256 ACAB7D11FA4128BE5E0026925C012D0C0515F15F07AF6CFE07E4237CB1624DD1

Source

Built from four public repositories, tagged v1.0.0:
unplugged-mpc-hc ·
unplugged-VideoRenderer ·
unplugged-ffmpeg ·
LAV Filters fork — see the source links in the mpc-hc repository.

Modified LAV Filters and FFmpeg are GPL-licensed; the repositories above are the
complete corresponding source and the offer the GPL requires.

When something misbehaves

• %USERPROFILE%\.unplugged\ — your settings and logs\, the app's audit trail.
• s3engine.log in the install folder — the engine's graph, teardown and subtitle
  trail.
• Setup Log *.txt in %TEMP% — what the installer did, including whether it
  installed the runtime and registered each filter.

A report that includes the last twenty lines of the engine log answers most
questions without a round trip.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by the MPC-HC, LAV Filters, FFmpeg or Blackmagic
Design projects.