Jellyfin playback that works immediately and still respects a serious mpv setup.
A bundled libmpv player is the Windows default, so playback needs no separate install. Power users can switch
to their own external mpv process for SVP4, custom shaders, HDR profiles, and their full
mpv.conf. Watched state and resume points sync straight back to the server in either mode.
Most people should not have to install or configure a player before watching something. MediaFlick therefore ships a focused libmpv runtime on Windows and uses it by default. It opens video in a dedicated native player window while the app keeps Jellyfin progress, resume position, and watched state synchronized.
That convenience does not replace the original power-user path. Select External mpv and MediaFlick hands the stream to the executable you configured. Your mpv.conf, scripts, shaders, SVP4 pipeline, HDR profiles, and input bindings continue to apply. Original-quality direct playback remains the default in both modes, with optional automatic or bitrate-limited Jellyfin transcoding for slower connections.
Browsing is fast because it isn't a web client talking to a server on every keystroke: the app keeps a local SQLite mirror of your library and searches it directly, so type-ahead search stays instant even on a big library and posters keep working while the server is slow.
The catch with playing outside the browser is usually that Jellyfin loses track of what you watched. MediaFlick solves that: while mpv plays, it reports playback start, progress, watched state, and resume position back to your server, so your library stays correct across every device.
- Built-in playback on Windows and Linux. Windows releases and Linux AppImages bundle a focused libmpv runtime. Linux uses X11 or XWayland; unpackaged builds can use system libmpv. Both show the React playback controls over native video in one window. See Linux setup.
- Full external mpv mode. Hand streams to your own
mpvprocess when you wantmpv.conf, scripts, shaders, profiles, SVP4, custom HDR, or personal input bindings. - Selectable streaming quality. Keep original quality, use Jellyfin's automatic connection limit, or cap playback from 1.5 to 120 Mbps with server-transcoding fallback.
- Playstate synced to Jellyfin. Playback start, progress, watched state, and resume positions report back to your server.
- Media-segment skipping. Skip intros, credits, recaps, and commercials, with per-type prompt or auto-skip (countdown) settings.
- Skip markers on the seek bar. The mpv timeline shows exactly where segments are skipped, merged with the file's own chapters.
- Its own native UI. Sign-in (password or Quick Connect), home rows for Continue Watching / Next Up, Recently Added Movies, Recently Added Shows (the newest episodes), Latest Movies, and Latest Shows, a virtualized poster grid, and a details view with cast, seasons, and episodes.
- Local metadata cache. Your library is mirrored into SQLite with full-text search over titles, overviews, genres, and cast, kept current by a background sync.
- Release calendar. Agenda and month views of upcoming episodes and film releases. It works from Jellyfin metadata alone and gains monitored/file truth from the optional Companion plugin. The Home Release Timeline shelf shows the same releases as posters around a marked today; with the Companion it also leads with the past 30 days' releases, each marked downloaded or missing.
- Server-mediated requests and ratings. The optional MediaFlick Companion keeps Sonarr, Radarr, Seerr, MDBList, and TMDB credentials on the Jellyfin server. It serves MDBList ratings through a quota-aware shared cache without exposing the administrator key to Desktop.
- Two collection modes. Use exact TMDB franchises and template-created personal collections, or browse Jellyfin BoxSets unchanged. Collection preferences stay local to each account.
- Server administration in your browser. Anything the app deliberately doesn't rebuild (dashboard, users, metadata editing) opens in your default browser from the right-click menu.
- Optional external-player setup. One-click mpv download on Windows; Linux and macOS auto-detect a system
mpv. - Automatic in-app updates from GitHub Releases (Windows).
- Cross-platform. Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Settings → Viewing stores preferences for the signed-in account. Choose spoiler protection, next-episode playback (off, a cancellable countdown, or automatic), an episode limit, ordered language codes, subtitle rules, and a 0/5/10/30-second resume rewind. Valid per-title track choices take priority. Original-audio preference uses tracks explicitly labeled original.
The same page controls text size, preset poster widths, the startup page, and separate remembered filters for Movies and Series. Explicit filtered links take priority over remembered filters. Spoiler protection conceals unwatched episode artwork, names, and summaries; the episode details page has a Reveal button. Calendar episode names are concealed conservatively because upcoming entries may not have a known watched state.
Settings → Appearance → Cards groups the card-preview toggle and hover delay. The delay control is disabled while previews are off, and its draft timing applies to the live preview.
Settings → Client → Player groups subtitle size, outline, background, and position with a preview when the built-in player is selected. Subtitle appearance applies at the next playback; bitmap or authored subtitle styling may limit its effect. Seek intervals and keyboard shortcuts belong to this device. Use the shortcut recorder to press a key or modifier combination for pause, mute, fullscreen, seeking, stop, or subtitle visibility. Clear disables a binding. Space always pauses; Left and Right always use the saved seek intervals. The Keyboard shortcuts section includes W alongside all built-in controls. With external mpv selected, it shows only the mark-watched-and-play-next binding. It marks a movie watched, or marks an episode watched and plays the next available item. Conflicting assignments are rejected. Streaming quality and automatic segment skipping remain on Settings → Client → Playback. External players retain their own subtitle styling and native keyboard bindings.
Use Save, Reset, and Discard on each settings page. An episode limit counts continuous playback; manually starting a title begins a new session, and explicit Next actions remain available.
Windows. Download the latest MediaFlickDesktop-Setup-<version>.exe from Releases and run it. The built-in player is ready immediately; installing external mpv is optional.
On first launch, enter your Jellyfin server address and sign in. Right-click anywhere for Client Settings, Open Jellyfin dashboard, and About.
Linux / macOS. Grab the release archive and run mediaflick-desktop. mpv isn't bundled; a system mpv is auto-detected.
See BUILDING.md.
MediaFlick Desktop is free software under the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later. Third-party components keep their own licenses; release attribution and bundled-runtime details are in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.
The optional server plugin lives in plugin/. It targets
Jellyfin 12.1.0 and exposes only typed, authenticated operations. There is no
generic service proxy. Configure Sonarr, Radarr, Seerr, MDBList, and TMDB support
from Jellyfin's plugin dashboard. Desktop clients discover it automatically,
report plugin and service availability under Settings → MediaFlick Companion,
and never receive service addresses or API keys. MDBList ratings use a
shared stable-ID cache, stale-while-revalidate, bounded batches, and durable
quota and backoff state so one administrator key can safely serve multiple users.
MediaFlick keeps device settings in settings.json and account-owned intent in
accounts.json, collections.json, and playback-preferences.json. Custom
collection posters live beside those app-owned files. They are not a supported
manual-editing interface; use Settings so writes, backups, and validation stay
atomic. library.db stores the active Jellyfin session alongside rebuildable
catalog and collection results. Recreating the database signs the account out
without removing its preferences or posters.