tinyplay

Project Overview

TinyPlay is a lightweight living-room media player for idle Windows mini PCs, laptops, and Mac minis. Connect one to your television and it becomes an mpv-powered playback device, with your phone serving as the remote control. These machines vastly outperform set-top boxes, yet a keyboard and mouse feel awkward in front of a TV and a traditional remote is no good at typing searches or scrubbing through a timeline. TinyPlay lets each device do what it does best: let hardware handle playback, let the phone handle interaction.

Key Features

• Phone browser remote — scan the QR code and you're ready; no app to install
• Web browser — browse common streaming sites such as YouTube and Netflix on the TV
• Media servers — connect to Emby, Jellyfin, or Plex for poster walls, episode browsing, search, and resume playback
• File browsing — navigate SMB, WebDAV shares, or local directories and play files directly
• Live TV — integrate IPTV channel lists with favorites and recent-view history
• DLNA casting — cast streams from compatible apps on your local network
• Multi-server — mount multiple media sources simultaneously and switch between them
• Cross-platform — available for Windows and macOS, including Apple Silicon and Intel; a separate Apple TV edition is also available
• mpv under the hood — MKV, HDR, Dolby Vision, TrueHD, PGS subtitles, and more

Target Audience

• Users who want to turn an idle computer into a TV streaming device
• Users who need phone-based remote control
• Windows and macOS users

Quick Start

1. Download the latest build from GitHub Releases
2. Windows x86-64: run TinyPlay-Setup-x64.exe
3. macOS: download the DMG for your chip and drag to Applications
4. The phone and the computer running TinyPlay must be on the same local network

Core Advantages

• Leverages idle computers with far better performance than set-top boxes
• Phone browser remote with no app installation
• mpv under the hood for comprehensive format support
• Open-source and free

System Requirements

• OS: Windows 10 (1607) or later, 64-bit; macOS 14 or later (Apple Silicon or Intel)