Jellyfin for Android TV

Review by eFreeware

Jellyfin for Android TV is the official television app from the Jellyfin project, the team behind an open source media server that anyone can run themselves. The idea is simple: instead of paying a subscription to a streaming service, you keep your own films, shows, music and photos on hardware you control and watch them through an app like this one. It is free, it carries no advertising and it has no in-app purchases, which is unusual enough in this category to be worth stating plainly.

The reason to consider it is the same reason to consider Jellyfin at all. If you already have a library of your own media, whether ripped from discs, recorded from broadcasts or bought as downloads, this app is the living-room window onto it. It has been on Google Play since July 2019 and sits at a 4.5 average from 3,080 ratings, with more than a million installs, so there is a decent body of users behind it.

You bring the server; the app brings the interface. That division of labor shapes everything else about it, including who will get along with it and who will not.

Live TV and recordings, with hardware on your side

The first capability the developer lists is Live TV, along with the recordings your server has captured. If you have a tuner attached to your server machine and a guide set up there, the Android TV app becomes a way to watch those channels on the big screen and to browse what has been recorded, all from the same library view as everything else. The developer is careful to note that this part depends on additional hardware or services, which is an honest way of saying the app itself cannot conjure channels out of nothing.

That caveat matters more than it might seem. Live TV through Jellyfin is a chain of pieces: a tuner, a server that can see it, and a client like this one on the television. Each link has to be in place before anything appears on screen. For someone who already runs that setup, the app is a natural front end. For someone who does not, the feature is a description of what is possible rather than something you get on install.

Recorded shows sit alongside live channels in the same app, which keeps the experience coherent: you are not switching between one tool for live broadcasts and another for your stored files. The developer presents it as one collection, and that is the sensible way to think about it.

Casting and streaming around the house

Beyond the television itself, the app can send media to a Chromecast device on your network, and it can stream your collection to an Android device as well. In practice that means the same library follows you from the living room to a phone or tablet without a second app or a second account. Streaming your own media is one of the core things a Jellyfin server lets you do, and the Android TV client is one of the ways you reach it.

Casting works, so the devices involved need to be able to see each other. That is ordinary for this kind of feature rather than a quirk of this particular app, but it is the sort of detail worth having in mind before you plan an evening around it.

The last item on the developer's list is the interface itself. The collection is presented in what is described as an easy to use layout, which is the right priority for a remote control: large targets, clear rows, and no fiddling with a cursor. I would expect the browsing experience to be the part most users judge it on, since that is where the minutes are spent before a film actually starts.

What the app asks of you first

There is no way around the central requirement: a Jellyfin server has to be up and running before this app has anything to show. The app is a companion, not a library in itself. If you do not already run a server, the project's own website is where the setup story begins, and that is a separate undertaking from installing the television client.

The cost picture is straightforward. The app is free, there are no ads and there are no in-app purchases. The Jellyfin project describes itself as open source and free software, with no fees and no tracking, and the server is offered on the same basis. That does not mean the whole arrangement is free in every direction: Live TV and recordings, as noted, can require hardware or services you pay for elsewhere, and running a server means having a machine that stays on and storage to hold your media.

The developer asks for server version 10.11.0 or later. If your server is older, that is the thing to check before wondering why the client behaves oddly. The same notes describe a release filled with improvements and bug fixes, which is the ordinary rhythm of a project like this.

Getting the most from it

The most useful advice I can give is to treat the server as the project and the app as the remote control. Organize your library, name files sensibly and let the server do the cataloging work, because the television client is only as pleasant as the collection behind it. A tidy library makes the browsing rows meaningful; a messy one makes every screen a chore.

If Live TV is the draw, sort out the tuner and guide on the server side first and confirm they work in a browser before touching the TV app. That way, when something does not appear on the television, you know which end to look at. The same logic applies to casting: verify that the devices can reach each other on your network before you settle in for the evening.

It is also worth keeping the app updated. The developer's release notes point to a blog post for the details of each version, and the server recommendation is included there for a reason: client and server are developed together, and matching them saves time. Finally, if you are new to the project, the sample content, videos from the Blender Open Movie Project and music from Binärpilot, gives a sense of the kind of personal library this is built to serve.

A companion app for people who already run a server

Jellyfin for Android TV does one job and does it without asking for money or attention: it puts the media on your own server onto your television, with Live TV, recordings, casting and streaming to Android devices as the supporting cast. The free price, the absence of ads and the absence of in-app purchases make it an easy thing to try once the server side exists.

A household with a server machine, a tuner for broadcast channels and a Chromecast in the living room is close to the ideal case.

If you have no server and no intention of running one, the app has nothing to offer you yet, because the library comes from you rather than from the developer. For everyone else, this is a free, well-established client, backed by more than a million installs and a 4.5 average, that turns a self-hosted collection into something the whole room can watch.

What's new in version 0.19.10

Thank you for using Jellyfin for Android TV! This update adds a lot of improvements, fixes bugs and more. Read our blog post for more details: https://jellyfin.org/posts/androidtv-v0.19.0 The latest Jellyfin Server (10.11.0+) is recommended.