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No server, by design

Most media-library apps assume a server somewhere: a NAS running Plex, a Jellyfin instance on a home PC, a Kodi machine, a hosted account. Cinaura doesn’t. The library and everything that surrounds it live entirely on the TV.

Why it works

Section titled “Why it works”

Android TV devices have grown into capable computers. The Shield, the Fire TV Cube, the Onn 4K Pro, the latest Chromecast: all ship with enough CPU and RAM to do the work that used to require a dedicated machine in another room.

Cinaura is designed for that hardware curve, not against it. As Android TV boxes get faster, the architecture gets stronger, not weaker.

What you get

Section titled “What you get”
  • Setup is one APK install. No DNS, no port forwarding, no router configuration, no remote-access setup, no second device to keep running.
  • Privacy by architecture. Your library index never leaves the TV. There’s no central server holding a record of what you watch, when, or for how long.
  • Less to break. No service to restart, no database to corrupt, no sync conflicts between server and clients. If the TV’s on, the library works.

Many sources, one library

Section titled “Many sources, one library”

Connect a debrid service, a network share, and a USB drive to the same TV and Cinaura doesn’t ask you to pick. It indexes all of them and blends what they share into a single library.

When a title exists on more than one source (a 4K copy on RealDebrid plus a 1080p archive on a NAS, say), Cinaura surfaces the best quality version by default. The other copies stay one tap away in case the primary source isn’t reachable, the network is flaky, or you’d rather use the smaller file.

You don’t have to decide which source “owns” a title. The app re-evaluates every time you press play.

The tradeoffs we accept

Section titled “The tradeoffs we accept”
  • Each TV is its own self-contained library. Sources you add on one TV don’t automatically appear on another. (Optional sync may arrive in future. It would be a feature you opt into, never a requirement.)
  • Heavier work runs on the TV itself. Metadata fetches, thumbnail generation, large index updates: all happen in the background, on the device. Your TV needs to be on for it to make progress.
  • The hardware bar moves up over time. Cinaura’s compute appetite grows with what Android TV boxes can do. We’re betting that’s the right curve.