TinyPlay
Turn an idle Windows mini PC, laptop, or Mac mini into a lightweight living-room media player — controlled from your phone.
中文说明 · View the TinyPlay website
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.**
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 without reaching for a keyboard or mouse
- 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; the phone remote remains available for playback control
- Multi-server — mount multiple media sources simultaneously and switch between them at will
- Cross-platform — available for Windows and macOS, including Apple Silicon and Intel; a separate Apple TV edition is available too
- mpv under the hood — MKV, HDR, Dolby Vision, TrueHD, PGS subtitles and more
See it in action
Download
Download the latest build from GitHub Releases.
- Windows x86-64 — run
TinyPlay-Setup-x64.exe. It creates Start-menu and
- macOS — Apple Silicon (
TinyPlay-macos-arm64.dmg) and Intel
TinyPlay-macos-intel.dmg) are both available. Open the DMG and drag
TinyPlay to Applications.
The phone and the computer running TinyPlay must be on the same local network.
System requirements
| System | Status | | --- | --- | | Windows 10 (1607) or later, 64-bit | Ready to play out of the box | | macOS 14 or later (Apple Silicon or Intel) | Ready to play out of the box | | macOS 12 - 13 | Works, but you need to install mpv yourself (see below) |
macOS 12 and 13. TinyPlay itself runs, but the mpv player bundled in the DMG is built for macOS 14 and newer, so those systems refuse to start it. Install mpv yourself and TinyPlay will use it automatically:
- Download mpv for macOS from mpv.io (the
mpv.app; on Apple Silicon that build runs through
Rosetta).
- Drag
mpv.appinto your Applications folder. - Restart TinyPlay. It looks for mpv in
/Applications, in your personal
~/Applications, and in the usual Homebrew locations - no configuration
needed. If you keep mpv somewhere else, point at it from the menu-bar
Advanced Settings -> Custom MPV Player.
Getting Started
For screenshots, feature walkthroughs, and the living-room player buying guide, visit the TinyPlay introduction page.
TinyPlay and Kodi
Kodi suits people who want to turn a TV into a deeply customisable media centre. TinyPlay suits people who want less setup, a phone remote, and a quick way to play video.
TinyPlay is likely a better fit if you:
- 💡 Want to get set up quickly, without a long configuration session
- 📱 Prefer controlling playback from your phone and do not want another app to install
- 🎬 Mainly want to play video rather than maintain a complex media-library taxonomy
- 🔧 Value a lightweight, ready-to-use setup
License
TinyPlay is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0. Bundled third-party components are distributed under their own licenses; see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.