This site is mainly for 2 things:
Remember turning on the TV and selecting a channel?
CTV strives to bring back those days of simple channel selection!
Our focus is engagement with family and friends by encouraging people to watch together & play together!
If you're an IT Pro who wants to manage & monitor a bunch of Docker/Podman containers with a beefy Linux server for CPU Live Encoding with Terabytes of storage in a RAID... then CTV isn't for you. Go get Jellyfin.
If you didn't understand that last sentence, then CTV is the simple solution for you!
You can think of it like a Set-Top box or a VCR.
You plug it into your TV, plug in a USB Flash Drive with some Movies/Music/Games/etc on it, and play!
It's that simple!
It runs on a tiny computer like a Raspberry Pi 4 (can buy on Amazon with our affiliate link).
Absolutely! While CTV is intended for basic users, it also has many features for people with intermediate tech skills.
Check out these more advanced features (click the links for more details):
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Synchronized Viewing | TVs, Phones, Tablets, & Computers all watching the same channel! |
| Scheduled Media | Have a TV in a Waiting Room? Schedule 3 movies followed by a Trivia Game. Anyone on your Wifi can join! |
| Permissions/Restrictions | Restrict some media from youth accounts, or limit game participants with a password! |
| Phone Remote | No need for a keyboard: Use your phone as a Remote Control! |
| Watch Queues | Personal & Group watch lists. CTV remembers where you left off! |
| Network Upload | Don't like USB Flash Drives? Upload your files to CTV! |
| Metadata Scraping | Either connect your server to the internet to allow it to scrape metadata for your movies (like ratings & thumbnails) or use a different device to get a Metadata Database and upload it to your server. No need to ever connect your server to the internet! |
| Hearing Aid | 1 person hard of hearing? Don't blast the TV, but tune their phone to the same channel and give them headphones! |
| Subtitles | MP4 doesn't have subtitles? Scrape them, or upload your own set and CTV will display them for you. It also has controls to speed-up or slow-down the Subtitles if they aren't quite synced up. Hate subtitles, but Grandma needs them? Connect with a phone in subtitle-only mode so she can see them large on her device while the TV shows the movie. |
| Media Encoding | CTV uses MP4 for browser compatibility. CTV can convert your files! |
| Web Socket Gaming | Play party games like Bingo, Hangman, Trivia, etc using your phone as your gamepad |
| Emulated Gaming | Play emulated retro games with your phone as the controller |
| Fine Tuning Synchronization | 2 TVs in adjacent rooms slightly out of sync? Hit nudge-forward or nudge-backward to fix it. |
I hate Big-Tech tracking me, so I wanted to set up my own Media Server.
There were excellent options, but most required a beefy machine with lots of storage & required difficult maintenance and monitoring.
Additionally, I had to install apps for my TV/Phone & just hope they weren't tracking me.
So, I decided to make my own Media Server that didn't need the internet, large hard drives, nor a custom app (use your browser of choice).
I developed it on an old Raspberry Pi 3, so it's lightweight enough to run on almost anything!
This breakdown/comparison shows my driving principles (click the links for more details):
| Feature | CTV | Jellyfin | PLEX |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free & Open Source | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Shared Experience | ✓ | partial | |
| Lightweight | ✓ | ||
| Impermanent Storage | ✓ | partial | partial |
| Multi-Media | ✓ | partial | partial |
| App-less | ✓ | ||
| Offline Functionality | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Set Top Box | ✓ | ||
| Gaming | partial |
Last night you were watching your Comedy Movies playlist on Channel 1, and that channel is saved, ready for you to resume.
But it's Saturday morning, and your kids want to play Bingo.
You decide to leave Channel 1 paused, so you tune to Channel 2 & select Bingo.
Everyone gets a Bingo Card on their phone by going to Channel 2.
Grandma arrives mid-game, opens her phone to Channel 2, and gets a Bingo Card with the current game's numbers already marked.
After a few rounds, you set Channel 2 to the Recipes app to plan a meal.
Your family sets Channel 3 to a Music playlist.
You can't hear the music well from the kitchen, so you join Channel 3 on the tablet and it syncs up with the music from the TV.
Lunch is ready, so you open the Emergency PA system and say "Lunch is Ready."
All Channels pause for a moment, display an emergency banner, and play your "Lunch is Ready" recording.
Everyone sits at the table and you turn the TV to Channel 1 and resume your Comedy Movie playlist.
Only half the table is facing the TV, so you tune your Tablet to Channel 1 & prop it where the others can see.
While the tablet is synchronized, you prefer your TVs speakers, so you mute the tablet.
Unfortunately you have to duck out and prepare dessert. You tune your phone to Channel 1 so you don't miss a beat.
After lunch, the older kids play a game on Channel 4 on the TV while the youngest watches cartoons on Channel 5 on the tablet.
You decide to upload some music & movies for later.
At the end of the day, you browse your Audio Books and play one as a bedtime story for the kids.
You tuck each child in bed, kiss them goodnight, and then leave their phones tuned into the audio book channel.
When the first chapter is over, using your phone, you tell the book to pause. CTV will remember where they left off.