Nexosa Media CenterDownload

Nexosa Media Centerpublic beta

your films, music and pictures. one screen, read from the couch.

A ten-foot media center for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. Install it and the films, music and pictures already on that device are there. Put the server on the PC where your library lives, and every screen in the house can reach it.

  • Windows 10 and 11
  • macOS
  • Debian and Ubuntu
  • Android
  • iPhone, coming soon

Free, and no account unless you add a server.

The start screen, drawn: a room lit by whatever is under the cursor, and one focus ring that travels. Read from ten feet away and driven with arrow keys, a remote or a mouse.

Download

Pick the screen you are sitting in front of.

Every file comes from the project's own download host, and each release carries a SHA-256 digest so you can check what you got. Desktop 0.11.0, Android 0.11.0.

This is a public beta: everything here works and updates itself, and it is still being polished. One thing is coming before it is called 1.0: installers signed so Windows and macOS stop warning about them. The server is already one file to run with nothing to install first.

Found a problem? Write to victorguminski3@gmail.com with what you did and what happened. The desktop app keeps a log you can attach: under Tasks, about, "Found a problem in the beta?" opens its folder.

Desktop and laptop

Windows

Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit

0.11.0
Download the installer

Nexosa-Media-Center-Setup-0.11.0.exe

  • No admin prompt. It installs to the Start menu and launches when it finishes. Installing over an older copy keeps your settings.
  • SmartScreen will say "Windows protected your PC", because the build is not signed by a certificate authority. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

macOS

Apple Silicon and Intel

0.11.0
Download the disk image

Nexosa-Media-Center-0.11.0-universal.dmg

  • Open it and drag Nexosa to Applications. One download covers both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, so there is nothing to choose between.
  • macOS will say the app is damaged, because the build is not signed by Apple rather than because anything is wrong with it. Right-click it in Applications and choose Open, or run the command below once.

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Nexosa Media Center.app"

Linux

Debian and Ubuntu, amd64

0.11.0
Download the package

nexosa-media-center_0.11.0_amd64.deb

  • Open it and your package manager installs it, or use the command below. It lands in your application menu and pulls in VLC by itself.
  • Installing a newer package over the old one keeps your settings and your signed-in profile. On a distribution that is not Debian or Ubuntu, take the AppImage below instead: one file, made executable, run.

sudo apt install ./nexosa-media-center_0.11.0_amd64.deb

Phone and tablet

Android

Phone or tablet

0.11.0
Download the APK

nexosa-mobile.apk

  • Open the file on the phone. Android asks you to allow installs from this source, the normal prompt for an app outside the Play Store; you can turn it back off afterwards.
  • From then on the app notices new versions itself and installs them from Settings.

iOS

iPhone and iPad

coming soon
Coming soon
  • The iPhone and iPad app is being finished, and this is where it will appear.
  • It will not come from the App Store. It will be available only through AltStore, which installs it on the phone signed with your own Apple ID and offers each new version the same way.

Prefer to install nothing

One file each, and running it is all there is to it. Nothing to unpack, nothing added to your programs list, and deleting the file is the uninstall. The Mac download above is already this: drag it out of the disk image and it runs from wherever you put it. On Linux, mark it executable first, and install VLC for the formats a browser will not play: sudo apt install vlc.

The server, for a library the whole house can reach

Runs on the PC where your films and music live, on Windows or Linux, and streams them to every Nexosa screen. Nothing in the library is uploaded by Nexosa. Server 0.8.0. One file to download and run, with nothing to install first; run it once and it says where its settings live.

Already have Node 22 or newer and would rather run it that way? The same server as a zip: nexosa-server-win-x64.zip or nexosa-server-linux-x64.zip. On Linux, mark the one file executable first: chmod +x nexosa-server-linux-x64.

By downloading or using Nexosa, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge the Privacy Policy. Read both before installing or creating an account.

The look

A media center that looks like the film you are about to watch.

Black stone, a blue light in it, and every screen lit by its own pictures. Every movement is light and transform, and all of it stops when your system asks for reduced motion.

  • Lit by what you are about to watch

    Open a film and its poster is blown up and blurred into light behind the page. Move along a shelf and the room takes the colour of whatever is under the cursor.

  • A player that shows what it has

    The bar shows what is already buffered behind what has played. Behind a record the sleeve rises and falls over its own reflection, and the room is lit by it.

  • The phone follows the same light

    On the phone the poster slides at half the speed of the words as you scroll and stretches when the page is pulled down. Same films, same colours, same resume point.

What it does

A media center for the films, music and pictures you already have.

Not a store, not a streaming service, and your films, music and pictures never leave your own machines.

  • Built for the couch

    Big light type, a category rail, a tile strip, and a focus frame you can see from across the room. Arrow keys, a remote or a mouse all drive it, and every press has a sound if you want one. Blue or green, your choice.

  • One shelf of favorites

    Press the heart on a film, a record or a photograph and it lands on one shelf, on your account rather than on the device that pressed it. A heart pressed on the phone is already filled in on the TV, and the Favorites screen on both is the same list of films, music and pictures together.

  • Already on this device

    On first run the app asks whether to show the films and music already on that PC or phone, and on a PC the pictures too. Say yes and they are there; say no and it never asks again. Nothing is copied or uploaded, and the switch stays in Settings.

  • A library for the whole house

    Run the server on the PC where your collection lives and every screen streams from it over your own network. Playback is VLC's engine on every platform, so MKV, MP4, FLAC and MP3 all play the same on the TV and on the phone.

  • Profiles that stay private

    Each person signs in to their household server and gets their own resume points, watched marks and favorites, kept apart on the server. Terms and privacy notice are readable on the sign-up form itself, and deleting your account is a button, not an email.

  • Updates itself

    A corner card says when a newer version exists: the app asks your server, then the project's releases on GitHub, and a switch in Settings turns that check off. On Windows and portable installs one press downloads it, checks the file against the digest the release published, and applies it the next time you close Nexosa. Settings and profiles are kept.

How it fits together

One server where your files are. Screens that ask it.

The server reads your folders and keeps an index. The apps ask that server what is there and stream it straight from your machine to your own screens. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.

On the PC with your files

The server

Indexes your folders into a small database, probes each file for what it really is, and serves the library over your network. Windows or Linux. Who it serves is the operator's decision, and most serve one household.

Windows, macOS and Linux

The desktop app

The ten-foot screen. Full screen on a TV, a window on a laptop.

Android

The phone app

The same library, touch-first. An unfinished film resumes where you left it, on either screen.

  1. Install an app

    On the PC by the TV, on a laptop, on the phone. Open it and it works before anything else is set up.

  2. Say yes to this device's media

    The app asks once. The films and music already on that device show up alongside everything else.

  3. Add a server, if you want one

    Only for a library that lives on another machine. Run the server there, point the apps at its address, and create your profile on it. Whoever runs the server decides whose profiles it serves, and a household's films and music may only be shared inside that household.

Nexosa Premium

Everything above is free. This is the part that is not.

Nexosa Media Center is complete without paying: the apps, the server, every screen in the house, and no advertisement, trial or locked button anywhere in it. Nexosa Premium is a handful of extras, and a way to fund the work if it is worth something to you.

Worth knowing before you pay. Most of what Nexosa Premium unlocks happens on a Nexosa server in your house, so it needs one running. On a laptop or a phone with no server it adds the three extra colour schemes and nothing else.

  • Take it with you

    Download a film or a whole album onto the phone or the PC and play it with the server switched off, on a plane or in a cabin. Hearts and resume points still go to your account when the server is back.

    Needs a server in the house

  • Reach it from away

    Open your library from outside the house without forwarding a port or putting your server on the internet. It dials out to a relay, and what passes through is sealed end to end; the relay reads the name and nothing else.

    Needs a server in the house

  • Skip the intro

    Mark where a show's title sequence ends, once. Every episode of it offers to skip from then on, for everybody in the house.

    Needs a server in the house

  • Words with the music

    Lyrics beside the track, from a file next to it or from inside it, on the phone and on the television.

    Needs a server in the house

  • The graphics card does the work

    When a screen cannot decode a film as it is, the server converts it on the way out using the graphics card rather than the processor. An older PC by the television stops being the reason a film stutters.

    Needs a server in the house

  • Backups on a schedule

    The server copies its own database and settings at an hour you choose, and says when the last one was made. Accounts, favorites and resume points, not your films: those are already yours on your own disk.

    Needs a server in the house

  • Early access

    New versions before they are released, if you want them. A switch in Settings, and the same one turns it off again.

    Needs a server in the house

  • Three more looks

    Three extra colour schemes beside the blue and the green everybody has. The one extra that needs nothing but the app.

    Works with no server

What it costs

5 USD a month

or 50 USD a year, as a membership on Buy Me a Coffee, which converts that into your own currency at the checkout and takes the payment under its own terms. The publisher never sees your card details. You can withdraw within fourteen days for a full refund.

Join on Buy Me a Coffee

How it reaches your screens

  1. 1. Join the membership. It gives you a role in the Nexosa Discord server, and that role is the only thing the apps ever check.
  2. 2. In the app, press Link a device. It shows a short code, you sign in with Discord once to prove the role is yours, and the sign-in is thrown away immediately.
  3. 3. The app receives a signed pass, good for thirty days and renewed on its own. Hand it to your server and the whole household has the extras.

Your server checks that pass with a public key alone, so a server behind a router that reaches nothing still knows the household pays. The only personal thing inside the pass is a Discord user id. No payment data comes near this project, and cancelling is a button on Buy Me a Coffee. Your membership runs to the end of the period you have already paid for, and the extras switch off when it does: the apps ask every few hours, so it is the same day, not weeks later.