FAQ

Point Magpie at the movies, shows, music, and music videos you already own, and the podcasts you follow. It builds channels that are always on.

Always on

Live channels: Always on. Tune in and something is playing, like real TV.
A real guide: What is on now and what is next, across every channel.
Start over: Jump back to the top of the show that is already playing.
Weekly schedules: Every channel has a calendar. What the calendar shows is exactly what airs.
Every TV in sync: Live channels pin every screen to the same point.
A news flash: Interrupt every channel with one video, once. Then normal programming resumes.

On demand: The whole library, searchable, with resume and next episode.
Cast and crew: Every credited person is a link. Follow one to see everything else of theirs in your library.
Skip intro: A Skip Intro button appears during the opening of a show, once Magpie has found where it starts and ends.
Seek thumbnails: Preview images appear as you scrub through anything on demand.
Subtitles: From your own embedded and sidecar tracks, one key to toggle, plus a fetch from OpenSubtitles when a title is missing the language you want.
HDR handled: HDR sources are tone-mapped so they look right on every TV.
Music: Artists and albums play as channels, cover art on screen.
Music videos: Your own video jukebox, straight from your files.
Podcasts: Subscribe by feed. New episodes download themselves and can run as channels.

It has its own page: Which file for which machine and how to install it: Installing. What to do once it is running: Getting Started.

Self-checking backups: Scheduled backups check themselves before they are trusted, with a written guide for the day you need to restore one.
Starts when you log in: Magpie starts when you log in. Turn that off with Start Magpie when I log in in its menu.
Remote access: Off until you turn it on.
Your files stay as they are: Magpie changes your folders only when you turn on a feature that writes to them.