Release Notes

1.0.0

Released 26 August 2026

The first release of Magpie: your own films, shows and music as live television channels with a real guide, plus On Demand, on the computer that holds your media.

Library and player updates

• Matching local and external catalogue entries share one title, while different films with the same name stay separate. A cloud icon identifies external streaming sources.
• Browse a show's seasons and episodes in a stable list with consistent preview images. Search keeps the preview available; collapsing the preview and queue stops playback.
• Music Mode keeps playback controls available while you browse stations, music and podcasts. Timed lyrics can come from lyric files or an explicitly requested local transcription draft.
• Edit an imported catalogue in the console, review its changes, then confirm them without replacing its identity or removing your media.
• Audio and caption language changes apply to later channel tunes. A selected audio track that is still preparing waits for that track instead of playing another language.

Live channels

• Build a channel on a weekly calendar from titles and collections in your library. The calendar is exactly what airs.
• Every screen on the same channel shows the same moment, the way broadcast television does.
• Start Over and Go Live on a channel, with the guide showing what is on now and next.
• Breaks between and during programmes, filled from a collection of your own idents or clips.
• Use actual runtimes for consecutive shows, or choose clock breakpoints for their starts. Filler fills the resulting gaps independently; switching it off keeps the same start times.
• Live programming edits record only the portion that aired, so rebuilding the guide keeps the remaining episodes intact.
• Channel logos, a lower third and an off-air look, drawn by the screen watching rather than burnt into the picture.
• Announcements interrupt every channel with one clip, then hand each back to its schedule.
• Add outside lineups as tuner sources under Tuner Sources. Each person joins ready-made networks from their own screen.

On Demand

• Browse and play films, shows, music, audiobooks and podcasts from your library.
• Skip Intro on series, once Find Intros and Credits has run.
• Matching copies of a film appear as one title.
• Watch Together puts a title on a channel of its own for everyone to watch at once.
• Watch Together can open with a countdown, or with five or ten minutes of trailers first. The host can start the film at any moment.
• Watch Trailer plays a title's own trailer file. If your household allows it, it plays the title's YouTube trailer instead, and a notice says that YouTube plays it.
• Trailers Before a Film plays one, two or three trailers before a film you start On Demand. It is off until you choose. Each profile picks its own, and the household sets where everyone begins.

Networks

• Magpie works with no home server at all. Create a profile, join networks and watch.
• The seven Networks you can join come from watchmagpie.com. They need no server at home.
• A network that offers On Demand titles shows them in your On Demand, and plays them through that network. Each of its titles wears a small chip with the network's name; your own titles wear none.
• The screensaver draws artwork from every network you joined, not only your own.
• The Binge Limit of a network applies to its On Demand titles too. A title that is over the limit is greyed, and a note says when it resets.
• A network that is not answering shows as not available. Everything else keeps working.

Your library

• Add a folder, pick what it holds, and scan. Scanning only reads your folders, apart from clearing unfinished copies Magpie left there itself.
• New automatic library reconciliation schedules default to a daily overnight check. Folder watching and Scan Now remain available, and saved schedules keep their settings.
• Titles, descriptions, posters and cast are looked up from TMDb on their own. A key of your own is optional.
• Correct anything on the title itself; a field you correct stays corrected.
• Collections are hand-ordered or built from rules, and new titles join them as they arrive.
• Subtitles from your own files, and optionally from your OpenSubtitles account.
• Discover tells you where a film stands: In Theaters, Coming Soon or Released. A show reads Upcoming, Continuing or Ended.
• A request for a film that is not out yet waits, and is searched for once the film is released.
• Download Trailers Automatically is off until you turn it on. It then fetches the tools it needs and saves each film's trailer beside the film. YouTube's terms do not allow downloads, and the setting says so.
• Processing converts a copy into Magpie's work folder. Replace and Delete are separate clicks, and the original waits in the folder's trash until you delete it.

Screens and apps

• Watch in a browser on your home network, with no app to install.
• A new screen joins by showing a code you approve in the console.
• Add Magpie's channels to Plex or Jellyfin as a tuner.
• Magpie for Roku carries the same profile steps, networks and On Demand screens as the watch page.

People and privacy

• Profiles for each person, with an optional PIN, and kids profiles held to what you allow.
• Create Your Profile asks for a name, then a picture, then a theme.
• Ask Before a New TV Opens a Profile decides whether a new screen at home needs your approval. Turn it off and anyone at home can make a profile at once.
• On your home network, the sign-in screen shows the people in your household so each person can pick themselves. From anywhere else it shows no names, faces or count.
• Only screens on your home network can watch until you turn on remote access.
• Viewing limits, with daily and weekly caps.

Running the server

• An installer that sets up the server with its menu-bar app, and a Docker image for Linux.
• Magpie keeps its data in your user folder, never beside your media.
• Setting up is done from a one-time link on the computer running the server.
• Backups on a schedule, with a check that the newest copy is intact.
• Ask Magpie answers questions about your server, on this computer or through a provider you connect.