YarmiplayTV user manual

YarmiplayTV plays videos in sync with friends, wherever they are. It's a Syncplay client with the mpv player built in, for Google TV and Android TV, Android phones and tablets, and Windows, macOS and Linux. Videos come from your Jellyfin or Plex servers or from files on your device, and everyone in the room plays, pauses and seeks together, also with friends who use the desktop Syncplay client.

Getting started

YarmiplayTV is free. Get it for your device from the download page.

Google TV and Android TV

  1. Install Downloader from the Play Store on the TV (or join the Google Play test).
  2. Open Downloader and enter tv.yarmiplay.com/a. It downloads the YarmiplayTV APK.
  3. Allow Downloader to install apps when Android asks, then install YarmiplayTV.

Everything works with the remote: the arrows move, OK selects, Back goes back.

YarmiplayTV on Google TV

Android phones and tablets

Install it from Google Play, or download the APK from the download page and open it. The first time, Android asks you to allow installing apps from your browser.

YarmiplayTV on a phone

Windows, macOS and Linux

The desktop app playing in a room

The home screen

Home has a card for each way to watch:

Below them are your libraries, "Continue watching" for each server, and recently added videos. The Player tab (phones, tablets and desktop) brings back the player from any screen.

Joining a Syncplay room

Everyone who watches together joins the same room on the same server. Open Join a Syncplay room and fill in:

Then choose Join room. The first time, the app shows the community rules: agree to them to join. The rules are also at tv.yarmiplay.com/terms.

Recent and saved rooms

Every room you join is listed under Recent rooms on the join screen, with its server and your name. Tap one (or Rejoin) to join it again without typing anything.

Rooms you come back to often can be saved: tap the star next to a room, give it a name if you like (for example "Anime night"), and it moves to Saved rooms at the top. Saved rooms stay until you remove them; recent rooms keep the last 15. The ⋮ menu renames a saved room, removes it from the saved ones or forgets it. Save this room on the join form saves a room you type in as soon as you're in it. While you're in a room, the star next to its name saves it too.

When you're disconnected, the home screen's room card offers to rejoin the last room.

Found on your network

If someone on your Wi-Fi or Ethernet hosts a room with YarmiplayServerTV, the join screen lists it under Found on your network: pick it to fill in the server. The app only looks on Wi-Fi or Ethernet, never on mobile data. Ordinary Syncplay servers aren't found this way; type them in.

In the room

The Room tab shows, in order:

On a computer or a wide tablet these sit side by side: the playlist, the chat, and the room.

Ready: everyone marks themselves ready before the video starts. By default you're ready when a playlist entry has loaded; Settings > Syncing changes when you're ready and what happens when you unpause.

The shared playlist

Add videos from your library, your files or a link. When someone selects an entry, every viewer's app finds that file by its name, in this order:

  1. Your media folders.
  2. A media server with exactly that file name (Settings > Preferred server decides when several have it).
  3. A looser match: punctuation and case ignored, then a title search.

While one entry plays, the next one is already looked up, so moving on starts at once. The player's previous and next buttons move the whole room to the neighbouring entry. If the file isn't anywhere you have it, the player says so and lets you pick a file by hand.

Each room's playlist is remembered and put back when you rejoin a room whose playlist is empty (Settings > Remember room playlists).

Media servers and files

Jellyfin

Choose Jellyfin on the home screen. Servers on your network are listed; otherwise type the address (for example http://192.168.1.10:8096). Sign in with Quick Connect (enter the code in another Jellyfin app under your profile > Quick Connect) or with your user name and password.

Plex

Choose Plex, then go to plex.tv/link on your phone or computer and enter the code shown. Pick the server to use. You can add several Jellyfin and Plex servers; their libraries show side by side and searches cover all of them. Settings > Media servers adds or signs out of each one.

While you watch, the app tells your servers how far you got and marks a video watched at 90%. It never jumps to a server's saved position, because the room decides where everyone is. Settings > Report progress to your media servers turns this off.

Files on this device

On phones, tablets and computers you can open a single video, use Open with from a file manager, or add media folders. Videos in media folders are found automatically when a room plays them, like the desktop Syncplay client's media directories. On a computer you can also drop files on the window.

The player

Tap or move the mouse to show the controls: play and pause, back and forward (double-tap the left or right side of the video on a phone), the previous and next playlist entry, the seek bar and the volume. The buttons at the bottom open the shared playlist, the room, the chat, audio tracks, subtitles and MyAnimeList.

Keys on a computer

On a computer, the player's playlist, room and chat buttons open a side panel. In its playlist you can add videos, folders or links, drag to reorder, select several with Ctrl or Shift, remove with Delete and undo with Ctrl+Z.

Picture-in-picture

Managed rooms

In a managed room only its operators play, pause, seek or change the playlist; everyone else follows them. Managed rooms work on the official Syncplay servers and on YarmiplayServerTV.

MyAnimeList

YarmiplayTV can keep your MyAnimeList list up to date as you watch.

Signing in

Choose the MyAnimeList card on the home screen. You sign in on MyAnimeList's own page: in your browser on phones, tablets and computers, or in a page inside the app on TV. YarmiplayTV never sees your password. Once you're signed in, the same card opens the MyAnimeList screen: your account, what's playing, your list (watching, plan to watch, completed), the shows you matched by hand, the shows you don't track, and updates waiting to be sent.

Automatic updates

When you've watched 90% of an episode, the app updates your list: the episodes you've watched (never fewer than before), Watching when you start a show, Completed with the date at the last episode, and Rewatching when you watch a completed show again. A message shows what changed, with Undo. If you prefer, Ask before each update on the MyAnimeList screen asks first every time, and Update my list as I watch turns it off.

Seasons, parts and episode numbers

MyAnimeList has a separate entry for each season, and sometimes for each part of a season. Your library may number episodes per season or from the start of the show. The app works this out by itself, by following the show's seasons on MyAnimeList in order (each entry's prequel and sequel):

Only when it can't tell does the app ask Which MyAnimeList entry is this?: pick the entry and which of its episodes this is. Your choice is remembered for the show, so the next episodes go by themselves. Wrong entry? in the player's MyAnimeList panel fixes a match, and Don't track this show stops tracking it.

In the player

The player's MyAnimeList button shows the entry for the episode you're watching: its episode, your status and score. Change the episodes watched, the status or the score there, mark the episode watched, or undo the last update. Shows in your library have the same options under MyAnimeList….

Everything YarmiplayTV keeps for MyAnimeList stays on your device, and Sign out deletes it all. See the privacy policy.

YarmiplayServerTV

A room hosted with YarmiplayServerTV offers more than a plain Syncplay server. On other servers YarmiplayTV works as a normal Syncplay client.

Updates

Settings > Updates > Check for updates looks for a new version on every device, and installs it the way your copy was installed:

Turn off Check for updates when the app starts in the same section to only check when you ask. After an update, the home screen shows what's new once; Settings > About > What's new has it any time, and the patch notes page has every version's.

Settings

On a computer or a wide tablet, settings are grouped in categories on the left:

Troubleshooting

I can't connect to the server

"The server's TLS certificate isn't valid"

The server's certificate doesn't match the name you typed. Use the name the certificate is for (often the server's DuckDNS or domain name, not its IP address), or turn TLS off for that server.

The playlist says a file wasn't found

The file has to be on one of your media servers or in a media folder, with the same file name the others have. Add the folder or server, or choose a file by hand from the message in the player. On a YarmiplayServerTV, a file someone else has can be relayed to you.

We're out of sync

The app catches up by itself: it slows down a little or jumps back when you're ahead (Settings > Syncing). If someone's file is different (the room list warns about it), the same moment can show different pictures; use the same file.

MyAnimeList asks which entry an episode is

It asks only when it can't tell, for example when the show's name in your library is very different from MyAnimeList's. Pick the entry once; the app remembers it for the show. If it picked the wrong one, choose Wrong entry? in the player's MyAnimeList panel.

YarmiplayTV collects no data: no accounts, analytics or ads. It connects only to the servers you choose.

YarmiplayTV downloads · yarmiplay.com