Onyx Media Center
A ten-foot media center for Windows, Linux and Android. Install it and there is radio straight away, plus the films and music already on that device. Put the server on the PC where your library lives, and every screen in the house can reach it.
Download
Every file is built by CI, and each release page names the commit it came from and a SHA-256 digest for every download. Desktop 1.3.13, Android 1.1.12.
Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit
Onyx-Media-Center-Setup-1.3.13.exe
Debian and Ubuntu, amd64
onyx-media-center_1.3.13_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./onyx-media-center_1.3.13_amd64.deb
Phone or tablet
onyx-mobile.apk
The portable zips extract anywhere and run from the folder. They keep their files beside the executable, and the one-press update swaps them in place, the same as the installer does. On Linux, install VLC first: sudo apt install vlc.
Runs on the PC where your films and music live, on Windows or Linux, and streams them to every Onyx screen. Nothing is uploaded anywhere. Server 1.0.0; the setup guide walks the whole path in about twenty minutes.
Older releases, and the commit each one was built from, are on the releases pages: desktop, Android, server.
What it does
Not a store, not a streaming service, and your films, music and pictures never leave your own machines.
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.
Thousands of stations from the community catalogue at radio-browser.info, read by the app on your own device. It works when your server is asleep, and your own server never learns what you listen to. Keep the ones you like with a heart.
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.
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.
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.
A corner card says when a newer version exists. 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 Onyx. Settings and profiles are kept.
How it fits together
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
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 and Linux
The ten-foot screen. Full screen on a TV, a window on a laptop.
Android
The same library, touch-first. An unfinished film resumes where you left it, on either screen.
On the PC by the TV, on a laptop, on the phone. Open it and radio is already there.
The app asks once. The films and music already on that device show up alongside everything else.
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.
