For Apple TV and iPad
Your media.
Your way.
Sprocket Player plays the movies, shows, photos and documents you already own, from your Plex, Jellyfin or Emby server or straight from the shares on your home network. No subscription. No cloud library. Your media stays yours.
Requires tvOS 18.6 or iPadOS 17.6 or later.
Plays what you have. Not just what's convenient.
Two video engines, VLC and MPV, give you the final say over picture quality, from HDR output on Apple TV to fine-grained picture tuning, and between them they play the MKVs, remuxes and odd containers that trip up other players. One app, all your media.
Video
Full-bitrate playback with multiple audio tracks, chapters, and embedded and external subtitle support.
Photos
Browse your photos from a network folder or your iCloud Photos library, or sit back and enjoy them as a slideshow. Any photo can become your wallpaper.
Documents & comics
Read PDFs, comic archives and text files from the couch, with page-by-page navigation on the Siri Remote or touch.
Sources: Plex, Jellyfin and Emby servers, SMB and NFS network shares, plus the on-device Photos library. Shares and servers on your network are discovered automatically.
Bring your own library
The perfect companion to Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and Kodi libraries.
Your library, anywhere you want it to be. Whether you run a popular media server or prefer a network file share, Sprocket lets you enjoy your library with no compromises.
- Sign in to Plex, Jellyfin or Emby and your movies and shows are there, with the posters, descriptions and episode details you already know.
- No media server? Point Sprocket at a shared folder on your NAS or computer. Posters and descriptions saved alongside your files by Kodi and similar library tools show up automatically.
- Videos play in their original quality. If you use a media server, it can step in and convert a file that otherwise wouldn't play, and Sprocket tells you when that happens.
- Pick up where you left off. Sprocket remembers what you've watched and can hide it with one toggle.
- Keep a film series together. On a shared folder, Collections gather every movie in a franchise into one place.
Your library, on the big screen.
Intro detection
Skip the intro. Every episode.
Turn on Intro Detection and Sprocket finds the opening titles in your shows for you. When they start, a Skip Intro button appears. One press and you're into the episode.
- Works with the shows you already have. Nothing to download, and nothing to install on your server.
- Private by design. It all happens on your Apple TV or iPad.
- New episodes are covered automatically as you add them.
- Off until you want it. Switch it on in Options.
Straight to the story.
Play it your way
The file you have is the file you watch.
Sprocket plays your videos in their original quality, from wherever they live. Use what you already have and it just works. And when a video needs a hand, a media server can convert it for you.
- Simplest: use what you have. A media server or a shared folder, Sprocket is at home with either.
- Fastest: a shared folder with your library already organised. Nothing sits between Sprocket and your files, so browsing and playback are at their quickest.
- Older Apple TV, or watching away from home? A media server can convert video to suit the device and the connection.
- Two video engines, VLC and MPV. Choose the one that looks best on your setup, with HDR on Apple TV 4K.
Multiple audio tracks and subtitles, a swipe away.
What works where
Nearly everything works everywhere. Where it doesn't, here is the whole picture.
| PPlex | JJellyfin | EEmby | SSMB | NNFS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original-quality playback | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Posters, descriptions and episode details | Yes | Yes | Yes | *Yes, when saved alongside your files | *Yes, when saved alongside your files |
| Skip Intro | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| HDR on Apple TV 4K | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sign in with a code, no password | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Converts video for older Apple TVs | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Watch away from home | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Separate subtitle files | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Collections for film series | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Photos, comics and documents | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
* When posters and descriptions are saved alongside your files.
Privacy first
What you watch stays with you.
No account to create. No tracking. Nobody looking over your shoulder. Sprocket connects to your media, and that is where it stops.
There is no Sprocket account to sign up for and no Sprocket cloud. Your library goes from your home to your screen, with nobody in between.
Posters and details come from your own server or your own files. Sprocket doesn't go out to the internet to work out what's in your collection.
Thumbnails and details Sprocket keeps on your device are always encrypted. Add a PIN to anything you'd rather keep to yourself and it's locked tighter still.
Sprocket can disconnect when you leave the app or go idle, so a shared living-room TV stays a shared TV.
Sprocket only talks to the places you point it at. If you use Plex, that includes your Plex account, which signs you in and helps Sprocket find your server. Cast photos are the one exception: they load from the web addresses saved in your library's files. Passwords and sign-ins are kept in your device's secure Keychain. Crash reports are off unless you turn them on. Read the full privacy policy.
Your sign-in details never leave the device.
And the rest of the living room.
Small things that add up to an app you actually want to open every night.
Apple TV and iPad
One app, designed for the Siri Remote at ten feet and for touch on the couch. Same library either way.
Wallpapers
Bundled photo and animated backgrounds, or long-press any photo in your library and make it the wallpaper.
Sort your way
Name, date, size, recently viewed or random. Favourites float to the top, and each folder remembers how you sorted it.
Collections
Group every film in a franchise on a file share into one folder, even the later ones that stopped following the naming pattern.
Picture controls
Aspect, deinterlace, speed, brightness and colour, plus upscaling, debanding and tone mapping on the MPV engine. Adjust live while the picture plays, per file if you like.
Set up from your phone
Scan the QR code on your Apple TV and fill in the address, name and PIN on your phone's keyboard. Sign in to Plex or Jellyfin with a short code, never a password on the remote.
A closer look.
On iPad, with touch.
Photos, comics and documents too.
Your photos on the biggest screen in the house.
Comics and PDFs, page by page.
Sign in with a code. Nothing typed on the remote.
Your media. Your way.
Sprocket Player for Apple TV and iPad. No subscription. No account with us. Your media, on your terms.
App Store link coming soon.
Available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese.