VortX 0.3.12 is the Dolby Vision and reliability release. It rolls up the whole 0.3.11 test line, builds 155 to 166. The headline is Dolby Vision: after the device logs proved that Apple TV only decodes Dolby Vision through HLS and never through a progressive file, the app now serves the rebuilt video to Apple's player as local Dolby Vision HLS, the way Infuse and Plex do it. Alongside it, the Apple TV playback stutter is gone, a slow Dolby Vision source falls back fast instead of making you wait, audio and subtitle languages gained a fallback chain, sign-in works with a VortX account by QR, community sources resolve per user across every kind, and the Mac source-list freeze and crash are fixed. In-place update, nothing resets. Please install it and report anything off, especially the Dolby Vision note near the bottom.
Fixed
- Dolby Vision from an MKV now plays as true Dolby Vision through Apple's player, delivered as local HLS. Dolby Vision on the Apple TV had been failing for a structural reason no header repair could solve: tvOS and AVFoundation only decode Dolby Vision through HLS, never through a progressive file, and the app was handing Apple's player a progressive fragmented MP4. On real hardware that meant the player either refused the stream with "Cannot Open" or accepted it and never produced a picture, then dropped to HDR10 after a wait, which is exactly what testing showed. The app now serves the same rebuilt video to the player as a local Dolby Vision HLS presentation from your own device (an init segment, one-second segments, and a playlist carrying the Dolby Vision codec, supplemental-codec, and PQ range the file classifies to), which is how Infuse, Plex, Jellyfin, and Stremio's own server feed Dolby Vision to Apple TV. It is fully fail-soft: if the local server cannot start, the remux fails, or the player never produces a frame within about ten seconds, playback falls back to the built-in player in HDR10 exactly as before, and a remote switch can turn the new lane off instantly. Dolby Vision still needs Match Dynamic Range ON in tvOS Settings, Video and Audio, Match Content. Two honest limits on this first true-Dolby-Vision cut: the stream is rebuilt from the beginning, so scrubbing and resume are not available yet on the Dolby Vision lane (a seekable version is the next step), and a file whose Dolby Digital Plus track is packaged in a way FFmpeg cannot mux still steps aside to the built-in player in HDR10. Apple TV.
- A slow Dolby Vision source falls back fast instead of making you wait. An earlier build in this line tried to give a still-loading Dolby Vision stream up to a minute before giving up, which just made you wait a full minute for the same HDR10 result. The player now steps aside to the built-in player in about ten seconds when the Dolby Vision lane is not producing a picture, so opening a stream feels fast again. Apple TV.
- Playback on Apple TV no longer stutters or slows the whole app down over a long session. The player was re-deciding which engine to use inside the on-screen refresh, several times a second during playback, and writing a diagnostic line each time. On a long 4K session that piled up into hundreds of identical entries plus real work on the main thread, felt as stutter and general sluggishness. The engine is now chosen once when a stream starts, exactly how iPhone, iPad, and Mac already worked. Apple TV.
- The Mac source list no longer freezes or force-quits the app. Opening a title with a large source list, or opening a Settings screen after playback, could hang or crash the Mac app because the source list was assembled and repainted on the main thread while a macOS toolbar update tripped over it. The list is now assembled and ranked off the main thread and published once, and the toolbar path is guarded, so a title with thousands of sources opens smoothly. Mac.
- Sign-in works with a VortX account by QR, not only Stremio. Signing in by QR code on the Apple TV now pairs a VortX account, so your profiles, settings, and library come from your own account instead of only offering the Stremio device link. Apple TV.
- Community (Singularity) sources resolve per user, across every kind. With Singularity on and signed in, community-corroborated sources (torrent, direct, and usenet) now resolve against your own debrid or TorBox account and come back ranked best-first, and they render inline in the source list next to your other sources. iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.
- iPhone and iPad downloads no longer fail with a false "not enough storage" or a locked-device error. A resumed or nearly-complete download compared its full size against free space instead of the bytes still to fetch, so it could refuse to start with plenty of room; and a download that finished while the device was locked could not create its file. Both are fixed. iPhone and iPad.
- Continue Watching resumes instantly and to the right place. Coming back to a title soon uses the still-valid link at once instead of re-minting it, a resume on a title whose link expired hops to a fresh source instead of getting stuck, Play from start replays the exact source you were watching, and the Continue Watching details open the season and episode you last watched. iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.
- The next episode prewarms so it starts fast, even on 4K debrid files that never report a length, and forced subtitles auto-select so foreign-dialogue captions show when they should. Apple TV.
Added and Changed
- Audio and subtitle default languages gained a fallback chain, in any language. Each of the Audio language and Subtitle language settings now takes a first choice and a fallback, so when a title has no track in your first language the player uses your second choice instead of loading nothing. The subtitle fallback covers both embedded tracks and add-on subtitles, and add-on subtitles are now auto-selected by your language chain. A "Match audio to subtitle languages" option drives both from one list, and Turkish, Dutch, Polish, and Swedish were added to the language lists. iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.
- Browse by decade, and in-app add-on management. Home and Discover gained a browse-by-decade row (2020s back to the 1950s), add-ons can be reordered by drag and the order persists and syncs across your devices and the web dashboard, and removing an add-on clears its sources from open lists right away. A floating back-to-top button appears on Home and Discover, and the Apple TV Back button returns to the current episode after continuous play and to Home before it exits. iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.
- Debrid cache-check for AllDebrid and Premiumize, so a cached source is marked as instantly playable for those services too, matching Real-Debrid and TorBox. iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.
- A broad security and reliability hardening pass. The cross-device sync document moved to a version-bound encrypted format with authenticated metadata and a dual-read migration, the add-on health probe is guarded against server-side request forgery, and a batch of audit findings across the apps were closed.
Please test on your Apple TV
This build runs, but these want real hardware, so please send a note (and, for Dolby Vision, an exported diagnostics log from VortX Settings) if any are still off:
- Dolby Vision. FIRST set the Apple TV up: Settings, Video and Audio, Match Content, turn Match Dynamic Range ON (it is off by default and no app can show Dolby Vision without it); Settings, Video and Audio, Audio Format, keep Change Format OFF (Auto) with Dolby Atmos available. In VortX keep Player engine on Auto and Dolby Vision for MKV on. Then play a 4K Dolby Vision movie with a Dolby Digital Plus / Atmos track from the beginning: the TV should read DOLBY VISION and the receiver Dolby Atmos. If it still shows HDR10, export diagnostics and send the log; it now records every Dolby Vision step.
- Loading speed. A stream should start quickly, and a source that is not going to work should drop to the built-in player in a few seconds rather than making you wait.
- The stutter should be gone across a long session with a few source or episode switches.
- Languages. Settings, Audio and Subtitles now has a first choice and a fallback for both audio and subtitles, including Turkish.
Install
Mac (.dmg, easiest, never expires). Download VortX-macOS-v0.3.12-ci.dmg, drag VortX into Applications, then clear Apple's one-time quarantine: open it once, click Done, then System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway (or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/VortX.app). Full guide: Install on Mac.
iPhone, iPad, Apple TV (sideload the IPA). The IPAs are unsigned, because VortX is open-source and distributed outside the App Store with no Apple Developer ID yet, so you re-sign them yourself with Sideloadly, AltStore / SideStore, or Signulous. No jailbreak. Full guide: Installing on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
Each asset lists a SHA-256 checksum (SHA256SUMS-ci.txt) so you can confirm your download matches what the public GitHub Actions workflow built from this code.