0.4.0 Beta 2 - Playback recovery, subtitles, and navigation fixes

Install this over any earlier Apple build. Beta 2 carries the playback, subtitle, navigation, library, and Mac fixes collected since Beta 1. This is an Apple-only beta, build 236. Android is not attached to this release.

What's fixed

Playback recovery is less likely to mistake waiting for failure. AVPlayer and the remux path now keep recovery tied to the current item, producer, and playback generation. Recovery work from an older item cannot take over a newer one, and bounded reconnect handling avoids turning cleanup into a false successful end. Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

A recovery item cannot forget that Dolby Vision already worked. Once the current stream has produced a Dolby Vision picture, replacing its AVPlayer item no longer resets that evidence and reopens the HDR10 fallback path. Unsupported Dolby Vision can still use the guarded initial fallback before any DV picture has appeared. Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Built-in subtitles keep one consistent interval across segment boundaries. A cue spanning two HLS segments now carries its complete original start and end in both segments, with the same timeline mapping and identity. Previously the second copy could be clipped to a different start, giving AVPlayer overlapping but different cues. Proven duplicate ASS render records are also removed without deleting distinct dialogue that shares a timestamp. Apple platforms.

A subtitle failure no longer turns healthy video into a failed stream. If an already-advertised subtitle track becomes unavailable, its last valid playlist remains fetchable and only that subtitle route ends. Temporarily delayed subtitle preparation retains the prior valid subtitle window while video continues advancing, instead of starving the video playlist and triggering a restart or fallback. Apple platforms.

External and built-in subtitles do not compete during selection. The external subtitle overlay waits for native subtitle deselection to settle, including when the native track list arrives late. Selection retries and refreshes belong to the current item, so an old selection cannot activate a second renderer on its replacement. Apple platforms.

Pausing no longer invites an unwanted recovery or episode change. A paused item stays paused while delayed playback and end notifications settle, and the selected playback intent remains attached to the current session. Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

VortX Player can resume after its long-pause cache cleanup. The old cleanup could empty a fully downloaded buffer, then let Play turn that empty buffer into a real end-of-file. The app hid that event, leaving a frozen picture and a player that could no longer seek. Cache clearing and the position-preserving recovery seek now run as one player command, retaining the user's pause state without leaving a gap for that false ending. The same correction covers memory-pressure cleanup during playback. Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad.

Your seek takes precedence over an old resume request. Seeking backward, forward, or to a chosen position cancels the superseded Continue Watching resume work, including its delayed watchdog and system media-control paths. A prior refill watchdog cannot keep seeking to an old target or issue recovery seeks while manually paused. Apple platforms, with the refill watchdog correction on Apple TV.

Continue Watching resumes the title you selected. Episode handoff and library state stay tied to the loaded title and account, including after a profile transition or a delayed refresh. Apple platforms.

A failed resume seek does not leave a false playback position behind. Resume state is reconciled with the active player, a successful seek cancels its old watchdog, and a failed seek retains the guard against overwriting saved progress with an unintended start position. Continue Watching also hands the selected episode and current saved progress to the player instead of reusing an older cached position. Apple platforms.

Manual Next works when playback starts from Continue Watching. A next-episode request waits for the episode metadata it needs and completes for the current series, rather than becoming a dead button until the first automatic transition. Next-episode preparation and cancellation remain tied to the active playback session. Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Episode navigation keeps its focus. Up from an episode remains in the episode list until the defined boundary, and the next-episode handoff retains the expected focus instead of jumping to an unrelated action. Apple TV.

Library and watched changes stay current. Recent watched and library actions update the visible title promptly, and Continue Watching avoids duplicate entries for the same episode or movie. Apple platforms.

Source and audio choices survive supported recovery. A source refresh or player replacement retains the selected identity and audio intent while stale callbacks are fenced out. Apple platforms.

TorBox sources get a fair retry. A temporary provider response can recover without discarding the selected title or making you start over. Apple platforms.

More title details respect your preferences. Movie source lists can be filtered by audio language. Tab visibility and discovery preferences stay with their profile through profile changes, backup, import, and sync. Apple platforms.

Plex linking displays the right kind of code. The app requests the short code accepted by plex.tv/link instead of a long authorization PIN that the link page cannot accept. Apple platforms.

Mac settings return to the in-window floating design. The floating Settings shell is back. Hero artwork sizing also falls back safely when a Mac window has not yet acquired a display. Mac.

Apple artwork scales up only where it helps. 4K-capable Apple TV and high-resolution Mac can use adaptive 4K hero artwork while mobile and lower-resolution surfaces keep conservative image sizes and bounded decoded memory. Apple TV and Mac.

Please test

• On Apple TV, run a long playback session with Dolby Vision and HDR fallback, then pause for an extended period and resume.
• On an Apple device, test a subtitle cue that crosses a segment boundary and a temporarily delayed or unavailable subtitle track while video continues.
• In Continue Watching, resume a title, seek manually, and use Next; confirm the selected title, position, and episode remain correct.
• On Mac, open the floating Settings shell and confirm artwork remains usable in a window that has not yet acquired a display.

Physical Apple TV testing remains useful for Dolby Vision continuity, HDR fallback, subtitle timing, and recovery after extended pauses or network reconnects. A passing build is not proof that every television, source, or provider behaves identically.

Android

Android is not attached to this Apple-only beta. Android playback parity and the broader sync and provider work continue separately and will return in a later integrated release.

Install

Mac (.dmg, easiest, never expires). Download VortX-macOS-v0.4.0-beta.2-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). Download the matching VortX-iOS-v0.4.0-beta.2-ci.ipa, VortX-tvOS-v0.4.0-beta.2-ci.ipa, or VortX-tvOS-lite-v0.4.0-beta.2-ci.ipa. The IPAs are unsigned, because VortX is 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. For one-tap updates, add the VortX source to AltStore / SideStore or your sideloading service so new builds appear automatically: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/VortXTV/VortX/main/altstore/source.json. Full guide: Installing on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.

The release also includes SHA256SUMS-ci.txt so you can confirm each download matches what the public GitHub Actions workflow built from this code. Android packages are intentionally not attached to this beta.