Nuvio Arc is my experimental fork of Nuvio for trying new ideas, not a replacement for the official app. It runs on the same boxes and works best on stronger ones. It's a one-person hobby project: report problems or ideas in this repo's Issues (best effort) or at r/NuvioForks, and please don't report issues from this build to the official Nuvio GitHub or Discord.

Nuvio Arc 1.1.0-nt.8, now built on official NuvioTV 1.1.0-beta.8. It installs over nt.7.4.1 and keeps all your settings.

This release brings in everything from the official 1.1.0-beta.8, including the new subtitle engine for styled subtitles, and adds a big batch of Arc's own work on top: badges for what is really playing, a Seeking setting so skipping feels the way you like it, night mode and dialogue boost for late-night watching, thumbnails on 2 GB boxes and from all your sources, a smarter Automatic speed-up that picks the piece size for each film and refills quickly after a seek, and fixes for TrueHD on more TVs and for old XviD files.

Highlights

• Badges for what is really playing. The official app's new player badges (from 1.1.0-beta.8), built on in Arc: they're on to start with, work straight away with Arc's own badge pictures (or your imported badge pack), and show what really reached the player: 4K, Dolby Vision or HDR10, TrueHD, Atmos, 7.1 and the source type.
• Seeking your way. A new Seeking setting with Gentle, Balanced and Fast, and skipping without a thumbnail to show now jumps as soon as you let go. (#63)
• Night mode and Dialogue boost. Night mode turns loud scenes down and lifts quiet speech. Dialogue boost raises the centre channel, where most of the talking is, by up to +12 dB. They only work on sound Arc decodes itself. When the sound goes straight through (passthrough) to a soundbar, AV receiver or TV, for example Dolby Atmos, TrueHD or DTS, Arc doesn't change it: the controls are greyed out and your soundbar's or receiver's own night and dialogue modes are the ones to use. With MPV the sound is always decoded, so they work there. (#64)
• Thumbnails on 2 GB boxes and from all your sources. With "Generate thumbnails before play" on, 4K films on boxes like the Fire TV Stick get their thumbnails before the film starts, and thumbnails for 4K films now look for a smaller copy across your debrid add-ons, media servers and HTTP providers.
• Smarter Automatic speed-up. It picks the piece size for each film, gets the buffer back quickly after a seek or a stall, and the stats show the requests it really runs.
• TrueHD and XviD fixed. TrueHD reaches your soundbar as TrueHD again on more TVs (#27), and older XviD and DivX AVI files play smoothly on any box.

More on each below.

New

Player

• Badges for what is really playing. While the controls are up, a row of small badges under the episode and chapter line shows what reached the player: 4K, Dolby Vision or HDR10, TrueHD, Atmos, 7.1 and the source type. It works out of the box with Arc's own badge pictures, or with your imported badge pack. The picture format always comes from the player, so a Dolby Vision file playing on its HDR10 base layer says HDR10. It is on to start with; switch it off in Settings > Layout > Streams. The badges and badge packs come from the official 1.1.0-beta.8. What Arc adds: built-in badge pictures, so it works without a pack; on by default (off in the official app); placed under the episode and chapter line in all three control styles, hidden while the seek thumbnail shows, and following your UI scale and HDR dimming; and HDR and Dolby Vision read from the video itself rather than the file name.
• New Seeking setting in Settings > Playback > Player Interface, with three choices. Gentle is the slow, steady seek of the last few builds. Balanced (the default) starts just as slowly, then speeds up, so an hour takes about 7 seconds of holding instead of 15. Fast works like the official app: big steps and a jump as soon as you let go. (#63)
• Move subtitles up and down from the remote. Two new remote-button jobs, Subtitles up and Subtitles down, in Settings > Playback > Remote buttons. Each press moves them a step, holding keeps them moving. (#54)
• "Resume from 42:10" on the streams screen, and plugin streams show their source name.
• Arc asks before switching player engine, because the video reloads from where you are.

Sound

• Night mode. Turns loud scenes down and lifts quiet speech, so you stop riding the volume between whispers and explosions. Choose Off, Light, Medium or Strong in the player's audio panel (Sound adjustments) or in Settings > Playback > Audio. It stays on until you turn it off, works in both ExoPlayer and MPV, and is off by default. It doesn't change sound passed straight through to a soundbar, receiver or TV (see Dialogue boost below).
• Dialogue boost. The old "Downmix: center mix level" is now Dialogue boost in the audio panel, Off to +12 dB. It raises the centre channel, where most of the talking is, on 5.1 and 7.1 sound that Arc decodes itself: when it's mixed down to stereo for TV speakers, and now also when it goes out as 5.1 or 7.1 PCM to a receiver. With MPV it works when the sound is mixed to stereo. When it can't help, the row says why (passthrough, a stereo track, or sound that arrived already mixed to stereo). They only work on sound Arc decodes itself. When the sound goes straight through (passthrough) to a soundbar, AV receiver or TV, for example Dolby Atmos, TrueHD or DTS, Arc doesn't change it: the controls are greyed out and your soundbar's or receiver's own night and dialogue modes are the ones to use. With MPV the sound is always decoded, so they work there. The range used to go from -10 to +30 dB; anything outside the new range moves to the nearest end. (#64)
• The subwoofer stays when 5.1 or 7.1 is mixed down to stereo, with ExoPlayer and MPV. Mixing a surround film down for TV speakers used to drop the subwoofer channel, so explosions and music lost their low end. It's now mixed into the front speakers at half level.
• The audio panel's "Delay and gain" button is now called "Sound adjustments".

Thumbnails

• Thumbnails are on to start with on boxes with 3 GB of memory or more. They used to start off below 4 GB. Boxes with 2 GB stay off until you switch them on, and a choice you already made in Settings stays as it is.
• 4K thumbnails on 2 GB boxes, before the film starts. On boxes like the Fire TV Stick, with "Generate thumbnails before play" on, a 4K film now loads after its thumbnails are made. The box needs its memory for them first, so the film waits behind the "Generating thumbnails" screen and starts when it's done: about a minute the first time on Faster, no wait the next time. "Start watching now" or Back still starts it at any time. Bigger boxes, HD films and the setting off are unchanged.
• Thumbnails for 4K films now look for a smaller copy across all your sources (debrid add-ons, media servers, HTTP providers). Add-on links through TorBox, Real-Debrid, AllDebrid, Premiumize and the rest now count, as long as the add-on marks them as cached. A media server away from home gives a copy too, one request at a time and only while the film has plenty buffered. See "Good to know" below.

Subtitles

• New subtitle engine for styled ASS/SSA subtitles (anime and fansubs). Smoother in heavy scenes, works with tunnelled playback, and a new Subtitle render resolution setting lets slower boxes draw them at a lower size. The old Standard / Effects / Overlay render mode choice is gone. The libass switch stays off for now while I check it on my boxes; your subtitle delay works with it.
• Separate subtitle style for HDR and Dolby Vision. Pick a text colour and brightness used only on HDR video, in the subtitle style panel. It starts at the same dimmer level as before, so nothing changes until you touch it. "Dim controls in HDR" now only dims the player controls.

Network and app

• 12 MB piece size option. Custom network now offers 12 MB pieces, a step between 8 and 16 MB.
• Install updates automatically (Android 12 and newer, so boxes like the Ugoos AM9 but not the Fire TV Stick). Arc can download a new version in the background and install it while the box is idle, then tells you once it has updated. Off to start with, in the update settings.
• Add-ons can set an audio delay per stream, added on top of your own delay for the device. (#24)

Better

Playback and Automatic speed-up

• Automatic speed-up tells servers apart better. It now remembers TorBox per region, Real-Debrid per city and Premiumize per location, whichever machine you land on, so a film starts from what that part of the service really delivered.
• One odd evening can't throw Automatic speed-up off. What it remembers about a server is averaged over several films, and it can only make a film start on more downloads than usual, never fewer.
• Heavy films start on the right number of downloads. When the add-on gives no file size, Automatic speed-up guesses a remux's bitrate, and a heavy one could start a download short. It now counts again as soon as the server tells it the real size, so a 95 Mbit/s remux gets its extra download from the first second instead of sitting on 7 to 8 seconds of buffer. Boxes with 3 GB or more also start with a bit more headroom, and the spare downloads are handed back once the buffer is comfortable.
• Automatic speed-up picks the piece size for each film. Instead of 8 or 16 MB fixed at the start, Automatic now chooses 8, 12, 16 or 24 MB pieces together with the number of downloads, from how quickly the server answers and how fast it delivers, within what your box's memory allows. It now times every piece, not only the first one, so a server that answers slowly gets bigger pieces and a quick one stays on small pieces (quicker seeks, more room for thumbnails). A film still starts on at least as many downloads as before. During the film it only moves to a bigger piece when that clearly pays off (at most once every 2 minutes, one step at a time) and to a smaller one only when memory runs short, and it remembers the size per server, so the next film starts on the right one. Manual piece sizes are unchanged.
• The buffer comes back faster after a seek or a stall. After a long seek, a stall or when the buffer runs low, Automatic now goes straight to as many downloads as the server and your box's memory allow (or just enough to get the buffer back in about 10 seconds), instead of waiting and testing one more at a time, and hands them back once the buffer has been comfortable for a minute. On a server it hasn't seen before it climbs two at a time, and a server that answers "too many requests" is held to what worked, also for its next films, and gets one more request back for every half hour without another refusal. Downloads still at the old position stop straight away after a long seek, so they no longer hold up the new one.
• Automatic speed-up counts what really runs. The read-ahead pieces now count as downloads, so the speed it remembers per server is no longer too high and the next film from that server starts on the right number (speeds saved by earlier versions are measured again once). It also aims for the film's busy scenes, not only its average, and tries an extra download for at least 20 seconds before deciding, so one quick burst can't fool it.
• Steadier buffer on 2 GB boxes. On the Fire Stick and other 2 GB boxes the read-ahead and the film's buffer now share one memory budget, so they no longer squeeze each other.
• No more slow first piece after a long pause. Connections the server closed during a long pause are dropped before the film carries on, so it doesn't stumble on the first piece.
• Stats show the real requests. The stats overlay has a new Requests row: requests running now out of what the server allows, the speed of each and how long the server takes to answer.
• Skipping is quick again. With no thumbnail to show (thumbnails off, or none for that stream), a skip while the film plays jumps as soon as you let go, like the official app. With thumbnails a tap waits 0.8 s instead of 2 s, so quick taps still add up, and after a hold you still get 2 s to look at the thumbnail. (#63)
• Chapters on mpv. The chapter list, the marks on the progress bar and Next/Previous chapter now also work when the mpv engine plays the film.
• Lighter on memory and CPU. Switching profile no longer leaves the old profile's Home running in the background, mpv reads its track list once per file instead of every half second (a big saving with many subtitle tracks), and the subtitle engine is released when the player closes.
• Torrent engine 0.1.6, with clearer errors for the torrent that is playing.

Thumbnails

• More copies match. A copy up to 8 seconds longer or shorter than the film now counts as the same length (less than one thumbnail step), and when the length matches, words like Extended or IMAX in the name no longer rule it out.
• Another release of a film you've watched shows its thumbnails sooner on 2 GB boxes. Play a different release of the same length and the thumbnails saved from the first one show while you watch, not only after you pause.
• Smoother thumbnails while seeking. Fast glides along the thumbnails too instead of jumping a step at a time, thumbnails no longer pop in and out at the edges of the middle picture, and the picture keeps the same shape the whole way.
• 4K Blu-ray remuxes make their thumbnails in pieces. Many UHD Blu-ray remuxes store each picture as horizontal slices (8 on the discs checked so far, not on all of them). Arc now decodes such pictures a slice at a time, two at once, so a 4K thumbnail needs a fraction of the memory it did and is made faster (about a quarter faster on the AM9). The pictures are exactly the same. Other 4K files are made as before.
• Thumbnails are made a little faster. Arc skips a smoothing step that can't be seen at thumbnail size, about 10 % less work for a 4K picture and 8 % faster 1080p thumbnails on the AM9.
• Thumbnails give way to the film earlier. While a film plays with Automatic speed-up, thumbnails only use what the film doesn't need. They run while the downloads carry at least 1.3 times what the film is playing at, the buffer isn't shrinking, and the server has requests left after the film's (on TorBox that's one total for your whole account, a next episode starting early included). They stop at once on a seek, a stall, a "too many requests" or a falling buffer, and come back only after 10 seconds of things being fine again. A copy on another server uses that server's own room, still behind the film's speed and buffer. This works with any buffer size, so a box with a small buffer no longer has to wait for a pause.

Home, details and memory

• Continue watching and Coming up cards fill the top of Home properly. Like any other title, they now show the genre, runtime and year next to the episode, and a synopsis underneath: the episode's when it's known, otherwise the show's. The episode title no longer appears twice, and NEW SEASON or the air date stays where it was.
• Bigger episode cards on the details page in Nuvio V2, the same widths as in the Original look. (#62)
• Cast and Networks pages follow your poster size. With Large or Extra large posters, the posters there now match Home instead of staying small. (#58)
• Lighter on 2 GB boxes. On boxes like the Fire TV Stick the app keeps fewer posters and backdrops in memory while you browse, so more memory stays free. No picture is ever loaded bigger than your screen, and everything still shows in full colour and full sharpness. Bigger boxes are unchanged.
• More room for posters and backdrops on boxes with plenty of storage, so big catalogs don't keep downloading the same pictures. Memory use is unchanged. (#61)
• The app takes less space once installed. About 25 MB less on the box (128 to 102 MB on the AM9, 116 to 91 MB on the Fire Stick), because the app's native parts are no longer stored twice. The download itself gets a bit bigger.
• Back on Home after a film, the card you played stays in view. When the title you just watched moved to the front of Continue watching, the row used to stay where it was, so the selected card sat off the left edge and the top of the screen still showed the title next to it. The row now follows the card, and the top shows the right title.
• Continue Watching keeps fresh episode details, the details page shows ratings even when Trakt progress fails, movie resume points update when you come back from the player, and episode status marks sit in the top right of the card.
• Profiles keep to themselves. Profiles deleted on another device lose their local data here too, and watched marks stay with the profile that set them.

Calendar and Coming up

• Air times for streaming shows. When TVmaze only has a date (most Paramount+ and Apple TV shows), the Calendar now asks Trakt for the time, no Trakt sign-in needed. No more "Time not announced" for shows like Dark Matter, MobLand or Tulsa King when Trakt knows the time.
• The Calendar always follows your Nuvio library, also when your library source is Trakt, Simkl or MDBList. "Also follow my other services" still adds the rest, and the setting now says where your library comes from.
• More air times for streaming shows, from TheTVDB. When TVmaze only has a date, the Calendar and Coming up now take the show's regular air time from TheTVDB, turned into your own time zone (summer time included). It's only used when the date falls on the show's usual air day, so a one-off date doesn't get a wrong time. Trakt is still asked when TheTVDB doesn't know the time, and no sign-in is needed for either.
• TheTVDB credit. The Calendar now shows a small "Metadata provided by TheTVDB" line with their logo at the bottom, and TheTVDB is listed in Settings > About > Licenses & attribution with a link to thetvdb.com. That's the condition for the free TheTVDB key.
• Anime from Kitsu add-ons shows in the Calendar. Shows saved with an id the Calendar couldn't read before now use the IMDb id from their details instead of being left out.

Media servers

• Silo pictures at the size they're drawn. Arc now tells Silo how wide posters, backdrops and logos are drawn on your screen, UI scale included, and newer Silo servers send them at that size. Backdrops go up to 2560 wide, so the AM9 gets sharper backgrounds, and the Fire Stick no longer downloads more than it shows. A Silo title's page also brings Silo's wide picture for landscape posters. Older Silo servers work as before.
• Silo playback asks for Auto. Silo retired its "Original" quality, so Arc now asks for Auto, which still plays the file as it is when the box can handle it. If a stream fails, Silo may now switch to another copy of the title instead of converting the one you picked. Older Silo servers still get the old request.
• Media servers find more titles, by also trying a film's original title when the translated one gives no match.

Fixed

• TrueHD reaches your soundbar as TrueHD again on more TVs. Arc sends TrueHD the same way the old TrueHD MAT passthrough builds did whenever the TV takes it, and only uses the newer Android way when it doesn't. On TVs like the TCL with a JBL bar on eARC that turned TrueHD into Dolby Surround, the bar should show TrueHD and Atmos again. The player stats now say which way is in use (IEC or MAT), and the diagnostics page shows whether the TV takes Dolby MAT. (#27)
• Older XviD and DivX AVI files play smoothly. Many older rips store two pictures in one piece of the file and leave an empty piece where the second one belongs ("packed B-frames"). ExoPlayer now unpacks them before they reach the box's decoder, so these files no longer judder or drop frames on any box.
• Amplification no longer crackles at high levels. Loud peaks are held back by a limiter instead of being cut off, so +8 or +10 dB stays clean.
• Films converted to Dolby Digital no longer lose their last moment of sound. When the app converts a soundtrack to Dolby Digital for your receiver, the final fraction of a second used to be cut off; it now plays to the end.
• Chapter jumps land on the chapter. Next and Previous chapter now go to the exact start, so pressing Next no longer lands a few seconds early and sends you back to the same chapter.
• Subtitles hold still. They no longer jump when you pause, on letterboxed films or when the number of lines changes, and sit just above the progress bar when there is room.
• Strip SDH subtitles keeps lines that end with a colon. Only real speaker labels like "JOHN:" are removed now, so a line such as "Here's what I think:" no longer disappears. (#66)
• The seek thumbnail stays put when you let go. It no longer jumps from the middle of the screen back to the progress bar. (#57)
• Episodes you've already watched no longer stick on "New" in Coming up. Some shows are numbered differently on TVmaze, where the Calendar gets its dates. The Calendar now matches episodes to the show's own list by date and name, and a show whose next episode isn't out yet never shows "New".
• New-episode pop-ups no longer go missing. One that comes due while you're watching something or the screensaver is on now shows once you're back, and Home checks again when you come back to it and every 15 minutes while it's open.
• "Reuse last link" gets a fresh link when the saved one has expired. If the saved link fails before the picture starts, Arc forgets it and asks the same source for a new one, instead of showing an error.
• New MDBList lists show up straight away again. A new dynamic or liked list you add on MDBList now appears in your Library by itself. Only a big batch at once (more than 10 new lists) still starts hidden, so a large account can't freeze the app. Dynamic and liked lists that include seasons or episodes are no longer cut off partway.
• Jellyfin keeps up when you binge. The next episode no longer shows "Still checking this server's library" after a long episode. Arc remembers the show's name, or fetches it again in a few seconds, so Jellyfin is still asked about that one show instead of reading the whole library.

Good to know

• Thumbnail copies from add-ons. With your own TorBox key in Arc, a copy is added and removed again as before. Otherwise the add-on's link is used, which can leave the film in your debrid list.
• 4K thumbnails on 2 GB boxes only wait before the film when "Generate thumbnails before play" is on. "Start watching now" or Back skips the wait.
• Night mode, Install updates automatically and the libass subtitle engine are all off until you turn them on. Night mode and Dialogue boost never change sound passed straight through to a soundbar, receiver or TV.
• Dialogue boost settings outside the new Off to +12 dB range move to the nearest end once you update.

Install

The update banner in the app installs this release for you. Or download the APK for your device below and install it over the top (your data is kept):

• app-full-arm64-v8a-release.apk for most current boxes (Shield, Ugoos, Google TV).
• app-full-armeabi-v7a-release.apk for the Fire TV Stick and other 32-bit devices.

Nuvio Arc installs over earlier Nuvio Arc and Nuvio-test builds, keeps all your settings, profiles and sign-ins, and still installs next to the official Nuvio. Version 1.1.0-nt.8, package com.nuvio.tv.test.

Licence and attribution

GPL v3.0. Upstream copyright headers, licence text and developer attributions are preserved.

• Upstream: NuvioMedia/NuvioTV, including compatible changes through 1.1.0-beta.8.
• The surround passthrough engine is ported from pull request 3107 in the official app by halibiram, with ram130. Media servers build on pull request 3728 in the official app by tapframe.
• AV1 software decoding uses dav1d by VideoLAN and the dav1d authors (BSD 2-Clause), with cpu_features by Google (Apache 2.0). Calendar episode times come from TVmaze and TheTVDB (metadata provided by TheTVDB). All are credited under Settings > About > Licenses & attribution.
• Source for this build: tag 1.1.0-nt.8 in this repository.
• Nuvio Arc is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NuvioTV project.

Nuvio Arc is built on Nuvio. If you enjoy it, support the Nuvio team at nuvio.tv/support.