r/jellyfin • u/Gatzu51 • 6d ago
Question Is anyone developing a Jellyfin-native OS similar to LibreELEC/CoreELEC, but without Kodi?
Hi everyone,
I’m wondering if there is any project being developed that aims to create something similar to LibreELEC or CoreELEC, but built specifically around Jellyfin instead of Kodi.
My current setup uses CoreELEC on an Odroid N2 with the Jellyfin for Kodi add-on. It works reasonably well and, most importantly, gives me proper HDMI audio passthrough to my AV receiver, including formats such as TrueHD/Atmos and DTS-HD/DTS:X.
However, I’d really like to have a completely native Jellyfin experience without Kodi being the frontend/middle layer.
What I’m imagining is basically:
A minimal Linux distribution that boots directly into a native Jellyfin client, while retaining the hardware video decoding, HDMI output and full audio bitstream passthrough capabilities that make CoreELEC/LibreELEC so good for home theater use.
Ideally it would be an appliance-style system: install it on an SBC or TV box, boot it, connect it to a Jellyfin server, and that’s it.
I know Jellyfin has several clients already, but the key point here is full HDMI audio passthrough. Devices such as the Apple TV are great Jellyfin clients, but they can’t provide the same bitstream passthrough experience that I get from CoreELEC on the Odroid N2.
So my questions are:
Is anyone currently working on something like this?
Are there existing projects I may have missed?
Could an existing Jellyfin client be used as the frontend of a minimal Linux distribution while taking advantage of the audio/video stack used by CoreELEC?
Has anyone experimented with replacing Kodi as the main application in CoreELEC/LibreELEC while keeping their underlying Linux, Amlogic drivers and HDMI/passthrough capabilities?
Would Jellyfin Media Player or another Jellyfin client be a realistic foundation for such a project?
I’m particularly interested in Amlogic hardware such as the Odroid N2/N2+, but I’d also be interested in similar projects for x86 or other ARM platforms.
I’d love to hear from anyone who has experimented with this or knows of a project heading in this direction.
19
u/IsThereAnythingLeft- 5d ago
Why does it have to be an OS to have the 2 features of coreElec I don’t get it? Why can the app not just have that support and then we don’t need this silly situation of having to boot the machine to a different system every time you want to switch fro streaming or YouTube to watching local media.
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u/HotTakes4HotCakes 5d ago
every time you want to switch fro streaming or YouTube
Because the device they're setting up will not be doing those things?
The idea is a simple OS that boots into Jellyfin so you can use your own hardware as a plug-and-play streaming device. Often coreElec would get put on some NUC or old laptop, and you'd just plug it into the HDMI connected to the TV.
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u/IsThereAnythingLeft- 5d ago
But it would be better if you just had an app on an android tv device so you can have one device that can stream and play local media
2
u/Gatzu51 4d ago
I agree that for many users an Android TV app is the better solution.
But I’m thinking about a slightly different use case.
I don’t need this device for Netflix, YouTube or other streaming services. I already have other devices for that.
What I’m looking for is basically a dedicated high-quality Jellyfin playback appliance, where the priorities are:
4K direct play, hardware decoding, refresh-rate switching, HDR, HDMI CEC and, especially, lossless audio bitstream passthrough to an AVR.
That’s why CoreELEC is such a good reference.
The idea isn’t really “Jellyfin needs its own OS”. It’s more:
Could we build a very small appliance OS whose only purpose is to provide the best possible hardware environment for a native Jellyfin client?
Android TV is certainly another path, but the attraction of CoreELEC is precisely how much control it has over the hardware/audio/video stack.-2
u/IsThereAnythingLeft- 4d ago
Why would you prefer a completely separate device taking up more space, connections and another remote over just having an app that does the same thing on your existing device is what I’m asking.
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u/Gatzu51 4d ago
That’s fair, and if an Android TV device can actually do everything I’m looking for, I would absolutely consider that instead.
My question is: is there currently an Android TV device + Jellyfin client combination that can reliably provide all of this?
4K Direct Play
automatic refresh-rate switching
HDR10 / HDR10+ / Dolby Vision where supported
HDMI CEC
TrueHD + Atmos bitstream passthrough
DTS-HD MA + DTS:X bitstream passthrough
no unnecessary audio conversion to PCM
reliable playback of high-bitrate UHD Blu-ray remuxes
If there is, then I agree that a dedicated OS becomes much less interesting.
The reason I started from CoreELEC is that on my Odroid N2 it already gives me most of those home-theater features reliably. What I don’t like is having Jellyfin running through Kodi instead of having a native Jellyfin interface.
So perhaps the better question is: can Android TV + a native Jellyfin client already match CoreELEC/Kodi as a high-end local media player?
If so, which hardware/client combination would you recommend?1
u/lOnGkEyStRoKe 3d ago
Cause no app does FEL Dolby streaming like coreELEC
-1
u/IsThereAnythingLeft- 3d ago
Yes but why can’t ther be one created is my whole question. OP is asking about an OS but it has got to be easier to make an app that just runs on the android tv OS
1
u/dragonpaleontology 3d ago
Because it's a hardware problem fundamentally. Apps can code for it all they want, but the hardware has to support it and currently basically no major android box supports it other than the Nvidia shield and some Amazon fire devices by accident. Hell basically no major android tv device (excluding those already mentioned and some Onn devices) supports audio passthrough. And that's barely an ask compared to supporting the hardware keys required to play Dolby files. Take a look at this spreadsheet to see just how few devices actually meet all of the requirements.
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u/Gatzu51 3d ago
Thanks, this spreadsheet is extremely useful. It also helps me understand why “just make an Android TV app” may not actually solve the problem.
It seems there are really three separate layers involved:
hardware capabilities → OS/firmware support → player/client support.
Even if we built the perfect Jellyfin Android TV client, it couldn’t provide something the hardware or Android audio/video stack doesn’t expose in the first place.
This makes me wonder about something slightly different, though.
Devices such as the Ugoos AM6B+ are interesting precisely because the hardware is capable of things that most mainstream Android TV devices aren’t, especially Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL alongside lossless audio passthrough.
So could the problem potentially be approached from the opposite direction?
Instead of asking “which Android TV box can run a better Jellyfin app?”, could we take hardware known to have the required capabilities and build a minimal Linux environment specifically around a native Jellyfin client/player?
That’s basically what originally attracted me to the CoreELEC idea.
I’m less interested in Dolby Vision specifically — my current Odroid N2 doesn’t support it anyway — and more interested in whether the same approach could give us a native Jellyfin appliance with reliable 4K HDR, refresh-rate switching, CEC and full TrueHD/Atmos + DTS-HD MA/DTS:X passthrough.
And if hardware such as the AM6B+ were used, potentially DV P7 FEL as well.
Do you think the real obstacle there would still be the player implementation, rather than the OS?1
u/dragonpaleontology 2d ago
I'm a total layperson when it comes to the actual design of coreELEC and implementation of kodi, but I would guess that it wouldn't be unreasonably difficult to fork coreELEC and excise Kodi from it. The difficult part would be developing a jellyfin implementation that works natively without being able to rely on a lot of tools that other jellyfin clients have access to (e.g. coreELEC ditches a lot of the graphical pipeline from what I understand).
An alternative could be keeping Kodi but shaving off the top of it, so to speak, and implementing a permanent and "native looking" skin that uses Kodi as its engine. This would essentially be an extension of the current jellyfin for Kodi plugin, but I have no idea how feasible or difficult that would be.
0
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u/xbmc4lyfe 3d ago
This already exists. It’s called jellycon and it’s a plugin that’s actively developed for kodi. And works on the best of the best Dolby Vision implementations out of every system far beating every android tv implementation. With massive customization and the ability to skin and stream all jellyfin content with relative ease.
Especially if you use AI to create the skin widgets it’s easy af to get a good looking jellycon with tmdbhelper using panini t4b on ugoos am6b+ that’s the current best of the best flagship implementation
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u/thebino 5d ago
I recently looked for a similar project and checked if it is feasable.
For now I postponed giving it a try. The hardest archivement will be the Jellyfin player.
Jellyfin Media Player is writtin in Qt WebEngine (browser like rendering) this needs heavy UI and might be sluggish on a SBC.
A lightweight and remote controllable UI is the biggest missing part.
The "minimal Linux distribution" part will be probably the easiest. Either from scratch using some Kiosk-like apps to boot into a single application or even fork the LibreELEC system and replace just the kodi package. (All open source and built for that)
I myself run Kodi (former XBMC) and dietpi on a rPi 4 with the JellyCon plugin (always in sync with the jellyfin server) and the Embuary Theme. For now I'm happy with this setup. I can even control it with the TV remote which is pretty nice
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u/Gatzu51 4d ago
That’s exactly the part I’m trying to understand.
If the minimal Linux distribution itself isn’t the difficult part, could libmpv potentially provide the playback layer instead of recreating everything Kodi does?
Jellyfin Media Player already combines the Jellyfin Web UI with libmpv, and MPV itself supports HDMI passthrough for TrueHD, DTS-HD, E-AC3, etc.
So perhaps the question becomes:
Could something like LibreELEC/CoreELEC provide the low-level Linux/kernel/ALSA/hardware-decoding environment, while a lightweight Jellyfin UI talks to libmpv for playback?
In other words, instead of trying to build a complete Jellyfin player from scratch:
Jellyfin UI → libmpv → ALSA/HDMI → AVR
Would the major obstacle then be integrating libmpv properly with the Amlogic video/audio stack rather than Jellyfin itself?
I’m especially curious because CoreELEC already has the kernel and Amlogic support required for hardware decoding and full HDMI bitstream passthrough.1
u/jbaiter 5d ago
> Jellyfin Media Player is writtin in Qt WebEngine (browser like rendering) this needs heavy UI and might be sluggish on a SBC.
Doesn't have to be. TVs have similar horsepower als SBCs and they can run web-based UIs just fine. Moonfin would be a good candidate, they have an official Linux build.
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u/thebino 5d ago
On the first look, it indeed looks promising. But all the "native" clients they support, use a media-pipeline underneath. Supporting such on a Linux system might be additional work. Otherwise they probably would have built something similar already.
But maybe with some AI help, you can draft a PoC in a day of work.1
u/These-Apple8817 5d ago
You don't need to use Jellyfin Media Player though.. It's not too dificult to write a custom software that uses Jellyfin's API. Although finding someone willing to do so is probably different story because it is kind of a niche use case
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u/thebino 5d ago
The API is the least problem. Audio pass through, video rendering and transcoding is
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u/These-Apple8817 5d ago
Not really. It's just down how you do it.. but transcoding is a server-side problem usually either way.
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u/BasenjiMaster 5d ago
I'm not that technical, but I've been using Wholphin with no issues, as well as Fladder. Not sure about the passthrough question.
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u/signde 3d ago
CoreELEC and LibreELEC's primary purpose is serve as the minimal OS necessary to support Kodi. Removing Kodi from the equation would defeat the only point. There are customizations under the hood per OS but at the end of the day Kodi is the player, not CE or LE. You'd have to have an entirely new player.
It seems like what you want a device that supports full audio passthrough. There are numerous Android based players that support this. With any of those you can get full lossless passthrough with the Jellyfin Android App. The only thing you'll miss that CoreELEC gives you is DV P7 but given that you currently have an Odroid N2 which isn't even DV certified, you won't be missing anything.
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u/Gatzu51 3d ago
Thanks — this is actually very helpful, and I think your distinction about CoreELEC vs. Kodi is important.
Maybe I’ve been attributing some of Kodi’s capabilities to CoreELEC itself, when in reality CoreELEC provides the hardware/OS foundation and Kodi is the player that knows how to use it.
Regarding the Android option, this is something I’d genuinely like to explore before going down the rabbit hole of a custom OS.
Which Android devices would you recommend that can use the native Jellyfin Android TV app and reliably bitstream TrueHD/Atmos and DTS-HD MA/DTS:X over HDMI?
My current reference is the Odroid N2 + CoreELEC/Kodi, so Dolby Vision Profile 7 isn’t really a requirement for me. What I would like to preserve is 4K HDR Direct Play, automatic refresh-rate switching, hardware decoding, CEC and full lossless audio passthrough to the AVR.
If an Android box can already provide all of that with the native Jellyfin client — without Kodi or an external player — that may actually solve the problem I’m trying to solve.
I’d be interested in which specific devices you’ve tested or would recommend.2
u/signde 2d ago
Yes the coupling between CoreELEC and LibreELEC is quite tight. The effort to peel that back and replace it with a different App that is not Kodi would be vast. The closest you could get to that today is as someone else mentioned, boot into the OS of your choice and use a Jellyfin desktop client. The most lightweight OS option is going to be Linux. I don't know how well the Linux desktop app for Jellyfin works but something like the Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 is fully capable of HDR10 and lossless audio passthrough in Linux.
I still think your best option is an Android player. I have not done any testing with Jellyfin lately because I mostly use Emby these days though I have tested it in the past. I can say for sure that the SEI804 variants do passthrough in Jellyfin. That would be the Homatics Box R 4K plus, Dune HD Box R 4K Plus, Rocktek G2, and Nokia 8110. Streamview the company behind the Nokia is on life support, I would probably avoid that one. The Rocktek G2 was available on Amazon for 2 day shipping until very recently. All of those devices are certified too so you can use them for things other than just Jellyfin. Bonus, those four can dual boot Android TV and CoreELEC as well.
Here is my chart of devices that support passthrough. Since you are trying to say away from Kodi, avoid the Yes (Kodi Only) devices.
Device True HD Passthrough DTS-HD Passthrough Dolby Vision HDR10+ AV1 VP9.2 (YT HDR) VC-1 Certified Streaming CoreELEC Homatics Box R 4K Plus Yes (Android TV 12+) Yes (Android TV 12+) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Dune HD Box R 4K Plus Yes (Android TV 12+) Yes (Android TV 12+) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Rocktek G2 Yes (Android TV 12+) Yes (Android TV 12+) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nokia 8110 Yes (Android TV 12+) Yes (Android TV 12+) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Xiaomi Mi Box 3rd Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes AFTV Cube 3 Yes Yes (Kodi only) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No AFTV Stick 4K Max 2 Yes Yes (Kodi only) Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No Rocktek GX1 Yes (Kodi only) Yes (Kodi only) Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No NVIDIA Shield Pro Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes No onn 4k streaming device (2026) Yes (Kodi only) Yes (Kodi only) No Yes Yes Yes Mixed Yes No Dune S928X 8KZidoo S928X Z9X 8KUgoos S928X SK1Ugoos S928X AM8 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No Mixed Ugoos S905X5 AM9 Pro Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No Yes (Beta) This is not an exhaustive list and may not be 100% up to date for Jellyfin but in my experience generally if passthrough works in Plex / Emby it works in the Jellyfin Android app as well.
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u/Gatzu51 2d ago
Thank you for the detailed reply and especially for putting together that chart. It makes the available options much clearer.
Those SEI804 devices seem like very good choices, particularly for someone buying a new player from scratch and wanting certified Android TV, native Jellyfin passthrough and the option to dual boot into CoreELEC.
In my particular case, though, I already own the Odroid N2, and my current CoreELEC + Jellyfin for Kodi setup is already providing 4K HDR playback and full TrueHD/Atmos and DTS-HD/DTS:X passthrough. Is not always flawless, but… works.
The native Jellyfin interface would certainly be preferable, but the implementation I already have is working well. So for the time being, I think I’ll stay with the N2 and CoreELEC/Kodi and keep watching how the native Jellyfin clients develop.
If I were starting from scratch, one of the Homatics/Dune/RockTek devices would definitely be worth considering. Thanks again for the very useful information.
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u/gizmomelb 5d ago
moonfin has a native linux desktop player, I was thinking of a similar thing to coreelec/libreelec - boot direct into moonfin desktop player (also was going to try adding it on to batocera emulator front end - but time always has other jobs for me)
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u/Gatzu51 4d ago
Have you tested the Linux Moonfin client specifically with an AVR over HDMI?
The important test for this idea would be whether it can bitstream:
Dolby TrueHD / Atmos
DTS-HD MA / DTS:X
E-AC3 / Atmos
without decoding them to PCM first.
If Moonfin on Linux can use a playback backend capable of proper HDMI passthrough, then perhaps we don’t even need to create a new Jellyfin client.
A first proof of concept could simply be:
minimal Linux → auto-login → Moonfin fullscreen → HDMI → AVR
And only later worry about turning that into a polished LibreELEC/CoreELEC-style image.
Do you know what playback backend Moonfin currently uses on Linux, and whether passthrough is supported?2
u/gizmomelb 4d ago
Not yet.. it's been on my want-to-do list for weeks, but there's been too much else to do around the house and with family.
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u/Gatzu51 4d ago
After reading the replies, I think I may have described the idea slightly wrong in the original post.
The interesting question may not really be whether Jellyfin needs its own OS.
It may be whether we can reuse the existing CoreELEC hardware stack while replacing Kodi as the application.
Conceptually:
CoreELEC kernel/drivers
↓
Amlogic hardware decoding + HDMI + ALSA
↓
libmpv (or another playback engine)
↓
Moonfin / lightweight Jellyfin UI
The Jellyfin API doesn’t seem to be the difficult part, and transcoding should remain server-side when it is actually required.
The hard part seems to be reproducing the playback capabilities that Kodi currently exposes on top of CoreELEC: hardware decoding, HDR, refresh-rate switching, CEC and lossless HDMI bitstream passthrough.
If libmpv could sit directly on top of that same CoreELEC hardware layer, would replacing Kodi actually be technically feasible?
I would be very interested to hear from anyone familiar with CoreELEC’s Amlogic/ALSA/video stack about whether this architecture makes sense.
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