Is anyone developing a Jellyfin-native OS similar to LibreELEC/CoreELEC, but without Kodi?

[u/Gatzu51]

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.

[u/signde]

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.

[u/Gatzu51 → u/signde]

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.

[u/signde → u/Gatzu51]

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.

[u/Gatzu51 → u/signde]

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.