Archive Transcoder
Version 1.0.4
Archive plays straight off your drive and needs nothing installed. The Transcoder is the exception you only want for the heavy files — 4K, HEVC, high-bitrate drone footage — that a television cannot decode smoothly on its own. It runs on a computer you already have, on your own network, and hands the TV a stream it can play.
It never talks to the internet and nothing is uploaded anywhere. The computer running it and the TV watching it have to be on the same network, and that is the whole arrangement.
Download
Windows
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
Download .exeDouble-click it. SmartScreen may ask once — choose More info › Run anyway — and click Allow on the firewall prompt, or the TV will not be able to reach it.
ArchiveTranscoder-windows-x64.exemacOS
macOS 12 or newer, Apple Silicon (M1 and up)
Download .zipUnzip it, then right-click Archive Transcoder and choose Open the first time. The app is not notarized, so a plain double-click is refused.
ArchiveTranscoder-macos-arm64.zipLinux
64-bit, glibc 2.39+ (Ubuntu 24.04 or newer)
Download .tar.gzExtract it, then run ./ArchiveTranscoder from a terminal, or
double-click it in your file manager.
Checksums: SHA256SUMS.txt · all three builds and their release notes are on the release page.
After it is running
- Open the app. It shows this computer's address and a six-digit pairing code.
- Add the folders holding your photos and videos, or map your NAS shares in
config.json. - On the TV: Archive › Settings › Playback › Stream server › Pair…, then type the address and the code.
That is the whole setup. The TV finds it from then on, and a transcoder icon appears in the top bar whenever it is reachable.
About ffmpeg
ffmpeg is not bundled — it is 120 MB and licensed separately. The first launch that cannot
find one downloads it for you, from BtbN on Windows and Linux and from evermeet on macOS. If
you already have ffmpeg on your PATH, it uses that instead and downloads nothing.
If the TV cannot see it
- Both machines have to be on the same network. A guest SSID is a different network.
- On Windows, a firewall prompt that was dismissed writes a block rule for that exact file. Allow it, or remove the rule and launch again.
- The app's own window says whether it is serving and on which address — start there rather than from the TV.