put.io on the big screen — original files, embedded subtitles, my remote.
Unofficial. Not affiliated with put.io or LG.
A couple of months ago my LG C1 OLED TV stopped working with put.io, a service and an app I occasionally used. The reason why my TV stopped working, I assume, was that they updated their app using either CSS or JS features my TV does not support. Now, I like put.io. I like their apps and there is one I can still use, their TV App. But there was a reason why I preferred using their main app. The functionality it offers, having been built a long time ago for users with different use cases than mine, is just not what I would choose to use.
Anyway, just like that, my really good TV, with pretty amazing picture quality, became less useful to me. The worst thing, this is not the first time it happened. I've watched my perfectly good hardware degrade in usability over time for a while now.
Web tech moves on, as it should. On the other hand, webOS 6 (the OS on C1) is built on a variant of Chrome 79. A version of the browser unsupported by Google since 2019. And this browser worked fine until a few months ago when problems started. First, it was CSS, then I was unable to load some websites, and pass the Cloudflare CAPTCHA verification.
I understand that LG and other hardware manufacturers operate with limited resources, don't we all, and that they are not going to support their hardware 5 years after manufacture. But it is still a good piece of hardware and the one I don't intend to turn into e-waste.
Now, this still leaves me with some options. The first is to spend some money and buy something to extend my device's usable lifetime. I am not a big fan of this solution. The second is to accept the situation as it is and live with it. At the end of the day, this was just a small part of the overall experience and I could live with it. But this is obviously not what I did. Instead, I figured, webOS apps are mostly HTML/JS and I know how to deal with that. I don't have a lot of time on my hands, but I also do have a local language model I want to try. I don't even need to root my TV, even though I do want to.
So I outlined this project, put together some resources, some rules and some limitations. And what do you know, a few days later we have PutPlay. Not fully up to my satisfaction, but it's usable and we are iterating over the rough edges. If you care to try, read on!
- Browses your put.io library and plays the file as uploaded (MKV/MP4) — with put.io MP4 and HLS as fallbacks when the original misbehaves
- Subtitles: MKV-embedded first, then your put.io subtitles (ASS/SSA and SRT) — the search asks for your account's languages plus the one you set in the app
- Audio track switching — and when the TV's player refuses a switch, it tells you the truth instead of pretending it worked
- Reads your .cbz comics: only the pages you look at are streamed (range reads, no full-file download), in sheets — uniform pages paired side by side, wide pre-scanned pages alone — left-to-right or right-to-left, and it opens back at the page you left
- Opens .zip/.cbz archives the same way — browse them without downloading
- Pictures: the image viewer fits the glass, and OK steps fit → 2× → 4× with arrow panning
- Music files play under a now-playing strip while you keep browsing, reading, and watching — the strip collapses to a slim corner row and back
- Resumes where you left off (no prompt — it just starts where you left off); remembers your source and language preferences
- Docked video: Back from the full player docks it to a corner — the video keeps playing while you browse or read; restore, mini, or stop from the dock
- When a video ends, the next one in the same folder starts automatically (on by default — Settings → Playback → "Play next in folder")
- Skip intro, recap and credits: the segment times come from the community databases — TheIntroDB, AniSkip for anime, and the introdb.app consensus (when several measure the same section, an agreeing majority wins over a lone outlier) — matched to your file automatically: episodes by their marker, marker-less anime names (like "…Black Clover - 171 (1080p)…"), and movies by their title (the TMDb key is baked into the app — nothing to configure). Settings → "Skip intro, recap and credits" picks the behavior: Auto-skip (default) jumps each section as playback reaches it — fresh starts begin after the intro/recap and skipping the credits ends the episode; "Ask me" instead shows a "Skip …" button above the title row (the player's button style, larger, with text) that takes focus the moment the section is detected, so a single OK skips it (Back plays through), and the progress bar marks where the sections sit. A resume always wins; no match or no data = nothing is skipped
- An info tab on the player (D-pad down): the episode/film's still, synopsis, rating · genres · air date (or runtime for a movie), plus "Play from beginning" and "Up next" — data from TMDb (anime from AniList), fetched after the first frame and cached on the device
- Playback speed 0.5×–2× from the player's speed control (audio stays natural at higher rates)
- Sign-in is a device code: enter it on your phone, or scan the QR
Sign-in is a device code — enter it on your phone, or scan the QR.
The library — a .cbz tile shows its real cover, cached locally.
The player — the file as uploaded, with the focusable scrubber, the source / audio / subtitle / speed controls, and the color key for the remote buttons. (Frame: Steamboat Willie (1928) — public domain.)
The comic reader — sheets of one or two pages, the flip-direction legend in the corner.
The image viewer — Starry Night Over the Rhône (1888), fit to the glass.
Music under a now-playing strip — the library stays fully usable.
Account & settings — playback source, language preferences, and skip segments, saved per account.
More in docs/screenshots/; the demo content behind
the shots is open content — see
docs/shots/CREDITS.md.
Pointer (Magic Remote) and 5-way both work. OK confirms, Back cancels — double-press exits. Pointing at a control highlights it; on the progress bar, the pointer shows the seek time in a bubble before you click.
In the player: blue play/pause · red playback source · green audio · yellow subtitles.
Left/Right walk the player's control rows key by key (source · audio · subs · speed, and rewind · play · forward); from the last icon, Right goes to the progress bar, and from rewind, Left — Up/Down between the rows and the bar work as before.
In the reader and the image viewer: OK zooms (fit → 2× → 4×), the arrows pan while zoomed, and Up flips a comic's reading direction. With the music row or a docked video in the corner, Down hands focus between the page and that row; while the row is focused, the arrows operate the row and never turn the page.
Music: the remote's play/pause, stop, and rewind/forward keys drive the now-playing strip.
Download the current .ipk from the releases page.
- Regular TV: install the
.ipkthrough Homebrew Channel (below). - Rooted TV (mine): dev install straight into
appinstalld— no Developer Mode needed. From a checkout,TV_IP=<your tv> TV_USER=root pnpm deploy:tvcopies, installs, and verifies in about four seconds.
-
On the TV, open Homebrew Channel (install it from webosbrew.org if you don't have it).
-
Select Add App → Add from URL.
-
Paste this repository address and press OK:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Krule/PutPlay/main/repo.json -
Pick PutPlay from the list and confirm the install.
Each GitHub release updates this repository automatically, so “check for updates” in Homebrew Channel picks up new versions on its own.
git clone git@github.com:Krule/PutPlay.git
cd PutPlay
pnpm install
pnpm test # 800+ tests, including the webOS 6 baseline gate
pnpm run build # js/bundle.js + js/bundle.css
pnpm run package # ba.ovo.putplay_<version>_all.ipk in the repo rootReleases are tag-driven: push v1.2.3 and CI builds, tests, packages
ba.ovo.putplay_1.2.3_all.ipk, and publishes a release named v1.2.3 with the
.ipk attached. The tag is the version — it's written into package.json
and appinfo.json at build time, so the file, the app, and the release can
never disagree.
Built for webOS 6 (my C1). The codebase is pinned to the webOS 6 webview —
Chromium 79 — and a test in the suite keeps it there: no flex gap, no
:focus-visible outside @supports, no ES2020+ APIs. The TV's browser isn't
going anywhere, so the app knows exactly where that line is and stays on
this side of it.
This project is unofficial and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, put.io or LG Electronics. It uses your own put.io account against the public put.io API. Use it within put.io's terms.