1. Install the free server
Choose Windows, macOS or Docker. The server and its web interface are free, with no subscription.
Get the server
Server 1.0 is out and free forever
Every channel.
Every channel.
Every screen.
One server.
Point Mimir at an M3U playlist or a network TV tuner and it becomes a complete home broadcast system: live channels, scheduled recordings and a full XMLTV programme guide, streaming to every screen in the house and to your phone when you're not in it.
Mimir in action
Watch, record and recover from stream interruptions
Watch Mimir on NVIDIA SHIELD and Apple TV · 1 minute each
Explore the TV guide, schedule a recording and see playback after a controlled connection outage.
NVIDIA SHIELD
Watch on YouTubeApple TV
Watch on YouTubeCaptioned, with no sound. Demo sources shown; bring your own channels and guide.
Video description and media credits
Mimir on NVIDIA SHIELD: browse an M3U/XMLTV programme guide, watch a stream and schedule a recording with adjustable padding. In a separate controlled test, the demo source was interrupted for 35 seconds. Mimir retried, resumed capturing and assembled the received footage into one saved recording. Playback shows a clock jump across the missing interval, including retry time. Footage that never arrived cannot be recreated. The test was stopped early after recovery; the playback excerpt across the join is uncut.
The Apple TV video shows the guide, live viewing and recording options in the Apple TV app, followed by playback of the same saved recovery test. Its playback excerpt across the interruption is also uncut, at normal speed.
The server is free. Native apps have a free trial and require a subscription after the trial.
Film excerpt: Big Buck Bunny © 2008 Blender Foundation, peach.blender.org, licensed CC BY 3.0. Trimmed, muted, scaled and captioned for this demo. Geometric footage is original synthetic test animation.
Try it with your own channels
Your first recording starts here
You'll need a computer or Docker host, storage for recordings, and your own M3U source or supported network TV tuner. Keep the server running while you watch or record.
2. Add your channels and guide
Follow the setup wizard, choose your recordings folder, and add your source and programme guide. Mimir does not include channels.
Follow the setup guide3. Try Mimir on your TV
Connect the TV app to your server on the same network, start the app trial, and schedule your first recording from the guide.
Choose your TV appNative apps require a subscription after the free trial. Check your app store's offer for eligibility, trial length, local pricing and renewal terms before starting.
Need a hand getting your first recording working? Contact Mimir support.
101 News One
Evening Report
Business Wrap
The Long Interview
204 Sport HD
Match of the Day
Post-Match Analysis
312 Cinema
Shorts
Feature Presentation
418 Documentary
Deep Ocean, Part Two
Night Skies
525 Kids
Cartoon Hour
Storytime
Wildlife Club
Goodnight
The built-in guide, included free with the server and open in any browser.
- 1,000
- channels in a single managed lineup
- 1
- tuner stream shared by every viewer of a channel
- 3
- server platforms: Windows, macOS, Docker
- 0
- dollars, accounts or cloud services required
Watch together
One tuner stream.
One tuner stream.
As many screens as you like.
Most recording software opens a fresh connection for every viewer, so the second person to tune in gets an error. Mimir doesn't work that way.
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Shared live streams The server pulls a channel once and fans it out to everyone watching it. Five TVs on the same match cost exactly one tuner stream.
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Watch what's recording A recording in progress is just another subscriber to that same stream, so you can sit down and watch the programme being captured without disturbing it.
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Recordings always win When capacity is tight, a scheduled recording takes priority over casual viewing, and anyone bumped is told exactly why, not left staring at a spinner.
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The right format per device Televisions get a direct transport stream for the lowest possible latency; phones and tablets get adaptive HLS. Same channel, same server, no configuration.
The server
Everything a home TV system should do
A complete recording and streaming server in a single install: guide, scheduler, channel manager and player, with nothing to wire together.
Live channel streaming
Tune to any channel from a browser or a TV app and it starts in seconds. Televisions get a direct transport stream; mobile devices get adaptive HLS automatically.
Scheduled recording
Record anything in the guide with one click, with adjustable padding either side so an overrunning match never costs you the ending.
Full programme guide
A searchable guide grid with now-and-next, programme detail and recording badges, built from the XMLTV data your tuner or provider publishes.
Real channel management
Browse every channel your source offers, pick the ones you actually want, drag them into the order you want, and rename, renumber, regroup or re-logo any of them, all without touching the source.
Several sources at once
Combine more than one channel playlist and guide feed, and set which one wins when listings overlap. Base data refreshes on its own schedule; your customisations sit on top and survive every refresh.
Per-device security
Every TV pairs with its own hardware-backed key, approved once on screen. No password is ever typed on a remote, and any single device can be revoked without disturbing the others.
In the house and out of it
Your TV doesn't stop at the front door
At home, apps find the server by themselves: no addresses to type, no settings to keep in sync when your router hands out a new lease. Away from home, the same guide, the same channels and the same recordings are a browser tab away.
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Zero-configuration discovery The server announces itself on your network and the apps simply find it. If its address changes, they follow it.
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Remote access that isn't a hack Put Mimir behind a reverse proxy such as Caddy or Nginx and you get a proper certificate and a proper hostname, with no port-forwarding folklore and no third-party relay in the middle.
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Start watching before it's finished Recordings are playable and seekable while they are still being captured. Start the film twenty minutes in and skip straight to where you want to be.
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Nothing leaves your house No cloud account, no telemetry, no upload. Recordings are ordinary files in a folder you chose, on a disk you own.
Bring your own tuner
Mimir doesn't replace your tuner.
Mimir doesn't replace your tuner.
It makes it worth having.
A network TV tuner turns an aerial, cable or satellite feed into channels your network can see. That's the hard part solved. But on its own a tuner gives you a list of streams, not a television experience. Mimir is the half that's missing: the guide, the scheduler, the recordings and the apps.
Network tuner
SiliconDust HDHomeRun
The best-known networked TV tuner family. An HDHomeRun puts your off-air or cable channels onto the LAN and publishes them as a standard channel playlist. Point Mimir at that playlist and every channel the tuner can see becomes searchable, recordable and playable on every screen you own, and multi-tuner models let several different channels run at once.
TV gateway
VBox TV Gateway
VBox gateways cover terrestrial, satellite and cable in one box and publish both a channel playlist and a full XMLTV programme guide. That pairing is exactly what Mimir wants: the playlist supplies the channels, the guide fills the grid, and scheduling a recording becomes a single click on a programme.
No tuner? An M3U playlist is all you need
Hardware is one way in, not the only way. Any source publishing an M3U channel playlist and an XMLTV programme guide works just as well, whether that's a tuner, a gateway, or files already sitting on the machine. Run several at once with a priority order deciding which listings win, override any channel's name, number, group, logo or guide mapping, and keep every one of those changes through every refresh.
How M3U and XMLTV support works
Getting going
Running in about ten minutes
Install the server
Run the signed Windows installer, the macOS build, or bring up the Docker container. It starts a setup wizard in your browser, so there's no config file to write and no token to copy out of a terminal.
Add your channel source
Paste the playlist and guide addresses your tuner or provider gives you. Mimir indexes the channels, then you pick the ones you want and put them in the order you want them.
Watch and record
Open the guide, click a programme to record it, or click a channel to watch it, in the browser or in the native TV apps.
Docker · one command
# pull, build and start Mimir in the background docker compose up --build -d # then open http://localhost:8094/
The apps
Native apps for the screens you actually watch
The server's web interface works everywhere and is yours free. The native apps are built for the remote in your hand, with proper focus handling, instant channel changes and a guide designed for a ten-foot view.
Apple TV
Built in SwiftUI with the system player, plus a Top Shelf row for what's just been recorded.
App StoreAndroid TV & SHIELD
A dedicated big-screen build tuned for D-pad navigation and fast channel switching.
Google PlayAndroid phone & tablet
The full guide, your recordings and live channels, at home on Wi-Fi or out on mobile data.
Google PlayiPhone & iPad
The same guide and library on iOS, with picture-in-picture and AirPlay to hand. Submitted and with Apple for review.
In reviewThe server is free and always will be. The apps are free to download and need a subscription to use; see all the apps
Questions
Before you download
Is the Mimir server really free?
Yes. The server and its built-in web interface are free to download and use, with no account, no subscription and no usage limits. The native TV and mobile apps are free to download and need a subscription to use, with a free trial to start, and that's what funds the work.
What hardware do I need to run it?
Any always-on computer on your network: a Windows PC, a Mac, a Linux box, or a NAS that runs Docker. You'll also need a channel source: a network TV tuner such as a SiliconDust HDHomeRun or a VBox TV Gateway, or anything else that publishes an M3U channel playlist and an XMLTV programme guide.
Does it work with an M3U playlist and XMLTV guide?
Yes. It's the most common way people set Mimir up. Add your M3U playlist and XMLTV guide as a source and you get a searchable programme grid, one-click recording, and a channel lineup in your own order with your own numbering. Several playlists and guides can run at once. Full detail here.
Can several people watch different channels at the same time?
Yes. How many different channels can run at once depends on how many tuners your hardware has, which is a limit of the tuner, not of Mimir. What Mimir adds is that everyone watching the same channel shares a single stream, so any number of screens can watch one programme together at no extra cost, and you can configure how many concurrent streams each source is allowed.
Can I watch when I'm away from home?
Yes. Mimir runs behind a reverse proxy such as Caddy or Nginx with a real TLS certificate, so live channels, the guide and your recordings are all available over the internet through the same interface you use at home.
Where do my recordings live?
In a folder you pick, on your own machine, as ordinary video files. There is no cloud component: nothing is uploaded, nothing is analysed, and no external account is involved at any point.
Do I need the apps to use the server?
No. The server ships with a complete web interface covering guide, channel management, recording, scheduling and playback, and it works in any modern browser on a desktop, tablet or phone. The apps are for people who want a native experience on the television itself.
Which devices will the apps support?
Apple TV, Android TV and NVIDIA SHIELD, and Android phones and tablets are out now; the iPhone and iPad app is with Apple for review. Details and store links here.
Take your television back.
Download the server, point it at your tuner, and have a proper guide and a proper recorder running before the evening's viewing starts.
Windows · macOS · Docker. Free, no account