How to use Mimir
From installer to first recording in about ten minutes. This walkthrough follows the setup wizard screen by screen: what each field wants, what you can safely leave alone, and what to do the moment the guide appears.
-
An always-on computer Windows, macOS, or Docker on a NAS. The download page covers all three, with checksums to verify what you received.
-
A channel source An M3U playlist and an XMLTV guide, as addresses or as files. These come from your network tuner or your channel provider, not from Mimir.
-
A recordings folder with room Recordings are ordinary video files at roughly 5 GB per hour of HD, so point the server at the biggest drive you can spare.
Install, then meet the wizard
Run the installer, start the container, or launch the app. Mimir opens the setup wizard in your browser, usually at http://localhost:8094.
-
Server name Optional, and purely cosmetic: it is how this server identifies itself to the apps on your network. Leave it as Mimir, or give it a room name.
-
Username and password This is the sign-in for the web interface and for approving new devices. At least eight characters, and choose something you have not reused elsewhere.
Choose where recordings live
The wizard suggests a recordings folder and checks it immediately. Green text means Mimir can write there and tells you the free space.
-
Another drive is fine Recordings grow quickly, so a roomy secondary drive is a common choice. Type the path or use the Browse button.
-
Ordinary files, your disk Recordings land here as normal video files that any player can open. Nothing is locked away in a database, and nothing leaves the machine.
Add your channels and guide
Two source cards: one for the M3U playlist that supplies channels, one for the XMLTV guide that fills the grid. Paste an address or point at a local file, and Mimir checks it on the spot.
-
Green means readable A line such as "Found 6 live channels" or "Found 216 programmes" confirms the source parsed correctly before anything is committed.
-
Maximum simultaneous streams For playlists, set the concurrent-stream limit your provider allows. Mimir enforces it, so nobody accidentally exhausts the account.
-
More sources later Several playlists and guides can run at once with a priority order, and Settings lets you add more at any time. How sources work.
Finish, and you are live
Finish setup and the guide opens, already populated from your sources. Click any programme to record it with the padding you set, or click a channel to start watching in the browser.
-
Pair the TV apps Open the app on any Apple TV, Android TV or phone on the same network and it finds the server by itself. The TV shows a short code; approve it once from the web interface. About the apps.
-
Watch while it records A recording in progress is playable and seekable from the first minute, so there is no waiting for the file to be finished.
Your television, in one grid
That is the whole commissioning process. What you are left with is a proper guide: every channel you chose, in your order, with one-click recording on anything in the timeline.
The guide on the big screen via the Apple TV app. The web interface carries the same channels and the same recording controls in any browser.
Handy to know
Your lineup, your rules
The channel management page in the web interface is where the lineup gets personal: enable the channels you actually watch, drag them into your order, and rename, renumber, regroup or re-logo anything. Every one of those changes is stored separately from the source and survives every refresh. The feature tour covers it.
Back up your setup
Once the lineup is how you like it, export the whole configuration to a single checksummed file from Settings. It is your undo button before experimenting, and the fastest way to move a finished setup to a new machine.
If something misbehaves
The server keeps a rolling log file,
mimir.log,
in its logs folder:
C:\ProgramData\Mimir\logs
on Windows,
~/Library/Application Support/Mimir/logs
on macOS, or your data volume in Docker. Attaching it to an email
usually turns days of guesswork into a one-line diagnosis. The
contact page has the address and the
etiquette.
Ten minutes from now to a proper guide.
Download the server, walk the four screens, and have live channels and a recorder running before tonight's viewing starts.
Windows · macOS · Docker. Free, no account