What NaboTV actually does
The detail behind the headlines. Everything on this page works today; anything we are still building is marked as such, because finding that out after you install is worse than reading it here.
Your own media servers
NaboTV connects to Plex, Emby and Jellyfin. Your library appears alongside your streaming subscriptions in the same rails, the same search and the same Continue Watching, rather than living behind a separate app you have to remember to open.
| Plex | Emby | Jellyfin | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Browse & search your library | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Play in NaboTV's own player | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reads watch status & resume points | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Writes watch status back | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Subtitles from the server | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple users on one server | Home users | One user per connection | One user per connection |
| Live "someone is watching now" | Yes | Not yet | Not yet |
Emby and Jellyfin authenticate as a single user, because neither offers an admin token that can act for other accounts the way Plex Home does. Connect once per person who wants their own watch state.
Watch status & resume, in both directions
This is the question we get asked most, so plainly: watch status is two-way.
Yes. When your library syncs, NaboTV picks up what is marked played and how far into each item you are, so a show you were part-way through on Emby is already waiting in Continue Watching.
Yes. While you watch, NaboTV pushes your position back, so the title shows up in your server's own Continue Watching at the right spot. Finish it and it is marked played there; clear it in NaboTV and it is marked unplayed there. You can watch in NaboTV tonight and pick up in Emby's own app tomorrow.
Neither has to be. Sync pulls from your server, playback pushes back to it, and both stay in step. Write-back only ever touches items that came from that server, so nothing else in your library is altered.
Continue Watching also spans your streaming subscriptions and syncs across every device on your account, so it is one list rather than one per app.
Streaming services
Tell NaboTV which services you subscribe to and it highlights what you can actually watch and dims what you cannot, across a catalog of essentially every movie and show, not just what happens to be installed on the device. Availability covers 65 countries.
- Picking a streaming title launches it in that service's own app, deep-linked to the title.
- Add-on channels (Disney+ with Hulu, Prime channels and the like) are handled as their own services, so "available on X" means available on what you actually pay for.
- Rent and buy options are shown as such, never dressed up as included.
Finding something to watch
- One search across your servers, your subscriptions and the full catalog at once.
- Home rails you arrange yourself, including Continue Watching, Recently Added, and what is new on the services you pay for.
- Collections and lists you build, follow and share.
- Per-episode availability for shows, so a series split across services still tells you where a given episode is.
- Theatrical: what is in cinemas now, with nearby showtimes, and a mark-it-now button so a film you spotted in the theater resurfaces when it reaches streaming.
- Ratings and reviews, yours and others'.
The player
Your personal media plays in NaboTV's own player rather than by handing off to another app.
- Resume, chapters and skip markers.
- Subtitles from your server, plus automatic search and download when your server has none, with timing adjustment when a file is out of sync.
- Cast to a TV: to another NaboTV device, to Chromecast, or to a Roku.
- Trailers and extras for a title, played in place.
Profiles & parental controls
- A profile per person, each with its own watch state, preferences and recommendations.
- Kids profiles with their own front door and rating limits that hold across both your library and streaming.
- Profiles map to your server's users, so each person's watches write back as themselves rather than piling into the owner's history.
Friends
Add friends across households to recommend titles to each other, message about them, and see what they are up for watching. Nothing is shared until you choose to share it.
Games
A built-in game night for the living room. Everyone joins from their own phone by scanning a code, with no controllers and nothing to install. Trivia is the flagship, spanning movies and TV, music clips, trailers, picture rounds and more; other party games are in earlier stages. Games are opt-in per profile.
Screensaver & ambient
Left idle, the TV becomes something worth looking at: cinematic artwork from your own library and the wider catalog, trailers, local weather, and trivia you can play along with from the sofa. The clock, the pacing and which scenes appear are yours to set.
Where it runs
- Android TV and Google TV, and Fire TV.
- Phones and tablets (Android and iOS).
- The web, at app.nabo.tv.
- Apple TV.
- Roku: as a cast target rather than a full app.
One account across all of them, with everything in sync.
Privacy
- No third-party trackers and no advertising SDKs.
- Your library and watch history are yours: export them or delete your account and its data outright, from inside the app.
- NaboTV never proxies your personal media through our servers; it streams from your server to your device.
Still missing something?
If you had to ask us rather than find it here, that is our bug. Tell us and we will add it to this page.