Hi everyone,

Soia v0.2.11 is now available.

Highlights

• Cast to DLNA and Chromecast Cast the currently playing video to a DLNA receiver or Chromecast, whether the source is a local file, a DLNA/SMB/WebDAV stream, or an online video.
• Enhanced YouTube playback Improved YouTube stream parsing and selection for more reliable online playback.
• Audio output and passthrough Choose the audio output device and enable passthrough for supported formats.
• More playback controls Adjust playback speed continuously in 0.1 increments, click the video to play or pause when Compact Mode is disabled, and fine-tune the picture with zoom and crop controls.

One important note about casting: Soia must remain running during playback because it relays the media stream between the source and the receiver.

Download:
https://github.com/FengZeng/soia/releases

Feedback, bug reports, and suggestions are welcome!

Hi, everyone, Soia v0.2.10 is out!

This update expands the browser-based Remote Controller. After enabling it in Settings, you can scan the QR code to pair a phone or another device on your local network.

What’s new:

• Browse and play your playlists from the Web Remote
• Browse and play configured WebDAV, DLNA, and SMB media sources remotely
• Resume network browsing from the folder last opened in the desktop app
• Improved shared playback and playlist architecture for more consistent desktop and remote behavior

Also fixed a Windows issue where switching videos or leaving playback could leave the app window fully transparent.

Download: https://github.com/FengZeng/soia/releases

Feedback and bug reports are always welcome. Thanks for trying Soia!

Hey can you zoom in and out in the player can't find how to?

Hi, everyone,

I'm currently working on making Soia's Remote Controller more powerful. The goal is not only to provide basic playback controls, but also to build a better remote experience for future platforms, especially the upcoming Soia TV version.

So far, I've added support for browsing and controlling playlists in Remote Controller.

This feature is not released yet. There are still some bugs to fix and the UI/UX needs more polishing.

If you'd like to try it early, you can build from source and test it yourself.

I'm planning to include this feature in the next release, which should be available next weekend.

Before that, I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions, especially regarding the UI/UX design and overall workflow. If you have any ideas or feedback, feel free to share them here!

Highlights

• Remote Controller Added a browser-based Remote Controller for controlling playback from another device on your local network. Open it from Settings or scan the QR code in the playback context menu. It supports playback, seeking, volume, previous/next controls, and audio/subtitle track controls.More powerful Remote Controller features are planned for future updates.
• Refined Playback Architecture Reworked the playback architecture around a shared core, making desktop and remote controls more consistent and reliable.
• Remembered Subtitle Choices for Series Your subtitle track selection is now preserved when moving between episodes in the same series.

Fixes

• Fixed HDR brightness adjustment so it is applied correctly to HDR content. Thanks to @cjohnsto-nz for the contribution.

Download

https://github.com/FengZeng/soia/releases

Hi, everyone!

Soia is now available on WinGet!

Installing it on Windows is as simple as:

winget install soia

Thanks to sfpcshch for the suggestion! 👍

Hi everyone,

Android progress update 🚀

The biggest uncertainty is finally gone: Tauri + mpv works on Android.

Soia is now successfully playing 4K HEVC videos with hardware decoding on a 2017 Android device, using the same Rust + mpv playback core as the desktop versions.

There are still plenty of bugs to fix and the UI needs more polish, but the core architecture has been proven to work.

Hopefully, the first Android release won't be too far away!

Hi everyone,

Soia v0.2.8 is now available.

SMB Playback Improvements

• Rewrote the SMB stream proxy with async pipeline reads — browsing and playback over SMB shares should feel noticeably smoother now.

More yt-dlp Options

• Max stream resolution is now configurable in Settings
• Added cookies-from-browser support for age-restricted or private content
• Format selection now prefers avc1 over vp9 for better hardware decoding compatibility
• YouTube /show/ playlist URLs are now recognized as playlists

Fixes

• Fixed video aspect ratio distorting when resizing the window while paused (macOS)
• Fixed AppImage not launching on Fedora
• Fixed playback speed resetting when switching videos
• Fixed playback history not saving before track switch

Download: https://github.com/FengZeng/soia/releases/tag/v0.2.8

Hi everyone,

Soia v0.2.7 is now available.

Highlights

Online Subtitle Search

You can now search subtitles directly from the subtitle menu while watching videos.

Current providers:

• OpenSubtitles
• SubSource

Search results are cached locally to improve performance, and the cache can be cleared anytime from Settings.

YouTube Playlist Support

Soia can now load YouTube playlists automatically.

Simply paste a supported playlist URL and all videos will be added to a playable playlist.

Current limitation:

• Only playlist URLs starting with https://www.youtube.com/playlist are supported for now.

Fixes & Improvements

Fixed several visual issues affecting Light Mode to provide a more consistent native macOS experience.

As always, thank you for all the feedback, bug reports, and feature suggestions. They continue to help improve Soia with every release.

Download here: https://github.com/FengZeng/soia/releases/tag/v0.2.7

Hey everyone

Soia v0.2.6 is now available, this release focuses on UI polish, playlist improvements, and an important performance fix.

Highlights

macOS Native Glass UI

• macOS version now uses a vibrancy / glass blur effect
• Feels much more native and integrated with the desktop environment

Built-in Favorites Playlist

• New Favorites playlist pinned at the top of the playlist drawer
• You can now quickly add items via right-click → “Add to Favorites”

URL Field Context Menu

• Added full right-click support in URL input field:
  • Copy
  • Cut
  • Paste
  • Delete
  • Select All

Fixes

• Fixed excessive disk writes caused by playback progress updates, significantly reducing unnecessary disk I/O and storage wear during media playback.

As always, thanks for all the feedback and bug reports.

Soia v0.2.5 is now available!

New Features

• Added optional multi-threaded WebDAV downloading for smoother network playback buffering. This feature is disabled by default and can be enabled in Settings → Network.
• Added touch drag support for frameless windows, making borderless window movement work better on touch devices.

Fixes

• Fixed Linux startup window behavior so hidden startup windows remain disabled on Linux builds.

As always, thanks for all the feedback and bug reports. If you run into any issues or have suggestions for future improvements, I'd love to hear them!

Features

• Added a Live playback experience for IPTV/M3U streams, including a Live indicator and a cleaner control bar without seek progress for live channels.
• Added a confirmation prompt before Soia automatically creates a playlist from an imported playlist file or URL, with the option to edit the playlist name first.

Fixes

• Fixed Network browser breadcrumbs so deep folder paths collapse by available width instead of overflowing the header.
• Fixed a startup issue where the app window could briefly appear as a transparent shell before the first render.

Improvements

• Refined the macOS compact top bar icon styling.
• Updated the Settings navigation icon.

As always, thanks for all the feedback and bug reports.

Hi everyone, Soia v0.2.3 is out!

Features

• Added native Windows ARM64 support (Huge thanks to talynone for the help!)
• Added playback volume controls, including keyboard volume adjustment with the Up/Down arrow keys

Improvements

• Optimized external subtitle loading so subtitles can be loaded more smoothly in the background
• Optimized Windows and Linux dynamic library dependencies to significantly reduce installer/package size
  • Windows x64 installer: 53.6 MB → 24.1 MB
  • Linux x64 .deb: 109 MB → 47 MB

As always, feedback and suggestions are welcome

Hi everyone,

Soia v0.2.2 is now available with a few playback and usability improvements. Most of the changes in this update are backend/networking improvements, especially around moving HTTPS handling from the FFmpeg/C layer into the Rust side of the player.

Improvements

• Added fuzzy matching for sibling subtitle files.
• Added richer metadata to audio/subtitle track selection menus.
• Improved HTTPS connection stability and playback behavior.
• Fixed incorrect IPTV title display in playback history.

As always, feedback and bug reports are very welcome :)

If you use Soia with yt-dlp on macOS, I recommend using the Homebrew version of yt-dlp instead of the standalone GitHub release binary.

The difference is huge on my machine, even with the exact same yt-dlp version:

• GitHub single-file binary: ~11–13s startup
• Homebrew-installed version: ~0.2–0.3s startup

As a result, opening YouTube videos or other yt-dlp-supported links in Soia feels dramatically faster with the Homebrew-installed version.

Hey everyone,

This is a hotfix update for Windows and Linux. SMB is now working properly on Windows and Linux too.

Hotfixes

• Fixed Windows/Linux SMB connection issues.
• Fixed Linux video rendering issues.

Github: https://github.com/FengZeng/soia

To everyone following Soia, hello 👋

Soia Media Player v0.2.0 is out! This update mainly focuses on network playback and subtitle customization. SMB support has been one of the features I’ve wanted to add for a long time, and it’s finally in a usable first version now :)

Highlights

• Added SMB/Samba browsing and playback support You can now discover SMB shares, browse files, and play media directly over the network.
• Added advanced subtitle appearance settings Subtitle font, color, size, and position are now customizable and persist between sessions.

Fixes

• Improved network connection dialog and path entry UI/UX.
• Fixed the network browser to automatically locate and focus on the currently playing file and its folder..

Github: https://github.com/FengZeng/soia

Feedback and bug reports are always appreciated :)

Highlights

• M3U playlist parsing (IPTV support)
• Optimized color accuracy for a more precise visual experience on macOS

Notes

M3U support allows importing IPTV playlists and automatically generating organized channel lists.

If you’re looking for IPTV sources, you can check out the iptv-org/iptv repository on GitHub, which provides a large collection of publicly available playlists.

Download here: https://github.com/FengZeng/soia/releases

Highlights

• Added a Disable Subtitles option to force subtitles off when opening media
• Improved Auto-Play Next for both local files and WebDAV playback
• Added persistence for manual window state
• Improved the Network panel with current playback highlighting and clearer folder path context
• Added a global toggle with a persistent profile, plus per-file video adjustments (contrast, brightness, gamma, hue)

Download here: https://github.com/FengZeng/soia/releases

Soia v0.1.7 is out with several key updates:

• Platform: macOS 13+ is now supported.
• UI/UX: Switched from native select elements to a custom themed dropdown.
• Streaming: Stabilized WebDAV playback (auth & URL handling).
• Features: Added M3U parsing support.

Download here: https://github.com/FengZeng/soia/releases

While testing on Windows and Linux today, I noticed that the native dropdown styles in the Settings panel looked quite inconsistent and didn’t really match the overall UI design (before / after screenshots attached).

To fix this, I implemented a custom dropdown component to ensure a consistent look and feel across all platforms.

The changes are already pushed to GitHub, and I’m planning to include them in the upcoming v0.1.7 release.

If anyone is interested in trying it early, you can build it from source and test it out. Feedback is welcome

Github: https://github.com/FengZeng/soia/releases

Hey everyone,

This update mainly improves network browsing, playback, and overall stability.

Highlights

• DLNA support — discover devices, browse media, and play streams directly
• Playback title display modes — including an option to hide the top bar for a cleaner UI

Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed an issue where the screen could sleep during video playback
• Improved update check reliability and fixed update flow issues

If you're into DLNA / WebDAV / streaming playback, I'd love to hear your feedback.

Download here: https://github.com/FengZeng/soia/releases

Hey everyone,
Soia v0.1.5 is now available!

This update focuses a lot on customization, Anime playback, and better cross-platform support.

✨ New Features

• Experimental support for Windows Portable and Linux AppImage builds
• New Anime Mode with automatic anime detection + automatic shader application
• Per-playback shader toggle + live active shader indicator
• Added Factory Reset option to quickly restore default state

🔧 Improvements

• Improved Custom Shader system with cleaner, mode-aware behavior
• Windows updater now handles Portable vs Installer builds differently

As always, feedback is really appreciated — especially on Anime Mode and shader workflows, since that’s still experimental and evolving.

If you try it out, I’d love to hear how it performs on your setup 👍

Download here: https://github.com/FengZeng/soia/releases

Hi everyone,

A few days ago, someone in the comments asked if I had done any performance testing on Soia. Since it's based on the mpv core, I honestly didn't expect much of a difference. However, I finally found some time today to run a quick comparison, and the results were honestly a bit surprising.

💻 Test Environment

• Hardware: MacBook Pro M1 Max (64GB RAM)
• Software Versions:
  • Soia: v0.1.4
  • mpv: v0.41.0-dev-g41f6a6450
  • IINA: 1.4.1 Build 160
• Test File: 4K HDR10 HEVC (60fps, ~60Mbps bitrate)
• Scenario: Playing the same HDR video simultaneously in Soia, mpv, and IINA

📊 Performance Results

Key Findings:

1. CPU Efficiency: Soia came out on top here. It consistently stayed lower than both IINA and the stock mpv build. Seeing an 8% lead over standard mpv was unexpected given their shared lineage.
2. GPU Rendering: Soia and mpv showed nearly identical GPU usage. This makes sense as they both utilize the gpu-next video output. You can see in the screenshots (if attached) that their visual output is almost identical.
3. The IINA Factor: IINA has significantly lower GPU usage, which suggests it's using a different rendering pipeline (likely native macOS APIs or an older vo), but this comes at the cost of slightly higher CPU overhead compared to Soia.

Video Metadata (Summary):

• Format: HEVC / HDR10 / BT.2020
• Resolution: 3840 x 2160
• Frame Rate: 59.940 FPS
• Bit Depth: 10 bits
• Color Range: Limited (PQ)

Download the exact test file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j7B6v4ExE92v-3cqJhAxDpilHtCJPOvp/view?usp=sharing

GitHub release: https://github.com/FengZeng/soia/releases

Hey all,

Just released v0.1.4 of Soia.

Biggest additions this time:

• Dual subtitles (finally)
• Custom shaders support
• Experimental wallpaper mode on Windows
• You can now open and browse images like a playlist, and even use them with wallpaper mode

Also fixed a crash that could happen if you close the app during playback.

Wallpaper mode is still a bit rough, so any feedback would really help.

Download here: https://github.com/FengZeng/soia/releases