Astra release notes

Long movies play start to finish, and subtitles stop punishing your server

• Fixed a feature-length movie being shut down partway through. The Fire TV was reclaiming Astra’s video roughly an hour in — one film died at 61 minutes. Astra now tells the system a viewer is watching for as long as a video is open, and a 130-minute movie has since played start to finish without a single interruption.
• Fixed turning on subtitles forcing your server to re-encode the entire movie. Astra draws text subtitles itself again, so a file that needed no conversion stays that way. On a server without a graphics card this was the difference between smooth playback and constant buffering.
• Fixed subtitles stored inside MP4 files always being burned into the picture. They are ordinary text and are now drawn in the app.
• Made switching subtitle tracks, or turning them off, instant instead of reloading the video.
• Fixed some MKV and AVI files refusing to start when the server handed back a stream in a form Astra could not play.
• Added per-server learning: Astra asks two questions the first time it meets a server — whether it has a graphics card, and whether the room has surround sound, with “I don’t know” as a real answer — then corrects those answers on its own as you watch. Settings can see and override any of it.
• Added a “What’s new” list after an update, shown once and dismissed with one press.
• Added Instant or Reloads marks on every subtitle track, so you can see which ones switch on for free before you pick one.

Requires Vega OS 1.2. Pausing a movie is now safe for as long as you like, and the hold is released once a video finishes so a paused end screen will not keep the device awake.

HDR that stays HDR, and playback that recovers itself

• Fixed HDR movies arriving as washed-out SDR: an HDR title now keeps its HDR picture instead of being re-encoded down on the way to the TV.
• Fixed video that used to stall or quit partway through, which now recovers on its own instead of dropping you back to the menu.
• Fixed resuming a title starting slightly off from where you actually stopped.
• Made libraries open immediately: a 90-movie shelf that took nearly three seconds now appears in a fraction of one.
• Made backing out of a movie return you to the card you left, in the same place on the shelf.
• Changed the diagnostics view to report dropped frames as a percentage, because the raw counts the device reports are not trustworthy.

Requires Vega OS 1.2. 7.1 audio requires direct play; transcoded audio is 5.1 maximum.

Skip Credits, Next Episode, and a subtitle preference that sticks

• Added Skip Credits, using the credits your Jellyfin server already knows about rather than a guessed offset. Ask, auto-skip, or ignore, in Settings > Playback.
• Added Next Episode, with an optional autoplay countdown. Autoplay stops to ask after three episodes in a row, so a series does not run all night on its own.
• Added a subtitle preference that applies everywhere: default per video, all on, all off, or only forced. Picking a track inside the player still affects only that video.
• Fixed playback sticking on “Buffering” forever when a movie with burned-in subtitles was resumed, jumped a long distance, or had its tracks switched partway through.

Skip Credits and Next Episode began as a code contribution from @brontodev.

Playback repaired for Vega OS 1.2

• Fixed resuming a title, switching audio tracks, and turning on burned-in subtitles, which could each close the app after the Vega OS 1.2 update.
• Made startup and seeking far quicker: a long jump that took most of a minute now takes seconds, and short skips are close to instant.
• Updated for Vega OS 1.2 and the current Amazon device libraries.
• Added an optional diagnostics view showing playback timings.

Requires Vega OS 1.2. Devices on an earlier Vega OS remain on 1.1.2. Still being worked on: long chapter jumps, and subtitle timing after one.

Playback reliability for Vega Fire TV

• Fixed intermittent stutter on affected MP4 and MOV video.
• Fixed saved-position resume skipping through earlier scenes.
• Improved audio/video sync during long viewing sessions.
• Expanded buffering, delivery, build, and playback-health diagnostics.

Playback stability hardening

Hardened keyboard teardown, media-buffer operations, seeks, cleanup, and screen lifecycle handling.

Music and living-room polish

Added Jellyfin music libraries, background playback, remote controls, automatic track advancement, burn-in protection, unwatched badges, and larger library cards.

User profiles and Jellyfin compatibility

Added faster profile switching and fixed library access for non-admin users and newer Jellyfin authorization behavior.

Setup, subtitles, and diagnostics

Added Quick Connect, guided setup, server discovery, playback diagnostics, subtitle rendering and burn-in, and stronger audio compatibility.

Release metadata and licensing

Added the source-available license and notices and corrected the in-app release, project, website, and support information.

Initial Amazon release

Launched Jellyfin connection, profiles, browsing, search, details, resume, watch progress, and Vega media playback.