Your media

Find a show, film or album, download it to your own library, and watch it on your media server or the desktop’s den TV. You can use commands, the terminal’s media library, or VECTOR, the desktop’s AI assistant.

Your homelab needs the matching services connected first: Sonarr for shows, Radarr for films and Lidarr for music. Seerr can handle requests too. Pinchflat downloads YouTube. Jellyfin or Plex plays the files.

Get a show, film or album

From the Media app

Open bromigos media, then choose Search or press 7 or Ctrl+F. Type a title, choose Films, TV, Anime or Music, and press Enter or the Search button. Search includes media you do not have yet. The Have it column shows existing matches. Press Enter on a result to choose what to request, its quality and audio languages. Searching alone does not download anything. / filters titles already in your library.

From a terminal

Find the right title first:

bromigos lab media search "Cowboy Bebop" --anime
bromigos lab media search "Dune" --movie
bromigos lab media search "Daft Punk" --music

Each result has an ID, a year and a kind. Use that ID if several titles share a name. For music, the results can be artists or individual albums. An artist request gets its albums; an album request gets just that album.

To request a show, including its specials, at up to 1080p with English audio:

bromigos lab media get tv:tvdb:76885 --seasons all --specials --quality 1080p --audio en
bromigos lab media get "Dune" --movie --quality 1080p --audio en
bromigos lab media get "album:<musicbrainz-id>" --music

The command shows the title, quality profile, audio rule, estimated size and free space. Read the plan, then confirm. It requests the download and keeps watching for missing files. A quality profile is your server’s rule for which releases it accepts.

For the album, replace <musicbrainz-id> with the album ID from search. For another title, replace tv:tvdb:76885 with the ID from search. You can also use a name with --tv, --movie, --anime or --music.

• Pick seasons with --seasons 1,3, a range such as --seasons 2-4, or --seasons latest.
• Pick episodes with --episodes S02E05,S02E06.
• Use --seasons future to wait for new episodes without fetching old seasons.
• New episodes and seasons are monitored by default. Add --new no to stop that.
• --quality best uses the best profile your server offers. 2160p, 1080p and 720p set a ceiling. Your server still needs a suitable profile.

For every option, see the media command reference. bromigos media get … is another spelling of bromigos lab media get ….

Choose your audio language

Audio rules apply to films and shows, including anime. To require English and favour a second Japanese track when available:

bromigos lab media language set en ja
bromigos lab media language anime same
bromigos lab media language required yes
bromigos lab media language subtitles en
bromigos lab media language show

The first language is required. The others are welcome as extra tracks. Subtitles are a separate choice. --audio en changes one request, while these commands save your defaults. You can change them in Settings › Lab too.

Your server’s profiles must enforce the rule. If they cannot, the request plan warns you. Check that warning before confirming. The reference explains language profiles.

Track something that is not out yet

Search for the title and request its ID as usual. A film request uses --when released by default: it waits for the home release. It does not ask for a cinema recording. Shows can monitor future episodes with --seasons future.

The title appears in Upcoming, with the release dates your server knows. A title with no date stays monitored; requesting it cannot make a release arrive sooner.

Use the media library in the terminal

bromigos media

Choose Search, or press 7 or Ctrl+F. Search, pick a result and choose its seasons, quality and audio. The form previews the request automatically and updates it when you change an option. Read the title, scope, quality and space estimate, then choose Request. That button stays unavailable until the current preview is ready. Preview reads the plan again.

After you confirm, Requesting… appears and the form waits for the result. Its controls stay locked while your media service handles the request. A successful request closes the form. An error stays visible in the form so you can review it.

The TV, Movies and Music tabs show what you have. Use arrows or j, k, h and l to move. Pick a show to see its seasons, or an artist to see its albums. Press P to change its profile, m to change monitoring, or f to search now. On the top tabs, Left/Right or h/l selects the previous or next tab. Press Down or j to enter the table. At its first row, Up or k takes you back. Press ? for keyboard help. Press Ctrl+C to quit from the main screen. In a dialog, Escape or Ctrl+C cancels an unconfirmed dialog and returns to the library. Letters such as q stay available while typing. A dialog keeps the background tabs and actions inactive. See the library’s keys for the full list.

Ask VECTOR

Press Super+E and ask, for example:

• “Get season 2 of this show, up to 1080p, with English audio.”
• “Find this album and show me what you would download.”
• “Track this film and get it when the home release comes out.”

Give the title and year if there could be several matches. VECTOR tells you what he found and the plan. He asks before requesting unless you clearly asked him to download one title. You can also ask what is missing or when it will arrive.

See what is downloading or coming up

bromigos lab media status
bromigos lab media status "Cowboy Bebop"
bromigos lab media upcoming --days 30
bromigos lab media recent --hours 24

status shows progress, time left and failures. A season pack’s size and speed are counted once, even when it covers several episodes. Stalled torrents, paused downloads and torrents waiting for their details are labelled separately from active downloads. A stalled torrent with no connected seeders says so. A title’s status adds its seasons, monitoring, file languages and subtitles. upcoming lists what you track, with its known dates. recent lists files that reached the library.

In bromigos media, use Downloads or Upcoming. You can also ask VECTOR, “What’s downloading?” or “What’s coming up this month?”

Delete safely

Pick the smallest thing you want to remove. To delete one season:

bromigos lab media delete "Cowboy Bebop" --season 1

It shows which files will go and how much space that frees. Type the title to confirm. Deleting is permanent. Cancel if the scope or title is wrong.

Without --season, it deletes the whole title and its files. --episodes picks episode files. For music, --album picks one album from an artist. --exclude keeps a whole removed title or album from being added back by an import list. A removed season or episode stops being monitored.

In the terminal library, select the title, season or album and press D. Read the question, then choose Delete or Cancel. Cancel is selected first; Escape or Ctrl+C cancels. Don’t fetch it again adds the import exclusion. To keep files and only stop looking for more, use m instead. The delete reference explains the scopes.

The delete dialog starts on Cancel. Left/Right chooses a button and Enter activates it. Up/Down moves to or from the exclusion checkbox; Enter or Space toggles it. Tab and Shift+Tab also move between controls. Escape or Ctrl+C cancels.

Keep YouTube channels and playlists

To download new uploads from a channel into your library:

bromigos lab youtube add https://www.youtube.com/@NASAGoddard --since 2025-01-01 --quality 1080p
bromigos lab youtube list
bromigos lab youtube status

A playlist address works too. Pinchflat keeps its order. --since skips older uploads. To pause a source, run bromigos lab youtube pause "<source-name>". Replace <source-name> with its name from list. resume starts it again, and refresh checks for new videos now.

bromigos lab youtube remove "<source-name>" asks before removing a source. Its videos stay on disk. Add --delete-files only when you want to remove the files too.

To make downloaded playlists appear in Jellyfin or Plex in YouTube’s order:

bromigos lab youtube sync --dry-run
bromigos lab youtube sync

The first command previews changes. The second applies them. See YouTube downloads for quality, sign-in cookies and every command, and connection settings.

Watch on the den TV

The den is the default theme’s wallpaper: a radio room with three live screens. Each screen can play a different channel from your library, YouTube or a folder of videos.

1. Open the guide with Super+Alt+G, GUIDE in a screen’s hover controls, or Settings › Den TV.
2. Choose Add channel…, then Shows or movies you pick. Search your library and select the posters you want. Pick the order and give the channel a name.
3. Choose BIG, SCOPE or SMALL on its card to put that screen on the channel.
4. Click a playing screen, or FULL, to watch full screen with sound. Close the player to return to the desktop.

For a Night Block, make a channel with that name and pick the shows for your evening. Choose in order or shuffle. Turn on Bumpers in its menu for short cards between items. This is a channel you make, not a preset schedule.

The screens start silent. Turn sound on with the speaker in a screen’s controls. Only one screen has sound at a time. Channel 1 restores that screen’s normal picture. For all controls and channel settings, see The den TV.

Make channels for the den TV

In bromigos media, choose Channels or press 8. Each channel shows its kind, play order, bumpers and the screens on it now. Select one to see its titles and what’s on now and next. A library channel includes everything in its library. A picked channel holds the shows, movies, YouTube addresses or music you choose.

From TV, Movies, YouTube or Music, select a title and click Add to channel… (c) below the list, or press c. This also works on Search results, Downloads and Upcoming titles. In Music, selecting an album adds that album. Choose Add to Night Block (or another picked channel), then Apply channel choice. You can also choose Remove from… or New channel….

A small diamond marks titles already in a channel. Select or hover over a title to see its channel names. The names also stay visible beside Add to channel…. The picker lists its current channels and marks Already in … — remove.

Adding something to a channel does not download it; it must be available from the media server or YouTube. Music plays through the den’s sound controls.

On Channels, Ctrl+N adds a channel, F2 renames it, v changes its order, and b switches bumpers. Select a picked item and use Alt+Up or Alt+Down to reorder it, or x to remove it. From the channel list, the same arrows move the whole channel. D asks before deleting a channel. Ctrl+Z restores the last deleted channel. Tune, or c on this tab, chooses a screen.

Removing a pick or a channel keeps the media files. Each change shows a confirmation message, preserves comments in the config, and reaches the den without a restart. The Den TV app offers the same channels in a window with posters.

Use commands or ask VECTOR

To see the channels and add a show:

bromigos-live tv channels --json
bromigos-live tv channel add "Night Block" --shows "Example Show" "Another Show" --order alternate --bumpers
bromigos lab media channel add "Example Show" --to "Night Block" --json

Names work wherever a command asks for a channel. The numbers in tv channels are positions in the config. Screen numbers are separate: channel 1 is each screen’s own picture. channel tune finds the right screen number from the name.

bromigos-live tv channel add-item "Night Block" "Example Film" --kind movie --json
bromigos-live tv channel remove-item "Night Block" "Example Show" --json
bromigos-live tv channel move-item "Night Block" "Another Show" 1 --json
bromigos-live tv channel order "Night Block" shuffle --json
bromigos-live tv channel bumpers "Night Block" off --json
bromigos-live tv channel rename "Night Block" "Evening" --json
bromigos-live tv channel move "Evening" 1 --json
bromigos-live tv channel tune "Evening" --screen wave --json
bromigos-live tv channel remove "Evening"
bromigos-live tv channel undo --json

remove asks you to type the channel name. Scripts can pass --yes. All channel commands accept --json. Exit codes are 0 for success, 1 for an operation that failed, 2 for invalid arguments or a missing confirmation, 3 for a conflicting name, and 4 for something not found. tv channels --refresh reads library contents from the servers; without it, now/next and contents use the local cache.

Ask VECTOR, the desktop’s AI assistant, “Add this show to Night Block”, “What’s on the den TV?”, or “Tune the scope to Evening”. From the phone he can read channels and add or remove individual picks. Creating channels, tuning screens and deleting whole channels stay on the desktop. A whole-channel delete needs your explicit request naming it. The command reference and bromigos-live tv channel --help list the options for libraries, YouTube and folders.

Put releases on your calendar

Open the CALENDAR panel’s Settings… and turn on Your media server’s releases. It adds tracked TV episodes and film releases from Sonarr and Radarr to your other events. It needs those services connected through Your homelab.

You can show the panel from Customize › Widgets, or run:

bromigos panels show calendars

See Calendar releases for the setting and feed export.

If something goes wrong

Nothing was found or nothing is downloading

Search with the kind and year. If the name is ambiguous, use the result’s ID. A title can exist in the catalogue before there is anything to download.

For a tracked title, ask the indexers now:

bromigos lab media status "Cowboy Bebop" --why
bromigos lab doctor

The first command explains missing releases and rejections. The doctor checks whether the connected services answer. A release can be rejected for quality, language or a profile’s minimum score. Check those rules before relaxing them.

The audio is in the wrong language

Use language show and the title’s status to compare your request with the files. Check the selected profile in Sonarr or Radarr. Changing the defaults does not rewrite files you already downloaded. Pick the right profile and search again; keep the old files until you have checked the replacement.

Jellyfin cannot play a file

Check that Jellyfin can see the media folder, and that its container has the right permissions. Check the media server’s logs for missing files or transcoding errors.

If several media apps freeze while the NAS still answers, its client may have a stuck NFS lock connection. Ask the lab administrator to check it through the lab’s maintenance procedure. See Media files on a NAS.

Play something on a den screen

Press p in the media library to open Play on den TV. Choose BIG, SCOPE or SMALL. Pick a show, then its season and episode, or choose a movie. The YouTube view lists downloaded videos; you can also search with a YouTube video URL. Turn Resume where you left off on to use the server’s saved position. Otherwise playback starts at the beginning. P changes a quality profile.

The Den TV app has a Play… button for each screen with the same choices. The screen shows ON DEMAND while your choice plays. When it ends, or you change channel, the screen returns to its channel’s live schedule.

bromigos-live tv play --screen big "Cowboy Bebop S01E05" --json
bromigos-live tv play --screen scope --id ITEM_ID --source SERVER_NAME --resume --json
bromigos-live tv play --screen small --url "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" --json
bromigos-live tv search "Cowboy Bebop" --kind shows --json

SERVER_NAME is a source name from your media settings. Use --id when titles are ambiguous. Search with --kind seasons --id SHOW_ID, then --kind episodes --id SHOW_ID --season 1 to list episodes. Ask VECTOR to “play Cowboy Bebop episode 5 on the big TV.” See the den controls for sound, full screen and the number-pad remote.

Cast to another screen

bromigos media cast plays a title, or what a den screen shows, on another screen in the house: a Chromecast or Google TV, a smart TV that is a DLNA player, an Apple TV or AirPlay TV, or a TV or phone running Jellyfin’s app. The den’s own screens are on the same list.

bromigos media cast targets                                   # every screen it finds, and what each plays
bromigos media cast play --target "living room" --title "Cowboy Bebop S01E05"
bromigos media cast play --target "living room" --screen big  # what the big den screen shows, from the same moment
bromigos media cast control --target "living room" pause      # play, pause, stop, seek 600, volume 40, mute
bromigos media cast status --target "living room"
bromigos media cast handback --target "living room" --screen big   # back to the den, from where it was

--target takes a target’s id from the list, or words from its name, room or kind, such as living room, bedroom tv or chromecast. Each command takes --json. bromigos media cast targets --dry-run only lists what it finds and keeps nothing.

• Where it looks. Only your own network: mDNS and SSDP ask the devices nearby, and Jellyfin lists the apps it can steer. A firewall on this computer must let mDNS (UDP 5353) and SSDP (UDP 1900) answers in.
• How a TV gets the video. The TV fetches it from your media server itself. If the server’s address uses your lab’s own certificate authority, which TVs don’t trust, set cast_url on the source to an address they can reach (see the media sources). That address carries the server’s key, so it’s given only to the TV, never shown or logged.
• What can’t be cast. Files only on this computer, and streaming apps’ protected video (Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and the like): start those from the app on the TV.
• A record. Every play, control and hand back is a line in ~/.local/state/bromigos/cast-audit.jsonl: when, who asked, which screen, what played. Addresses and keys are never in it.

Ask VECTOR to “play Cowboy Bebop on the living room Chromecast”, or “move it back to the den”. BRODEC’s den remote on your phone picks targets from the same list, through the machine agent on this computer.