A native PlayStation Vita client for Stremio, backed by a small companion
service (middleware.py) that does everything the Vita cannot. No Stremio
server required — addons are enough on their own.
Browse your Stremio catalogs — movies and TV series — search, filter by genre, pick an episode and a source, and watch: on a handheld from 2011, with hardware-decoded video, working audio, subtitles, audio track selection and touch controls.
The Vita is a 2011 handheld and cannot run Stremio itself — it isn't fast enough, and it can't even connect securely to modern addons.
So it doesn't try. You run a small helper program on a computer at home, and that computer does the hard work: it fetches everything, converts the video into a form the Vita can play, and sends it over your home network. The Vita just shows the menus and plays what arrives. Windows, Mac and Linux all work.
Stremio addons (catalogs, artwork, streams)
|
direct link | torrent
| | |
| | Stremio server <- optional, see below
| | |
+---------------+-------------+
|
helper program on your computer
|
| video and audio over your home network
v
PS Vita
Two things to set up, then: the helper program on a computer, and the app on the Vita.
The names here are confusing, so to be clear: the helper program is not the Stremio server, and most people never need the Stremio server at all.
Addons are the whole system. They provide your catalogs, artwork, subtitles and the actual video links. The helper program talks to them directly. That is the normal setup, and there is nothing else to install.
The Stremio server only downloads torrents. Some addons hand back a torrent instead of a normal video link, and torrents have to be downloaded before anything can play them. That is the one job it does.
If your addons give back normal links — anything using a debrid service does, and so do addons that host their own content — then no torrents are involved and the Stremio server would sit there doing nothing.
You can always add it later if you run into an addon that needs it. See Watching without a Stremio server.
- Browse and search your Stremio catalogs
- Movies and TV series, with an episode picker for shows
- Switch between movies and series and filter by genre — press TRIANGLE on the catalog
- Pick from a list of sources, with resolution, size and language shown
- Smooth full-screen video with proper audio
- Subtitles, from your Stremio subtitle addons
- Choose the audio track on releases that have more than one
- Touch and button controls, seek bar, pause, skip 30 seconds
- Audio sync adjustment if a source needs it — see fixing out-of-sync audio
- Change which computer it connects to from the Vita itself, so it works away from home too
- Add and manage addons from a web page, on any device
Almost anything. It needs Python and ffmpeg, both of which run on Windows, macOS and Linux.
| Operating system | Windows, macOS or Linux |
| Software | Python 3 and ffmpeg |
| Network | Connected to the same home network as the Vita |
Converting video is the demanding part, so it will use your graphics chip if it can:
- Linux with Intel or AMD graphics — uses the graphics chip
- Mac — uses the graphics chip
- Anything else, including Windows — falls back to the processor
The fallback works fine, it just uses a lot more of your computer while something is playing. You don't have to choose; it checks at startup and picks the best option available.
An old desktop or a cheap mini PC is plenty. A Raspberry Pi or similar small board will struggle, since it has no supported graphics chip and a weak processor.
Install Python and ffmpeg.
Windows — the easiest way is winget, in PowerShell:
winget install Python.Python.3.12
winget install Gyan.FFmpegmacOS — with Homebrew:
brew install python ffmpegLinux — pick the line for your distribution:
sudo apt install -y ffmpeg python3 # Ubuntu / Debian
sudo dnf install -y ffmpeg python3 # Fedora
sudo pacman -S ffmpeg python # ArchThen start it:
python3 middleware.pyLeave it running — that's the program the Vita talks to. It prints which video converter it settled on when it starts. If it says it's using software, everything still works; it will just use more of your processor.
Using Docker? On Linux, add the --device line so it can reach the
graphics chip. Without it you'll get the software fallback, which is fine but
slower:
docker run -d --name vitastremio \
--device /dev/dri:/dev/dri \
-p 8480:8480 \
vitastremioOn a NAS? Models with Intel processors work well. ARM models will fall back to software and may be too slow to keep up.
Playback stuttering? The processor probably can't convert fast enough. Either pick a lower-quality source, or tell it to prioritise speed:
X264_PRESET=ultrafast python3 middleware.pyIt normally picks the best encoder by itself, but you can force one with
VITA_ENCODER=vaapi, VITA_ENCODER=videotoolbox or VITA_ENCODER=x264 —
handy for checking how the software path behaves on a machine that has a
working GPU encoder.
On any computer or phone, open a browser and go to
http://<address-of-that-computer>:8480/
This page is where you add addons — paste in the addon links you want, or sign in with a Stremio account key to bring across the ones you already have.
Your addons decide what you can actually watch, so this step matters. Most work straight away; the ones that don't are covered in Watching without a Stremio server.
Download vitastremio.vpk from the
latest release,
copy it to your Vita and install it with VitaShell. Open it, and it will ask
for the address of the computer you set up in step 1. Enter it once and it
remembers.
That's everything. More detail if you need it: BUILD.md.
Some sources arrive with the sound slightly ahead of or behind the picture. There's a hidden screen for correcting that while the video keeps playing.
It's hidden on purpose — the buttons it uses are ones you'd otherwise hit by accident during a film.
To open it: hold SELECT and press TRIANGLE while something is playing. The same combination closes it again.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Up | Moves the picture later, a millisecond at a time |
| Down | Moves the picture earlier |
| Hold Up or Down | Speeds up, so you can cover a large gap quickly |
| SELECT + TRIANGLE | Close |
Watch the middle line of text while you adjust. The number labelled sync is the one to care about: it's how far out things currently are. Get it as close to zero as you can and leave it there. The number labelled trim is simply how much you've adjusted by — zero means untouched.
Nudge in one direction and see whether sync gets closer to zero or further away. If it's getting worse, go the other way. You can go up to 500ms in either direction, which is far more than any normal source needs. To start over, bring trim back to zero.
Once you've set it, it stays set while you skip around or move on to something else. It resets when you close the app.
The other numbers on that screen are there for diagnosing playback problems. The top row counts how evenly frames are arriving — if it turns orange, the video is stuttering, and that's usually a sign the computer is struggling or the network is congested rather than anything to do with sync.
If the sound drifts further out as the video goes on, rather than being off by a steady amount, this screen won't help. That means the computer can't keep up with converting the video. Try a lower-quality source.
Most people never need the Stremio server. This section explains when that's true and what to expect.
Addons hand back one of two things when you pick something to watch: either a normal link the computer can just open, or a torrent. Torrents have to be downloaded before they can play, and downloading them is the only thing the Stremio server does. Normal links skip it entirely.
Works without it
- Addons set up with a debrid service — Real-Debrid, AllDebrid, Premiumize and similar. These turn torrents into normal links before they ever reach you, which is exactly what's needed here.
- Addons that host their own content
Needs it
- Addons that hand back plain torrents with no debrid service attached
What to do
Nothing. There's no setting to change. Add your addons and go — if none of them use torrents, the Stremio server never comes into it.
One thing to watch for: the Vita can't tell the two kinds of source apart, so torrent sources still appear in the list and simply fail if you pick one. If most sources in a list fail, that addon is handing back torrents. Either add a debrid service to it, or set up a Stremio server.
You can take the Vita away and still watch from your own computer at home. It needs one extra piece of hardware, for a reason worth understanding first.
The Vita has no way to connect back to your home network by itself. It has no VPN support of any kind, and no app can add it — the vitastremio app can only use the Vita's ordinary networking.
So instead of connecting the Vita to your home network, you bring a small router with you that is already connected to it. The Vita joins that router's Wi-Fi like any normal hotspot, and the router carries everything home for it.
A pocket travel router is the piece you need. The GL.iNet ones are the usual choice: they are about the size of a deck of cards, run off a USB battery, and have the software for this built in.
Vita ---Wi-Fi---> travel router ---internet---> computer at home
(with you) (running Tailscale)
1. On the home computer, install Tailscale and sign in. It is free for personal use.
# Linux
curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
sudo tailscale upOn Windows and Mac, download the installer from their site and sign in.
Then get the address it has been given:
tailscale ip -4It looks like 100.86.4.21. Write it down — that is the address the Vita
will use from now on, at home and away.
2. On the travel router, turn on Tailscale in its admin page and sign in with the same account. On GL.iNet routers this is under Applications.
There will also be a setting that lets devices on the router's Wi-Fi use the Tailscale connection, rather than only the router itself. It has to be turned on or the Vita won't get through. The wording varies between models and firmware versions, so check your router's documentation for what it calls it.
3. On the Vita, connect to the travel router's Wi-Fi, open vitastremio, and change the computer's address to the Tailscale one from step 1.
4. Test it before you leave. Do all of the above at home, while everything is still on your own Wi-Fi, and play something. If it works there, it will work in a hotel. Working this out in a hotel room — where you cannot tell whether the problem is the router, the account or the hotel's Wi-Fi — is genuinely unpleasant.
Once it is set up, nothing changes when you travel. Same Wi-Fi name, same address, and the Vita cannot tell the difference.
Video and audio together need about 4 Mbit per second, steadily. The audio is uncompressed, which is deliberate — the Vita is too slow to decode compressed audio — but it means the sound alone accounts for roughly a quarter of that.
The thing that limits you is your home upload speed, not the download speed wherever you happen to be. Home connections usually have far less upload than download, so look up that number specifically. Below about 5 Mbit up, expect stuttering.
If it is borderline, lower the video bitrate. In middleware.py near
the top, change VID_BITRATE and VID_MAXRATE to something like 1200k
and 1500k. The picture is softer, but it holds together on a weaker
connection.
It is tempting to skip the router and just forward port 8480 on your home router. Don't.
The helper program has no password on it, by design — it was built for a home network. Forwarding it puts your addon list, your Stremio account details if you imported them, and a free video stream out of your home connection in front of anyone who scans for open ports. Tailscale avoids that: only your own signed-in devices can reach it, and nothing is visible from the open internet.
- Subtitles only work in Latin alphabets. The Vita's built-in font has no Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters, so those come out as boxes.
- Some sources need the sync adjusting. Most are fine as they are — see fixing out-of-sync audio.
- Skipping takes a couple of seconds. The video has to be re-prepared from the new position each time.
- One Vita at a time. A second Vita needs its own copy of the program running.
- Away from home needs a travel router. The Vita has no VPN support, so something else has to make the connection for it. See watching away from home.
- 4K sources are a waste. Everything is shrunk to fit the Vita's screen, so a 1080p source looks identical and uses far less bandwidth.
- Windows PCs convert video with the processor, not the graphics chip, so an older machine may stutter on high-quality sources. See what sort of computer you need.
Everything below is for people who want to build or modify vitastremio. If you just want to watch things on your Vita, you're done — the sections above cover it.
src/ Vita client (C, vitasdk + vita2d)
middleware.py the whole server side, stdlib only
CMakeLists.txt Vita build definition
build.sh one-step VPK build
BUILD.md build guide
CHANGELOG.md release history
Prebuilt .vpk files are attached to
GitHub Releases.
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
main.c |
UI, input, screens, background worker |
player.c/.h |
decode, audio, A/V sync, frame pacing |
http.h |
minimal HTTP over raw sockets |
annexb.h |
H.264 access unit splitter |
ring.h |
lock-free SPSC ring buffer |
lineproto.h |
wire format parser |
config.h |
server address parsing and persistence |
ime.h |
on-screen keyboard |
log.h |
file logger |
Built with vitasdk and vita2d. Not affiliated with Stremio.
MIT — see LICENSE.