Headent Client — Android and AndroidTV client for Tvheadend

MikrotikExe

Headent Client — a native Android / Android TV client for Tvheadend (looking for testers)

Hi everyone,

I would like to share a project I have been building in my spare time and to ask the community for help testing it. First of all, thanks to the Tvheadend team for the server — this app would not exist without it.

Headent Client is an independent, community-built client. It is not an official Tvheadend product and is not affiliated with the project. It only talks to your own Tvheadend server and plays your own channels and recordings.

Source code (GitHub): MikrotikExe/headentclient
Website: https://headentclient.com

What it is

A native Android app that turns your own Tvheadend server into a proper TV experience — on phones, tablets, and on Android TV / set-top boxes with a remote. It is written from scratch in Kotlin + Jetpack Compose and uses libVLC for playback.

No ads, no tracking, no third-party analytics SDKs — the app only communicates with the server you configure.

What it can do

Live TV: channel list with search, favourites, and category tabs (All / News / Sport, based on your Tvheadend tags)
EPG / TV guide: a multi-day timeline grid with a "now" marker, plus per-channel schedule
Archive & catch-up: browse recordings (DVR) and, for channels that support it, scrub back through the timeshift/catch-up window with a seekbar
Radio: a separate section for radio services
Picons: channel logos fetched from the server and cached automatically
Player (libVLC): play/pause, previous/next channel, audio-track selection, subtitles, programme info, sleep timer, lock; Picture-in-Picture so you can keep watching while browsing
Quick zap: an on-screen channel overlay to switch channels without leaving the video
Parental lock for protected content
Light / dark / auto theme

How it connects / logs in

On first launch you enter:

Host / IP address of your Tvheadend server
Username and password (optional, if your server requires authentication)

It uses HTSP (default port 9982) for streaming and the HTTP interface (default 9981) for picons. Authentication works with both plain and digest (MD5 / SHA-256 / SHA-512-256), so it should work with the usual Tvheadend access setups. The connection is verified right after login.

On Android TV / boxes the UI is built for remote (D-pad) navigation, and the app remembers the last channel and the last section you used after a reboot.

Screenshots

Android TV — home (D-pad navigation)
Android TV home

Android TV — channel list and programme info
Android TV channels and EPG

Player — full controls (audio, subtitles, sleep timer, lock, Picture-in-Picture)
Player

Radio
Radio

Archive / recordings (DVR)
Archive

On a phone — channel list with search, favourites and category tabs
Phone channel list

On a phone — settings (multiple servers, parental lock, remote control)
Phone settings

Current status on Google Play

The app is currently in closed testing on Google Play (available in 177 countries/regions).

To be able to apply for a public production release, Google now requires at least 12 testers to be opted in and to stay opted in for 14 consecutive days. That is exactly why I am posting here — I need active testers on a variety of devices to reach that threshold and, more importantly, to find and fix real-world bugs before a public release.

What I am working on right now

Catch-up seekbar alignment for channels with continuous recordings
Polishing the Android TV home screen and D-pad navigation
Ironing out install/compatibility differences across set-top boxes (some cheaper hybrid boxes behave differently than phones/tablets)

Honest feedback on any of these — or anything else that feels off — is very welcome.

Looking for testers

If you run Tvheadend and would like to help, I would really appreciate it. What it takes:

A Gmail account (@gmail.com) — that is how Google adds you to the test build
Keep the app installed for ₂ weeks and use it now and then
Report anything that does not work (logs/screenshots help a lot)

Devices of all kinds are useful — phones, tablets, Android TV, and especially various set-top boxes, since that is where most compatibility surprises happen.

To sign up, please fill in the short form (it asks for your Gmail account, device type/model and a couple of details):

https://headentclient.com/testers.php?lang=en

Once you are added you will receive an opt-in link; you confirm participation in Google Play and the app becomes available to you. If you do not have your own Tvheadend server but still want to try the app, mention it in the form — a demo server can be provided.

Contact

Questions about testing / general: form@headentclient.com
Bug reports: support@headentclient.com
Or just reply in this thread.

Thanks a lot for reading, and thanks again to the Tvheadend project. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

MikrotikExe

Update — Headent Client is now available in 31 languages

Quick update for anyone following along: both the app and the website (headentclient.com) are now fully localized into 31 languages.

Languages: Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese.

The app picks up your system language automatically, and you can also switch it manually in Settings. RTL layouts (Arabic, Persian, Urdu) are handled too.

Alongside the localization, this build also includes:

A redesigned Settings screen for Android TV — a sidebar with icons and categories instead of full-width rows
Smoother, more reliable language / audio-track pickers on TV

Still looking for testers

I'm still actively looking for testers. If you run Tvheadend, I'd really appreciate the help — install the app, use it now and then, and report anything that doesn't work. Bug reports, logs and screenshots are exactly what I need to polish things before a public release, especially on the more unusual set-top boxes.

Sign-up form: headentclient.com/testers
Bug reports: support@headentclient.com — or just reply here

Thanks again to everyone testing, and to the Tvheadend project.

Markus Bonet

Works like a charm so far. But didn't dig into details yet.
Can't install it on Android TV, though.

MikrotikExe

Markus Bonet Thanks for testing!

Android TV installs work, but only through the Play testing programme. Steps:

Make sure your Android TV / set-top box is signed in with the same Google account you used when you requested testing access (the same one as on your phone).
Open this link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sk.tvhclient
Sign in with that Google account, then use the "Install on more devices" option and pick your Android TV / set-top box from the device list — Play will push the install to it remotely.

Tip: on phones/tablets the Play Store sometimes doesn't show all your devices in that list. It's more reliable to open the link in a web browser on a PC — there the device picker usually works without issues and pushes the install straight to the TV/box.

Alternatively, once your account is in the testing programme, you can also find "Headent Client" directly in the Play Store app on the TV itself.

If the TV doesn't show up in the device list, it usually means it's signed in with a different Google account than the one enrolled in testing.

Markus Bonet

MikrotikExe Tip: on phones/tablets the Play Store sometimes doesn't show all your devices in that list.

Indeed, that did the trick. In the web browser I can see now the full list of devices. Will give this a try later.

What I'm missing or is not working as expected:

I miss a stop button; right now I can only pause the stream
Disabling PiP and going back to the EPG view still opens a PiP window playing the current stream

MikrotikExe

Markus Bonet Thanks a lot for the detailed report and for taking the time to test — this is exactly the kind of feedback that helps!

We will look into both points (the missing stop behaviour and the PiP window appearing even with PiP disabled) and verify what's going on. If it's confirmed, the fix will be included in the upcoming big update (build 29) that we're currently preparing.

Thank You again for Your testing and feedback — much appreciated!

Markus Bonet

I gave it a try on Android TV. Works so far.
There are inconsistencies to the regular Android version.
I can't easily activate the OSD for a running programme. For details, audio or subtitle switching etc.
Page up and down buttons are not mapped.
It seems the app wouldn't switch to different resolutions and refresh rates. But haven't tested too deeply.

Otherwise it's working nicely. Even interlaced signals are smoothly deinterlaced and look flawless.

MikrotikExe

Markus Bonet Thanks again for the detailed testing — build 29 addresses all three points you raised:

1. OSD for a running programme
The MENU key now opens the on-screen controls during playback, and there are dedicated remote keys for audio and subtitle switching (previously the captions key wrongly opened the EPG). If your remote's audio/subtitle button still doesn't respond, see the note at the bottom.

2. Page up / down
Channel up/down is mapped to the Page Up / Page Down keycodes in build 29. If your MagentaOne remote sends different codes, the diagnostics tool below will show us exactly what.

3. Resolution / refresh rate switching (AFR)
New in 29: Automatic Refresh Rate. The display now switches to match the stream frame rate (e.g. 50 Hz for 25 fps broadcasts), so motion looks smooth without judder. It's on by default and can be adjusted in Settings → Player (Android TV also has an optional short pause after the switch). This should also help with any slight audio lag you might notice after zapping.

If left/right (or any) buttons don't work:
Please enable Settings → Remote control → Key diagnostics. Then press the button that doesn't work — the player will briefly show its keycode on screen. Send the keycode(s) that don't respond to support@headentclient.com and we'll add them as alternative mappings for your box.

The deinterlacing praise is much appreciated — thanks!

Chris G

I installed the app yesterday and experienced regular crashing. I suspect this might have something to do with the large number of channels and EPG data on my server, since today it hasn't crashed once? It would crash while browsing settings, channels and while playing video. I'm new to Android, so I'm not sure if there's a way to see logs? But like I said, the crashing has stopped now.

Only a couple of niggles so far.
Here you can see the keyboard doesn't fill the screen in landscape:

And the default deinterlacing seems to work intermittently:

I also have some requests:

Can the app remember the last group selected instead of defaulting to the "all" group every time?
Can we have the option to sort channels by name instead of number and perhaps have the option to hide the number entirely?
Can we get a recently played list? Maybe remember the last 10 channels played? I don't use favourites, so maybe you could add the option to show/hide favourites and the recently played option I suggested?

Thanks,
Chris

MikrotikExe

Chris G Thanks a lot for the detailed report, Chris — really useful.

Crashes with large channel/EPG servers: I'll look into this. My suspicion matches yours — the first-run load and parsing of a large EPG could be the cause, and once it's cached the pressure is gone, which would fit why it stopped on day two. For a future build I'm considering adding a crash log that writes the error to a file you could send us, which would help pinpoint it instead of guessing.

Landscape keyboard: that half-width keyboard is Gboard's own landscape layout, not something the app controls, so it's not really on our side.

Deinterlacing "intermittent": in Settings → Player, try changing Deinterlacing from Automatic to a specific method — Bob, Yadif, Yadif (2x) or X — and see which one clears the combing on those channels. Automatic relies on the stream flagging itself as interlaced, which some broadcasts do unreliably, so forcing a method usually helps.

Your requests — noted for consideration in a future build:

Remember the last selected channel group instead of defaulting to "All"
Sort channels by name (not number) and an option to hide the number entirely
A recently-played list (last channels played), plus a toggle to show/hide Favourites and the recently-played row

Thanks again for taking the time — this kind of feedback is exactly what helps.

MikrotikExe

Chris G One more thing on the deinterlacing, Chris: before forcing a method, make sure you're on build 29 and give the app a fresh try on Automatic first. Build 29 adds Automatic Refresh Rate (AFR), which on a 60 Hz display often clears the combing on its own — the panel switches to match 50 Hz broadcasts, so the deinterlacer finally runs at the correct timing. If the combing is already gone on Automatic, you may not need to change anything. Only if it still shows up on some channels, then try Bob / Yadif / Yadif (2x) / X and see which one clears it.

MikrotikExe

Big update: a new Modern interface next to the Classic one — plus smoother playback, background radio and more

Headent Client just got its largest update so far. The app now ships with two interfaces you can switch anytime in Settings → General: the familiar Classic layout and a fully redesigned Modern one. Both come in light and dark, on phone and Android TV, and everything — live TV, the EPG, recordings, radio and the archive — works in both.

You can try both looks right in your browser on the tour page, which has a live switcher for TV / Phone, Modern / Classic and Dark / Light:
→ Open the interactive tour

Classic vs Modern

Android TV — home
Home — Classic Home — Modern

Android TV — full guide (grid EPG)
Guide — Classic Guide — Modern

Android TV — player
Player — Classic Player — Modern

Phone — channel list
Phone — Classic Phone — Modern

The Modern layout also adds a proper phone home screen (a live "now" card and a rail of your favourite channels) that the Classic layout doesn't have.

What's new (recent builds)

Two interfaces — Classic and Modern, chosen in Settings; both fully functional.
Automatic refresh rate (AFR) — the display switches to match the stream (e.g. 50 Hz for 25 fps), so motion, pans and sports are smooth without judder. Android TV (with an optional pause after the switch) and phones via the system frame-rate API. On by default, toggle in Settings → Player.
Better audio sync — on passthrough to a TV/AV receiver, sound could lag behind the picture; the player now compensates automatically and re-syncs shortly after each channel change, with a manual fine-tune if needed.
Background radio (mini player) — radio keeps playing while you browse channels, EPG or the archive: a bar above the tabs on phones, a media notification that survives a locked screen, and a dedicated panel on the Android TV home screen. Also fixed on digest-authentication servers.
Continue watching — the home screen offers a rail of what you were watching, and resuming a recording now continues from the last position instead of restarting.
Remote & playback — added/corrected remote keys (dedicated audio & subtitle buttons, MENU opens the on-screen controls), Picture-in-Picture respects its setting with a manual PiP button, and D-pad subtitle selection no longer switches the audio track by mistake.
Player follows the light theme — the on-screen controls (channel surf bar) now match the light theme too; dark mode looks exactly as before.
Crash diagnostics — if something goes wrong, a log is saved and you can review and send it straight from Settings → About → Diagnostics (pre-filled with device, Android version, app version and date).

Under the hood

HTSP for streaming, the Tvheadend HTTP interface for picons.
Authentication works with both plain and digest (MD5 / SHA-256 / SHA-512-256).
Playback powered by libVLC, with deinterlacing and audio-output options.
The interface is available in 31 languages.

Try it / join testing

The app is in active development and currently in closed testing — I'm growing the tester group and would welcome more people running different servers and devices (phones, Android TV boxes, various Android versions). If you'd like in, you can sign up here:
→ Sign up for testing

Website: headentclient.com
Source & releases: github.com/MikrotikExe/headentclient

What's next

Development continues at a steady pace: more polish on the Modern interface, further playback and passthrough refinements, and improvements driven by tester feedback. Feedback and bug reports here or on GitHub are very welcome — thanks to everyone testing so far.

Chris G

OK I will try updating, and thanks for listening to my suggestions.

I discovered I already have some logs on my phone... The issue is, I don't know how to get them back up! I noticed a notification, when I tapped it, it opened up a list of all the crashes. When I clicked on them, they showed me the crash reports. From memory, the very first crash was something to do with a null pointer (the app crashed on first launch). The rest of the crashes were all identical. Something about java.lang... and 70mb?

If you have any idea how I can bring up that UI again, I'll post the exact reports. Perhaps you know of a way to make an app crash on purpose, so that I get the notification again?

Chris G

Noticed a minor bug.
Only one of these channels should show recording:

MikrotikExe

Chris G Thanks for reporting this. Confirmed and fixed.

The recording indicator was being matched to channels by name instead of the unique channel ID. On line-ups like Sky UK there are several distinct channels that share the same name and number (e.g. the regional "ITV1 HD" variants on 103), so whenever one of them was recording, the red dot showed up on all of them.

It now matches recordings by the channel's unique ID — the same way the Kodi Tvheadend PVR client does it — so only the channel that is actually recording shows the indicator. This applies to the channel list, the in-player list/OSD and the EPG guide.

The fix will be in the next build (build 31). I'll post here once it's up in the testing track.

Chris G

MikrotikExe

Thanks. I figured that was the issue.

Did you see my previous comment?

MikrotikExe

Chris G Good news — you don't need to crash the app on purpose. HeadentClient keeps its own crash log on the device, so the reports are already saved.

To get them:

Open HeadentClient
Settings → Information → Diagnostics
You'll see the captured crash log there. Tap "Send" — it opens a pre-filled email to support@headentclient.com. Just send it and I'll have the exact reports.

The notification with the list of crashes that you tapped is Android's own system crash reporter, not part of HeadentClient, so I can't reliably bring that one back — but you don't need it, the in-app Diagnostics has what I need.

Two notes:

The app only records crashes from the build that has this diagnostics feature (build 29 and newer). If some of those crashes happened on an older build, they may not be in the in-app log — in that case just paste whatever the system screen still shows.
The identical "java.lang... 70 MB" ones look like out-of-memory errors, most likely tied to the large EPG on your server. The log will show exactly where it runs out of memory. The first crash (the null pointer on first launch) is a separate issue — I'd like that one too if it's still there.

Thanks again for digging into this.

Chris G

MikrotikExe
I see the section but it is empty. Probably because it was on a previous version?

I just deleted the server and re-added it. Sure enough it keeps crashing again. Here's the log:

HeadentClient diagnostic log
app=1.0.0 (30)
device=Xiaomi 24117RN76E
android=16 (API 36)
tv=false

[2026-07-05 23:26:53] FATAL @ thread=DefaultDispatcher-worker-14
  java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Failed to allocate a 96294456 byte allocation with 25165824 free bytes and 76MB until OOM, target footprint 213533120, growth limit 268435456
    at java.lang.StringFactory.newStringFromChars(StringFactory.java:124)
    at J1.h.toString(SourceFile:20)
    at T2.d.c(SourceFile:28)
    at sk.tvhclient.shared.storage.EpgCacheCodec.encode(SourceFile:31)
    at u3.E3.invokeSuspend(SourceFile:40)
    at f2.a.resumeWith(SourceFile:9)
    at A2.P.run(SourceFile:110)
    at F2.g.run(SourceFile:26)
    at H2.j.run(SourceFile:3)
    at H2.a.run(SourceFile:94)

[2026-07-05 23:28:23] FATAL @ thread=DefaultDispatcher-worker-14
  java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Failed to allocate a 96278328 byte allocation with 25165824 free bytes and 77MB until OOM, target footprint 212041056, growth limit 268435456
    at java.lang.StringFactory.newStringFromChars(StringFactory.java:124)
    at J1.h.toString(SourceFile:20)
    at T2.d.c(SourceFile:28)
    at sk.tvhclient.shared.storage.EpgCacheCodec.encode(SourceFile:31)
    at u3.E3.invokeSuspend(SourceFile:40)
    at f2.a.resumeWith(SourceFile:9)
    at A2.P.run(SourceFile:110)
    at F2.g.run(SourceFile:26)
    at H2.j.run(SourceFile:3)
    at H2.a.run(SourceFile:94)

[2026-07-05 23:31:02] FATAL @ thread=DefaultDispatcher-worker-11
  java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Failed to allocate a 96125848 byte allocation with 25165824 free bytes and 77MB until OOM, target footprint 212644304, growth limit 268435456
    at java.lang.StringFactory.newStringFromChars(StringFactory.java:124)
    at J1.h.toString(SourceFile:20)
    at T2.d.c(SourceFile:28)
    at sk.tvhclient.shared.storage.EpgCacheCodec.encode(SourceFile:31)
    at u3.E3.invokeSuspend(SourceFile:40)
    at f2.a.resumeWith(SourceFile:9)
    at A2.P.run(SourceFile:110)
    at F2.g.run(SourceFile:26)
    at H2.j.run(SourceFile:3)
    at H2.a.run(SourceFile:94)

I noticed another minor niggle, "Today" is not translated in the EPG view:

Can we have to option to filter by tags in the EPG view too, please?

MikrotikExe

Chris G Thanks a lot — that log was exactly what I needed, it pinpointed the problem straight away.

The crashes were out-of-memory errors while saving the EPG cache. The app was serialising the entire program guide into one huge block in memory before writing it to disk. On your server, with that many channels and days of EPG, that block was around 96 MB, which blew past the memory limit and crashed the app.

I've rewritten it to save and load the cache one channel at a time (streamed), so it never holds the whole guide in memory at once — memory use stays low no matter how big your EPG is. I also made sure a cache failure can never crash the app again.

While I was there I also fixed the "Dnes" label in the TV Guide that wasn't translated — it now shows "Today" (and the correct word in every language).

Both fixes will be in the next release, build 31. I'll let you know when it's up in the testing track — then please re-add your server and give it another go.

The tag filter in the EPG view is on my list too; I'll look at it after these fixes are out.

Chris G

"Today" fixed and no more crashing version 31.