Build 33 — channel groups, search and favorites on TV, plus we're officially fiscally hosted!
Published on July 14, 2026 by MikrotikExe
Big news first: our application to Open Source Europe has been accepted, so HeadentClient is now officially fiscally hosted and this collective can receive contributions. Thank you to everyone who already supports the project — and welcome to anyone just discovering it!
And right on time, a new closed-testing build (33, still 1.0.0) is rolling out. This one is all about finding and organizing channels on Android TV, plus some deep playback fixes:
- Channel groups in the TV player list. The channel list now has a group filter — All, Favorites, and your server's tags (bouquets). Press up to the pill with the D-pad and switch groups with left/right; channel zapping (CH+/−) then stays within the selected group.
- Search channels by name on TV. A magnifier next to the group pill opens a search field with the on-screen keyboard. Results filter as you type, across all channels, and OK plays the selected one straight away.
- Favorites, visible and manageable on TV. Favorite channels are marked with a gold star in the list and in search results, and you can add/remove favorites (or hide a channel) directly from the channel menu — hold OK on a channel.
- Decoder color fix. New setting for boxes where hardware decoding shows wrong (blue/orange) colors: it switches the decoder to a compatible path while keeping decoding fully hardware-accelerated, so playback stays smooth.
- HDR switching under your control. When auto frame rate (AFR) changes the display mode, some boxes flip the output to HDR. You can now allow or block that switch — blocking it avoids the HDMI re-sync and keeps the picture as-is.
- Polish. Every settings switch now gets consistent D-pad focus on the whole row, the program guide info no longer disappears when switching groups, and several smaller fixes landed along the way.
Huge thanks to our testers for the reports and ideas that shaped this build — the group filter, TV search and favorites all came directly from your feedback. 🙌