mortaljinx--mortalfin

A native Jellyfin client for jailbroken PS5 consoles.
Its own GPU-drawn interface, HDR playback, surround-sound passthrough, and no browser in between.

Mortalfin brings your Jellyfin library to the PS5 as a real app: a cover-wheel interface drawn on the GPU with Vulkan and made for the TV, and video played from your own server with HDR and your surround sound intact. With Seerr you can also request new films and series without leaving the couch.

Beta. Mortalfin is in testing. It works, it has rough edges, and your bug reports are the point of this release. See docs/TESTING.md.

Contents: Features · Installation · Controls · Seerr · Formats and limits · Troubleshooting · Privacy · Building · Credits · Licence · Disclaimer

Features

Browsing

Sign-in by server list or typed address, then by user and password, or Quick Connect (scan the code, tap Authorize)
Libraries as a cover wheel you turn with the stick or the D-pad: films, shows, seasons and episodes
Continue watching, next up, favourites (△ on a title) and search (✕ on the search button) across your libraries
A glass look throughout, with sound effects and music from the UI kit

Playback

Direct play from your server: H.264, HEVC and AV1 (dav1d), with HDR10 sent to the display as HDR10
Dolby Vision plays as its HDR10 layer; other HDR is tone-mapped, and an in-player brightness control for HDR (L1/R1)
Audio and subtitle tracks, switched while the film plays
Text subtitles from the server and picture subtitles (PGS, DVD) drawn by the app, placed in the black bar of a widescreen film when they fit
Chapters, scrubbing on L2/R2, resume where you left off, and the next episode automatically if you want it
A playback-info panel (Options) with codec, range, peak brightness and what the sound output is doing

Sound

Bitstream to your soundbar or receiver (optional): Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus (so Atmos in Dolby Digital Plus) and DTS core go out untouched
Everything else is decoded to PCM up to 7.1, including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio (lossless)
A soundbar delay to line the picture up with the sound
Three output modes: Auto, Bitstream and PCM

Settings

Sound output and delay, audio and subtitle language, subtitle size, next episode automatically, HDR brightness, Seerr, and an About page with the version

Requests with Seerr (optional)

Discover and request films and series from the same app

Installation

What you need

A jailbroken PS5 that runs homebrew apps. Mortalfin was developed and tested on firmware 4.03; other firmware with the same tools may work. If yours does (or doesn't), please say so in an issue.
A way to put a folder on the console: ps5upload (recommended), or an FTP client such as FileZilla talking to the console's FTP server.
A Jellyfin server on your network that the PS5 can reach.

Install from the Homebrew Store

Once Mortalfin's entry is in the PS5 homebrew catalog, install it from the Prospero Homebrew Store like any other title. No files to copy. (Pending: the listing is being submitted. Until it appears, use the manual install below.)

Install by hand

Download Mortalfin-<version>.zip from the latest release and unzip it. Inside is one folder called PPSA99141.
Start your jailbreak and its homebrew loader (and your FTP server, if you use FTP).
Upload the PPSA99141 folder to /data/homebrew/ on the console, so that /data/homebrew/PPSA99141/eboot.bin exists. Create /data/homebrew first if it isn't there.
After a moment, a Mortalfin tile appears on the home screen. If it doesn't, run your payloads again, or reboot and jailbreak again.
Open Mortalfin, pick your server from the list or type its address (for example 192.168.1.10:8096), and sign in. Quick Connect is quickest: scan the QR code with your phone and tap Authorize.

Mortalfin remembers your accounts and settings.

Update

Close Mortalfin completely first (PS button, then close it). Replacing files under a running app can crash the console.
Upload the new folder's files over the old ones in /data/homebrew/PPSA99141/. Don't delete the old folder and copy in a new one, and never keep a second folder with the same ID under /data/homebrew.

Via the Homebrew Store, update from the store.

Uninstall

Close Mortalfin and delete /data/homebrew/PPSA99141 (or remove it in the store). Its settings are small files in the console's /data folder whose names start with jf-; delete them to reset Mortalfin, or leave them for a reinstall. Nothing else on the console is touched.

Controls

Button	In the menus	In the player
✕	Select	Select, play / pause
○	Back	Hide the controls
D-pad / left stick	Move	Move on the control bar
△	Favourite the highlighted title	Audio and subtitles
L2 / R2		Scrub back / forward
L1 / R1		HDR brightness
Options		Playback info
Hold Options (1 s)	Leave to the menu	Leave to the menu

Seerr (optional)

With Seerr (the successor of Overseerr and Jellyseerr), Mortalfin can show what your library is missing and let you request it. Seerr needs Jellyfin as its media server, your user imported, and permission to request.

Turn it on under Settings → Seerr. Use Seerr's address on your own network (for example http://192.168.1.10:5055); a public name that only works from outside your home won't work from the PS5. Test connection checks the address and your sign-in. Mortalfin keeps only Seerr's session, never a password.

Formats and limits

	Plays	Notes
Video	H.264, HEVC (Main, Main 10), AV1	AV1 is decoded in software (dav1d)
HDR	HDR10 as HDR10; Dolby Vision as its HDR10 layer	Other HDR is tone-mapped. Dolby Vision profile 5 and FEL (profile 7) still need more testing
Audio	AAC, AC-3, E-AC-3, TrueHD, DTS (including DTS-HD MA), FLAC, Opus, MP3 and more	PCM up to 7.1. With Bitstream on, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS go to the soundbar as they are
Subtitles	SRT, ASS/SSA, WebVTT; PGS and DVD pictures	Embedded or from the server

Limits of the platform, and of this beta:

Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA are decoded to PCM, never sent as they are. The PS5's audio output can't carry them at full speed (I tried): you get the lossless sound, without the soundbar's Atmos label on a TrueHD film. Atmos in Dolby Digital Plus does pass through.
Plain http only, on your own network, for now. Use an address like 192.168.1.10:8096; a public name behind a reverse proxy won't connect.
No true 24p output: the display runs at the console's own refresh rate.
No downloads or offline mode, no live TV, no music library, no background music.
The app can't quit itself: close it with the PS button.

Connecting with a domain name (https)

The setup screen takes an IP address, a name, or an https:// address. If your server sits behind a reverse proxy (Traefik, Caddy, nginx), enter the address you use in a browser, for example https://jellyfin.example.com; with no port it uses 443. This lets people who are not on your network connect.

The app opens a small tunnel inside the console: it looks the name up with its own DNS client (so a DNS server that blocks Sony still blocks Sony), does the TLS, and hands the rest of the app plain traffic on the console itself.
TLS 1.2, with the certificate and its name checked against Mozilla's root list. Let's Encrypt works. A server that only offers TLS 1.3 does not connect yet.
The console's clock has to be right, or every certificate looks expired or not yet valid.
Pictures load a little slower over the internet than on your LAN, because each one is a separate secure connection.

Files you can put on the console (in /data; they are read when the app starts, so restart it after a change):

File	What it does
`/data/jf-dns`	The DNS server to ask, as an address on one line, when the console's own does not answer
`/data/jf-hosts`	Fixed names, one per line: `192.168.1.10 jellyfin.example.com`
`/data/jf-ca.pem`	Extra trusted roots, for a server whose certificate comes from your own authority
`/data/jf-tls-insecure`	Any content: turns certificate checking off. For testing only; the app logs a warning

Nothing of yours is in the download: the address, user name and keys you enter are stored on your own console.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to do
No Mortalfin tile	Check the path is exactly `/data/homebrew/PPSA99141/eboot.bin`, then rerun your payloads, or reboot and jailbreak again.
The upload fails ("Text file busy")	Mortalfin is still running: close it first.
Your server isn't listed	Type its address. Discovery needs UDP port 7359; in Docker, publish `7359/udp`, and in Jellyfin turn on Enable auto discovery.
It can't connect	The PS5 can't resolve names: use the server's IP address and port (for example `192.168.1.10:8096`), over `http`.
A film has no sound or crackles	Try another Sound output: Auto, Bitstream or PCM. Include the film's audio codec in a report.
The receiver shows PCM, not Dolby	Turn on Bitstream. Only Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS core can be sent as they are.
Subtitles don't show	Switch them on with △ in the player; picture subtitles (PGS) appear once chosen.
A title stutters	Over Wi-Fi, a high-bitrate 4K file may be too much; try a wired connection. Press Options for the playback info and include it in a report.
Seerr isn't answering	Use Seerr's local address (port 5055 by default) and press Test connection.

Reporting a problem: open an issue with your firmware, your server and its version, what you did and what happened. For sound or picture problems, include the file's codecs and your TV or soundbar. docs/TESTING.md says what to try and how to capture the log.

Privacy

Mortalfin talks to your Jellyfin server and, if you turn it on, your Seerr server, and nothing else. It has no analytics, no accounts of its own and no ads. The release build contains no server address, user name or password: you type them in, and they are kept on your console only. Each console makes its own random device ID the first time it runs (/data/jf-device-id). The debug log is sent only to a computer that you connect to the console's debug port.

Community and testing

Join the Mortalfin Discord to try the beta, ask for help, send bug reports with your klog, and follow new releases.

Building

See docs/BUILDING.md. Releasing and the security check: docs/RELEASING.md.

Credits

Mbed TLS (Apache-2.0) and Mozilla's root certificate list (MPL-2.0) carry the https connection; their licences are in ps5/licenses/ and in the licenses/ folder beside eboot.bin. Mortalfin stands on the work of others in the PS5 scene and beyond. Thank you to:
Mihawk, for the PS5 Vulkan Template this title is built on, and the PS5 Vulkan stack under it: the RADV link recipe, the C runtime start-up and the AGC import stubs, the platform layer, and the Mesa port
BlackBearReloaded, for ps5-homebrew-ui, the UI kit behind the glass interface, its sounds and music, and for the PS5 homebrew catalog
John Törnblom and the ps5-payload-dev contributors, for the PS5 payload SDK that makes any of this possible
Sascha Willems, for the Vulkan examples and base class the title grew from (MIT)
Mesa and RADV, the Vulkan driver, with ACO and NIR
FFmpeg, for demuxing and decoding, and dav1d (VideoLAN), for AV1
Dear ImGui, tinygltf, volk, KTX-Software (Khronos), stb by Sean Barrett, and LLVM's libc++, libc++abi and compiler-rt
The typefaces Inter, Montserrat, DejaVu Sans Mono, Press Start 2P, Patrick Hand and Roboto
The Jellyfin project and its API, and the Seerr team (Seerr, Jellyseerr and Overseerr before it)

Every component, its licence, its copyright and where its source is are listed in the licenses/ folder inside the app (LEGAL.txt and licenses/README.txt) and in ps5/ASSETS.md.

Licence

Mortalfin as distributed is under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (LICENSE.md), because it links GPL-3.0 parts (the UI kit and the PS5 platform layer). Parts under other licences keep them: Sascha Willems' Vulkan examples (MIT, ps5/licenses/MIT-VulkanExamples.md), Dear ImGui, tinygltf, volk, KTX, dav1d (BSD-2-Clause), Mesa (MIT), the fonts (OFL-1.1, Apache-2.0, Bitstream Vera) and others. Their licence texts ship inside the app, and source for the GPL parts is offered with each release (SOURCES.txt).

Disclaimer

Mortalfin is an unofficial homebrew project, provided as is, without any warranty of any kind, express or implied, as set out in sections 15 and 16 of the GPL. You use it entirely at your own risk. The author and contributors are not responsible or liable for any damage, data loss, malfunction, account or online-service consequences, or any other harm, to your console, your devices, your data or anything else, arising from installing, using or being unable to use it.

Running homebrew requires a jailbroken console, which may break Sony's terms of service and void your warranty. Whether you do so is your choice and your responsibility.

Mortalfin contains no media, no games, no firmware and no keys, and gives access to no content of its own: it plays what is on your own Jellyfin server. Use it only with media you have the right to watch.

Mortalfin is not affiliated with or endorsed by Sony Interactive Entertainment or the Jellyfin project. PlayStation, PS5 and DualSense are trademarks of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. Jellyfin is a trademark of its project.