Changelog

All notable changes to Cathode will be documented in this file.

[0.5.9] — 2026-05-06

Fixes

Xtream fallback testing reliability — Setup and Settings now test Xtream server URLs one at a time instead of in parallel, avoiding provider-side false 404s from aliases that share the same backend.
Connection error detail — Native provider test failures now preserve non-standard error details instead of collapsing them to Unknown error.

[0.5.8] — 2026-05-05

Fixes

Xtream setup URL compatibility — Server URLs are now normalized before testing, saving, auth fallback, EPG loading, and playback URL construction, so root URLs, player_api.php, get.php, and stream URLs all resolve to the correct server.
Provider User-Agent compatibility — Native provider and HLS requests now include a default Cathode User-Agent, and Xtream accounts can save a custom User-Agent for providers that reject unknown native clients.
Add-connection loading flow — Adding a connection now starts loading directly after credentials instead of relying on a step-change effect, avoiding duplicate setup starts.

[0.5.7] — 2026-05-04

Fixes

Provider connection compatibility — Packaged builds now use native HTTP for Xtream, M3U, EPG, and logo requests, avoiding WebView CORS failures from provider aliases and CDN redirects.
HLS playback compatibility — HLS manifests, segments, and keys now load through a native HLS loader in Tauri builds, helping streams from CORS-hostile providers play reliably.

Infrastructure

Tauri CI coverage — Pull request CI now includes a Linux Tauri compile check so native plugin wiring is verified before release.

[0.5.6] — 2026-05-04

Fixes

macOS HTTP IPTV support — macOS builds now allow WebView and media requests to plain-HTTP IPTV providers, fixing App Transport Security failures when connecting to providers such as TREX.

[0.5.5] — 2026-05-03

Fixes

Mini guide detail width — The mini guide detail panel now fills the remaining space to the right edge while keeping channel rows left-aligned.
AAC stream compatibility — Unsupported MPEG-4 audio codecs such as mp4a.40.1 are now remapped to AAC-LC before hls.js creates the SourceBuffer, helping affected channels start instead of failing with bufferAddCodecError.
Codec recovery diagnostics — HLS codec errors now include SourceBuffer type, mime type, and browser error details in stream diagnostics.

[0.5.4] — 2026-05-03

Fixes

Startup buffering flicker — Startup waiting and stalled events now stay inside the loading phase until playback actually begins, avoiding the immediate "Buffering..." flash after a channel starts.
HLS startup stability — Disabled progressive HLS appending during startup and stopped forcing an immediate ABR jump after the first segment, reducing early bufferSeekOverHole warnings and first-frame stutter.
Codec buffer recovery — Fatal bufferAddCodecError events now try media recovery and an audio codec swap before surfacing a hard HEVC/unsupported-codec error.
Mini guide alignment — The mini guide channel grid is left-aligned again while preserving the wider program detail panel.

[0.5.3] — 2026-05-03

Features

Visible stream startup progress — Loading streams now shows startup stage, percent, loaded bytes, segment count, and buffered seconds instead of only a spinner.
Ultra-fast HLS startup — Streams now start from the first playable low-quality fragment, skip the throwaway bandwidth-test fragment, and release back to Auto quality after playback begins.
Bandwidth memory — Cathode remembers recent bandwidth estimates per stream host so repeat channel starts can climb quality faster.

Fixes

Stable mode startup — Stable keeps its larger buffers and retry posture, but uses a faster first-frame startup path.
Transient stall noise — Non-fatal HLS stall events are handled through the stall recovery path instead of also surfacing as raw HLS warnings.
Mini guide first focus — Opening the mini guide now initializes the focused channel/program details before paint.

Polish

TV mini guide layout — The mini guide detail panel is wider on TV-sized screens and no longer leaves a gap beside the channel grid.

[0.5.2] — 2026-05-02

Features

Streaming modes — Added Fast Start, Balanced, and Stable playback profiles so streams can be tuned for startup speed, live latency, or buffering resilience.
Playback diagnostics — Added stream health metrics, recent player events, and redacted copyable diagnostics from the in-player stream settings panel.
Global playback settings — Added a Playback tab in Settings for default streaming mode, stability preference, and diagnostics visibility.

Fixes

Buffer recovery — Added progressive HLS recovery for stalls, network errors, and media errors, with capped player rebuilds and a manual retry action.
Quality fallback — Auto quality can now temporarily step down after repeated stalls when stability is preferred.

Polish

Buffering UI — Added a clear buffering state and retryable error overlay during stream interruptions.

[0.5.1] — 2026-03-26

Features

Follow Show overhaul — Following a show now immediately creates reminders instead of waiting for the next EPG refresh. Title matching is exact (no more false positives). Unfollowing cleans up auto-created reminders.
Reminders settings page — Shows channel numbers, dates for non-today airings, and "via Follow" labels to distinguish auto-created reminders from manual ones.
EPG Web Worker parsing — Replaced broken DOMParser with fast-xml-parser so EPG parsing runs off the main thread, eliminating UI stutter during large EPG loads.

Fixes

Guide hour shift — The guide grid no longer jumps left at the top of every hour.
Display density — Switching density no longer leaves empty space at the bottom until restart.
Follow Show channel matching — Follows are now strictly channel-specific. No more reminders created for international channels airing the same show.
Follow icon scoping — Follow indicator only appears on the specific channel you followed, not every channel with that program.
Reminder/follow icon delay — Icons on the guide now update instantly when toggling, instead of waiting up to 60 seconds.
Scroll position on EPG load — Scrolling through the guide while EPG loads no longer resets your position to the top.
Notification history isolation — Notification history is now per-account, so switching accounts won't show stale notifications with broken Watch buttons.
Notification ID collisions — Multiple notifications firing at the same time now get unique IDs.

Polish

Shortcuts overlay — Redesigned with proper "or" formatting between key alternatives. Reordered by priority. Removed F11 and duplicate entries.
Update notification — Bell flyout now has an "Update" button linking to Settings → About. Download button moved above changelog.
Remind Me tooltip — Added tooltip explaining the 5-minute notification lead time.

[0.5.0] — 2026-03-25

Features

Quick Tune — Press / or Ctrl+Space to instantly search and start watching a channel from anywhere (guide or player). Smart scoring prioritizes favorites and recently watched channels. Opening with no query shows your recently watched channels for zero-keystroke switching.
Redesigned navbar — Filter toggles and action buttons grouped into segmented pill groups with consistent SVG icons. Channel count moved to left side, cleaner layout.
Recent filter sorts by recency — The Recent filter on the main guide now shows channels ordered by most recently watched, not channel number.
Media keyboard support — Enter/OK key now shows the Now Playing info bar in the video player.

Fixes

CHANNELS label alignment — Fixed inline style overriding CSS flexbox centering. Now vertically centered with left padding.
Update toast opens About tab — "View Update" notification now opens Settings directly on the About tab.
Update notifications in bell — Update available notifications now appear in the notification history flyout.
Escape closes Settings — Pressing Escape now closes the Settings modal (cancels name edit if active).

[0.4.2] — 2026-03-25

Features

Mini guide left/right navigation — Arrow left/right moves between programs on the focused channel. Detail panel shows the selected program with context labels (NOW, UPCOMING, EARLIER). Hint bar updated with new controls.

Fixes

Guide navigation drift — Up/down in the guide now uses a sticky reference time instead of recalculating from each program's midpoint. Going down from a long movie then back up returns to the same program.
Mini guide bouncing — Fixed time window that only shifts on explicit left/right navigation. Detail panel locked to fixed height to prevent layout shifts from variable content.
Filter button stealing Enter — Clicking a filter pill (Guide, HD+, etc) then arrowing through the guide would cause Enter to re-toggle the filter instead of opening the program. Arrow keys now blur focused buttons.
Now line position — Moved from 1/3 to 1/4 from the left edge for more visible current programming.
Mini guide program padding — Reduced to match main guide's 2px gap pattern.

[0.4.1] — 2026-03-25

Features

Multi-account support — Store multiple IPTV connections and switch between them. Each account has isolated favorites, filters, recently watched, reminders, and EPG cache.
Accounts tab in Settings — Switch, rename, add, or remove connections. Click account names to edit inline.
Custom account names — Optional name field during onboarding (e.g. "Strong 8k"). Auto-generates from server hostname if left blank.
Add Connection flow — Streamlined wizard (skips Welcome and Theme steps) with Cancel button to return to previous account.

Changes

Removed Disconnect button — Account management is now in Settings → Accounts. Removing the active account switches to the next one or returns to onboarding.
Auto-migration — Existing single-account data is automatically migrated to multi-account format on first launch.

[0.4.0] — 2026-03-24

Features

Onboarding wizard — New 6-step first-run setup: Welcome → Connection Type → Credentials → Theme & Density → Loading → Done. Replaces the old connection screen entirely.
M3U playlist support — New connection type. Enter a playlist URL and optional EPG/XMLTV URL to load channels from any M3U source.
Free IPTV channels — Browse free-to-air channels from 20 countries via iptv-org. No account needed — pick your countries and start watching.
Fallback server URLs in onboarding — Add up to 2 fallback Xtream URLs during setup. Tested in parallel with the primary server.
Connection testing — Dedicated "Test Connection" button validates all server URLs before proceeding. Shows per-server status with latency.
EPG loaded during onboarding — Guide data is fetched as part of setup so channels have program info immediately on first launch.
Guide filter default — Guide filter auto-enables on first run when EPG data is available for a better initial experience.
Splash screen — Returning users see a clean splash with the app icon while auto-connecting, instead of briefly flashing the onboarding wizard.

Fixes

Changelog page — Fixed white page on cathode.live/changelog. Replaced node:fs (unavailable in Cloudflare Workers) with Vite raw import.
Browser dev mode — Guarded Tauri fullscreen API calls so the app doesn't crash when running in plain browser mode (npm run dev).

Infrastructure

Unified connection model — Polymorphic Connection type supports Xtream, M3U, and Free connections. Single storage key with clean abstraction.
Shared proxy fetch — Extracted proxyFetch to a shared module used by all connection types.
Removed demo mode — Replaced by Free Channels which provides a better first impression with real content.

[0.3.4] — 2026-03-24

Features

Recently Watched filter — New 🕐 Recent pill next to Favorites. Tracks last 30 channels you've watched, persisted across sessions.
Update toast links to Settings — "View Update" button on the update notification opens Settings → About directly for one-click install.
Shortcuts overlay updated — Added all missing shortcuts: ←/→ opens mini guide, Backspace for prev channel, Q for quality, Ctrl+K for search, F11 for fullscreen.

Fixes

Light mode overhaul — Replaced ~30 hardcoded dark colors with theme variables. Channel info popup, program detail, toasts, shortcuts, settings, and search overlay all respect the active theme now.
Density scroll overflow — Fixed channels being cut off or extra space at the bottom when using Spacious or Compact density modes. Row heights now use dynamic values from the virtualizer.

[0.3.3] — 2026-03-24

Features

Spacious display density — New "Spacious" mode (80px rows, larger text) for TV viewing at a distance. Scales the entire UI including filters, mini guide, and info bars.
Quick search improvements — Favorite channels now appear first in search results (★ indicator). Each result shows what's currently airing from EPG data.
Guide auto-advance — The guide automatically re-centers on the current time every 5 minutes when idle. No more manually pressing Now after leaving the guide open.
Dynamic website version — cathode.live now shows the version from the latest release instead of hardcoded. Download buttons update automatically.
macOS and Linux downloads — All three platforms now available on the website.

Fixes

Auto-updater working — Fixed zip compression (Store instead of Deflate) so the Tauri updater can extract updates. Manually zip and sign in CI since tauri-action didn't support it.
Mini guide ignores search — The mini guide overlay now uses category/favorites/guide/HD+ filters but is not affected by the main guide's search query.
? help button — Added a ? button in the top bar to open the keyboard shortcuts overlay.
Update notes formatting — Release notes in About page now show as a clean bulleted list instead of raw markdown.

Infrastructure

CI now builds, zips, signs, and uploads .nsis.zip artifacts without relying on tauri-action
Website version pulled dynamically from /api/update endpoint
Added /api/download/macos and /api/download/linux endpoints

[0.3.0] — 2026-03-24

Features

F key fullscreen everywhere — F now toggles fullscreen on both the guide and video player. Favorites filter moved to V key.
Quick channel search in player — Press / or Ctrl+F while watching to search and switch channels instantly. Type a name, arrow to select, Enter to switch.
Compact/Comfortable display density — New toggle in Settings → General. Compact mode reduces row heights and font sizes for more channels on screen.

Fixes

Mini guide time refresh — The mini guide now shows the current time each time it opens, instead of being stuck at the time the player first loaded.

[0.2.4] — 2026-03-24

Fixes

Auto-updater now properly signs builds and includes signatures
Update notes no longer show raw markdown in About page

Infrastructure

CI uploads latest.json with signatures for Tauri updater
Download proxy supports .nsis.zip for updater alongside .exe for website

[0.2.3] — 2026-03-24

Features

Help (?) button in the top bar to open keyboard shortcuts overlay

Infrastructure

Releases now auto-publish (no manual step on GitHub)
Shared Rust build cache between branch and tag builds (faster CI)

[0.2.2] — 2026-03-24

Features

In-app update checker: startup toast when new version available
Manual "Check for Updates" button in Settings → About with download & install
Changelog page at cathode.live/changelog

Fixes

Website anchor scrolling (images now reserve space with aspect-ratio)
Download endpoint no longer caches stale versions

[0.2.1] — 2026-03-24

Improvements

EPG auto-refresh every 4 hours while app is open (fixes guide going empty overnight)
About page now shows correct version number (reads from package.json)
Check for updates button in Settings → About
In-app toast notification when a new version is available on startup
Auto-updater integration with signed builds via cathode.live

Infrastructure

Tauri updater plugin with signed releases
cathode.live API endpoints for update checks and downloads
Cloudflare Pages Functions serving private GitHub Release assets

[0.2.0] — 2026-03-22

Player

HEVC/H.265 video support via WebView2 platform decoder
Auto-fix for unsupported audio codecs (mp4a.40.1 → mp4a.40.2)
Stream quality selector (Auto / manual by resolution, Q key)
Multi-audio and subtitle track selection (auto-detected from hls.js)
Better error messages for unsupported codecs

Reminders & Notifications

EPG reminders with "Remind Me" button on future programs
Follow Show — recurring reminders that auto-match by title on EPG refresh
In-app toast notifications (slide-in overlay with Watch button)
Notification bell with history, unseen badge, and Watch button
🔔 and 📺 visual indicators on program blocks in the guide

Settings & Themes

Full settings page with sidebar navigation (General, Servers, Favorites, Reminders, About)
Fallback server URLs: add, remove, reorder, test, auto-failover on connect
5 built-in themes: Dark, OLED Black, Midnight Blue, Emerald, Light
Theme persistence across sessions

Infrastructure

CI/CD pipeline: GitHub Actions builds Windows/macOS/Linux on version tag
Version bump script (npm run release:patch/minor/major)
Branded one-click NSIS installer with custom images
DevTools enabled in production builds (F12)
New C lettermark app icon (readable at taskbar size)
Channel logo lazy loading with error handling

[0.1.0] — 2026-03-22

Initial Release

EPG Guide

Virtual scrolling EPG grid supporting 50k+ channels
Two-level category filtering (Region > Category)
Filters: Favorites, Guide (has EPG data), HD+, Search
Filter state persisted across sessions
Category color-coded program borders
Channel name cleaning and quality tag pills (HD, 4K, HEVC, etc.)
Channel logos in sidebar
Now line with handle in time header
Binary search for visible programs (O(log n) performance)

Video Player

HLS playback with 3-step error recovery chain
Auto-hiding player UI (header + cursor)
Mini guide overlay with program detail panel
Now/Next info bar on channel switch
Channel up/down navigation
Previous channel (P / Backspace)
Fullscreen via Tauri window API (no Escape conflicts)

Navigation

Full keyboard navigation throughout
Shortcuts: N=now, F=favorites, G=guide, H=HD+, R=reset, S=settings, I=info, T=top, B=bottom
Ctrl+F / Ctrl+K / / for channel search
? key for shortcuts overlay
Channel info popup (from sidebar, program detail, player)

Infrastructure

EPG data cached in IndexedDB with background refresh
XMLTV parsing in Web Worker
Xtream Codes API integration
Settings page with favorites export/import (native Tauri dialogs)
Maximized window on startup
Custom app icon
Branded NSIS one-click installer