The CatosTV manual

Installing

Boot menu

When you start the PC from the CatosTV USB stick, the boot menu appears. If you don't choose an entry within 10 seconds, the first one starts automatically.

After you choose an entry, the CatosTV start-up screen appears while the system loads, followed by the installer.

Installer

You can use the installer with a keyboard, a mouse or a game controller.

1. Welcome. Select Let's go.
2. Keyboard. Choose your keyboard layout. You can test it in the text field.
3. Network. If an Ethernet cable is connected, you are already online. Otherwise, choose your Wi-Fi network and enter its password. An internet connection is required because CatosTV downloads its system during installation.
4. Disk. Choose the disk to install CatosTV on. Everything on this disk will be erased. The installer won't let you choose the USB stick it is running from, and it warns you if you choose a removable drive or a disk that already contains files.
5. Time zone. Choose your time zone.
6. Ready to install. Check the disk, your choices and the graphics drivers that will be installed. Select Erase and install to begin, or Cancel to go back.
7. Installing. The installer works through about twelve steps. This usually takes 10 to 30 minutes, most of it downloading. Keep the PC switched on and the USB stick connected.
8. Done. When You're all set appears, remove the USB stick and select Restart now.

After the restart, CatosTV opens straight to the Home screen. There is no login and no account.

Getting around

CatosTV is designed to be used entirely with the arrow keys, OK and Back. To see the options for the selected item, press and hold OK.

Keyboard

You can find this list on the TV in Settings → Navigation & controllers → Key guide.

Tabs

The bar at the top of the screen has five tabs: Home, Recents, Apps, Store and Search. Press Up to reach the tab bar. The current tab is highlighted.

• Home shows your apps in a row, followed by Continue watching from Catfyn.
• Recents shows the apps that are open, each with a preview and its current CPU and memory use. Press OK to return to an app, or press Up to reach its close button. Close all closes every app. When nothing is open, the tab shows No background apps.
• Apps shows every installed app in a grid.
• Store lists apps you can install. See Apps and the Store.
• Search finds apps, settings and items in your Jellyfin library.

App options

Press and hold OK on an app, or press the Options or Menu button, to see Open or Resume, Restart and Close. Apps installed from the Store or from Android also have Uninstall.

Leaving an app

Press Home, or the Home or Guide button on your remote or controller. The app keeps running and stays in Recents. To close it completely, close it from Recents or from its options.

Apps and the Store

The Store tab lists apps from Flathub, including Steam, Kodi, VLC, Spotify and many emulators. Select an app and choose Install. When the installation is finished, the app appears on Home. To remove an app, choose Remove on its Store page, or Uninstall in its options.

Settings → Apps lists all installed apps, has a search field, and offers Update apps to update everything at once.

Steam has a tile on Home from the start, marked Not installed. Install it from the Store first. After that it opens in Big Picture mode, Steam's interface for TVs.

Catfyn (Jellyfin)

Catfyn plays films and series from your own Jellyfin server.

Connecting to your server

1. Open Catfyn from Home. It searches your network for Jellyfin servers. Select yours, or choose to enter its address yourself, for example 192.168.1.20:8096.
2. Sign in with your Jellyfin user name and password.

Watching

• Catfyn's Home page shows Continue watching, Next up and the latest additions to each library. The tabs at the top open your libraries.
• Press OK on a film or episode to play it, or to resume where you stopped. Press and hold OK for Resume, Play from start, Go to series and Episodes.
• Your Continue watching list also appears on the CatosTV Home screen.
• When an episode's end credits begin, a card offers the next episode with a countdown. Select Play now to start it straight away, or Cancel to stay where you are. After three episodes in a row, Catfyn asks whether you are still watching.

Catfyn settings

Open Catfyn's settings with the account button in the top-right corner, which shows your name and a gear icon. There you can:

• switch accounts, add an account or sign out
• turn on Incognito, so that nothing you watch is marked as watched
• choose whether the next episode plays automatically, and how long the countdown lasts

If Catfyn can't load something, for example because the server is off or the network is down, it shows a message. Press OK to try again.

Android apps

CatosTV runs Android TV apps alongside its own apps. Android is set up once from Settings. Setup, Google Play and Aurora Store, installing apps, controllers and troubleshooting are covered in the Android guide.

Phone remote, casting and KDE Connect

Settings → Cast & remote shows what is available on your network.

Phone remote

Connect your phone to the same Wi-Fi network as the TV, open the address shown on this page in the phone's browser, and enter the PIN. The phone remote has the arrow keys, OK, Back, Home, Quick settings, volume, mute, play and pause, and a text field for typing on the TV.

Casting

• DLNA: apps that can play to a DLNA or UPnP device, including many video and music apps and file managers, show the TV as CatosTV.
• YouTube: in the YouTube app, choose Cast, then Link with TV code. The TV opens YouTube's TV page so you can complete the link.

KDE Connect

Install KDE Connect on your phone (Android or iPhone) or computer. The TV appears as CatosTV. Start pairing from the phone and accept the request on the TV, or start it from the TV.

Once paired, you can:

• control playback (play, pause, seek and volume) from the phone's notification
• send links and files to the TV
• share the clipboard between the phone and the TV

In Settings → Cast & remote, select your phone for Ring phone, which helps you find it, or Unpair.

KDE Connect's own mouse and keyboard remote isn't supported. Use the phone remote instead.

Controllers and remotes

Game controllers

Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch controllers work, as do most other USB and Bluetooth controllers.

While an Android app is in front, CatosTV only responds to the Guide button. All other buttons go to the app or game.

Settings → Navigation & controllers has:

• Pair a controller or remote. Put a Bluetooth device into pairing mode first.
• A Nintendo layout option for each connected controller, which swaps A and B.
• Use controllers in CatosTV. Turn this off if you only want to use controllers in games.
• Button settings for each controller, to choose which buttons act as OK, Back, Options, Home and Quick settings.

TV remote (HDMI-CEC)

Most PCs can't receive signals from a TV remote over HDMI. To use your TV's remote, connect a USB-CEC adapter, such as one from Pulse-Eight, between the PC and the TV. The remote then supports the arrow keys, OK (press and hold for options), Back or Exit, Home (the Home or Menu key), the Settings key for Quick settings, the number keys, volume, and play and pause. The remote's power button is intentionally ignored, so it never switches off the PC.

Bluetooth remotes and keyboards

Pair them in Settings → Navigation & controllers or Settings → Bluetooth.

Quick settings

Open Quick settings with F10 on a keyboard, X or Select on a controller, or the Settings key on a TV remote. Quick settings also opens over a running app, and then includes Back to app, Full screen and Close for that app.

• Network shows Ethernet or the name of your Wi-Fi network. Press OK to turn Wi-Fi on or off, join a nearby network, or see the Ethernet details and IP settings.
• Bluetooth shows the connected device. Press OK to turn Bluetooth on or off, connect or disconnect paired devices, or select Pair a new device.
• Mute, Settings, Sleep and Power.
• The volume bar. Press Left or Right to change the volume, or OK to mute.

Settings

Updates

Settings → Updates checks for a new version of CatosTV when you open it and shows the release notes. Select Install to download the update. CatosTV checks its signature to confirm it comes from CatosTV, updates the system and CatosTV, then restarts the interface. Updates can't be installed while something is playing, so stop playback first.

If the page shows Updates aren't set up yet, your build has no update channel. To move to a newer version, install the latest ISO from the download page. Reinstalling erases the disk, including your apps and Android data, so make a note of what you have installed first.

Debug SSH

Settings → Debug has a Debug SSH switch that lets you log in to the TV from another computer. It is off by default and switches itself off again every time CatosTV restarts. While it is on, connect with:

ssh catostv@<TV IP address>

You can find the TV's IP address in Settings → System.

The default password is catostv. Change it with Change password on the same page before you use Debug SSH. Otherwise, anyone on your network who knows the default password can log in with administrator rights. While Debug SSH is on, sudo uses the same password.

The Debug page also shows the graphics driver in use and the exact build, and has Restart the interface for when the screen stops responding.

Troubleshooting