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Introduction

Ember is a Home Theater PC (HTPC) frontend for Linux. It brings your games, movies, TV shows, and music into a single, controller-friendly interface designed for the living room.

  • Browse and launch games from Steam, Heroic Games Launcher, Lutris, and your local ROM library.
  • Play movies and TV shows with hardware-accelerated decoding for HEVC, H.264, and more.
  • Listen to music through your system default player.
  • Navigate everything with a gamepad — no keyboard or mouse required.
TypeSourcesNotes
GamesSteam, Heroic, Lutris, local ROMs, Windows .exeGameCube / Wii via Dolphin
MoviesLocal files (MKV, MP4, etc.)Hardware decode via FFmpeg or GStreamer
TV ShowsLocal filesSeason / episode detection
MusicLocal filesLaunches with system handler

Ember is built for Linux and distributed as:

  • .AppImage — run without installing
  • .deb — Debian / Ubuntu
  • .rpm — Fedora / openSUSE
  • .tar.gz — universal archive
  • Flatpak — sandboxed, universal

Both x86_64 and ARM64 builds are available.

  • Electron + React — cross-platform UI
  • Rust — native video decoding, libretro frontend, and controller input
  • Tailwind CSS — consistent, modern styling
  • WebGL — zero-copy video frame rendering