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Electron Desktop Client

The Kinema Desktop App (apps/desktop) provides a dedicated desktop shell for Linux and Windows workstations. It bridges the gap between web simplicity and native desktop media capabilities.

Architecture & Responsibilities​

1. UDP LAN Discovery & Server Switcher​

When the desktop app opens, it checks for saved servers in userData/kinema.json. If no server is configured or the current server is offline:

  • The main process broadcasts a UDP discovery datagram: 
    KINEMA_DISCOVER
    to 255.255.255.255:48555.
  • Any Kinema server on the local subnet responds with its server name, version, and local HTTPS port.
  • The user is presented with a zero-configuration server switcher displaying all discovered servers with latency indicators.

2. Desktop mpv Integration​

While the embedded web view is ideal for standard browsing, playing 4K 10-bit anime or lossless audio often triggers video transcoding on web engines.

  • When "Play in mpv" is clicked, Electron launches mpv as a separate child process.
  • The stream is routed through a local HTTP loopback proxy with cryptographic nonces (see Desktop MPV Loopback Proxy).
  • Full bi-directional playback synchronization ensures watch state and progress stay accurate.

3. Platform Packaging​

  • Linux: Distributed as a standalone x86_64 / aarch64 AppImage and portable tarball.
  • Windows: Packaged as an Inno Setup installer executable (Kinema-Setup.exe) and portable .zip.