kknifer7/FreeBox

What it is

FreeBox is a JavaFX desktop application that plays video from user-configurable sources using the CatVod/TVBox rule format. It targets people who already use TVBox on Android and want similar behavior on a PC, plus source maintainers and Spider developers who need to inspect whether individual sites in a source work.

The player is an empty shell: it does not bundle media, and playback depends on sources the user imports. It accepts two source types. Imported sources point directly at a JSON interface and support jar and JS Spiders (type=3). TVBox sources also connect to the separate TV-K Android app over the local network, which relays Android-only jar sources to the desktop and keeps watch history, progress and favorites in sync with the phone.

Beyond playback, FreeBox includes a source audit window. It runs checks against sites and features inside a selected source, captures request and response data, filters out failing sites and reports a reason for each failure, which is useful for troubleshooting broken sources rather than for casual viewing.

Quick start

1. Download a build from the Releases page, preferring an installer over a zip/tar.gz so automatic updates work; platform and architecture choices are laid out in the download table. Windows 10+ has an MSI, macOS 11+ has DMG builds for amd64 and arm64, and Linux has DEB, RPM, AppImage and tar.gz for both architectures (details).
2. Install a supported external player, since FreeBox detects but does not ship one; the player support page lists the options.
3. Launch FreeBox and import a source by pasting an interface URL into the import dialog. The README offers one test source https://pc.lushunming.qzz.io/json/config.json from another project for demonstration only (import walkthrough). Imported sources persist, so you do not re-import each time.
4. To use Android jar sources, install TV-K on a phone on the same network, open its settings, choose “FreeBox配对”, and enter the local IP and WebSocket port shown on the FreeBox main screen; then connect and confirm the notification on both ends (TVBox source steps).
5. Select a source in the list and click “进入” to open the playback view. To inspect a source, select it, click “播放源审计”, then either tick sites and run a batch audit or select one site and run a single audit (audit steps).

Constraints

• Windows builds are amd64 only; macOS and Linux provide both amd64 and arm64 packages.
• JDK 17+ and JavaFX 21.0.9 are the stated runtime targets for the JavaFX application (badges), relevant if you build from source rather than using a release.
• Imported sources support jar and JS Spiders (type=3); other Spider types are not yet covered. TVBox jar sources only work on Android, so desktop use requires the TV-K relay.
• An external player such as VLC or mpv is required; FreeBox itself is a shell and provides no media content.
• The project is GPL-3.0 with an additional license text shown on first launch; it states that users are responsible for the legality of third-party content they configure and that the software is for technical exploration, not commercial cooperation.

HotRepo's take

FreeBox has a single recorded daily snapshot on the Java list dated 2026-11-03, when it held 14th place with 25 stars gained and 2,118 total stars. There is no all-language daily rank and no star-curve history, so this is one day's observation, not a trajectory. The Java tag and JavaFX implementation fit an audience of desktop users already inside the CatVod/TVBox ecosystem, and the source-audit feature plus live-reloading Spider debugging give that audience a concrete reason to pick a desktop shell over an emulator.