mesamirh/MovieBox-Tui

A useful option if you already live in the terminal and play video through mpv or VLC; otherwise the player and terminal dependencies add friction for what is essentially a media browser.

The problem

You want to find a movie or an episode and start watching without opening a browser, juggling stream links, or pasting URLs into a player. The usual route is to search somewhere, copy a link, hand it to mpv or VLC, and repeat for every episode. MovieBox-TUI turns search, episode selection, quality choice, subtitle selection, and playback into one keyboard-driven flow inside the terminal, and it can queue a full season for download instead of playing each item individually.

What's different

The core mechanism is a Rust terminal UI that queries native content providers, then hands the resolved stream to a local media player with headers and cookies forwarded. In practice that means one search screen leads to a resolution picker, subtitle picker, and then mpv, VLC, or IINA; batch downloads use a multi-segment HTTP range engine with pause and resume. Live TV is a separate M3U import path with categories, EPG, and channel search, and Stremio addon support extends the source list. The README also lists native scrapers for MovieBox, 4KHDHub, Dramachi, and BDIX provider documentation.

The trade-off is that this is a front end, not the player. Playback quality, subtitle availability, and stream longevity depend on those providers, and the project explicitly says it does not host media and that users must comply with local law project README. The nice details are real, though: poster rendering on Kitty, Sixel, and iTerm2 terminals, vim navigation, a slash-command palette, and local-only history and favorites with no telemetry.

Who should try it

Good fit: a desktop Linux, macOS, or Termux user who already has mpv or VLC installed, prefers typing to clicking, and wants a terminal-native way to browse and start playback. If you want live TV, the M3U and EPG path gives a second use case in the same app. A poor fit: someone without a supported terminal, or who wants an all-in-one player with its own built-in video output. The poster feature needs a terminal with image protocol support, and the README names Ghostty, Kitty, WezTerm, iTerm2, foot, and Windows Terminal v1.22+; without it you get a text fallback, which is workable but less of the intended experience.

Requirements and limitations

You need an external media player: mpv, VLC, or IINA on macOS. MovieBox DASH downloads additionally require yt-dlp and ffmpeg, so the download path has a heavier setup than plain streaming installation notes. Install paths exist for Homebrew, Scoop, Cargo, and direct scripts, with Termux on Android, so the entry cost depends on your platform rather than one universal package.

The main ongoing constraint is dependency on third-party sources. Provider scrapers and Stremio addons can change or stop returning streams, and that maintenance is outside the app's control. The project is young (created 2026-07-16), so long-term provider upkeep is not something a release note or badge can establish. Windows users should also expect the documented SmartScreen prompt, and Homebrew may ask for tap verification.

HotRepo's take

The only dated signal available is a single daily-board appearance on 2026-10-26, at 2,638 stars and +45 that day. One observation cannot show whether interest is rising, fading, or sustained, so persistence cannot be judged yet. The concrete thing to check before relying on it is the provider documentation, since source availability is what determines whether the app is useful beyond the demo. If your player and terminal already meet the prerequisites, it is a low-friction experiment; if they do not, start with the full documentation site rather than assuming support.