Photon is a video player for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac. It is one app for all four platforms, bought once, and each version is built for the platform it runs on rather than shrunk down from another.
It plays MKV, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio without converting them first, and it connects to several kinds of source at the same time.
Where your videos can come from
| Media servers | Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and Silo. Connect as many of each as you like. None of them is treated as the main one. |
| Cloud drives and network shares | Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and any WebDAV share, including Nextcloud and ownCloud. No media server needed. |
| Live TV | An Xtream Codes subscription, with its full channel guide. |
| Files on the device | Opened from the Finder on a Mac, or the Files app on iPhone and iPad. |
How the tabs divide the work
| Home | Asks every source at once and merges the answers into rows: what you are part way through, what is next, what is new. |
| Library | Keeps each source separate and shows one at a time, for when the question is “what is on that machine”. |
| Search | Merges again, across everything, with people as well as titles. |
| This Device | What is stored on the machine you are holding: downloads, and files you opened. |
| Live TV | Channels and the schedule, if you have a subscription. |
A tab only exists while it has a source behind it, so an app with no subscription has no Live TV tab, and an Apple TV has no This Device tab.
What it does with a file
Photon asks for the file as it is and plays it as it is wherever it can, including formats the system player cannot open on its own. Nothing is re-encoded unless you ask for it, so your server is not left transcoding and no quality is lost on the way.
Accounts and privacy
- There is no photon account. You sign in to your own servers, and there is nothing to sign up for.
- Passwords stay in the keychain on each device. They are not synced through us and never leave the device in any other form.
- The only addresses the app contacts are the ones you entered, plus Apple for purchases.
- Nothing is tracked. No analytics, no telemetry, no record of what you watch.
What it costs
The app is free with your own media servers. Photon Pro adds 4K and 8K, MKV, TrueHD and DTS soundtracks, cloud drives, Live TV and syncing between devices. The first five plays of a Pro format are free, so you can find out what it does with your own library before deciding.