Help
Get started
Three steps on every platform: install, link your library, start your channels. The whole thing takes a few minutes, and nothing is uploaded to us.
1. Install
- Google TV and Android TV. Open SurfRewind on Google Play on a compatible TV, or search for SurfRewind in your TV’s Play Store. It is a TV app, not a phone app; Google Play decides which devices are compatible. Current status: Available now.
- Fire TV. Open SurfRewind on the Amazon Appstore, or search for SurfRewind on your Fire TV. Fire TV Sticks and Cubes running Fire OS; Vega OS devices do not run Android apps.
- Windows 11. Download the signed installer (0.9.7-beta.22, about 183 MB). The publisher must read Rightek I.T. Services Ltd; if Windows reports an unknown publisher, stop and tell us.
2. Link your library
On first launch SurfRewind asks where your library is. Choose one:
- Plex — scan the on-screen code with your phone or enter it at plex.tv/link, then pick a server and the libraries you have permission to use.
- Jellyfin or Emby — enter the server address, username and password, then pick libraries.
One provider is active at a time. Libraries from different providers are not merged. Keep the server reachable while you watch; SurfRewind streams from it, it does not copy your media.
3. Start your channels
SurfRewind scans the libraries you chose and builds a lineup: genre and decade channels, a channel per long-running show, PRIME TIME with a movie block at 8 pm, AFTER HOURS after 11 pm, and SATURDAY MORNING cartoons on weekends — whatever your library can support. Open the guide and press Select on anything that is on. You join in progress, like real television.
From there: add channels from Discover, pick a play order, set a parental PIN; add your own commercials; or just flip around with the channel keys, the number keys and Surprise me.
The remote
| Channel up / down, Next / Previous | Next or previous channel |
|---|---|
| Number keys | Type a channel number; three digits tune immediately |
| Select / OK while watching | Playback controls; press again for the info banner |
| Fast forward / rewind | Skip 30 seconds within the program |
| Menu | TV controls: picture, sleep timer, previous channel, Surprise me, Looks |
| Back | Return to the guide; on the guide, press twice to leave |
| Keyboard (Windows) | Arrows, Enter, G for the guide, F full screen, I info, R Surprise me, M menu |