The Krabby Patty Formula
Ampchor isn’t open source — so here’s everything in the open: what it’s built from, what it plays, and exactly how your data is handled. You shouldn’t have to take our word for any of it.
Proven, open foundations
No exotic black boxes — the same battle-tested technologies trusted by the biggest apps in the world.
Runs on your own computer
Your library lives on your machine — organized in a plain file you own, never in anyone’s cloud. (Electron + SQLite.)
A real phone app
A true iPhone & Android app — not a website pretending to be one. (React Native.)
Plays almost anything
Built on the same proven media engines the biggest apps in the world rely on, so your files just play. (FFmpeg + mpv.)
Bank-grade security
Devices prove who they are with strong cryptography instead of passwords — nothing to guess, phish, or steal. (Ed25519, like Signal & SSH.)
Finds your computer by itself
Your phone spots your computer on your home Wi-Fi automatically — no middle-man server doing the matchmaking. (Standard mDNS.)
Classic games, built in
Retro game systems run right inside the app and stream to your phone. (libretro cores.)
Plays practically everything
The formats each library actually accepts — straight from the scanner.
| Library | Supported formats |
|---|---|
| Movies & TV | 40+ video formats — click to see them all
|
| Music | Lossless — plus 25 more formats — click to see them all
|
| Audiobooks | M4B, AAX and AA with embedded chapters — plus chaptered MP3 / M4A folders. |
| Ebooks | 17 book formats — click to see them all
|
| Comics & manga | CBZ, CBR, CB7 and CBT. |
| Photos & home videos | Every common format + camera RAW — click to see them all
|
| Retro games | Plays 19 classic consoles — click to see them all
It also organizes newer systems it can’t yet emulate (PS2, PSP, Dreamcast, GameCube, Wii, Switch, Xbox and more) — they appear in your library with cover art, ready for when emulation lands. |
Top quality, private remote
Plays in full quality
True 4K HDR plays directly, untouched — and it handles virtually any video, so your files just work. Streamed to your phone at the right quality for your connection. (Powered by mpv.)
Smart, free conversion
If a device can’t play a file as-is, Ampchor converts it on the fly using your computer’s graphics chip — fast, efficient, and free. Other apps charge extra for this.
Lossless audio
Your music plays exactly as it was recorded — FLAC, ALAC, WAV and dozens more formats — only converted when a device can’t handle the original.
Private remote
When you’re away, your phone connects straight to your own computer over a scrambled, private link — no setup, no port-forwarding, and nobody’s servers sitting in the middle.
Locked down by default
Each device gets its own private key
When you set up a phone or computer, it creates its own secret key and locks it in the device’s built-in safe — the same protected place your passwords already live. That key never leaves your device: not to Apple, not to Google, not to us. (It’s the same kind of security behind Signal and SSH.)
Pairing needs a code only you can see
To connect a new device, you type a 6-digit code shown on your computer’s screen and scan a QR code. No one can connect without physically seeing your screen — so it can’t be done remotely.
Every request is checked
Your phone proves each request is really from it, and your computer checks that before answering. Any device you haven’t paired gets nothing — locked out by default.
Your keys stay on your computer
Things like your movie-database key live only on your computer. The phone app holds no secrets at all — it just asks your computer, and your computer does the lookup.
Encrypted when you’re away
When you watch from somewhere else, the connection is scrambled with the same kind of encryption that protects your bank — not even our connection helper can see inside it. At home, every device is still verified.
What leaves your computer — and what never does
| Data | Leaves your machine? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Your media files | Never | They stay in your own folders, untouched and unmoved. |
| Your library database | Never | A plain SQLite file on your own disk. |
| Posters, art & credits | Your machine fetches them | Looked up from public sources (TMDB, MusicBrainz…) by your computer, then cached locally so you can go fully offline. |
| Streaming | Stays on your network | Over your home Wi-Fi — or, with Pro, a direct encrypted link to your own computer. |
| Crash diagnostics | On by default — anonymized | Anonymized crash reports help fix bugs — stripped of personal information, no IP, paths redacted. Turn them off anytime in Settings → Privacy. |
| Accounts, ads, tracking | Never — there is none | No account, no analytics profile, no ad networks. Ever. |
No lock-in, ever
- Your files stay as standard files in your own folders — nothing is moved into a proprietary vault.
- The library index is a plain SQLite database you can open and inspect yourself.
- Built on open standards — HLS, WebRTC, EPUB, FLAC / ALAC, Ed25519 — not closed formats.
- Uninstall anytime and your media is exactly where you left it.
Standing on open-source shoulders
Ampchor is proudly built atop the open-source projects that make modern media possible. A few of them:
Full third-party license notices ship inside the app.
Built like infrastructure
Built for privacy, security and life off the grid — no data harvesting, no Big Tech middlemen, nothing quietly phoning home. And it’s built ready for where things are heading: as the world moves toward devices that connect straight to each other — with no company in the middle — Ampchor already works that way.
Closed source, open about it
Ampchor isn’t open source today — staying closed lets an independent studio protect its original work, fund ongoing development, and avoid handing a finished blueprint to the trillion-dollar companies we’re built to be an alternative to. But the app is local-first, built on open standards, stores your data in formats you can read, runs without an account, and never phones home. We’d rather earn your trust by being completely transparent about how it works than ask you to take it on faith.
← Back home