Your Plex server. Now it's cable.

Nostalgex is a native Apple TV app that turns your Plex library into live TV channels with a real channel guide. Sign in with a code, then flip around like it's Friday night in 1996.

Get it on Apple TV Try the web tuner, free

Works with Plex, natively on Apple TV. Free.

The Nostalgex channel guide on Apple TV, showing a film airing on channel 3 with a full lineup of channels below

The actual app. Channels built from a real library.

Three steps. Then you're just watching TV.

  1. 01

    Sign in with a code

    Open Nostalgex on the Apple TV and it shows a short code. Enter it at plex.tv/link in any browser and you're in. No typing a password with the remote.

  2. 02

    Channels build themselves

    Your library gets sorted into channels automatically. Saturday morning cartoons, 90s sitcoms, the VHS vault, the stuff you rewatch constantly. No playlists to make.

  3. 03

    Start flipping

    Pull up the guide, pick a channel, or just surf. Everything is already playing, so you drop into the middle of a movie like real TV.

Your library stays yours.

Nostalgex is a front end for the server you already run. Here is exactly what it does and does not do with it.

  • Sign-in runs through Plex's own code system. We never see your username or password
  • Your server address and token are stored in the Apple TV Keychain and are never sent to us
  • We do not host, stream, or supply any media. Every frame comes off your own server
  • No account to create, no ads, nothing sold to anyone
  • The app sends a short fixed list of anonymous usage events, like a channel being tuned. Never titles, library contents, or your server address
Read the privacy policy
A full Nostalgex channel guide with a grid of channels and what is airing on each

Built for watching, not browsing.

Sign in with a code

Nostalgex uses Plex's own link flow. The Apple TV shows a short code, you enter it at plex.tv/link, and that's the whole setup.

Channels from what you rewatch

Plex already counts what you play. Nostalgex reads those counts and builds Rewatchables channels from the films and shows you keep coming back to.

Your collections become channels

A Plex collection turns into its own channel, sitting alongside the hundred-plus built from genres, eras and franchises.

Quiet by default

Reporting playback back to Plex is off unless you turn it on. Surfing past a dozen programmes in an evening would otherwise bury your real Continue Watching row under things nobody chose to start.

Plays your file as-is

Direct play when the Apple TV can decode it, and it only falls back to transcoding when it has to. Movies split across two files play straight through as one programme.

Native on Apple TV

A real tvOS app from the App Store, built for the Siri Remote and the big screen. Not a web view pretending.

No Apple TV? There's a free web tuner.

The same channels, running in any browser. It is the fastest way to see what this is before installing anything.

Plex is the easiest of the three servers to use it with. Plex hands out real HTTPS addresses for your server, so the browser will talk to it without any setup on your side. Sign in with the same code flow and your channels are there.

Open the web tuner

Quick answers.

Does Nostalgex need a Plex Pass?

No. Nostalgex reads your library and plays from your own server, and none of that needs a Plex Pass. If you have one, nothing changes.

Will it mess up my Continue Watching row?

No, because reporting playback to Plex is off by default. Channel surfing passes through a lot of programmes in one sitting, and reporting each one would bury the things your household actually chose to start. You can turn it on in Settings if you want play counts and Continue Watching to keep up.

Does it change anything on my server?

It reads your library to build the channels. It never adds, renames, moves or deletes anything.

Do I pick what plays on each channel?

No, and that's on purpose. Nostalgex reads your library and builds the channels and schedules itself. The surprise of "oh, this is on" is the product.

What do I need?

An Apple TV running tvOS 18 or later, and a Plex server you can reach from it. That's the whole list. The app is free.

All three servers. Natively.

Cable's back. Now on Apple TV.

Free, native, and built for the couch.

Get it on Apple TV Open the web tuner