Arcroom vs Aether Player
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
Arcroom
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Arcroom keeps your movies and shows in libraries you own ā on your Mac or your NAS ā and plays them beautifully on every Apple screen. Import once, play everywhere. When you add a video, Arcroom converts it into a streaming-friendly format, so playback starts instantly and scrubbing stays smooth ā and iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Vision Pro all play the same library natively. You can even start watching while the import is still running. YOUR STORAGE, YOUR RULES Libraries are plain folders on storage you control: this device, an SMB share on your NAS, or a library another Mac shares over WebDAV. No server software to install, no account to create. MADE FOR EVERY SCREEN One library, four platforms. Browse on your phone, pick up on the couch, continue on Vision Pro. Playback progress syncs privately through iCloud. BEAUTIFUL METADATA Match your files against TMDB for artwork, descriptions and episode details ā or keep your own titles. Your library, your language. SUBTITLES DONE RIGHT Text and image-based (PGS) subtitles render crisply on every platform. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Arcroom runs no servers and collects nothing. Your media never leaves storage you control; sync happens in your private iCloud database. Arcroom uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Aether Player
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Aether is a personal media player for Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and your own files ā built natively for every Apple screen. Connect your server and your whole library appears: movies, shows, music, Continue Watching, Recently Added. Add a second server and both merge into one deduplicated view, with a picker that tells you which copy is the better file. Your media, not theirs. PLAY ANYTHING ⢠Direct play or server-transcoded ā Aether follows the best path automatically, per title. ⢠MKV, HEVC, Dolby Vision, DTS: formats other players choke on play through a modern engine, GPU-accelerated for smooth 4K. ⢠Picture in Picture, AirPlay, Dolby Atmos, lock-screen controls. ⢠Switch audio and subtitle tracks mid-playback on every platform. ⢠Offline downloads, including whole seasons ā and Smart Downloads that keep the next unwatched episodes ready. EVERYONE IN THE HOUSE ⢠Profiles: separate Continue Watching, watchlist, ratings, Home rails and trackers, with a PIN on the way in and per-profile library visibility. ⢠A child's profile can be held to an age rating. ⢠Pair a profile to your Plex Home profile, or to its own Jellyfin or Emby user, so watched state stays separate on the server too. ⢠Two profiles are included; up to five with Supporter. SUBTITLES, DONE PROPERLY ⢠Aether reads subtitle files itself and times them against the picture, so they sit where you put them ā in the black bars or over the video, in your own style, with sync and size adjustable in the player. ⢠Search OpenSubtitles from a title's own page in thirty-one languages, ranked against the exact file you're playing. YOUR LIBRARY, YOUR WAY ⢠One library across every connected source, filtered by genre, year, rating, country, audio language, server or the libraries you curated on them. ⢠Continue Watching, Up Next and a Discover tab with trending titles and Where to Watch availability in your region. ⢠Person pages, franchise collections, and ratings from IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb. ⢠Music as its own tab ā artists, albums, playlists, and a player built for it, with the catalog kept on disk so it opens offline. ⢠Live TV from a playlist you already have, with a full guide, categories you make yourself, Xtream Codes accounts and HDHomeRun tuners. Bring-your-own: Aether provides no channels. BEAUTIFUL ON EVERY SCREEN ⢠iPhone and iPad: cinematic hero art, a page that grows out of the poster you tapped. ⢠Apple TV: precision focus design, and your Continue Watching in the top shelf. ⢠Apple Vision Pro: an auditorium around the picture ā raked seating, masking walls, house lights down. ⢠Mac: a native app with a menu-bar mode, a series browser, and Apple's own decoder for what it can play. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Aether connects only to the servers you configure. No account of ours, no cloud, no ads, no cross-app tracking. Your ratings, watchlist and resume positions live on your devices and in your own iCloud. Optional anonymous usage statistics can be turned off any time. SOURCES ⢠Plex (multi-server, multi-account) ⢠Jellyfin (multi-server) ⢠Emby (multi-server, Live TV, music) ⢠Silo ⢠SMB / network shares, with Bonjour discovery ⢠WebDAV ⢠Local files Optional, all bring-your-own: connect your own Seerr to request what you don't have, your own Trakt or Simkl account to track what you watch, and your own OpenSubtitles account for subtitle search. Aether requires a Plex, Jellyfin, Emby or Silo media server, an SMB or WebDAV share, or local video files. It is not a streaming service and does not provide any content. Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, Silo, Trakt, Simkl and OpenSubtitles are trademarks of their respective owners. Aether is an independent, third-party client and is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by them. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://aetherplayer.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Arcroom at 18.4 against Aether Player's 26.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Arcroom sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Aether Player sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Arcroom | Aether Player |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | ā | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro |
| Requires iOS | 18.4 ā better | 26.0 |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 35 MB | 107 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Hangzhou Hu Di Shen Shan Technology Co., Ltd. | Vaclav Zmrhal |
In-app purchases
Arcroom
- Beyond This Device$19.99
Aether Player
- Supporter$0.991 Month
- Supporter$9.991 Year
- Small Tip$0.99
- Medium Tip$4.99
- Large Tip$9.99








