How to use Soda Screen.

Getting started

1. Install and open Soda Screen. It runs on 64-bit Windows 10 and 11.
2. Add your folders. Open Settings (the cog), then add the folders that hold your films under Film folders and your shows under TV folders. Subfolders are included, and nothing gets moved or renamed.
3. Wait a moment. Soda Screen reads the file names, works out each title and year, and fetches the artwork, rating and description. Big libraries fill in over a minute or two, and new files are picked up automatically.
4. Press play. Click a poster to see its details, then Play. Or hover over a poster and use the quick play button.

Your library

Films, TV and YouTube

The three tabs at the top switch between your films, your TV shows and the YouTube series you've added. TV episodes are grouped into shows and seasons, with every episode listed by name.

Three ways to browse

• Grid: a wall of posters.
• List: the poster on the left with the title, year, ratings and a short description beside it.
• Cover flow: a 3D shelf of posters you scroll left and right with the mouse wheel, the arrow keys or the slider.

Click the Soda Screen name in the top bar at any time to go home: it closes whatever's open, clears the search and takes you back to Films.

Click the grid button again to switch between small, medium and large posters. The ↻ button looks for new files straight away, though new files are normally picked up on their own within a few seconds.

Removing a title

Right-click a film or show and choose Remove from library, or select it and press Delete. Soda Screen stops listing it, but the files stay exactly where they are. To bring it back, open Settings > Removed titles and click Put back.

Use Shuffle when you can't decide. It jumps to a random title.

Psycho mode

The eye button next to the other views turns on Psycho mode. It deals your library out as a mosaic built around what you've been watching lately. Anything you're part-way through comes first, then the films whose genres best match your recent viewing, as the biggest tiles, each labelled with why it's there (“Because you watched…”). Click a tile and it flips over and grows to show the plot, the rating and a Play button, and the rest of the grid moves aside. Press Esc or click away to close it, and Shuffle deals a fresh layout.

Keep watching

When Soda Screen opens, a Keep watching banner offers to carry on with the last film or episode you didn't finish. To stop it appearing, click Don't show this when Soda Screen opens on the banner, or untick it in Settings > Playback.

Search and sort

Press Ctrl F to search titles, genres, directors, cast and years. Sort by A to Z, Recently added, Top rated or Newest.

Episodes

The episode you're on is highlighted with a Now playing, Continue or Up next badge. Watched episodes are ticked, and part-watched ones show how far you got.

The Info page

Click Info on any film or show and a panel slides out from the right with everything about it. If a film is playing, it pauses until you close the panel. The panel shows:

• Backdrop, poster, tagline, year, runtime, genres and the UK age rating, in the BBFC colours.
• The IMDb rating and how many people voted.
• Play, and Trailer, which plays inside the app.
• The plot, director, writers, composer, studio, country, language, budget and box office.
• The cast with photos. Click anyone for their bio, what of theirs you own and what they're known for.
• For films in a series, every part, marked with which you own and which you're missing.
• More like this in your library, plus recommendations you don't have yet.
• Where to watch in the UK: streaming, rent and buy, powered by JustWatch.

The Back bar stays pinned to the top as you scroll. It takes you back to where you came from: Films, TV or YouTube, or from an actor's page back to the film. Esc, Backspace and your mouse's back button do the same.

The player

Films and episodes play inside Soda Screen, next to your library. The player is built on libVLC, the engine inside VLC, so it plays almost anything: MKV, MP4, AVI, MOV, WMV and more. You don't need VLC installed.

• Resume: it remembers where you stopped and picks up from there.
• Next episode: shows play on, and there are previous and next buttons in the player.
• Audio and subtitles: English audio is chosen by default and subtitles start off. Pick any audio or subtitle track from the menus while you watch.
• The ⋯ menu: next to Play and Info in the details panel. It has Open in VLC, the IMDb page, Change artwork, Show file, Wrong film? and Remove from library.
• Pop out: move the film into its own window and keep browsing. Close the window and it slots back into the app.
• Cinema mode: a few seconds after you stop moving the mouse, everything except the film fades to black, like the lights going down. Move the mouse or press a key and it all comes back. Switch it off in Settings > Playback.
• Open in VLC: every film and episode has this button too, in case you'd rather.

Keyboard shortcuts

Bitrate overlay and network log

If films stutter when they play from a network drive, turn on the bitrate overlay in Settings > Playback. It shows the bitrate as you watch and logs stalls and dropped frames to playback-log.txt, so you can see whether the network is to blame. Choose network folders only, always or off.

Tray and startup

Soda Screen keeps an icon in the notification area, by the clock. Click it to open the app. Right-click it to jump straight to Films, TV or YouTube, open Settings, turn Start with Windows on or off, or quit.

• Closing the window keeps Soda Screen running in the tray, so it opens instantly next time. Anything that's playing pauses first. To close it for good, right-click the tray icon and choose Quit Soda Screen.
• Start with Windows opens Soda Screen quietly in the tray when you log in.
• Opening Soda Screen from the Start menu while it's in the tray just brings the window back.

All three are in Settings > Tray and startup. Turn the tray off and the window's close button quits as normal.

YouTube series

The YouTube tab lists series that live on YouTube, such as animated shows released as a playlist, just like TV shows.

1. Add your free YouTube key in Settings (see the next section).
2. On the YouTube tab, click + Add series and paste a playlist link. Or open Discover to pick from Soda picks and popular animated series made for YouTube.
3. Play an episode. It picks up where you left off and plays on to the next one.

Series that TMDB knows get a proper poster, backdrop and description. Shorts are left out, and playlists that list the newest episode first are played in the right order. Right-click a series to rename it, which also changes what's searched for when looking for reactions.

Your YouTube key

Reactions, reviews and the YouTube tab use the official YouTube Data API. Each person uses their own free key, so the app never shares a quota with anyone else. It takes about five minutes:

1. Go to the Google Cloud console and sign in with your Google account.
2. Create a project. Call it anything, for example Soda Screen.
3. Open APIs & Services > Library, find YouTube Data API v3 and click Enable.
4. Open APIs & Services > Credentials, click Create credentials > API key and copy the key.
5. In Soda Screen, open Settings > YouTube key, paste it in and click Test.

Reactions and reviews

Add the YouTube channels you like under Settings > YouTube reactions (for example Popcorn In Bed) and YouTube reviews (for example Chris Stuckmann). When you open a film or show, their videos about it appear in the details panel, ready to play in the app.

• Playing a reaction pauses your film, and Back to the film carries on from the same moment.
• If a video is for the wrong film or show, right-click it and choose Hide it. A link under the list brings hidden ones back.
• Count my views for creators in Settings decides whether watching in the app counts as a view on YouTube.
• YouTube subtitles can be switched off in Settings.

Artwork

Click Change artwork on any film or show, or right-click its poster:

• Choose from TMDB posters: every poster TMDB has for the title, filtered to English, no text or all.
• Find alternative posters: opens AlternativeMoviePosters.com at the right film in your browser.
• Use an image file from your PC, or use an image link. If there's a link on your clipboard, it's filled in for you.
• Back to the original undoes it.

Your artwork is saved on your PC and survives refreshes.

Themes

Soda Screen comes with six themes: Soda, Neon, Classic XP, Windows Aero, Winamp and High Contrast, which is made for low vision, with black and white, yellow highlights and everything 25% bigger. You can also write your own in plain CSS. Paste it into Settings > Theme and the whole app changes straight away. Your last seven themes are kept so you can switch back.

/* My theme */
--name: "Midnight";
--bg: #0d1117;
--panel: #161b22;
--raised: #21262d;
--text: #f0f6fc;
--accent: #58a6ff;
--accent-text: #0d1117;
--dot: #ff7b72;
--star: #e3b341;

Leave out any variable and Soda Screen works it out from the others.

Where your stuff lives

Soda Screen never moves, renames or uploads your films. Everything it makes is kept in one folder: %LocalAppData%\Soda Screen. Paste that into the File Explorer address bar to open it.

To start afresh, close Soda Screen and rename that folder. Your films aren't affected.

Troubleshooting

A film shows the wrong poster or details

Click Wrong film? in its details and search for the right one. Adding the year to the file name, for example Dune (2021).mkv, helps too.

Reactions don't show up

Check your YouTube key with Test in Settings, and make sure the channel is in your reactions list. Some reaction videos have titles that don't name the film clearly, so they can't be matched.

Films stutter from a network drive

Turn on the bitrate overlay in Settings > Playback. If the log shows stalls, the network is struggling, so try a wired connection or copy the film locally.

Reactions or the YouTube tab won't play

They need Microsoft Edge WebView2, which Windows 11 already has. On Windows 10 you can get it free from Microsoft.

Something else

The log at %LocalAppData%\Soda Screen\log.txt usually says what went wrong.