StreamStein

StreamStein is a desktop application for streaming and downloading movies, TV shows, and anime. It runs on Windows and Linux using Electron, a technology that packages a web-based interface into a standalone app. The project describes itself as an improved fork of an earlier open-source project called Streambert.

When you open StreamStein, you can search for almost any movie or TV series. The app pulls title information, descriptions, and artwork from TMDB (The Movie Database), which requires a free API key you enter once on first launch. Actual video content is sourced from third-party streaming providers (VidEasy and VidSrc), so the app itself does not store or host any video files. You can watch content directly in the built-in video player or download it for offline viewing. Downloads work by fetching the video stream's playlist file and reassembling it into a file on your computer using a companion command-line tool and ffmpeg (a widely used free video processing program).

Anime is handled separately: the app detects whether a title is anime and then pulls its metadata from AniList instead of TMDB, and sources the video files from a different provider. The experience from your side is the same as for regular movies.

A local library feature lets you track what you have watched and manage your downloaded files. The interface is customizable. There are no ads and no tracking built into the app itself.

Installation on Windows is straightforward: download the provided .exe file from the Releases section and run it. For Linux (including Arch Linux) or if you prefer to build from source, you will need Node.js 22.12 or later, ffmpeg, and the companion download tool installed separately. The README walks through all the commands needed to build and run the app.

The developer includes a legal disclaimer stating the app is for personal and educational use only, does not host any copyrighted content, and functions as an aggregator that surfaces links from third-party providers.