Everything PhimCa can do.

1 System requirements & network setup

System requirements

• Android OS: Android 8.0 (API 26) or higher.
• Network permissions: PhimCa requires network access to discover local devices.
• Storage permissions: On Android 13 and newer, PhimCa asks for READ_MEDIA_AUDIO, READ_MEDIA_VIDEO and READ_MEDIA_IMAGES. All three matter: audio and video populate the on-device library scan, and images are what allow folder and album art to be read. If you deny the image permission, Android silently hides picture files from PhimCa and cover art on local folders stops working.

Network setup

For casting and local network browsing to work, your phone and your rendering devices (TV, projector, AV receiver) must be on the same local Wi-Fi network.

• 5 GHz Wi-Fi is highly recommended for smooth playback of high-bitrate video or high-resolution lossless audio.
• Make sure AP Isolation (Access Point Isolation) or Guest Network Mode is switched off in your router settings — both prevent local devices from talking to each other.

Interface layout

PhimCa has four tabs along the bottom (or down the left edge in landscape):

2 Browsing media sources

PhimCa organizes media sources into three types: local storage, network shares (SMB), and cloud drives. Reach them from the Library empty state or the More tab, under "Media Sources".

A. Local storage & SD cards

• PhimCa automatically scans internal storage and SD cards for audio and video files.
• To refresh or scan manually, go to Settings (More → Settings) and tap Scan device library under the Library section.
• The scan reads Android's own media database, so it covers internal storage and removable SD cards alike. Files you later delete or rename are removed from the library on the next scan.

B. Network shares (SMB/CIFS)

Connect to shared folders on Windows PCs, Mac, Linux, and NAS units such as Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS and Unraid.

• Automatic discovery: opening the "Media Sources" sheet triggers a fast 2–3 second scan of your network using several methods at once (SSDP, mDNS, NetBIOS and the ARP cache), then a sweep of the SMB ports 445 and 139. Only hosts that actually answer on an SMB port are listed, and PhimCa additionally checks that at least one browsable share exists — so routers, printers and IP cameras stay out of the list.
• Manual setup: if your NAS or PC isn't discovered, add it by entering its IP address and login credentials.
• SMB protocol versions: the Google Play build speaks SMB2 and SMB3 only. Legacy SMB1 is not included in the Play Store version — it is disabled at build time, so very old units (early Buffalo LinkStation, older Synology/QNAP firmware) that only speak SMB1 cannot be browsed. If your NAS offers an SMB2/SMB3 option, enable it there.
• Powered-off servers: if a saved NAS is switched off, PhimCa detects that quickly and moves on instead of hanging. You don't need to remove the entry — it reconnects once the server is back.

C. Cloud storage (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox…)

Tap the Open file row inside "Media Sources" to open Android's own file picker, then browse Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or any other provider configured on your device. PhimCa uses the picker your phone already has, so there's no separate PhimCa account and no extra cloud login.

3 Playing and casting media

PhimCa has a dual-mode playback system: local playback on your phone, and casting to external screens or audio systems.

Local playback

• Tap any audio file to play it directly on your phone.
• Video playback is optimized for casting. If you pick a video while the phone is set to local playback ("This Phone"), PhimCa asks you to choose a cast target.
• Playback appears on your lock screen with cover art and full transport controls, and responds to Bluetooth and wired headset buttons.

DLNA/UPnP casting

1. Tap the Cast button (top bar, or in the Playing tab) to open the device picker.
2. Select your DLNA or UPnP renderer — projector, smart TV, AV receiver.
3. Tap any media file to start casting.
4. Use the Playing tab to control playback: play, pause, seek, previous, next, shuffle, repeat.

If a track fails

If a track can't be started — a share went offline, a cloud link expired, a file was moved — PhimCa skips to the next track rather than stopping the queue, and shows a brief message explaining what happened.

4 Your library

The Library tab is the hub of your collection. Everything you play is remembered here, and the on-device scan (Settings → Scan device library) fills it out with the music and video already on your phone and SD card.

Recently played

• The strip at the top shows your 15 most recent tracks with cover art (PhimCa remembers the last 25).
• Tap any cover to play or cast it instantly. PhimCa restores the context it was played in — tapping a track that came from an album or a queue resumes that whole set, rather than playing a single orphaned track.

Playlists, Albums and Artists

Below the strip are three pills that switch what the hub lists:

• Playlists — your saved playlists (see section 5).
• Albums — a cover grid built from the tracks PhimCa knows about. Albums are grouped by album tag and by the folder a release lives in, so two different releases that happen to share an album name stay separate. Tap an album to see its tracks and play or queue them.
• Artists — the same index grouped by artist. Tracks with no artist tag at all are grouped separately rather than being dropped.

Search

Tap the search field to search everything PhimCa knows: your library index, your queue, your recently played, your saved playlists, and the folder you're currently browsing.

Results are grouped into folders rather than dumped into one long list — Current folder, Albums, Artists, Tracks, Videos and Playlists — with a count next to each. Open a group to drill into it, then play a result or add the whole group to your queue.

5 The queue and saved playlists

The queue

The Queue tab shows what's lined up to play. Add tracks to it from anywhere in the app, reorder them, remove them, or clear the queue. Removing a track takes effect immediately — including on the renderer if you're casting, so a deleted track won't sneak back in later in the run.

Saved playlists

• To keep a queue, open the Queue tab and tap Save Queue.
• Saved playlists appear in the Library tab under the Playlists pill, each with an automatic collage of up to 4 cover arts from the tracks inside.
• Tapping a playlist starts playback immediately and replaces the current queue. Use the three-dot menu on a playlist row to add it to the queue instead, or to rename or delete it.
• If a cloud file in a saved playlist has been permanently deleted or its permission revoked, PhimCa skips it and removes that entry. A temporary failure — the network dropped, the NAS was rebooting — only skips the track; nothing is deleted.

6 Audiophile & high-resolution audio

PhimCa is built to satisfy the strict requirements of high-fidelity listening.

Bit-perfect PCM audio path

For PCM-based formats, PhimCa guarantees a bit-perfect path from source file to rendering DAC:

• No resampling — the stream is delivered at its native sample rate.
• No DSP — no processing, equalization, volume scaling or normalization is applied.
• No format conversion — integer audio is never converted to float, which can introduce quantization noise on Android hardware.
• Supported PCM lossless formats include FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, APE and WavPack (.wv) up to 192 kHz / 24-bit.

Volume is handled by your renderer or by Android — PhimCa never scales the samples itself.

High sample-rate capping (local playback only)

Most phone hardware can't open an audio track above 192 kHz, which would otherwise leave the file silently unplayable. PhimCa includes an automatic fallback for local playback:

• Lossless files at 192 kHz or below are kept completely untouched and bit-perfect.
• Lossless files above 192 kHz (352.8 kHz, 384 kHz…) are halved by a power of two — 384 kHz → 192 kHz, 352.8 kHz → 176.4 kHz — so they remain playable on your phone.

This applies only to playback on the phone itself.

DSF / DSD playback

Direct Stream Digital files (.dsf / .dff) can't be cast natively to most DLNA renderers, so PhimCa transcodes them in real time:

• Real-time transcoding: DSD64 and DSD128 are converted on the fly to 192 kHz 16-bit LPCM.
• Level compensation: a gain of ×1.87 (about +5.4 dB) is applied during conversion to compensate for DSD's lower modulation peaks, so the result matches the loudness of conventional PCM tracks. This is standard practice for DSD-to-PCM conversion, not a volume control.
• Renderer compatibility: PhimCa reports the stream with the DLNA.ORG_PN=LPCM profile and MIME type audio/L16;rate=192000;channels=2, so high-end receivers such as the OPPO BDP-105 select their LPCM decoder instead of outputting loud static.

WavPack casting

Most renderers have no WavPack decoder, so casting a .wv file would normally fail. PhimCa decodes it on the phone and sends the renderer plain 16-bit LPCM at the file's own sample rate — the same proven path used for DSD. Sources up to 192 kHz are supported; 24-bit WavPack is sent as 16-bit when casting. Playing a .wv file on the phone is unaffected and stays bit-perfect, with full fast-forward and rewind.

Format support at a glance

7 Videos and subtitles

Supported video formats

PhimCa supports a wide range of video formats, including MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, WMV, WebM, M4V, MPG, TS, M2TS and FLV.

Subtitle support

PhimCa supports external subtitles (SRT, VTT, ASS and SSA) loaded directly from your network shares.

• Automatic pickup: put the subtitle file in the same folder as the video with the same base filename (e.g. movie.mkv and movie.srt) and PhimCa finds it on its own.
• Choosing one yourself: you can also pick a subtitle file manually with Select Subtitles if the names don't match.
• Mid-playback switching: change subtitle tracks or toggle subtitles on and off during an active cast. The renderer briefly pauses, updates, and resumes automatically at the same position.

When your TV ignores subtitle files

Some devices — the Hisense C1S projector is the common example — simply don't display separate subtitle files sent over DLNA, but do display subtitles that are built into the video file.

When PhimCa detects such a device it offers to embed the subtitles for you: it writes a copy of the video with the subtitle track built in.

• Tap Embed subtitles when prompted. The conversion takes a few minutes for a feature-length film.
• The video keeps playing while it converts, then restarts with subtitles once the copy is ready.
• Fast-forward and rewind become available again when the conversion finishes.
• One conversion runs at a time, and one subtitle language is embedded per copy. If the video's format can't be converted, PhimCa says so and plays it without subtitles.

The converted copies live in the app's cache, so Android may reclaim that space when storage runs low; PhimCa simply re-creates the copy next time.

8 Screen mirroring PREMIUM

Screen mirroring sends your Android screen and audio to a DLNA-enabled TV or projector. It's a Premium feature, reached from the More tab.

Privacy Mode (app pinning)

Ordinary screen mirroring leaks incoming messages, bank details and other sensitive notifications. PhimCa solves this with Privacy Mode, enabled by default:

• App selection: before casting, you choose the specific app you intend to show.
• Automatic pause: if you leave that app for the home screen or another app, PhimCa immediately freezes the cast image and shows a static "Privacy Pause" screen on the TV. Casting resumes automatically when you return.
• Requirement: Privacy Mode needs the Usage Access (PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS) permission in Android Settings. PhimCa shows a prominent disclosure explaining this before sending you there.

Do Not Disturb integration

• With Hide notifications while mirroring enabled in Settings, PhimCa puts your phone in Do Not Disturb for the duration of the mirror cast, so pop-up notifications can't interrupt your stream.
• Requirement: the Do Not Disturb Access (ACCESS_NOTIFICATION_POLICY) permission. If it isn't granted, PhimCa's settings show a warning with a quick setup link.

DRM protection (FLAG_SECURE)

DRM-protected apps — Netflix, Amazon Prime, banking apps — block screen recording. Mirroring them produces a black screen on the TV. This is an Android platform security constraint and is normal behaviour.

9 Managing cloud downloads

When you cast from a cloud drive such as Google Drive, providers expire their temporary links — which can break playback mid-album or partway through a long queue.

To avoid that, PhimCa downloads a durable copy of the cloud track to internal storage when playback starts.

• Space management: Settings → Cloud Downloads shows the total space these files occupy.
• Clear cache: tap Clear Cloud Downloads to free the space immediately.
• Storage limit: set a budget (1 GB, 5 GB, 10 GB…) via Cloud storage limit. When the cache exceeds it, PhimCa evicts the least recently played files first. Files belonging to a saved playlist are protected from this cleanup.

Files on an SD card are read in place and are never copied.

10 Battery optimization

Android's aggressive battery saving (Doze and OEM App Standby) can freeze background apps when the screen goes off, which stalls a casting queue or stops it advancing.

To prevent background stalls:

1. Go to Settings → Casting.
2. Tap Background playback (or the info button beside it).
3. PhimCa sends you to Android's battery optimization settings.
4. Set PhimCa's battery usage to Unrestricted (or "Don't optimize").
5. The switch in PhimCa's settings turns ON once the system registers the change.

Leaving Gapless casting on (the default) also helps here: the renderer already holds the next track, so the queue keeps moving even if Android freezes the app.

11 Free tier and Premium

Playing media on your phone is completely free and unlimited — no track limit, every audio format, every quality tier.

Casting is also free, supported by ads, with one limit: on the free tier a single casting run covers 16 tracks. When a run reaches the end, PhimCa tells you why it stopped rather than going quiet. This is a limit on how far one run plays unattended — not on which tracks you may cast. Every track in your queue remains playable: tap any row and casting continues from there.

Screen mirroring is Premium-only.

Premium is a one-time purchase — not a subscription. It removes all ads, lifts the casting-run limit, and unlocks screen mirroring. If you reinstall the app or move to a new phone, use Restore purchases in Settings.

Privacy

PhimCa has no account to create and no login. Your media never leaves your network: SMB, DLNA and local playback are all LAN-only traffic between your phone, your server and your TV. The only off-device connections the app makes are the purchase/entitlement check and, on the free tier, ad serving and its consent prompt. Premium removes the ad connections.

PhimCa is available in 15 languages, selectable under Settings → Language.

12 Troubleshooting & FAQs