The Apple TV killer for AV nerds.
Kino is a $179 living-room AI media hub. RK3588 + 6 TOPS NPU runs Qwen3-7B locally — semantic search across Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, and your NAS in one query. Real-time 4K upscaling for older content. Dolby Vision Profile 5/7/8. Air-gapped — never phones home.
Four boxes. Four fatal flaws.
You just bought a 75-inch Mini-LED. You want a serious source device. So you open the four obvious tabs:
The premium AV streamer market in 2026 has a "AV-grade decoding × on-device AI × clean cross-library search" blank quadrant. Nobody fills it.
Apple TV 4K (3rd gen)
$129 · tvOS · Cloud Siri
Every voice query phones home to Apple. Search is single-app shallow. Ecosystem-locked — you're paying for AirPlay you may not use. Zero edge AI.
Nvidia Shield Pro
$199 · Last updated 2019
Nvidia stopped caring six years ago. Android TV stale, GeForce Now degraded, AI features = none. Same hardware everyone reviewed in 2019.
Zidoo Z9X / Dune HD
$279–999 · AV purist
Audiophile-grade Dolby Vision passthrough, dual-HDMI separation, original-disc menu navigation. Zero AI. Search is a 1998 file browser.
Plex / Emby / Jellyfin DIY
$5–10/mo + your time
Plex search is dumb keyword match. Emby fights you on metadata. Jellyfin needs you to be your own ops team. No semantic search across services.
Built for the empty quadrant.
We're not trying to beat Apple at tvOS. We're not trying to beat Zidoo at Profile 7 engineering purity. We're not racing Plex to the bottom on price. We're filling the "AV-grade hardware × on-device AI × natural-language cross-library search" blank quadrant — the one nobody at $129–$299 currently occupies.
Engineering goals, not marketing copy.
All numbers below are engineering targets — measured values land in the public BOM tear-down PDF + AVSForum Beta long-form reviews before launch.
On-device AI · Air-gapped
Qwen3-7B INT4 on RK3588 NPU at 4–8 tokens/s. Pull the ethernet cable — voice search, metadata, upscaling all keep running. Your library, viewing habits, household conversations never leave the box.
Cross-library semantic search
"Find me a 90-minute thriller with a twist that's not too dark." Returns three options: which streaming service has it, whether subtitles need fetching, whether 1080p needs upscaling. 5–30 minutes → 30 seconds.
Real-time 4K upscaling
1080p source content (classic films, vintage anime, old documentaries) upscaled to 4K HDR in real time via on-device super-resolution INT4. No reliance on $3,000+ TV's built-in AI processor.
Smart metadata · Multi-source
Auto-scrapes TMDb + IMDb + Letterboxd + AniDB + MusicBrainz with confidence-weighted merging. Catches that 2008 anime fan-sub, that director's cut, that international title — Plex / Emby don't.
AV-grade hardware
RK3588 8nm + 8GB RAM + 64GB eMMC + HDMI 2.1a + USB 3.2 + Wi-Fi 6 + Gigabit Ethernet. Dolby Vision Profile 5/7/8 + AV1/VP9/H.265/HEVC full stack. Active cooling for sustained inference.
3-year OTA · Engine open-source
The on-device AI engine ships open-source at launch. Even if Kino disappears tomorrow, your unit keeps working — fully local, no cloud dependency. 3 years of paid OTA + indefinite security updates.
30 minutes. Three steps.
You don't need to know what Docker is. You don't need to write a nastool config. You don't need to run a self-hosted server.
5 minutes. HDMI in.
HDMI 2.1a to your TV. Gigabit ethernet (or Wi-Fi 6) to your router. Power on. First-run wizard.
Sign in. Auto-discover.
Sign into Netflix / Disney+ / HBO Max / Apple TV+ / Plex / Jellyfin / Emby once. LAN scan finds your NAS, your Plex server, your local media folders automatically.
Ask. In English. Wow.
Hold the remote mic key: "Find me a 90-minute thriller with a twist." Edge LLM returns three posters, source service tagged, subtitle status flagged, in 5 seconds.
Real reviews coming from AVSForum / r/htpc Beta members.
Kino is in pre-launch. There aren't real customer testimonials yet — fabricating them would be insulting. We're recruiting 50 power users from AVSForum, r/htpc, r/4kbluray, and Plex Forums for v0 Beta. Their bylined long-form reviews + community posts will fill this section before launch (Q3 2026). We aren't pre-deciding what they'll say.
Want in on Beta? Reserve below — Beta invites go to the first 50 reservations.
The questions you actually have.
No marketing fog. Honest boundaries.
New brand. What if Kino folds in a year?
Kino's on-device AI engine weights ship open-source at launch. Even if Kino disappears tomorrow, your unit keeps working — fully local inference, zero cloud dependency. We commit to 3 years of paid OTA + indefinite security maintenance. AVSForum and r/htpc Beta members co-publish a public bug-tracker timeline.
Apple TV 4K is $129. Why pay $179 for Kino?
Apple TV's Siri runs in the cloud — every voice query, viewing pattern, library scan goes to Apple. Kino's Qwen3-7B INT4 runs on-device at 4–8 tokens/s on RK3588's 6 TOPS NPU. Pull the ethernet cable, you can still ask "find me a 90-minute thriller" across your Plex library. tvOS does AirPlay better than us; we do edge AI better than tvOS. Pick what matters to you.
I already own Nvidia Shield Pro / Zidoo / Dune HD. Worth switching?
Hardcore disc-collector with a 7.1.4 Atmos rig + Profile 7 originals + dual-HDMI separation? Honestly no — Zidoo and Dune HD beat us at engineering purity, and we don't pretend otherwise. But if you're like 80% of AV enthusiasts whose content is now streaming + NAS digital + occasional UHD rip, Kino's on-device AI metadata + cross-library semantic search is a real upgrade.
Dolby Vision Profile 7 dual-layer BD passthrough?
Yes — Profile 5/7/8 full certification (Dolby Lab cert pending, completing before launch). Profile 7 dual-layer BD passes through identically to Zidoo Z9X / Egreat A11. AVR routing via HDMI 2.1a. Full spec sheet in the public BOM tear-down PDF.
Privacy — what data leaves the box?
Default mode: nothing. The entire AI inference pipeline (Qwen3-7B, semantic embeddings, metadata scraping, subtitle translation, upscaling) runs on-device. Streaming-service login tokens stay in their respective apps' encrypted stores. Only OTA update checks (a daily HTTPS HEAD to our update server) leave the device — and you can disable those. We publish a quarterly transparency report listing every outbound packet category.
What's in v1? Roadmap?
v1 (Q3 2026): everything described above + AVSForum / r/htpc Beta + 3-year OTA. v1.5 (2027): Cantonese/Mandarin OTT integration for the diaspora market + simplified eldercare mode + projector daisy-chain. v2 (2028): optional Pro variant with built-in 1TB SSD + native NAS protocols ($299–349). Not in roadmap: physical Blu-ray drives, OTT licensing, our own content.
$149 first 1,000. Closes May 31.
Expected MSRP $179 · Early-bird saves $30 · Ships Q3 2026 · 30-day return · 1-year replacement · 3-year paid OTA · AI engine open-source