Chitra Frame

Chitra Frame puts artworks from your chitra.art account on the TV on your wall. It runs on a server in your home, signs in with a code you confirm on chitra.art, pairs with the TV once, and then changes the picture on the schedule you choose.

Each work is rendered for the panel before it goes up: cropped or fitted the way you framed it on chitra.art, turned for a TV that hangs in portrait, with an optional caption naming the work and the artist. Your own photos can go round a work that leaves room on the screen. They are read from a folder you choose and never leave your server.

This is an early build. Today it works with Samsung's The Frame, and is tested on a 2026 The Frame Pro; other years should work and have not been tried. Other TVs and displays will follow.

What you need

• A supported TV on the same network as the server. Today that is Samsung's The Frame
• A chitra.art account
• Unraid, or any Docker host that can run a container with host networking

Install on Unraid

1. Open a terminal on the server and download the template:

   wget -O /boot/config/plugins/dockerMan/templates-user/my-chitra-frame.xml \
     https://raw.githubusercontent.com/233-Solutions-Inc/chitra-frame/main/templates/chitra-frame.xml
   

2. On the Docker tab choose Add Container, then pick chitra-frame from the Template list.

3. Type a Setup page password of at least 8 characters, then Apply.

4. Click the container's icon and choose WebUI.

Set it up

The setup page walks through it in order. Unlock it with the password you set, then:

1. Sign in. The page shows a code. Open chitra.art/account/devices on a phone or computer where you are signed in, and enter it. No password is typed into the setup page or stored on your server.
2. Find your TV. Turn the TV on and press Search for my TV. The first time, the TV asks whether to allow the connection: choose Allow with its remote.
3. Say which way it hangs. The TV cannot tell, so you choose landscape or portrait. The test card checks that pictures land the right way up.

A picture goes up as soon as the TV is connected. What plays, how often it changes and the caption are chosen on chitra.art/frame, under Your Frames.

Keep the setup page private

The setup page can change what your TV shows, sign the app in or out, and choose the folder your photos are read from. Anything that can open its address can try to use it, so:

• Nothing can be changed without the setup password. With no password set, the page shows status only. Five wrong tries lock that device out for five minutes.
• Do not put it on the internet. The page is plain HTTP. Do not forward its port on your router or publish it through a reverse proxy.
• Restrict access as suits your network: a firewall rule, a separate network for guests and smart devices, or a VPN when you are away.
• Turn it off when you are done. Use the button at the bottom of the page, or set Setup page to off in the container's settings. No port is open after that, and the app keeps playing.

To bring the page back after turning it off from the page, open the container's console, run chitra-frame web on, and restart the container.

Settings

The container uses host networking. The TV is found with a network search and woken with Wake-on-LAN, and neither crosses Docker's bridge network.

Other Docker hosts

docker run -d --name chitra-frame \
  --network host \
  --tmpfs /tmp:rw,exec,nosuid,size=512m \
  -v /path/to/config:/config \
  -v /path/to/photos:/photos:ro \
  -e CHITRA_FRAME_WEB_PASSWORD='choose-a-password' \
  -e TZ=America/Toronto \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  ghcr.io/233-solutions-inc/chitra-frame:latest

Then open http://<server>:8099. Leave out the /photos line if you do not want your own photos shown.

Updating

On Unraid: Docker tab, Check for Updates, then apply the update. Your sign-in, the TV's pairing and your settings are in /config and carry over.

If something is not working

The container's log says what the app is doing in plain sentences; a line that starts with ! is a problem. On Unraid it is under the container's icon, Logs.

• The TV is not found. Check it is on, and on the same network as the server. If the search still misses it, type its address on the setup page.
• The TV stops answering after a while. A TV that is switched off at the wall cannot be reached. One that is asleep can: use Wake the TV on the setup page.
• The sign-in code ran out. Codes last ten minutes. Press Get a sign-in code for a new one.

Tell us how it went

This is a beta, and it has been tried on one TV in one home, so a report from yours is worth a great deal, whether it worked or not. Open an issue or write to contact@chitra.art, and say:

• the TV's model and year (the setup page shows the model under Your TV)
• which way it hangs, landscape or portrait
• what you did, what you expected, and what happened instead
• the lines around the problem from the container's log (Docker tab, the container's icon, Logs); the lines that start with ! matter most

For more detail, switch on Keep a diagnostics log on the setup page, restart the container, and repeat what went wrong. The log is chitra-frame.log in the config folder. It never holds your sign-in, the TV's pairing or your pictures, so it is safe to attach.

Licence

The files in this repository (the template, this page, the banner and the icon) are under the MIT licence. The Chitra Frame app inside the container image is not open source, and its licence is separate.