ADBTuner: A "channel tuning" application for networked Google TV / Android TV devices

[turtletank]

I think it might be accidentally flipped in a few posts in this thread, but it’s KNOWN_STREAM_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT.

This is how long a long a tuner stays locked and available to continuing watching after data stops streaming though the proxy for that channel.

The issue at hand here is that it seems that some players and DVRs temporarily stop streaming data for multiple streams when one is disconnected which releases the tuners related to those streams.

This will default to 8 seconds in the next version of ADBTuner. 5 seconds is probably ok in most situations, 10 might be a bit overkill, but if someone has enough tuners that the wait isn’t an issue it can’t hurt.

Every second counts around here lol so I was hesitant to increase that by default if it isn’t necessary for everyone.

[bnhf]

@turtletank

I think it might be accidentally flipped in a few posts in this thread, but it’s KNOWN_STREAM_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT.

Thanks. I copied that from a previous post by someone else, so I'll adjust mine just above.

[turtletank]

The current development build (20260423-1) adds support some new configuration command types.

"tune_commands": [
  "adbtuner_open_app '||TARGET_PACKAGE_NAME||'",
  {
      "ADB_LOOP": {
          "iterations": 10,
          "commands": [
              "input keyevent KEYCODE_DPAD_DOWN",
              "sleep 2"
          ]
      }
  }
]

"adbtuner_open_app '||TARGET_PACKAGE_NAME||'" does what you probably think it would do. It opens the target app.

When I added the keep alive feature I found that adb shell monkey -p didn't work for every app. So I added a helper function to ADBTuner that dumps the target package to figure out which action to use. This change makes this functionality available to configurations.

The ADB_LOOP command type provides a simple syntax for repeating a set of commands multiple times. I find this syntax is cleaner than sending a full shell command to the device for this purpose. More importantly, using this feature allows ADBTuner to intercept any sleep commands and process them on the ADBTuner side as that provides more accurate timing. It's also necessary to make adbtuner_open_app work in a loop if needed.

The example configuration above will open the target app and then press down 10 times (waiting 2 seconds between each key press).

[johnluber]

I ran most of the day yesterday with KNOWN_STREAM_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT set to 10. Pressed my system harder than normal and did not experience any times where the stream closed unexpectedly and drop to the Firestick Home Screen. So, this appears promising.

Based on turtle tank's feedback I've dropped the timeout from 10 to 5 for today and will test further.

[turtletank]

@johnluber

Based on turtle tank's feedback I've dropped the timeout from 10 to 5 for today and will test further.

I appreciate you taking the time to test this out. Thanks.

[spammedeeper]

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[jagrim]

Made those changes and so far it's good. I'll know more tonight as I’ve set a couple of things to record. If those games record all. I'll probably leave it at 10 secs for today and tomorrow then drop to 8 secs for the weekend games. Tuner availability isn’t really an issue at this point.

[bnhf]

The awesomeness of ws-scrcpy is now available for ADBTuner -- in the form of a companion container. More here:

ADBTuner: ws-scrcpy companion container. Interact with your encoder-connected streaming stick with mouse and keyboard

If you've used the ws-scrcpy that's included with ah4c, you've probably wondered if this could ever be made to work with ADBTuner. The answer is yes, and the time is now! This new companion container is designed to work with your existing ADBTuner installation, as it will determine what streaming sticks you've configured, and will make use of your existing auth keys. ws-scrcpy is a browser-based version of the well known scrcpy application. This app allows you to mirror the display on an Andro…

[mackid1993]

That is possibly the best feature of ah4c so thank you so much for implementing this. That is really cool.

[johnluber]

No issues so far with using a value of 5.

[turtletank]

I pushed an update to the development version (20260425-1) this morning. It's mostly just some cleanup and refactoring.

Notable changes:

1. Configurations that use fixed delays now work correctly when MPEG_NULL_PACKETS is enabled.
2. Configurations are now cached to improve performance when users have many configurations.
3. Imported configurations are no longer displayed under User Configurations at /configurations.
4. Removed support for the legacy configuration option check_for_and_clear_whos_watching_prompts. This is now defined via tune_match_text_commands.

Please let me know if you run into any issues.

[matthewfranzel]

Hi all. I have this set up and works great when I click the PREVIEW link inside of ADBTuner on a channel. I have it set up with YTTV. However, when I insert the M3U url into Channels DVR, I always get this error.

Does anyone have any idea why this happens and how to fix? I have read it happens when there are too many channels, but I literally have 3 as I am still testing it out.

HELP! (please!)

[bnhf]

@matthewfranzel

However, when I insert the M3U url into Channels DVR, I always get this error.

Are you using the URL as shown in the ADBTuner WebUI? For example, here's mine (note the .m3u8):

[matthewfranzel]

I tried both .m3u and .m3u8

[spammedeeper]

Are you running Channels and ADBT as containers? Sometimes the default bridge network doesn’t allow containers to talk to each other.

[matthewfranzel]

Channels DVR is running natively on a Windows PC and ADBTuner is in a container on a Synology NAS. Would that still cause this issue?

[jagrim]

On your Win PC, make sure your PC & Synology can see & communicate with each other.

[spammedeeper]

In that case you should be fine. Since Windows is your Channels host, and I assume you were browsing the ADBT web interface, the Synology ADBT container is accessible to the network.

But to test, on your Windows Channel Host, open a browser and navigate to your M3U8 link:

• http://10.0.2.76:5592/channels.m3u8

If it's working, it should download a file. If it does download, ADBT of hosting correctly and Channels should be able to see the link. If it does not, there is more to troubleshoot, starting with the Windows firewall.

[rss7]

adbtuner is flawlessly controlling my Tivo Stream 4K.. I'd say it's at or near 100% in starting a recording on this older device. Intermittently, however, the TS4K will just revert back to the home screen for a 2-3 hour recording. I'll start to watch a recorded sports event and maybe at the 125 minute mark the recording would switch from the game it recorded to the TS4K home screen. Kinda like the TS4k just got tired. It's probably time to swap that thing out with an ONN or Google Streamer but before doing so just asking if anyone has a suggestion on why it occasionally reverts back to Tivo/Android TV Home Screen late in a recording.

[johnluber]

This sounds similar to an issue I was seeing with Firestick 4K Max devices. After some time they would drop back to the Home Screen. Often, this seemed to coincide with another stream (recording or live) ending. Setting KNOWN_STREAM_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT set to 8 seems to have resolved the issue for me. You might give that a try and see if it helps your situation.

Note: I also tried values of 5 and 10. 5 seemed a bit too aggressive as I did see the problem with that setting one time. Going to 10 didn't seem to offer any advantage over 8.