BETA: Chrome Capture for Channels

Playground Hacks
#617

Thanks for checking that, makes sense. I checked to see that location was allowed in Chrome but maybe I need to dig deeper. When I'm back home later I'll kick this around some more. I appreciate the help.

#618

I have run into the same challenges wrt working with the resultant file, specifically the audio. VLC plays it fine, but no joy with anything else I tried, including handbrake. Hadn't thought about using ffmpeg. Would appreciate if you could expand a bit on what you are doing in those two passes as well as any other thoughts for findings you have on improving the stream.

I have been playing around with the bitrates and mime type to see what is optimal for my setup. Appears that Chrome doesn't like anything other than webm with Opus.
My CC4C runs on an M1 MacMini. My source is exclusively Spectrum.
My experience with CC4C has been exceptional so far. The picture and sound are better than expected and have had zero problems tuning or recording content. I haven't tried stressing it with more than 2 streams, but so far my little stock mini handles everything just fine.

#619

@chasut, I'm at work right now, but will post the commands I used to remux and convert to aac, when I get home.

1 Like
#620

Now the server is back up, but the dashboard isn't displaying any data, it's all blank and just says "undefined." Weatherscan's IT staff might be working overtime...

#621

I made a 4.5 hour recording from a Fubo/CC4C source. No "activity" warnings. Recording was OK.

#622

@chasut, here is what I'm doing to make these mpg files editable. Not sure why, but both steps are needed. Doing one or the other, does not result in a file that's editable for me. I'm certainly not an expert, and have not had much luck changing the encoding within Chrome, to eliminate this audio PID issue. This is also my first time working with opus audio, but assuming the PID issue is not necessarily related to that audio codec choice?

ffmpeg -i "input.mpg" -c copy "output.ts"

ffmpeg -i "output.ts" -acodec aac -vcodec copy "editable.ts"

1 Like
#623

It’s back up and working fine now.

#624

Thanks for this. Maybe it is Opus inside the mpeg container that requires it be pulled out first to the stream file? I Don't know much about any of this, but I suppose I enjoy the process of working through it all.

#625

I tried this for SNY and it worked and pretty well too! However, unlike most other reported issues, I'm getting black letterbox bars on the top and bottom of the screen that distorts the screen a little making the players look a little fatter than they are. Any one know if a way to override this?

#626

Moving from the executable to the Docker solved this completely for me…

#627

What system are you using? I was under the impression that most people were having issues logging in with credentials using docker. I have a headless windows 11 setup working pretty well.

#628

I spent some time yesterday on a Portainer-Stack (docker compose) to support VNC connections to a cc4channels container specifically to allow for easy entry of credentials:

version: '3.9'
services:
  chrome-capture-for-channels:
    image: fancybits/chrome-capture-for-channels
    container_name: cc4channels
    command:
      - sh 
      - -c 
      - |
        Xvfb :99 -screen 0 1920x1080x16 &
        x11vnc -display :99 &
        node main.js
    ports:
      - 5589:5589 # cc4channels proxy port
      - 5900:5900 # VNC port for entering credentials
    restart: unless-stopped

Tested with TightVNC, but should work well with any VNC client.

3 Likes
#629

I tried the docker on Windows 11. Was able to manage credentials with VNC, but the picture quality was inferior to the exe and headless adapter.

#630

Maybe the headless adapter just needs to be passed through to the container?

#631

You need to use VNC instead of the debug tool. Go up a bit in this thread and you’ll see a discussion regarding this method.

I’m using a 2017 MacBook Pro…

#632

You guys are too smart for me :grinning:. Is it possible to adapt this to work with the standard Docker installation?

1 Like
#633

Has anyone figured out how to get ABC to go full-screen? This link is working fine with authorization. The video player just requires a click to go full-screen...

chrome://localhost:5589/stream?url=https://abc.com/watch-live/abc

#634

Wow. I haven't been here in a couple months. Came back and saw this new toy to play with! Played around with this a little bit. Is there a way to adjust the video quality? I noticed the stream is a little blurry compared to playing the stream directly in my browser. All of my stuff is local (streamer and cDVR) so I don't really need a lot of compression.

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#635

You can, but not by running the pre-built exe file. Follow the link and scroll down to the development area at the bottom. After setting everything up, you can use a text editor to edit the main.js file. That's where the encoding settings are.

One thing I noticed, was the NBC stream was always coming in around 3 - 6 Mbps, but when I changed the source stream to Fubo, it would routinely be 10+ Mbps, and looked better than NBC.

#636

Good to know. Thank you! This opens up a lot of doors but also requires more tinkering to see what works best.

1 Like