Interesting find today. Watching the NFL Network over my Fubo TVE source, and the stream was pretty jerky. Stats in Channels, showed it coming in at 720p, and only about 1800 kbps. I disabled the TVE channel source, and added NFL Network to my CC4C source. Perfectly smooth playback, coming in at 1080 30 fps and 16 Mbps. Much better experience. Only problem is the station logo is showing as "Court TV" in the guide. Will have to see how to fix that. Guide data is correct, but the logo is wrong.
Apologies, I've been trying to keep the the Simplified Installation Instructions above up to date with all the common solutions to issues, but had not updated it in a while with that note. It is in there now, along with @bnhf's Docker Compose method for interacting with VNC (I need to do a fully documented build run with that one, still).
I'm going to recommend to everyone slogging through here to look at that post first and foremost.
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I have that exact issue, can't playback any recording with seek options. So they look great but are unwatchable because you can rarely skip around. I've also seen it take forever to start playing, sometimes only play sound with black screen etc. This is on Windows 11, Ryzen 7 5800H graphics, ATV 4K client.
When I remux a video with ffmpeg copy command it reports a bunch of issues so something is going wrong with the Chrome encoder.
EDIT: NVM, it's the 115 issue again. Had to downgrade to Chrome 114, disable the two Google Update services and the two tasks in task scheduler (maybe redundant, not taking chances).
I also downgraded Chrome to version 114.0.5735.90 and can confirm pause, rewind are now working. However, I made the mistake of going to the Chrome About page to verify and it updated again. I downgraded again and once again attempted to check the version...which was correct but the update started again. I did fully follow the Simplified Installation Instructions, BETA: Chrome Capture for Channels - #130 by babsonnexus. I double checked and I have disabled Google Update services and tasks in task scheduler both times. I wonder if Google will update anytime you check the version? My answer is just to not check and as long as it is wokring correctly, don't check.
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Are there plans to make this a QNAP application?
Wouldn't the Docker version be the way to go on QNAP?
This is a great feature and is allowing me to add channels back into my lineup that were removed for one reason or another. Are there any plans to update this feature so we can pause and rewind live TV without having to compromise security and download an old version of Chrome?
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If you have a dedicated server, there's no real issues with security with an older version of Chrome. Don't surf the net with it in other words, or use a different browser if you do.
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I don't have a dedicated server and prefer to use Chrome as my browser which is why I was asking.
You're not going to like the lack of response on this one then, and there's way better browsers such as Brave that use the chromium engine.
But if you wait long enough I'm sure Google will fix the issue and we'll be able to keep Chrome updated again.
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Is there a reliable location to download the previous version of Chrome? All the download locations I found were sketchy.
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Until then, would using the docker install method for CC4C circumvent this issue?
I know it has other issues to contend with but still might be a workable route for folks. Seeing as it would include its own (older) version of Chrome, correct?
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Exactly right.
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Per my post above, this is not a Google issue, this is a Channels issue. If you take the same links and run them through VLC, they work perfectly fine. It has something to do with how Channels translates the input, hence why we needed a server-side beta update to even be able to do this.
Use the link from my original post on this (also under troubleshooting in the Simplified Instructions). It is what I used and there really isn't much better.
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I had the same issue until i searched for googleupdate.exe and Renamed .exe1 that kills the update and all i get under about is an update error which was the goal
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@babsonnexus I would suggest looking at Download Chromium for instructions on downloading a non-auto updating version of Chrome, or more precisely āChrome for Testingā which is explicitly provided for testing purposes and does not autoupdate.
# Download a specific Chrome for Testing version.
npx @puppeteer/browsers install [email protected]
Obviously substituting in whichever version you prefer. Itās also a good way to test which version(s) are incompatible with CC4C/Channels currently and which are.
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I tried this in June, but didnāt get it to work. After being frustrated with Disco and Channels recently, I started looking at the other threads on ADB Tuner and the HDMI for Channels. This led me to want to take another run at this.
Iām finding that hardware is a very important part of this solution. My Channels DVR is on an i5 processor box, but I have (temporary) access to an i7 and an i9 box. (All Windows, no GPUs)
- i5- processor cores were at 77%, video quality looked a bit low-rez, wasnāt full screen. (Perhaps because this machine is headless)
- i7- processor cores were at 45%, video is what I would call minimum acceptable quality. Mostly jumpy, almost always out of sync, etcā¦
- i9- processors are all about idle. Video is much less jumpy, and sometimes the audio is even in sync.
So now Iām thinkingā¦ do I spend budget on a beast that can do CC4C, OR do I spend budget on an encoder that can be used with a Fire TV and ADB Tunerā¦
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I would definitely hold off on building a system specifically for this feature. I run channels on a 9th gen i5 with a dummy plug and cc4c windows exe runs just fine as long as there is only a single instance playing from a single client. hardware acceleration is enabled in chrome (i cannot get that specific feature to work in docker). most of the issues with this approach lie with chrome itself. it's a resource hog, and for smooth video from this app it has to be "visible" (in quotes because dummy plug) and not minimized.
in my opinion this is a good work around for drm channels, but not a solution to add a ton of stuff being played by more than one client.
IDK if it is possible, but I suppose there is a chance someone more clever than I will put together a "@miibeez style" docker project that uses the widevine/vlc components for maybe nbc.com or yttv to address the same solution cc4c is trying to provide. It works for bbc, tugo, pbs, levelnews, and a bunch of others. The miibeez dockers consume very little resource in practice - quite the opposite of cc4c. They can all run on the same tiny channelsdvr server, at least they do on mine.
Its on my wish list anyway. It would avoid buying beefy hardware to support cc4c or the array of contraptions necessary for the HDMI project.
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That idea has been mentioned many times, but there's been no progress.
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