Chrome HDMI for Channels (CH4C): Chrome channel tuner plus HDMI encoder

dravenst · July 10, 2026, 8:36pm

I'm not aware of anything either that would cause this behavior. I added some logic in the latest .5 version to automate re-login (where a logout is detected) for certain services when a stream fails to start, but DirecTV is not part of that scope.

mackid1993 · July 10, 2026, 9:06pm

github.com

mackid1993/CH4C/blob/claude/ch4c-directv-auth-corruption-ickaln/docs/investigations/directv-auth-corruption.md

# Investigation: Does CH4C corrupt DirecTV account auth state?

**Date:** 2026-07-10
**Code examined:** `mackid1993/CH4C` current `main` (`8b17265`) and incident-era fork state
(`f078db610c1a142ec42a7b1411871b4d7fc27505`, last pushed 2026-05-18 — the code actually running
when the ~5:00 teardowns began around Jun 25). All incident-relevant mechanisms were verified to
exist **identically in both versions** (line numbers below are current `main`; f078db6 equivalents
noted where they differ). Static analysis only; no live DirecTV requests were made.

---

## (a) Verdict

**Yes — with an important precision.** CH4C does not corrupt *login credentials* or tokens on the
client side. What it provably does is **create full server-side DirecTV playback sessions and then
abandon every single one of them by killing Chrome mid-playback**, at a rate of one-or-more
abandoned sessions per tune, across three concurrent browser identities on the same account,
with no release, logout, or graceful stop anywhere in the codebase.

- **PROVEN (code, both versions):** the create-and-abandon pattern, its per-tune frequency, its

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I can't verify any of this but this is what Fable came up with after reviewing the codebase and the symptoms that observed. This could be complete hallucination but I figured it's worth sharing.

mackid1993 · July 15, 2026, 12:30pm

I did a whole lot more testing and was able to completely exonerate CH4C from this.

Once I do a little bit more testing and have a little more time of stability, I'm going to do a write-up on the Osprey thread. that way my discovery is documented. And hopefully if this what seems to be a remote feature flag rolls out to more people they can avoid the annoyance I went through.