I use PlayOn to get material from streaming services into Channels.
However, sometimes I want a program that is on a service that PlayOn does not support. This doesn't happen too often, so I don't want to spend a large amount of time on an elaborate system.
What is the easiest way to accomplish this task on an occasional basis? I can setup and move things manually to accomplish this. I tried Chrome capture with Docker, but it wasn't working well and the quality was bad.
In my opinion, based only on my own experience, the easiest way is with StreamFab. Not only can it capture streams from popular services, but it can also capture streams from less popular services.
For example, I have a subscription to Hallmark+ (formerly known as Hallmark Movies Now) and StreamFab can capture streams from it if you provide the direct link to the title (which you can get from the website).
It's not cheap but consider this too: another advantage of StreamFab compared to PlayOn is that it captures the original streams without any processing.
Of course, just like with PlayOn, you need to have valid (legal) subscriptions to the services that you want the streams from.
OBS is the way to go. Audials is also a more expensive alternative
Would you be able to point me to a tutorial for this?
I have tried OBS before to capture streaming video on my Windows computer but that didn't work, got a black screen.
Just downloaded OBS. Haven't yet figured out how to record something.
Just use you favorite search engine and search for "using obs"
Tons of textual and video tutorials.
Of course, there are a lot of tutorials out there but I have yet to find one that works on my Windows computer.
I could keep looking and trying things forever, or simply keep using StreamFab. It was worth paying for it. It works and I don't have to waste time trying to get something to work.
When I was younger, I didn't mind tinkering and spending time to try things until they worked. Now I'm at the point where, if it takes more than 15 minutes to get something to work, I'd rather pay for something that just works and be done. 
I hear you. Depends on what your time is worth and your interests.
There's only so many hours in a day.
You have to disable hardware acceleration in your browser settings in order for it to work
OBS worked out of the box for me in Librewolf for that reason as it disables hardware acceleration by default
It took me a while to figure out all the settings and to find out where to turn off hardware acceleration, but I finally got it to work. If anyone is trying this in the future, a black screen means that you need to turn off Hardware Acceleration.
In FireFox, Settings->Performance-> Uncheck:Use recommended performance settings->Uncheck:Use hardware acceleration when available.
The key in OBS is Sources->Display Capture->Uncheck:Capture Cursor.
Also set: Settings->Output->Advanced->Recording->
Set Recording Path and Recording Format to MPEG-4
Also in OBS initial setup or setup wizard, optimize "Just for recording, I will not be streaming"
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.