ESPN+ with Custom Channels via ADBTuner

[KineticMan]

I suspect a lot of you have moved over to FruitDeepLinks but still trying to figure this pesky refresh bug out.. It's calling refresh middle of night fine, but not generating events -- only when you call manually. I pushed a little update today to keep trying to figure this out.

FYI this ESPN4CC4C captures more ESPN events than FruitDeepLinks (particularly "talking head shows" but I think most if not all sporting events get captured on Fruit. I may someday just move all this to FruitDeepLinks. But if you only care about actual sport events, I'd just move to FruitDeepLinks as it supports CC4C now.

[TJN]

I’m currently using this container and tuning via ADBT (Firestick) to the “talk” shows occasionally in the am.
I have the fruitlinks (direct) setup on my Apple TV client and enjoy the option of directly opening the ESPN+ app from the Channels guide on the ATV. Both are great additions to the CDVR setup!

The guide info/presentation on the fruitlinks side is more detailed with respect to sport descriptor and guide icons. Is there a way to get this info in the ESPN4CC4C container? Thanks.

[KineticMan]

hey - i'm obviously limited to what the API sends. could you give me an example of what you like/dislike about the ESPN4CC4C description and i can see if i can improve on it!

[TJN]

Here’s a comparison of guide info from iOS app (Fruitdeeplinks vs ESPN4CC4C).

The guide icons with team logos are more of a “nice to have”. The sport descriptors (e.g., Womens College Basketball) are helpful in choosing which game(s) to watch on mobile.

[KineticMan]

hey im working on this now.. for the icons though-> are you using it as "lanes" like multiple events per channel? it would be impossible to change the icon everytime. but, I could if you were using the one event per channel.

[hancox]

@KineticMan

I suspect a lot of you have moved over to FruitDeepLinks

Not me. The work here was awesome, as i now have a working ESPN+ set in my guide data for multiview.

I'll move over at some point, but no rush.

[TJN]

Agree that this container is working well. I also noticed the latest version is providing more info in the on-screen guide. Thanks!!

[Jean0987654321]

@KineticMan I think there may be a way to add linear channels here. This guy might have it.

Introducing PrismCast: Browser-based Live TV Capture for Channels DVR and Plex

I'm trying to use PrismCast to watch Disney, Disney Jr, DisneyXD, and the ESPN Channels. I don't have a subscription to DisneyPlus but I can view the channels on a web browser with TV Provider login. For the ESPN channels, I see that PrismCast is preconfigured to use DisneyPlus. I am able to access the live feed of these channels by using the following link format: https://www.espn.com/watch/player?network=espn In this link, if you change espn to espn2, espnews, espnu, acc, etc. it will indeed …

I'm trying to get this url First Take Presented DraftKings Sportsbook (2/4/26) - Live Stream - Watch ESPN to work with adbtuner. I don't know the deeplink to get to it. It'll work with cc4c and prismcast of course but I'm looking for deeplink for it work on adbtuner (maybe @bnhf can assist)

[KineticMan]

If I recall, the linear URLs from Apple do look like that style you sent, but they don't work on ADB tuner. That's why I had to scrape the ESPN Watch API to grab their UID's and make up our own schema.

as example, I just went to Event Inspector and grabbed a ESPN Linear event

      "punchoutUrls": {
        "play": "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playChannel=espn2&x-source=AppleUMC"

[Jean0987654321]

Yeah...I just that and that was no good as you said. Looks like the only way to make it work is via ah4c and messing around with tesserect...

[KineticMan]

pushed a little update.. added PrismCast m3u export support and some minor touchup to admin page.

for PrismCast, you'll need two new env variables.

PCAST_SERVER=192.168.86.72
PCAST_PORT=5589

[hoyas14]

is ADBtuner the only way to get ESPN into channels dvr now with TVE support ending for ESPN?

[bnhf]

@hoyas14

is ADBtuner the only way to get ESPN into channels dvr now with TVE support ending for ESPN?

No, you can also use a new project called PrismCast:

Introducing PrismCast: Browser-based Live TV Capture for Channels DVR and Plex

I wanted to share a bit of an experiment I've been working on called PrismCast — a streaming server that captures live video from web-based TV players and delivers it as HLS streams for Channels DVR. PrismCast was directly inspired by Chrome Capture for Channels, and I'm grateful to the Channels DVR team for creating the foundation that made this project possible, and hope the community enjoys this contribution. Why PrismCast? Native HLS output — Serves fMP4/HLS streams directly, which Chan…

[hoyas14]

Got it setup on my Synology, which has a weak cpu, constantly freezing. Damn. guess I will use the espn app for now.

if I did go the encoder route, any recommendations to just get espn/espn2/acc/sec? would like to keep it under $200 if possible, or would that be junk?

[bnhf]

@hoyas14

Got it setup on my Synology, which has a weak cpu, constantly freezing. Damn. guess I will use the espn app for now.

Lots of warnings in the thread about not using PrismCast on a low end system. ADBTuner is the way to go for your situation then.

[bnhf]

@hoyas14

if I did go the encoder route, any recommendations to just get espn/espn2/acc/sec? would like to keep it under $200 if possible, or would that be junk?

You could do a single port LinkPi encoder and a FireStick 4K Max Gen2 or ONN Plus for under $200. The LinkPi is excellent, and either streaming stick would do the job.

[Jean0987654321]

You could use CC4C if the Synology system has a GPU

[bnhf]

@Jean0987654321

You could use CC4C if the Synology system has a GPU

There'd be no difference. The Linux version of Chrome, as used in a container for this purpose, does not utilize the GPU.

[bnhf]

@jagrim Did you happen to capture any of the output from the Project One-Click Action?

[hoyas14]

Decided to go the PrismCast route first. Link Pi will take 6 weeks to get here. I have been wanting to upgrade my media server for a while and get off the DS224+, so this seems like the appropriate time. A new Intel Core i7 Ubuntu computer should be here in a few days to run all my dockers and media content.