ESPN+ with Custom Channels via ADBTuner

bnhf · November 13, 2025, 2:31pm

Here's what I'm seeing atm in terms of which events are working, and which aren't:

ACCN=no
ACCNX=no
ESPN=yes
ESPN Deportes=yes
ESPN2=no
ESPNU=yes
ESPNews=no
SEC=no

Are you seeing anything similar, in terms of non-ESPN+ deeplinks?

Jean0987654321 · November 13, 2025, 2:47pm

Ok, that worked. Thanks guys

bnhf · November 13, 2025, 2:57pm

@Jean0987654321 What are you seeing as far as whether deeplinks are working or not for content from the channels I listed in the linked post? I believe ESPN+ events are working fine, but I'm not sure about others:

KineticMan · November 13, 2025, 3:11pm

I have a few ideas.. Currently, the deeplink URL only pulls out the playID (which seems to work fine but ESPN+ events). There is an additional field called airingID. I didn't apply that field to the URL as it didn't seem to matter in my testing, but luckily it's scraped/store in the DB. I can't test until tonight, but here's what I'm going to try.

# Format 1: Current (playID only)
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=6f5aa775-701e-4579-8fe5-04321943b249"

# Format 2: playID + networkId
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=6f5aa775-701e-4579-8fe5-04321943b249&networkId=espn1"

# Format 3: airingId only
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?airingId=118138907"

# Format 4: airingId + networkId
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?airingId=118138907&networkId=espn1"

# Format 5: playID + airingId
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=6f5aa775-701e-4579-8fe5-04321943b249&airingId=118138907"

# Format 6: playID + airingId + networkId
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=6f5aa775-701e-4579-8fe5-04321943b249&airingId=118138907&networkId=espn1"

# Format 7: Linear channel (airingId + networkId)
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showLinearChannel?airingId=118138907&networkId=espn1"

# Format 8: showVideo endpoint (playID)
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showVideo?playID=6f5aa775-701e-4579-8fe5-04321943b249"

# Format 9: showVideo + airingId
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showVideo?playID=6f5aa775-701e-4579-8fe5-04321943b249&airingId=118138907"

Jean0987654321 · November 13, 2025, 3:16pm

I only checked the ESPN+ (or ESPN Select) stuff. Let me check on the other stuff...

ESPN - Good
ESPN2 - No Good
ESPNews - No Good
ESPNDeportes - No Good
ESPNU - No Good
@ESPN - Good
SEC - No Good
ACCN - No Good
ACCNX - No Good
SEC+ - Don't know yet

Jean0987654321 · November 13, 2025, 3:18pm

If you can get linear channels to work with this, then it may be worth getting ESPN Unlimited (and I would save a bunch of money really :D).

KineticMan · November 13, 2025, 8:11pm

there does seem to be a flag in the scrape called authTypes: ['MVPD'] which is MVPD = Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (aka cable/satellite provider)

are you all able to actually watch an event directly on the app that deeplinks doesn't work with?

bnhf · November 13, 2025, 8:13pm

Yes -- with an ESPN Unlimited subscription in my case.

KineticMan · November 14, 2025, 1:55am

can you guys tell me exactly what's not working? i just grabbed a ESPN2 event live right now (Purdue vs Alabama). FWIW - I'm testing with ESPN+ synced with Spectrum acct

API request -  http://192.168.86.72:8094/whatson/40?deeplink=1)

Response->
Response - {"ok":true,"lane":40,"event_uid":"56bc5a31-df66-45ae-a5a8-3d738c046325:9708855a2fc52fb09cbc1654c59a0960","at":"2025-11-14T01:49:23+00:00","deeplink_url":"sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=56bc5a31-df66-45ae-a5a8-3d738c046325"

Test:
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=56bc5a31-df66-45ae-a5a8-3d738c046325"

Fired right up....

edit- tried ESPN2, ACCN... not sure if you have a bug on your end, but the exact ADB commands i'm sending work everytime. please double check exactly the command you are sending-- is the syntax the same that i'm testing with?

KineticMan · November 14, 2025, 2:37am

2025-11-13 13:33:13.147 - lib.adb - [Tune (VwPDNE7gvktNoYSNfFNmme)] ADB: firestick-rack4 - am start -n com.espn.gtv/com.espn.startup.presentation.StartupActivity -d sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=6bc21b96-328e-4a44-b9b1-cb4038851d1b

im not familiar with the exact syntax here, but its different than how i'm testing myself. can you just humor me and try it like the tests?

remove -n ... and add -a android.intent.action.VIEW

like my tests:

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=897a418c-6a68-47e3-9446-fa84c9ee8de3"

@turtletank

bnhf · November 14, 2025, 11:09am

I'm not seeing any difference in behavior between these approaches to launching:

am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=56bc5a31-df66-45ae-a5a8-3d738c046325"

am start -n com.espn.gtv/com.espn.startup.presentation.StartupActivity -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=56bc5a31-df66-45ae-a5a8-3d738c046325"

am start -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=56bc5a31-df66-45ae-a5a8-3d738c046325"

am start -W -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=56bc5a31-df66-45ae-a5a8-3d738c046325" com.espn.gtv

They're all somewhat different in how they function, but with com.espn.gtv the resulting behavior is identical.

My current theory is that this has something to do with Re-Air events, but I won't be able to test that for some hours yet -- when the first live events start popping up.

bnhf · November 14, 2025, 12:44pm

@KineticMan

The above appears to be confirmed in the 5:30AM hour, as the events in red are labeled as Live in the app, and they are the only ones of the seven active that will actually tune. In the other cases, the events are labeled Re-Air, and will not tune using a deeplink.

KineticMan · November 14, 2025, 12:47pm

nice detective work-- shot u a direct msg.

KineticMan · November 14, 2025, 6:08pm

New test endpoint: ESPN Android deeplink helper

I’ve added a small experimental API to the ESPN4CC4C resolver to help test Android deeplinks for ESPN.

Two new endpoints:

GET /api/test/{lane}
GET /api/test/{lane}?format=txt

These are read-only and do not affect /epg.xml or /playlist.m3u. They just look at the current event for a lane and generate a few sportscenter:// deeplink variants.

Example (replace HOST with your box):

curl -s "http://HOST:8094/api/test/1" | jq

You’ll see something like:

{
  "ok": true,
  "lane": 1,
  "ids": {
    "play_id": "…",
    "airing_id": "…",
    "network_id": "acc"
  },
  "deeplinks": {
    "1": "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=…",
    "2": "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=…&networkId=acc",
    "3": "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=…&airingId=…",
    "4": "sportscenter://x-callback-url/showWatchStream?playID=…&airingId=…&networkId=acc"
  }
}

For quick copy/paste, use the text view:

curl -s "http://HOST:8094/api/test/1?format=txt"

That prints:

1: sportscenter://x-callback-url/…
2: sportscenter://x-callback-url/…
3: …
4: …

What to test

On an Android device with ADB:

Pick a lane that has a real event (1–5 are usually good).
Grab one of the URLs from /api/test/{lane}?format=txt.

Run:

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "<one of the URLs>"

What I’d like feedback on:

Lane number and variant number (1, 2, 3, or 4).
Whether the event was live or a replay.
What happened:
- Opened ESPN and started playing the correct event
- Opened ESPN but did not start playback
- Failed or showed an error

This should help narrow down which deeplink format is most reliable for live vs replay events on Android. Sitting in car for a long car ride this weekend so no access to Firestick to test if anyone has time this weekend, please share results!

chasut · November 14, 2025, 9:25pm

Just spun-up ESPN4CC. Tuning is working great and the quality of the stream is fantastic, but having a couple issues that I haven't been able to resolve on my own.

Filters don't seem to be working. e.g. I have the

enabled_networks = ESPN+
exclude_networks =

require_espn_plus = true

In my filters.ini file, but still get events for things ACCN, ESPN, ESPN2, etc. Do I need to exclude all others? I ran the rebuild command and it appeared to run successfully, but the details of the schedule update only showed in the terminal window. Don't know if that is expected or not.

Also, I am getting a "cron: can't lock /var/run/crond.pid, otherpid may be 21: Resource temporarily unavailable" as the first line in the log file. Thought it might be a permissions issue and tried everything I could think of including running as root and still get the error. It may not have been long enough for the cron

Thank you so much for this, love having ESPN+ back.

KineticMan · November 14, 2025, 10:32pm

Did u restart docker after editing .ini?

And ignore the other error. Just a timing thing.

chasut · November 14, 2025, 11:09pm

Yes.
Looking at some of the events, the espn+ example has both ESPN+ and ESPN_PLUS tags. They all have three live tags: Live, LIVE, and live. The ESPN show Pardon the Interruption, should that be a "Sports Event" or is there a different tag for non-event shows?

Doesn't seem to be getting picked up when the container starts. I just added some networks to the exclude_networks filter, with no change. The filters.ini is in the base directory. That is where I ran the generate_filter command. Should that be elsewhere, like /data?

KineticMan · November 15, 2025, 12:05am

Good catch. Will investigate.

bnhf · November 15, 2025, 7:22am

@KineticMan

I haven't had any luck identifying a deeplink for Re-Air events, so it would be great if we could filter those out. However, those events appear to carry a Live tag. Is this something that could be addressed?

KineticMan · November 15, 2025, 12:18pm

Bummer guys. I thought for sure one of those would work.

Yea I can improve on the tagging.
What would you define as “replay”? The APi scrape grabs a ton of info