ESPN+ & FOX Sports with Custom Channels via EPlusTV

[JayHeavner]

Question, it's up and running and that's great. If my docker container restarts for whatever reason, will I need to reauthenticate with ESPN with the code? If that's the case, is there a way to send a notification alerting me that I need to reauthenticate? I've got this running on a mostly unattended desktop but I can't guarantee it won't reboot for some random Windows reason.

Follow up question, how long with the ESPN authentication last? Even if the container stays up indefinitely, will the underlying connection need to be reauthenticated?

It's an awesome product. Keep up the good work!

[rpaulmerrell]

Hi there,
I think it is going to depend. I have the latest version of the container and i did have to activate once again. The docker works great.

[rpaulmerrell]

Hi there,
Just moved over to Hulu plus live tv and noticed tha ti have to re-authorize the ESPN+ docker continer about every couple of days.
Wanted to know if i'm missing something?
I really like having all these sporting events alone with the great support through TVE.

[rpaulmerrell]

Hi there, j
Lookslike my token expired. I was looking over the ESPN plus appin Synology control panel and the container name is different each time it is started or created.
The access is great but i'm unsure why it stops. I get the white screen telling me my event will start in a minute but it never comes.
What change do i need to make on this end?
Love the idea.

[jagrim]

My authorization normally lasts 1-2 days. To reauthorize, I delete the tokens file in the eplustv folder, then just just hit the restart button in the container, wait a minute then get the new code from the log. I specifically record (3) teams on ESPN+. Since I know when most of the games are, I reauthorize on game day. I'm not sure why it loses it authorization since my ATV & Firesticks very rarely lose authorization.

The only time I have seen the container name change is when I recreate the container without 1st deleting the old container. I’m sure there is a better way to update to the latest version but it works; just remember to delete the old container first.

[rpaulmerrell]

Thanks for the hint.
I will get it authorized today for a nice full day of sporting events.

[augie0041]

Does anyone know if this can be run on a raspberry pi? If so, could anyone please recommend some kind of tutorial or list of steps i could try in order to do so?

[m0ngr31]

@augie0041 I haven't personally tried running on a Raspberry Pi, but the docker container supports it so I'd be interested to see how it performs.

@rpaulmerrell @jagrim @JayHeavner There is a bug with the auth tokens refreshing. I need to figure out where it's breaking. Shouldn't be too crazy to figure out

[cam]

I'm looking for a little help. I'm trying to get this to work on a M1 Mac using Docker Desktop for Mac with Silicon. This is the run command I've tried the most (played around some):
docker run -p 8000:8000 -v config_dir:/app/config -e START_CHANNEL=4000 m0ngr31/eplustv

The first time I run it in the morning I'll get the code to activate it in a browser. It will then pull in the games but they're assigned to channels 1 - 100. They show up in the guide in the Channels DVR browser and won't play. They don't show up on the guide on the TV after added to Custom Channels. The 4000 channels do but don't show the games in the guide, Just the EPlusTV logo and channel number. When I try to play the channel it shows "Event Will Start Soon". I know others have experienced this. Does this just not work on the Mac M1 or ? I've read through this thread multiple times and spent a good deal of time on this. I'm not experienced Docker user at all.

I'm using these in Channels Custom Channels set up, using the ip address of my Channels DVR setup.
192.168.1.89:8000/channels.m3u
192.168.1.89:8000/xmltv.xml

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[marcuscthomas]

When setting up the custom channel did you select "prefer channel number from M3U" or "ignore channel number from M3U"?

In my setup, I have it set to "Ignore channel number from M3U and the channels appear in the guide at 11001-11100 and play fine when I click on them. I have no idea why or how they are mapped to the 11,000 range of channel numbers. I don't have the environment variable START_Channel set at all.

[cam]

I tried running it with "ignore channel number from M3U" and they appeared in the guide starting at 9000. That was an improvement of sorts. I did set the start channel for that at one time, but realized that Pluto TV used those channel numbers so had changed it to start at channel number 4000. I'm guessing they wouldn't play since they were running over another channel. I've run this so many time it's probably just grabbing the older code and I have no idea where it resides or what the command might be to delete it. They also appeared starting at channel 1 and on, also unable to play. As I said, not experienced in docker at all. Thanks for you help.

[m0ngr31]

I just pushed an update that should hopefully fix some of the issues that were happening with tokens refreshing

[rpaulmerrell]

Thanks for pushing out the update. i will check in on my docker.

[jagrim]

Great work on the reauthorization issue.

I updated to your latest version this am but tweaked my update procedure.

Synology running DSM6.

Deleted old container without deleting the json token. Launched new version and installed. Checked log for code-no code but had the following log entries:

Refreshing device token
Refreshing device refresh token
Refreshing BAM access token

Launched a stream and watched for a couple of minutes then closed stream.

Checked log and about 4 minutes later had the following entries:
Refreshing auth token
Refreshing device token
Refreshing device refresh token
Refreshing BAM access token

So far so good.
Thanks for the work you put in!!!

[carterbunch]

So I have updated to latest build. But I am unable to get a stream. Everything indicates that it is grabbing stream but I never shows up in the web player or channels client.

Here's my docker compose that I have been using for a long time.

version: "2"
services:
  eplustv:
    image: m0ngr31/eplustv:latest
    container_name: espnPLUS-for-channels
    environment:
      - ACCESS_URI='http://mac-mini.local:8000'
      - ESPN_USER=XXX
      - ESPN_PASS=XXX
      - START_CHANNEL=8000
    ports:
      - 8000:8000
    volumes:
      - /Users/XXX/docker/espnPLUS-for-channels/config:/app/config
volumes:
  config:

[jagrim]

1st, , I know nothing about running docker on a Mac Mini but I'll give it a shot.

It looks like you are putting your user name / password in your script. I'm pretty sure that is your problem as they are no longer required per the readme file on GitHub.

After you start the container, wait about a minute then go to the container log and get the token code. Activate that code on the espn.com activation website - the log will show you the correct site. Presto, it works.

So all you have to do is get the token from the log, enter it at the espn activation site, then log in with your account info to authorize.

Maybe someone else can tell you how to see your container log.

PS: I’m on a Synology NAS and it’s working great right now.

[carterbunch]

I appear to be getting a valid token.

Refreshing device token
Refreshing device refresh token
Refreshing BAM access token

And the DVR seems to get a valid stream

There is an active event. Going to start the stream.
Channel has upcoming event. Setting timer to start
Stream for Channel 8003 started on PID:  28

But I only see the splash screen (Your Event will start soon) and it never transitions to the live feed.

This used to work before I pulled the latest build to do the auto refresh of the token.

[m0ngr31]

Try navigating to another channel and going back to the one that just started

[jagrim]

Another thing to check is the event actually on. Check play on the espn app Then find that event in Channels. The Event Splash screen should pop up and the event should start playing. That normally takes about 6-9 secs for me.

When I’m on the FTV, the Splash Screen pops up, then the timeline bar pops up. When it fades out, the stream normally starts.

[carterbunch]

Yeah tried that. It plays on the ESPN app or website, but not through channels. Although it appears that it is capturing the stream as seen by the activity monitor of channels.