I'm not seeing a FAST service nor mention of it in any of the articles; only seeing the On-Demand stuff. SLM has already picked those up as new providers...
... but I might have to do something special to get their deep links (assuming JustWatch's app is actually set up to accept deep links). The streams themselves are DRM, so SLM Streams are out of the question.
EDIT:
Stream Link generation is now working as of SLM v2026.10.21.1113. Haven't tested if they actually open the app, though.
Dammit, you're right. I misunderstood the "free" part.
Non sequitur here -- OT too hope that's okay -- to any reader that has an informed opinion...
Okay, so the FastChannels docker container is unbelievably awesome, which we all know and agree with here. It has changed the landscape of both Channels and Emby for me. FastChannels is the only Docker container I've every run that I found to be "can't live without" so the only one I run.
The Question: What other Docker Images/Containers could / should I also run that I'm missing out on to enhance Channels and/or Emby even further ?
I'll give you one. I still have an operational legacy Slingbox with composite analog video out from the cable box feeding it, as well as have Slinger able to restream its "raw" feed. So I have access to Spectrum that way without DRM. That stream however is seriously "raw". It needs to be restreamed with ffmpeg to add critical metadata to the stream thereby make it consumable and recordable within either Channels or Emby. I've done that reprocessing with physical files I saved from Slinger, but tried and failed using a Docker container to restream it in realtime. I'm now eager to tackle that again. And make Custom Channels within FastChannels (see how I came back full circle? Hehe) that will tune my cable box to the correct channel using a Slinger URL request in the .m3u file for the channel.
Eager to hear everyone's favorite Docker containers I should also run. Thanx!
oh man .. I think I still have my old one somewhere in the box of old electronics. That'd be a fun project to dig out -- maybe hook it up to a HDMI encoder or something?
My other main containers is Stream Link Manager and AH4C (to drive the encoders). I used to use PrismCast but my main machine is a bit too underpowered to have a good experience with it.
The Question: What other Docker Images/Containers could / should I also run that I'm missing out on to enhance Channels and/or Emby even further ?
Ehh...depends on your setup and what you need. Eplus, olivetin, FDL, adbtuner, mlbserver, a few bridges (including the PBS bridge), slm and dispatcharr is in my stack.
Thats basically it for me. So far, so good on that front.
I figure if it can be integrated to Plex with a corrected/converted stream it can be integrated to Channels & Emby thru FastChannels. One example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/slingbox/comments/xhy710/plex_live_tv_integration_with_slingbox/ [preview removed]
needing this instead of an HDMI encoder (which may have DRM issues): GitHub - GerryDazoo/Slinger: Reuse SlingBox hardware without SlingBox Servers · GitHub
However if you hadn't gotten your admin password from that old device using the Sling org's Username+Password authentication before it was shutdown...
Slinger/sb-pwd.md at main · GerryDazoo/Slinger · GitHub [preview removed]
...I'm not sure if you can use Slinger. Tho consider me a neophite with all this stuff; maybe it can be attained another way if you don't have it already. Then I assume a component video encoder is needed, which I do have.
Thanx for that. I haven't tackled the DRM/ah4c variables yet. But will. My media server is an i7-12700k machine with 128 GB of RAM so I'll look into PrismCast then too. [ -- w/ 224 TB total of a mix of Seagate IronWolf HDDs and about 3 dozen gigs of it SSD/NVMe as those IronWolf dives really make a crunching sound when recording small packets of streaming video, so have to record to an SSD array to keep this media server silent... tho none of that any bearing here, just flexing a little, haha -- ]
Much thanx for the continued engagement.
A good list. I'll check them all. Thanks!
I discovered everything I needed to about all the others, except FDL. Is there a longer name for it? What is that short for? Thanx
Fruit Deeplinks
@babsonnexus asked for more sources, so this release has more sources. Fifteen new ones, most of them on his wishlist. If your Sources page suddenly needs a scroll bar, you know who to thank.
Plenty of networks stream free on their own websites but have never been on Roku, Pluto or Samsung. Each one is a few channels, too small for a source of its own, so Free Networks puts them in one place: 35 networks and 140+ channels.
Each network is fetched on its own and has its own time limit, so if one site goes down the rest keep working, and a short outage on a network's channel list doesn't disable its channels. You can switch off individual networks on the source card. Guides come from the network when it publishes one, from Gracenote when the channel has an ID, and otherwise you get named placeholder blocks.
Free Networks is off by default. Turn it on under Sources.
Free
Subscription / account
TV provider (TV Everywhere)
Every new source is off by default. Several use the DRM bridge (FastChannels Player); the Sources page now shows which ones, and groups sources by how you get them (free, account, subscription, TV provider, custom).
FastChannels Player is now 5.2.12, and you need to update it on your Fire Sticks. Versant's streams change their DRM key in the middle of playback, and older players stopped about a second in with a "Crypto key not available" error. 5.2.12 also installs on older Fire OS 6 sticks (Android 7.1).
To update: Bridge → FastChannels Player devices, then Update to 5.2.12 on each device, or Update all. No sideloading needed.
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d
Full release notes: Release v5.7.0 "The babsonnexus Edition" · kineticman/FastChannels · GitHub
Thanks to babsonnexus for the list/work. Everyone else, let me know what breaks, especially with Free Networks: 35 websites that each do their own thing means something is always about to change.
Just wanted to let you know that the Spectrum login worked great! Thank you!
Whenever you act on one of my suggestions, it seems you far exceed my imagination on how to implement it. I really like the revamped Duplicate Helper.
cool - unsure how the automatic resign process will work though - keep an eye on logs.
The ESPN filters really helped in managing the number of required channels for a specific sport and I really appreciate that. Right now I'm concentrating on (1) pass but would affect others passes that I use.
This screenshot is from my CDVR schedule for this evening. The game is the same for both. The top entry is using FC and the lower is from FDL/ADBTuner. My preference is the FDL look. Both are scheduled thru an advanced pass with the criteria in the 2nd image. I had to add the "Louisiana vs." Title rule to add the FC channel to the pass. I could have used just Louisiana but I didn’t want to hide the other 7 state schools.
The passes are easily managed with a little intervention but I'm hoping for a future non- intervention type pass. This is great work!!!
Incredible update! Thanks for your work.
These are the first new TVE sources I tried, but I'm seeing some errors. Versant is giving me an error when trying to log in with DirecTV. I tried a few other providers and it successfully generated a phone sign in QR code, so not sure if this is just a temporary issue with DTV:
Not signed in yet. Last attempt failed just now: Versant: 400 Client Error: Bad Request for url: https://sp.auth.adobe.com/api/v2/sparkmedia/sessions
I'm also seeing Gunicorn "Request line is too large" errors for the CNN source:
2026-10-23 11:46:42,034 INFO app.worker: [audit] cnn_tve: checking 3 channels (scope=linear, events skipped=0)…
2026-10-23 11:46:49,711 INFO app.worker: [audit] cnn_tve: done — total=3 checked=3 flagged=0 bridged=0 dead=0 vod=0 not_authorized=0 errors=0 skipped_403=0
2026-10-23 11:47:14,897 INFO app.routes.play: [play] request_id=56b8b189980338da ip=172.31.0.1 source=cnn_tve channel_id=cnn channel_name=CNN
2026-10-23 11:47:15,765 WARNING gunicorn.error: Invalid request from ip=172.31.0.1: Request Line is too large (4108 > 4094)
2026-10-23 11:47:19,734 WARNING gunicorn.error: Invalid request from ip=172.31.0.1: Request Line is too large (8192 > 4094)
2026-10-23 11:49:59,374 INFO app.routes.play: [play] request_id=412a5df490e3aaf4 ip=172.31.0.1 source=cnn_tve channel_id=cnn channel_name=CNN
2026-10-23 11:50:01,796 INFO gunicorn.access: 172.31.0.1 "GET /play/cnn_tve/cnn.m3u8 HTTP/1.1" 302 2369 2s
2026-10-23 11:50:02,233 WARNING gunicorn.error: Invalid request from ip=172.31.0.1: Request Line is too large (4108 > 4094)
great feedback - i can fix both. tnx
Question about the HDHomerun source. What if you have 2 HDHomeruns?
Excellent project BTW!
Pushed 5.7.1. Please get it a whirl - should fix your bugs I hope
No support for two currently. I’ve had a few folks ask- guess I should figure it out.
