FastChannels - FAST Channels aggregator/manager

[mjitkop]

@chDVRuser

Reminds me of my cable sub.

So true.

But, who knows, maybe someday one of your passes will catch something on one of those 1267 other channels.

That's the main reason why I like to have many channels. You just never know.

[jsfullam]

@chDVRuser

I have 1272 channels enabled from 15 different sources and only record from maybe 5 of those channels.

This is me, too. For those 5 channels you record from, I find that it's nice to have at least one duplicate of each to fall back to, just in case your main source craps out.

[SageLois]

The previous problems of recording only test-patterns because the stick went to sleep was resolved, thanks!

However, I was still getting recordings reverting to the home screen after about 5 minutes until I changed the setting "Stop playback when nobody's watching" to off.

Before that change:

2026-09-11 23:05:39,904 INFO     app.fc_player_bridge: [fc-player] idle-stop: pbs:a58c2765-7e77-4114-9668-75920022c6bc:ga-main:322c5341-6241-4c81-b8c5-f4e49f6427e9 idle >= 300s, stopping playback

So I made that change and got a full-length recording (yay!), but that results in the stream continuing on the same channel after the end of the scheduled recording until manually stopped. That could obviously use excess data.

So it appears that if "stop if nobody's watching" is enabled, recording isn't counted as "watching," and so the playback is stopped before the scheduled recording ends - and I get a recording that is mostly homescreen, and if it's disabled, it will play back forever until stopped manually.

[KineticMan]

Good catch! I'll improve upon detection during recordings.

[KineticMan]

Plex has aggressive rate limiting which leads to that error... They are by far the least reliable source on FC. I've done as much as I possibly can to cache stuff for them to prevent it, but it's been a battle since day 1. You'll see errors on normal scrapes from them sometimes, too...

[babsonnexus]

@babsonnexus

With NBC, I'm getting stations I'm not entitled to. I tried to play and got this:

2026-08-12 13:10:49,556 WARNING  app.routes.play: [nbc-tve-dash] resolve failed for necn: NBC TVE: Cox account is not entitled to necn.

I know it's like this on the web and apps, too, so don't know if there is much you can do without testing it first.

This is actually a bigger problem using Android Bridge. A station I'm not entitled to like NECN now just plays a blank screen forever, so there's no telling where the issue is.

Also, I'm getting the same blank screen for stations I am entitled to, like Bravo Vault. I'm wondering if the source feed is not actually DRM since it's a general FAST station, and that is causing issues with FC Player. It doesn't seem like FC Player can handle when it's not decrypting something, or trying to decrypt something it doesn't know quite how to handle.

@babsonnexus

Also, the Warner TVE stations will not show up on standard, Gracenote, or native playlists. They only appeared on the PrismCast ones.

WB is also getting more complicated in that it is showing as bridge available, but only for PrismCast, and not for Android.

This is happening even though the WB feeds that are in here shouldn't be DRM at all, based on what Channels can do.

Also, here's what it looks like in healthcheck when I have both Android and PrismCast turned on:

This means I can start a test with these stations that just ends up in the blank screen. On the other side, they won't show up in the Android Bridge feed:

This also happens with Cox, which is a much bigger item (As an aside, Cox is beginning the transition to Spectrum, so there might be some fun changes there). When I turn off PrismCast, FC Bridge looks like this:

However, when I disabled PrismCast, it turned off the stations entirely:

Thus, when I turned PrismCast back on, I had to manually enable all the stations again.

---

EDIT: And another thing I've just found is that when FC is pretty busy, it can fail doing the launch:

2026-09-12 16:02:46,173 INFO     gunicorn.access: 172.24.0.1 "GET /play/fc-player/pbs/7387eb2c-e0ce-4069-82d9-08865df87edf%3Aga-main%3Ad58dc481-1bd6-44d6-832d-9b51a6339d5a.m3u8?adb=10.255.1.168:5555 HTTP/1.1" 302 247 0s
2026-09-12 16:03:07,754 CRITICAL gunicorn.error: WORKER TIMEOUT (pid:905)

There's no fallback or try again there, so it just does nothing on the Android device.

[KineticMan]

i'll look into it more.. I hate that you peer pressured me into doing TVE!

[babsonnexus]

@turtletank

I had to share my adb keys with FastChannels to make this work. Added an extra volume to docker-compose.yml and put my adbkey and adbkey.pub in the adb_keys directory next to the compose file. Not sure if there is a better way to import keys into FastChannels.

This was unnecessary for me in the 5.2.x versions. When you set up a HDMI Capture device, and do the "Install FastChannel Player", it saves its own working adb_keys.

Note that I only did this with one streaming device, so I'm not sure how well FC will deal with a multi-device setup that isn't being handled by ah4c right now. @KineticMan, the ADBTuner API will allow you to ping the device list, too, so would love to be able to just use that instead to mix in with other ADBTuner stations and use ADBTuner's tuner management. Also, there's a push function to add a feed to ADBTuner's Passthrough function, so that could be the way to handle the connection.

---

@turtletank

Enable ah4c support, enter fake URL in box:
http://127.0.0.1
It seems this has to be enabled before FastChannels will provide a playlist of "bridge channels"?

Was not needed, just having the regular single HDMI Capture works the same. As a side note,I set the capture up with my LinkPi's stream...

... and it works perfectly fine when playing directly in clients like VLC. Again, just with a single, so an issue in a multi-device environment, as others have discussed above.

@turtletank

Add Vidaa source:

Not needed as I'm specifically using this with the TVE sources:

---

@turtletank

1. Add Configuration
   http://x.x.x.x:5592/ui/configurations

{
  "name": "FastChannels Player",
  "description": "",
  "author": "",
  "version": "",
  "uuid": "103f3173-d7a5-46a0-91d0-6eb42709caf9",
  "global_options": {
    "wait_for_video_playback_detection": true,
    "use_fixed_delay": false
  },
  "pre_tune_commands": [],
  "tune_commands": [
    {
      "HTTP": {
        "method": "GET",
        "action": "||TARGET_URL_OR_IDENTIFIER||?adb=||TARGET_DEVICE_IP_ADDRESS||:5555",
        "timeout": 30
      }
    },
    {
      "WAIT_FOR_FOCUS": {
        "package_name": "||TARGET_PACKAGE_NAME||"
      }
    }
  ],
  "tune_match_text_commands": [],
  "post_playback_start_commands": [],
  "post_tune_commands": [
    "am start -n com.fastchannels.player/.PlaybackActivity --es command warm_stop"
  ],
  "timed_keep_active_commands": []
}

I modified this to add a "input keyevent KEYCODE_HOME" line at the end of the post_tune_commands.

If you don't do this, the blank FC Player will just stay up on the screen and it will look like it is frozen or broken.

@KineticMan, you can also push configurations into ADBTuner through the API, so something to consider. Or you can do as HENA does and have a repository that can be subscribed to. Just food for thought!

---

@turtletank

Add Passthrough Channel List

This works well, and I see the manual refresh button, but I'd recommend an automatic refresh every 24 hours like with subscribed configurations.

Overall, I had no issues that were ADBTuner related. The stations started and stopped fine, acted like all other ADBTuner stations, and respected when tuners were full. The only issue I had was when FC had a hiccup and wouldn't play, which resulted in a timeout in ADBTuner.

@babsonnexus

And another thing I've just found is that when FC is pretty busy, it can fail doing the launch:

2026-09-12 16:02:46,173 INFO     gunicorn.access: 172.24.0.1 "GET /play/fc-player/pbs/7387eb2c-e0ce-4069-82d9-08865df87edf%3Aga-main%3Ad58dc481-1bd6-44d6-832d-9b51a6339d5a.m3u8?adb=10.255.1.168:5555 HTTP/1.1" 302 247 0s
2026-09-12 16:03:07,754 CRITICAL gunicorn.error: WORKER TIMEOUT (pid:905)

There's no fallback or try again there, so it just does nothing on the Android device.

PBS Main (WGBH) on Link Pi ENC1-V3 at Sep 12, 2026, 4:01 PM
   +0.00s  localhost:7968 | Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:155.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/155.0
   +0.00s  No active tuners found for PBS Main (WGBH). Reserving a new tuner.
   +0.00s  Attempting to reserve tuner for: ['com.fastchannels.player'].
   +0.00s  Available Tuners:
   +0.00s  Name: Link Pi ENC1-V3 Priority: 1
   +0.00s  Using first available tuner (by priority).
   +0.00s  Reserved Tuner: Name: Link Pi ENC1-V3 Priority: 1
   +0.00s  Tuning to PBS Main (WGBH) on Link Pi ENC1-V3
   +0.01s  Using channel configuration: FastChannels Player (103f3173-d7a5-46a0-91d0-6eb42709caf9)
   +0.04s  MPEG null packets mode: Redirecting immediately to /proxy/1?requestKey=aMXvjnqyi9pSFx6qScLosy
   +0.20s  ADB: 10.255.1.168 - pidof com.fastchannels.player
   +0.26s  Using http://10.255.1.144:7969/play/fc-player/pbs/7387eb2c-e0ce-4069-82d9-08865df87edf%3Aga-main%3Ad58dc481-1bd6-44d6-832d-9b51a6339d5a.m3u8 to load channel.
   +0.26s  Executing pre-tune commands: []
   +0.26s  Executing tune commands: [{'type': 'HTTP', 'method': 'GET', 'action': 'http://10.255.1.144:7969/play/fc-player/pbs/7387eb2c-e0ce-4069-82d9-08865df87edf%3Aga-main%3Ad58dc481-1bd6-44d6-832d-9b51a6339d5a.m3u8?adb=10.255.1.168:5555', 'timeout': 30.0}, {'type': 'WAIT_FOR_FOCUS', 'package_name': 'com.fastchannels.player'}]
  +33.04s  ERROR: HTTP request failed: timed out
  +33.04s  Waiting for focus on package: com.fastchannels.player
  +48.97s  Maximum focus wait time exceeded. Exiting.
  +48.97s  ADB: Stopping media playback.
  +48.97s  ADB: 10.255.1.168 - input keyevent KEYCODE_MEDIA_STOP
  +49.04s  ADB: 10.255.1.168 - input keyevent KEYCODE_MEDIA_PAUSE
  +49.12s  Released tuner (1).
  +49.13s  Tuning completed after 49.13 seconds. Maximum wait time exceeded. Display was on, application (com.fastchannels.player) was running.

---

I have removed for now so am pausing my testing here to allow updates on all fronts before trying to parse through PLM and Channels and know for sure how things are going. One request: it would be useful to have an auto-playlist that just excludes the passthrough stations, and one that is only the passthrough stations (I know I can get this from the feed tags, but there a mix of stuff right now and I might end up with multiple of these passthroughs depending upon how I set the final choice). The reason for this is that I'm having station overlap with my sources, and I want to be able to prioritize them in PLM while maintaining all options. In other words, for something like NBC, Local OTA Station > Passthrough FC > HENA (both the last two inside ADBTuner), but all options available for me using fallback feeds.

[babsonnexus]

@KineticMan

I hate that you peer pressured me into doing TVE!

Oh, you think I'm pressuring you now?! And here I thought I was being nice and giving you time by not bringing up all the other stations and websites you could should and must be providing

[speedingcheetah]

Plex been fine for most of the time, its my secondary source of content, mainly due to, when FC first came out, giving me the easy ability to see the stats of the stream provided, learned that Plex tended to be 1080p and higher bitrate on the channels i wanted, vs Pluto 720p.

However, i guess, same as with Pluto, Plex been changing things to making it less reliable and more a pain to work with.

Pluto still remains my main source of fast channels, just simply because they have 98% of the content specific channels i have interest in. If Pluto fully goes away from Channels DVR, will be very sad day for me. I really do not like the Pluto TV app just to randomly stream Star Trek or South Park in the background....

[KineticMan]

@babsonnexus

WB is also getting more complicated in that it is showing as bridge available, but only for PrismCast, and not for Android.

intersting wrinkle here... i think their commercials are clear-hls and main program are DRM. not sure how i'm going to handle this one.

so lets say u stream audit during a commerical break, you'll get wildly different outcome than if it was during the DRM time.

[chDVRuser]

@KineticMan

main program are DRM

?
TBS, TNT and TruTV work with Channels DVR TVE.

[KineticMan]

i'm saying some channels turn on DRM during the "main event" of a channel, but the commericals on that channel are NOT drm (just clear hls).

[rpaulmerrell]

The player decoding just needs to be able to transition between DRM and non-drm content. Sounds challenging but being that the ads are targeted, that would be a challenge.
Not good.

[KineticMan]

luckily, it does it already.. my early experiment with Kodi failed hard on that.

my point about DRM vs non-DRM is during Stream Audit. if Stream Audit samples a channel during an ad-break, and ad-break is non-DRM, it could flag the channel improperly. i think i have an idea thou

[KineticMan]

to be clear-- I don't officially support ADBTuner. I've never used it. There's some good ideas in here, but at this time focusing efforts on AH4C integration.

[babsonnexus]

Just saw the feature requests on the repo and to be clear on my end, I was mostly making requests to @turtletank for things that I'd like to see ADBTuner do with its FastChannels integration, except where I specifically pinged you, in which case those were truly FC requests. Basically, those were:

• Replicate what you are doing around ah4c with ADBTuner to get the base multiple streaming sticks
• Host the single configuration file needed to use FCP with ADBTuner's Passthrough stations and push to ABDTuner (or push to have ADBTuner auto-pull, which it can already do)
• Have a push to ADBTuner button for an appropriate feed

Everything else was either for ADBTuner to do, or is already being done by ADBTuner and/or PLM. No need to add any of that to your plate!

[s7s6]

How do you install this easily, all this is a bragging on what it may do, I dont see any instructions

[bnhf]

@s7s6

I dont see any instructions

See post #1 in this thread, under "Instructions - Docker"

[s7s6]

What is Docker?

" Docker

If you're new to Docker, don't worry—it's easier than it looks. There are plenty of guides online, and your favorite chatbot can walk you through it.

No environment variables are required.

docker run -d \
  --name fastchannels \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 5523:5523 \
  -v fastchannels_data:/data \
  ghcr.io/kineticman/fastchannels:latest
```"   



this tells me nothing