HDMI for Channels

[KompilerDJ]

Got the antenna ordered. This is happening at a good time as FOX started playing games on Hulu when tuning into prime time shows they show a black animated video that instructs to view the show on Fox's site directly. Seems that would violate some kind of agreement with Hulu but what do I know.

[johnofcamas]

Holy cow man, get that Patreon page up!

[johnofcamas]

Fox has been increasingly aggressive about shutting down streaming avenues that aren't basically directly from them

[GTFan]

@Edwin_Perez

Why not set the ONN never to sleep ?

adb -s %device% shell settings put secure sleep_timeout 0

I have my Onn to never sleep but I've seen it go to sleep anyway even with that set, so now I have a once per hour keep alive script that either hits home or d-pad center (if the app is running, this is harmless with the NBC app). I want this anyway because that way the NBC app doesn't time out if it's recording a long video.

You also don't want it to sleep because there can be weird video sync issues that occasionally happen between the encoder and the Onn when it wakes up to do a recording. Stuff like channels seeing the video as 1300+ plus minutes long etc.

[Jas]

Late (early?) to this party. Very interested in HDMI for Channels. My (early days) experience with TVE (xfinity) was pretty hit/miss (mostly miss as I had to re-authenticate every few weeks). My beloved HomerunHD Prime cable card solution days are (likely) numbered. (Because of where I live, xfinity is my only viable option, cheaper than Starlink [for now]). So connecting up ChannelsDVR to some type of HDMI capture device would be fantastic! (Mostly replying on this thread to keep getting the updates!) Appreciate all the efforts and innovation.

[Edwin_Perez]

You might want to look into ADBTuner ... I use it with XFINITY Stream.

ADBTuner: A "channel tuning" application for networked Google TV / Android TV devices - Playground - Channels Community (getchannels.com)

[jator]

Newbie to this HDMI Capture Stuff. Picked up this device:
HDMI Capture Device

Got an OON installed just to see if I can setup the link into Channel from HDMI Capture Device:

However, when I try and install in Channels, I get the following error:

Any help would be appreciated.

PS, also tried using the HLS link with the HLP format in Channels, similar error.

[KompilerDJ]

Your source should point to a .m3u file. Channels gets the MPEG TS ultimately from the m3u file. You can either point to one of the files on the proxy or feed it a block of text by changing URL to text. Heres how mine is setup:

[jator]

Thanks. Can you clarify "one of the files on the proxy"? I was looking to feed directly from the Capture Device into Channels. If that's not possible, is there a How-To on how to setup the proxy (assuming 3rd party app/script perhaps)?

[bnhf]

@jator

I was looking to feed directly from the Capture Device into Channels.

No, sorry, that's not possible. The proxy is what makes an HDMI capture device into a virtual tuner. We don't really have a how-to at this point, but we will at some point. What app are you hoping to use on your onn device?

[jator]

I misunderstood the original post in this thread:

@tmm1

I picked one up to try it out, and it works quite well. You can choose between H264/H265, select the bitrate and a lot of other options. It exposes a simple url http://x.x.x.x/0.ts which can be fed directly into a Custom Channel for streaming into Channels DVR.

My goal is minimally to have the ability to feed NFL Games that I plan on purchasing through YTTV through it so that I can watch the games in any room. I'll rely on a BT remote to tune to the different games I want to watch on the OON device (i know, old school), but that's my minimum requirement.

Eventually I'd like to be able to pull other channels that I can't get through the TVE interface that I otherwise have access to through my provider (currently HULU but thinking of switching over to Fubo given their "on the go" feature). If I did that, then I would want to implement the whole ADBTuner initiative, but that's a hill to climb for another day.

[johnofcamas]

Hey @jator (cc @KompilerDJ and @bnhf ).. I finally pushed my blog post re: putting all of this together (at least for URayCoder and onnTV 4k with YouTube TV).

HDMI -> Channels DVR

[bnhf]

@johnofcamas

I finally pushed my blog post re: putting all of this together

Nice work! I like the simplicity of your scripts atm. You may find they need to be expanded some to handle special "scenarios" as they arise -- but hopefully not. If you do find situations that aren't handled currently, reach out to me or @KompilerDJ as we may be able to point you in the right direction.

One thing I noticed from the M3U snippet you posted a while back is that you hard coded the proxy IP into the M3U like this (which is missing the port # btw):

http://192.168.1.128/play/tuner/aRGFZpHQkzY

I'd suggest you use the original variable instead from the example I sent you:

http://{{ .IPADDRESS }}/play/tuner/aRGFZpHQkzY

This picks up the IPADDRESS environment variable from the Portainer-Stack.

Also, we figured out that comments can be added to M3U using "# " (hash followed by a space) -- which is handy for identifying local channels east/west feeds or anything else that you might want as a reminder for you or someone else using your M3U.

[johnofcamas]

@bnhf

One thing I noticed from the M3U snippet you posted a while back is that you hard coded the proxy IP into the M3U like this (which is missing the port # btw):

I will make sure to correct that in the M3U post that's coming next!

[bnhf]

@jator

My goal is minimally to have the ability to feed NFL Games that I plan on purchasing through YTTV through it so that I can watch the games in any room. I'll rely on a BT remote to tune to the different games I want to watch on the OON device (i know, old school), but that's my minimum requirement.

OK, I get where you're coming from now, and you can actually do that. Add a custom channel with something like this for a text based M3U:

Use whatever channel-id and name you want, and then use the encoder URL directly. The channel will show-up in your guide blank, with no guide data. It's crude, but should do what you're asking.

[johnofcamas]

You and I both, we'll have to wait to see what the unique YouTube TV Channel IDs are going to be for NFL Sunday Ticket games.

[jator]

@bnhf

@jator

My goal is minimally to have the ability to feed NFL Games that I plan on purchasing through YTTV through it so that I can watch the games in any room. I'll rely on a BT remote to tune to the different games I want to watch on the OON device (i know, old school), but that's my minimum requirement.

OK, I get where you're coming from now, and you can actually do that. Add a custom channel with something like this for a text based M3U:

Use whatever channel-id and name you want, and then use the encoder URL directly. The channel will show-up in your guide blank, with no guide data. It's crude, but should do what you're asking.

Thanks, that's what I was looking for. Tested and I'm able to show content on my "dummy" channel. Now just have to wait for the season to start.....

[alai]

@jator

My goal is minimally to have the ability to feed NFL Games that I plan on purchasing through YTTV through it so that I can watch the games in any room.

Are you aware that this should be achievable through the YTTV app since they're allowing unlimited Sunday Ticket streams from your home IP? I'm not dismissing your use case for piping them through Channels since there are plenty of other reasons you'd want to do so, just wanted to maybe save you some trouble if you didn't know!

[bnhf]

@bnhf

For now it's only amd64 in ah4c:test, but once I've put it through a few more paces I'll build it for all architectures

Okey-dokey, there's now a multi-arch version of bnhf/ah4c:test that includes ws-scrcpy (the websocket version of scrcpy) -- so please give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

I really like it myself, as it adds the ability to control my firestick devices directly from anywhere. I recommend opening a shell session (which will open in a new tab) before starting the "stream" in the current browser tab. That way, if you want to send an ADB command instead of using mouse-clicks or having the keyboard interact with the device, it's easy to do.

No need to use a remote control or remote control app! Protected and/or DRM'd video streams will not show in ws-scrcpy, but all the menus and pop-ups do -- so it should work well for entering credentials or recovering from unanticipated scenarios:

ah4c with ws scrcpy demo 2023 08 15 HD

The container image size has been reduced 10x as well.

[themediaguy]

Is there a docker container for this?