HDMI for Channels

I experimented with changing the 4 back to a 3 and that did not work for me.

And I added one Channel that is interesting for MLB Alternate. The DTV channel I had to make it #214 not 213 or it tried to tune both. May not work for everyone if they have a 214, When 213 MLB was blacked out it went to 214 MLBA not NHL,

#EXTINF:-1 channel-id="214" tvc-guide-stationid="62085",MLB Network Alternate
http://{{ .IPADDRESS }}/play/tuner/214

In the interest of consistency, what would you think about using 213A as the channel number, and http://{{ .IPADDRESS }}/play/tuner/213A for the URL?

Sounds good Ill give it a try and see what happens

So far this looks good. Blackout worked on 213A also. I think its good to go, I will update if there is an issue going forward. Elegant solution!

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Have you looked into Amazon Prime live channels at all?

I'm tempted to try DTV Stream just to get an understanding how this all works.

Here's a docker-compose you can use in Portainer-Stacks:

version: '3.9'
services:
  ah4c:
    image: bnhf/ah4c:test2
    container_name: ah4c
    hostname: ah4c
    dns_search: localdomain # Specify the name of your LAN's domain, usually local or localdomain
    ports:
      - 5037:5037 # Port used by adb-server
      - 7654:7654 # Port used by this androidhdmi-for-channels proxy
      - 7655:8000 # Port used by ws-scrcpy
    environment:
      - IPADDRESS=${IPADDRESS} # Hostname or IP address of this androidhdmi-for-channels extension to be used in M3U file (also add port number if not in M3U)
      - NUMBER_TUNERS=${NUMBER_TUNERS} # Number of tuners you'd like defined 1, 2, 3 or 4 supported
      - TUNER1_IP=${TUNER1_IP} # Streaming device #1 with adb port in the form hostname:port or ip:port
      - TUNER2_IP=${TUNER2_IP} # Streaming device #2 with adb port in the form hostname:port or ip:port
      - TUNER3_IP=${TUNER3_IP} # Streaming device #3 with adb port in the form hostname:port or ip:port
      - TUNER4_IP=${TUNER4_IP} # Streaming device #4 with adb port in the form hostname:port or ip:port
      - ENCODER1_URL=${ENCODER1_URL} # Full URL for tuner #1 in the form http://hostname/stream or http://ip/stream
      - ENCODER2_URL=${ENCODER2_URL} # Full URL for tuner #2 in the form http://hostname/stream or http://ip/stream
      - ENCODER3_URL=${ENCODER3_URL} # Full URL for tuner #3 in the form http://hostname/stream or http://ip/stream
      - ENCODER4_URL=${ENCODER4_URL} # Full URL for tuner #4 in the form http://hostname/stream or http://ip/stream
      - STREAMER_APP=${STREAMER_APP} # Streaming device name and streaming app you're using in the form scripts/streamer/app (use lowercase with slashes between as shown)
      - CHANNELSIP=${CHANNELSIP} # Hostname or IP address of the Channels DVR server itself
      #- ALERT_SMTP_SERVER="smtp.gmail.com:587"
      #- ALERT_AUTH_SERVER="smtp.gmail.com"
      #- ALERT_EMAIL_FROM=""
      #- ALERT_EMAIL_PASS=""
      #- ALERT_EMAIL_TO=""
      #- ALERT_WEBHOOK_URL=""
      - UPDATE_SCRIPTS=${UPDATE_SCRIPTS} # Set to true if you'd like the sample scripts and STREAMER_APP scripts updated whether they exist of not
      - UPDATE_M3US=${UPDATE_M3US} # Set to true if you'd like the sample m3us updated whether they exist of not
      - TZ=${TZ} # Your local timezone in Linux "tz" format
    volumes:
      - /data/ah4c/scripts:/opt/scripts # pre/stop/bmitune.sh scripts will be stored in this bound host directory under streamer/app
      - /data/ah4c/m3u:/opt/m3u # m3u files will be stored here and hosted at http://<hostname or ip>:7654/m3u for use in Channels DVR - Custom Channels settings
      - /data/ah4c/adb:/root/.android # Persistent data directory for adb keys
    restart: unless-stopped

And, some example environment variables. Note you'd want to use /scripts/firetv/dtvstream for your STREAMER_APP variable (there are some slight differences when sat credentials are used, which is why mine is different). Other variables would be set to suit your setup:

Regarding the Amazon Prime Channels, I've looked at them but didn't see anything I couldn't live without.

Thanks.

I subscribe to some premium channel through prime which gives me access to the apps as well as linear channels. HBO Cinemax etc.

That definitely makes Prime channels more interesting. I'll have a look and let you know.

I never used prime channels either. Should be possible with voice commands tho

I posted here a few weeks ago about a webview app that someone had written to allow viewing Spectrum streams on Android/FIre TV devices. For those that don't know, Spectrum doesn't officially support those devices, I suspect due to exclusivity deals. I've since made some changes to the app myself to make it more useful for HDMI capture with Channels and similar DVRs. The main changes are to allow "tuning" to specific channels programatically via ADB and to automatically dismiss the "Still There?" dialog that pops up every 4 hours.

You can find my source code at GitHub - gigem/SpectrumTV_webview: Spectrum TV App for Android TV platform . The original author helped me create my changes but has not yet pulled them into his version. If anyone wants to try this and isn't able to build theire own apk, let me know and I'll try to include a prebuilt one.

Finally, there is one known issue. The app occasionally crashes causing a return to the home screen. In my testing, this only seemed to happen while viewing Bally Sports Southwest. I spent the better part of the last week trying to find the cause of the problem but was unsuccessful.

Unfortunately, I'm not able do any more testing for the next month or so as I cancelled my Spectrum service. I hopeto sign back up when the Disney and Bally Sports issues are resolved and I qualify for new user pricing again.

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OK, I have a working setup for Fire TV - Live TV channels which would include any premium channels subscribed to through Amazon Prime.

Which leads to a couple of questions:

Do you have a FireStick you can use on at least one of your HDMI Encoder ports?

If so, which specific premium services are you signed-up for?

I have Chromecast devices on a 4 port encoder. I have one Chromecast and port free for testing purposes.
The first 3 are in use with ADB tuner.

Currently I have HBO, Cinemax, Stars, MGM, AMC+

Too many I know.

I spent aite time today and installed the docker compose into portainer. I'm getting slightly more comfortable with it.

If you access one of your Chromecast devices, do you see the premium channels you're subscribed to show-up in the Google TV "Live TV" guide?

Looks like just the free stuff google is pushing. I have to open the Prime app to get the premium stuff.

If I need a FireTV in order for this to work, I will just order one. No Biggie.

I've only been testing with Starz so far, but I'll try one or two of your other services to confirm this approach works for them too.

In the meantime, I'd say go ahead and order a FireStick 4K Max as they're on sale atm for $27, and you can even trade-in various older devices for another 20% off.

Ordered

Is the FireTV required for this to work for DirecTV Stream?

I'm interested in finding a way to get my paid YTTV Sunday Ticket video into Channels. It doesn't seem like their will be an option like EPlus or similar for Sunday Ticket and it appears using an hdmi encoder is going to be the best way to accomplish this. Does anyone have this running yet? I've done a ton of work to get just about every other sports source that I can't get from a HDHomerun Prime with Xfinity into channels so I can use Tivimate to do multiview so I'm hoping I can get Sunday Ticket done.

Being discussed here:

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@Anvil_DVR

Well -- testing with MGM+ and Cinemax was disappointing, as there just doesn't seem to be any way to search for channels from either provider in the Live TV Guide. Starz on the other hand, is searchable and tunable from that search. Seems a bit weird, but that's what we're dealing with.

It's easy enough to tune a small list of LIve TV "favorite" channels, but to do this reliably takes about 1 second per move through the guide -- so after moving through 20-30 favorites, we're probably getting too slow. Overall, I think it's probably a bust, as you have a lot of premium channels.

You'd be better off I would think adding these premium channels to whatever streaming service you decide to use as your go-to. DTVStream would be one option, but I think most have these same premium channels available.

Ok, well thanks for looking into this.
I have considered alternatives. There are distinct advantages with Prime though.
I don't normally carry these many premiums, they just sort of piled up.
One interesting thing, I have HBO streaming from prime into the encoder for days now.
I'm surprised they don't shut it off after a period of time, or at least prompt to see if you are still watching.

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