HDMI for Channels

Playground Hardware
#53

Do you have the ir part of things worked out for the foxtel box? Are you able to send it any commands using the mac mini? If so how?

1 Like
#54

Not really, I can control the box via the harmony app - but I believe one of the other devs/creators of channelsdvrs made a project to control harmony over http so could possibly utilise that.

Only thing I’m not sure of that is how the harmony api project will go handling having to send 3 separate ir commands per channel tuned when the tmm1’s project detects the channel has been changed.

I guess I’ll find out if I get to that point when I give it a crack :joy:

How are you going with your setup? All done or still working on it?

1 Like
#55

Ever wanted Twitch streams in Channels?

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d twitch://stream/STREAMERNAME tv.twitch.android.viewer

1 Like
#56

That’s super cool but just FYI this is also possible without having to control an external HDMI box, via hlstube, which works for YouTube Live as well as Twitch streams:

3 Likes
#57

Does anyone know if closed captions are transmitted on these encoder devices?

1 Like
#58

If you turn them on at the source. HDMI does not have a separate 'track' for captions/subtitles.

2 Likes
Which Sources/Content Support Captions (and which do not)
#59

That’s what I figured :frowning:

1 Like
#60

Purchased this HDMI encoder today and seems to be working really great! I’m using these settings. And kind of tweaked the bitrate but to 7000 but was wondering if I should go higher or change any of these other settings to work better and/or get better quality?

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iseevy H.265 H.264 HDMI Video Encoder HDMI to IP for IPTV, Live Stream, Broadcast Support RTMP RTMPS RTSP RTP UDP HTTP FLV HLS TS SRT Protocols and Live Wowza https://a.co/d/hfZkvbz

4 Likes
#61

I would change Bitrate Control to VBR. I used 6000 bitrate but up to 8000 is pretty reasonable I think.

1 Like
#62

Copy that. Appreciate that advice.

2 Likes
#63

What should the bitrate for the audio be?

#64

The idea of using a cheap Android TV device (or Android phone that supports HDMI out) to serve up app content using intents and/or virtual keyboard is really interesting. There is soooo much app-restricted content that could be fed thru Channels that could be useful to do so..... Nest/Wyze cams, Xfinity Stream app, TiVo app, IPTV streams from those "free cable" apps....

#65

What about HDCP? Do these devices enable streaming of HDCP-requiring sources?

2 Likes
#66
1 Like
#67

I haven’t tried anything with HDCP device like a cable box. But my Apple TV just thinks it’s a TV output and its showing all content doesn’t matter from where. I would think it would just work but if not a hdmi splitter would strip HDCP from the signal. There are a few out there on Amazon that does it.

#68

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I bought a SwitchBot Hub Mini and controlling my Apple TV remotely, super flawlessly. Pretty sick!

SwitchBot Hub Mini Smart Remote - IR Blaster, Link SwitchBot to Wi-Fi (Support 2.4GHz), Control TV, Air Conditioner, Compatible with Alexa, Google Home, IFTTT https://a.co/d/1UN5wQH

#69

I’ve got some “Chromecast with Google TV” devices I haven’t been using, would those work for this too? Pretty sure the answer is yes, just making sure.

1 Like
#70

Yes. I checked with mine just to check video into the encoder then switched to my Apple TV. But yes it does work.

3 Likes
#71

I understand that Channels DVR can use a dedicated Android Box (Onn,Nvidia Shield,FireTV?) connected to an IPTV tuner to stream content, basically by using voice commands like "Play USA on Youtube TV" - SageTV has been doing something like this for a few years - but is there a comprehensive write-up somewhere for the entire process? Does the full capability exist right now? Do I have to piece it together by combing through the forums? Could this be added natively to Channels so we don't have to do this ourselves?

Also, on a related note, could this capability be used with YoutubeTV's cloud DVR to effectively import recorded shows into Channels (non real time) so that they could be comskipped? With this capability, you could get by with a single TV Box/IPTV encoder if these imports were limited to occur when no one is watching TV (12AM - 6AM) then the same single encoder could be used to also stream liveTV for those DRMed channels into Channels DVR - just a thought...

Also is there a comprehensive list of IPTV encoders that are known to work? and a 4K/HEVC version?

4 Likes
#72

Cool, good to know. I was thinking about the ADB functionality though, for sending remote commands. I'm assuming it'd work identically to the Onn 4K, but I guess I'll find out soon enough :slight_smile: