Introducing PrismCast: Browser-based Live TV Capture for Channels DVR and Plex

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On Windows or MacOS, you should definitely give it a shot. On Linux, given the less-than-fabulous support for using a GPU in Chrome, I doubt you'd be much ahead. I installed it early-on directly in a Debian LXC and that worked fine, but no GPU-based hardware acceleration as usual.

That tells you that you're not using the correct Profile. You'll need to experiment with each, and see if you can find one that works. auto is really only good if it's a known, defined provider -- which YTTV is not at this point.

If you find a Profile that works, report back here, and we'll get YTTV added as a known provider.

Have you been able to get the ESPN channels to work w the YTTV subscription?

Well I don't even have a physical GPU in this host lol. So probably not worth the hassle.

So far the "best" profile is keyboardMultiVideo which does not timeout and puts the browser in full screen, however nothing is actually played in channels and the stream "ends" in the logs:

[2026/02/05 10:59:48.440] [amc-w5rmy1] Streaming AMC (keyboardMultiVideo, FFmpeg).

[2026/02/05 11:00:33.367] [amc-w5rmy1] Stream ended after 47s.

[2026/02/05 11:00:43.254] [amc-gcqd0f] Streaming AMC (keyboardMultiVideo, FFmpeg).

[2026/02/05 11:01:23.388] [amc-gcqd0f] Stream ended after 43s.

Thanks! Switching profile to keyboardMultiVideo got all my ESPN channels working!

For those curious, override all the ESPN channels with a URL that looks like this:

https://www.espn.com/watch/player?network=espn

Obviously replace 'espn' at the end with the actual channel for each (espn2, acc, sec etc.). And you'll have to link your TV provider at ESPN.com of course. You don't have to do this with a Disney Plus ESPN sub, but I'm guessing not a lot of folks have that.

I did run into a bug editing channels on mobile, if you override a default channel you can't edit it from that point on, the interface for editing doesn't work. Works fine on desktop.

Now all we need is faster video startup in channels and this thing will be golden. Or some way to change the default channels streaming time out so that it waits longer for prismcast to get it going. The problem that I have is that I have the ESPN family configured in a couple different sources, so if prismcast times out channels will switch to another source that I don't really want to use if I don't have to because of stream limits.

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How long until CDVR times out trying to tune a channel?

I posted that exact question as a new topic to see if it's configurable. It looks like something around 10 to 15 seconds, and Prismcast is right on the edge with a fast server on Windows 11. It randomly works or doesn't.

Got this working for the Xfinity Stream website, using a MAC Mini. Had to use Native capture to get the audio to sync correctly. Used FullScreen API video profile. Is there a way to delay the capture? I'd like to prevent the capture until the video has started playing. I already had to increase the timeout for loading. Xfinity stream has like 10 steps they do with a shortlink before it'll load the player. But I'm currently getting the loading screen and such inside of Channels.

I figured out my ABC issues. It had to do with the link for the original channel which was https://abc.com/watch-live/and a bunch of numbers. I checked on the ABC on my windows computer and it was https://abc.com/watch-live/but with different numbers. I changed those numbers and it started working. I also got the local PBS here to work with trial and error with the different profiles.

I tried getting this channel to work in prismcast but after trying every setting, I was not able to get it to play. If I vnc into it and click on watch and make it full screen it works, but I haven't found one profile that will work with this.
https://www.bvn.tv/tv-gids/
If anyone is able to figure it out, let me know :smiley:

Nice tip on ABC, I'm using the default URL and somehow it's pulling in my correct local channel. I did have to change the profile to embeddedPlayer to get it to work, otherwise it would get into the nav timeout loop or not correctly full screen. In prior versions auto would work but it doesn't for me now.

I've been able to get YTTV to work correctly with keyboardMultiVideo which puts the browser in full screen.

The one issue I have is even though my display resolution is 1920x1080, prismcast keeps saying it is limiting to 720p high. Any idea why? Windows 11, native install.

Have seen the same thing with bitrate on Windows 11, I set it down to 8Mb but it's streaming at 16 for some reason. And yeah it's 720p. Also won't do 60 FPS, locked to 30. But I saw the same FPS with CC4C.

With CC4C, if I remember correctly you had to have a res greater than 1080p to be able to do 1080p. Not sure why.

I've entered everything exactly as you stated. However, the login page still goes to Disney+. Also, when I tune the channel a blank Chrome "about" page comes up and CHDVR shows, "Streaming to the tuner failed. Press play to try again. M3U: All tuners in use."

Ignore the login link just bring up Chrome yourself and set your provider at espn.com. You click on the little person icon on the top right, if I remember correctly.

You've got to get at least one channel running before you go down this road, so try some of the other built-in channels before you tackle ESPN.

I don't get the pop-up or the ability to log in in the browser after creating a new channel for ESPN and using your link. What am I missing?

Read my prior reply just above yours. And also, anyone trying this please please read the thread and the explanation of how to get everything working on the GitHub page.

I've tried that and it still doesn't work. No matter what I put in for the website it reverts to Disney+ for the login. Chrome still open a blank page about.com. I have other channels working and read the Github

Don't worry about Chrome opening the about page, that's normal. If you notice there's also another tab for video encoder which is what's important.

So you're saying that if you go to espn.com and link your TV provider there, it still doesn't work? Disney Plus is not even in the picture at that point. Don't do any of this from prism cast, bring up the browser yourself and go to espn.com manually. Use the browser with the blank about page.

Can you post a screenshot of your channels tab in prism cast?

Crap I also forgot to mention, you need to go into the sources page in the channels DVR web admin, then go to manage lineup and assign all of the ESPN channels to the correct channel lineup.