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

[hjd]

If you look at the top right, it shows 0 streams. You might need to clear the cache or similar...but it always only displays active streams. Or should.

[chDVRuser]

@hjd

You might need to clear the cache or similar

OK, looks the same opening the page in another browser, so I assume it's some PrismCast cache you're talking about?

[hjd]

This one: Introducing PrismCast: Browser-based Live TV Capture for Channels DVR and Plex - #898 by chDVRuser

I spent a few minutes trying to understand it. I got there eventually, but for me to be able to follow along, I need a clear problem statement, (ideally) a way to recreate the issue, and any supporting data/telemetry to go along with it.

Replied on top of replies are hard enough as well...so ideally, they're self-contained and self-referencing.

[hjd]

Nope, now that's on me to see if there's something going on. Stay tuned. Thanks for raising it.

[chDVRuser]

@hjd

This one: Introducing PrismCast: Browser-based Live TV Capture for Channels DVR and Plex - #898 by chDVRuser

I spent a few minutes trying to understand it. I got there eventually, but for me to be able to follow along, I need a clear problem statement, (ideally) a way to recreate the issue, and any supporting data/telemetry to go along with it.

Replied on top of replies are hard enough as well...so ideally, they're self-contained and self-referencing.

OK.
I thought I was clear in asking

@chDVRuser

Is there any way to get a listing of the channels that are currently enabled, showing the same information that appears on the Channels tab?

I'm trying to figure out what data I need to backup in order to remove & reinstall or move PrismCast to another directory or device and restore that backed up data so I don't need to reconfigure anything.

[hjd]

I'm trying to figure out what data I need to backup in order to remove & reinstall or move PrismCast to another directory or device and restore that backed up data so I don't need to reconfigure anything.

This is the problem statement.

You need to backup (ideally) the entire contents of the PrismCast data directory, which should be ~/.prismcast on most installations. If it's not there, you can find where it is in the startup logs:

[2026/03/06 14:19:00.702]   Configuration file: /Users/someuser/.prismcast/config.json
[2026/03/06 14:19:00.702]   Chrome profile: /Users/someuser/.prismcast/chromedata

Finally, there are backup/restore options under Configuration|Backup in the webUI. You'll also find a reference to where configuration files are located on that tab. If you don't backup your chormedata directory, you're going to need to re-login when you move across devices as you won't be taking your Chrome profile with you.

[chDVRuser]

@hjd

You need to backup (ideally) the entire contents of the PrismCast data directory

Thank You.
Mine (running as a service) is in /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/root/.prismcast/
I'll have to figure out how to backup the .prismcast/chromedata directory owned by root with 700 perms

[hjd]

I would not recommend anyone run PrismCast, on a Mac or not, under root. It doesn't need those privileges, and it's unwise security hygiene.

[Jim_FL]

Good morning. Is there a way to get around the Pkill error when installing via NPM on a Windows PC?

[Kryptonyte]

Jim, on Windows 10 I didn't seem to have any trouble installing Prismcast via the NPM command line (if there were any errors, I ignored them). I now run it from npm command prismcast in console. I was not, however, able to get the windows service to install that way, pkill dumped the installation.

The developer looks like he [graciously] has this on his radar. It's probably more work than one might think to adjust for Windows.

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

I just looked at doing that, but there are actually multiple commands used that don't work in Windows environments. Several have to do with "refreshing" Chrome itself, to keep it healthy. pkill appears to be the only one you're seeing, but others are likely failing behind the scenes. It can be done of course, but it's not a straight swap one command for another to achieve the same functionality. This is already on my radar and slated to be addressed more holistically in an upcoming release…a…

[thully]

I just decided to try out PrismCast on a 2018 Mac Mini (one of the last Intel models) and DirecTV Stream. I have it working, though I’m experiencing a few issues:

1. When using DirecTV Stream as the provider for channels, only one such channel may be tuned at a time. If I try to view multiple DirecTV Stream channels at the same time (in my case on multiview, but probably on separate devices and recording as well), the second channel refuses to tune, with DirecTV giving an error that only one tab can stream at the same time. Is there any way around this aside from using a different provider for the channel? The DirecTV Stream provider option seems to have the best quality/framerate for many channels, and has less issues aside from this one…

2. The documentation suggests I just have to log in once for the channel-based sources to work (and the login indicator on the channels page makes it look like this is the case by appearing on all channels after authenticating one). However, I find I have to log in at least for each channel group (ESPN, FOX, etc). Is there something I’m doing wrong here, or is DirecTV Stream different from most providers?

3. The ABC channel using the ABC source shows ABC News Live, not my local ABC affiliate. Is this link incorrect, or does it only work with owned and operated ABC channels?

[chDVRuser]

@hjd

I would not recommend anyone run PrismCast, on a Mac or not, under root.

I fixed it. Now running as a service under my user login.

[gfhartzell]

I was able to get my local ABC to work after I noticed a time discrepancy on the abc website via noVNC.

try adding your time zone as an enviromental varaiable it worked for me:

environment:
  - TZ=America/New_York

[chDVRuser]

May work for you running it in a docker container, but he's running it native on a Mac Mini

@thully

I just decided to try out PrismCast on a 2018 Mac Mini (one of the last Intel models)

[efan148]

Worked for me! Thank you!

[acavender]

@thully

When using DirecTV Stream as the provider for channels, only one such channel may be tuned at a time. If I try to view multiple DirecTV Stream channels at the same time (in my case on multiview, but probably on separate devices and recording as well), the second channel refuses to tune, with DirecTV giving an error that only one tab can stream at the same time.

I have the same issue. I haven’t tried multiview, but if I try to change between channels that are both set up with DirecTV as the source, it takes a few attempts (pressing play again after initial failure) to tune the new channel.

Thankfully that isn’t something I do very often.

[hjd]

Good morning. Is there a way to get around the Pkill error when installing via NPM on a Windows PC?

This will be comprehensively addressed in the next release of PrismCast. Stay tuned.

[hjd]

When using DirecTV Stream as the provider for channels, only one such channel may be tuned at a time. If I try to view multiple DirecTV Stream channels at the same time (in my case on multiview, but probably on separate devices and recording as well), the second channel refuses to tune, with DirecTV giving an error that only one tab can stream at the same time. Is there any way around this aside from using a different provider for the channel? The DirecTV Stream provider option seems to have the best quality/framerate for many channels, and has less issues aside from this one…

This isn't a PrismCast constraint. It's DirecTV not letting you stream more than one channel at a time, I'm afraid. Depending on your package, there are constraints and it enforces them.

The documentation suggests I just have to log in once for the channel-based sources to work (and the login indicator on the channels page makes it look like this is the case by appearing on all channels after authenticating one). However, I find I have to log in at least for each channel group (ESPN, FOX, etc). Is there something I’m doing wrong here, or is DirecTV Stream different from most providers?

You're not doing anything wrong — this is expected behavior for the setup you're using, and it's not specific to DirecTV Stream.

It sounds like you're using the canonical channel entries (espn, fox, nbc, etc.), which route to each network's own website (espn.com, fox.com, nbc.com). Each of those sites manages its own TV provider authentication independently - even though you're selecting DirecTV as your provider on each one, ESPN.com doesn't know you already authenticated on Fox.com. So yes, you need to log in once per network site. This is the same for any TV provider, not just DirecTV.

The login indicator turning green for all channels after one login is misleading in this case - I'll look at improving that. It's tracking at the provider level, and canonical channels share a generic tag, so one success lights them all up even though the underlying site sessions are separate. It's still early days for PrismCast.

The good news: there's a better approach for DirecTV Stream subscribers. PrismCast has DirecTV Stream-specific channel variants that all route through directv.com. Since they all use the same domain, you truly only need to log in once. You can either:

1. Use the provider filter: on the Channels page, filter to "DirecTV Stream" and it will automatically use the DirecTV variants for all channels that have them.
2. Select DirecTV Stream per-channel: in each channel's provider dropdown, pick the DirecTV Stream option.
3. You can bulk-assign/reassign channels using the bulk actions dropdown.

The ABC channel using the ABC source shows ABC News Live, not my local ABC affiliate. Is this link incorrect, or does it only work with owned and operated ABC channels?

Your mileage is going to vary. You can look at the history of this thread...ABC is flaky for locals, it may work for you, it may not. Unfortunately there's not much more I can do there.

[Jim_FL]

Has anyone been able to stream WeatherStar 4000 with PrismCast. I’ve been using CC4C. My goal is to move all over to PrismCast which has a better interface.

Thanks

[acavender]

@hjd

This isn't a PrismCast constraint. It's DirecTV not letting you stream more than one channel at a time, I'm afraid. Depending on your package, there are constraints and it enforces them.

Good to know, thanks. I'll adjust my sources.

And thanks for Prismcast! It's been a godsend since I managed to irreparably break my CC4C installation when trying to fix a full screen issue several months ago.