PrismCast v1.6.0 is here, and it's a big one. Three headline features in this release:
Native HLS streaming. For TV Everywhere sites that deliver non-DRMed streams, PrismCast now automatically bypasses screen capture and consumes the stream directly - delivering the provider's original quality with significantly lower CPU usage. This is especially valuable for Hulu + Live TV subscribers who can use their TVE credentials to stream channels like A&E, Food Network, HGTV, History, Discovery, and many more at native quality through those networks' own sites. Also works with Fox One, Fox Sports, BET, C-SPAN, VH1, and others. DRM-protected providers automatically fall back to screen capture - no configuration needed.
Xfinity Stream is PrismCast's eighth builtin provider. Thanks to @TerryD for his collaboration getting Xfinity up and running. Fair warning: Xfinity's web player is inherently slow to initialize — expect 15-30 seconds for channel changes. That's an Xfinity limitation, not PrismCast. I'm exploring improvements for the future, but no promises...this is as good as it gets for now.
Docker Intel GPU hardware acceleration. Containers with an Intel GPU can now offload video processing from the CPU, significantly reducing CPU usage. Pass your GPU device to the container and PrismCast handles the rest automatically. Thanks to @ajvolin for the initial work on GPU-accelerated Docker containers and @bnhf for contributing the PR that brought it into PrismCast.
Beyond the headlines, there's a lot more in this release:
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Predictive channel pretuning — PrismCast reads the Channels DVR programming schedule and pretunes upcoming channels before recordings start, reducing tune latency to near zero.
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Preroll immediate response — HLS clients receive video within seconds of a tune request rather than waiting for the full stream initialization to complete.
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Video resolution degradation detection — monitors stream quality and recovers automatically when a provider drops to a lower resolution.
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Hulu tuning improvements — local affiliates (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, CW) now skip the guide grid on first tune when precaching is enabled, cutting first-tune
latency significantly.
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Improved stream health monitoring — track-aware segment health with provider-specific thresholds, modal dismissal for sites that show intermittent popups, and better video readiness detection across providers.
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Numerous fixes and improvements — provider filter now correctly reflects in the channels tab UI, C-SPAN tuning fixed, display detection on minimized windows, Sling TV precache resilience, and much more.
The README and in-app documentation have also been substantially updated to reflect all the new features — check the Overview and Help tabs for details on native HLS streaming, provider profiles, GPU acceleration, and expanded troubleshooting guidance.
As always, I appreciate the feedback and enthusiasm around PrismCast. Thank you to everyone who's been testing, reporting issues, and sharing their setups.
To reiterate from prior release notes:
If you've created user-defined channels that are now covered by predefined options, I recommend deleting those overrides and using the defaults. Predefined channels are what I test and maintain; overrides are entirely optional, but they do create long-term configuration debt for you as PrismCast evolves.
I really appreciate the feedback, enthusiasm, and passion around PrismCast. Almost every feature added since 1.0.0 has come from thoughtful, respectful discussion with this community.
My only ask is simple: please be kind, not demanding. PrismCast started as a project for my own needs, and I share it because I enjoy this community and wanted to give something back. Respectful feedback is always welcome; entitlement is not.
Thank you to everyone who's shared encouragement or joy in using PrismCast—it genuinely keeps this project fun to work on.
One more note for everyone's benefit: please don't repost the same questions in this thread. Many of them have already been asked and answered, and the forum's topic-only search works well. Keeping discussions focused helps everyone. Please treat the thread and each other with the same consideration you'd expect in return.
1.6.0 (2026-03-15)
- New feature: Xfinity Stream provider support. Note: Xfinity's player is slow to initialize and tune — expect 15-30 seconds for channel changes. This is a limitation
of the Xfinity Stream web player, not PrismCast. I'm exploring improvements for the future, but no promises — this is as good as it gets for now.
- New feature: native HLS streaming — PrismCast automatically detects when a provider delivers non-DRMed HLS and bypasses screen capture entirely, consuming the stream
directly for higher quality with lower CPU usage. Known to work with the A&E family (A&E, History, Lifetime), BET, C-SPAN, the Food Network family (Discovery, Food
Network, HGTV, OWN, TLC, Travel, and others), Fox One, Fox Sports, VH1, and more. DRM-protected providers automatically fall back to screen capture.
- New feature: preroll immediate response — HLS clients can receive video within seconds of a tune request rather than waiting for the full stream initialization to
complete.
- New feature: predictive channel pretuning — PrismCast reads the Channels DVR programming schedule and pretunes upcoming channels before recordings start, reducing
tune latency to near zero.
- New feature: dismiss intermittent site modals that block video playback.
- New feature: video resolution degradation detection and recovery.
- New feature: Docker Intel GPU hardware acceleration — containers with an Intel GPU can offload video processing from the CPU, significantly reducing CPU usage.
Thanks to @ajvolin for the initial work and @bnhf for the contribution.
- Improvement: native proxy upstream metadata propagation for HLS discontinuity, SCTE-35 cues, and program date-time.
- Improvement: track-aware segment health monitoring with provider-specific thresholds.
- Improvement: video readiness enhancements with per-domain timeout, offscreen scrolling, and diagnostic logging.
- Improvement: increased granularity of login indicators.
- Improvement: cross-platform Chrome process cleanup via PID file instead of pkill/pgrep.
- Improvement: Sling TV precache resilience for slow connections.
- Improvement: additional Sling TV channel definitions.
- Improvement: Hulu local affiliate tuning skips the guide grid when precaching is enabled, reducing first-tune latency.
- Fix: channels tab provider dropdown now correctly reflects the provider filter instead of showing filtered-out providers.
- Fix: C-SPAN tuning failures caused by preroll ads and offscreen video.
- Fix: display detection on minimized Chrome windows and tab replacement compositor stability.
- Fix: prevent terminated streams from persisting in the dashboard.
- Fix: decrement resume segment index to prevent Channels DVR from dropping the last completed segment.
- Housekeeping: prevent multiple server instances from running simultaneously.
- Housekeeping: shutdown resiliency improvements.
- Housekeeping.
