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

Playground Hacks
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#1063

Wow! Amazing updates! Any chance we could make hardware accelerated capture selectable between HEVC and H.264? Hardware encoding with HEVC is pretty hard on the GPU and my i3-12100 will struggle with it. I can do many H.264 stimulaneous encodes.

Contemplating this for the future...but I would prefer not to. I like keeping things simple and configuring only what absolutely needs to be configurable.

Looking forward to seeing what people's experiences are and will take the input into account in the future, but I'm not making any commitments either. :smile:

#1064

Regarding the Directv issue, I see that the channel is being selected but the player never starts. The url on the page stays on https://stream.directv.com/watchnow instead of https://stream.directv.com/player. I've tried all of the profiles with no luck. Anyone have any ideas?

#1065

This may be lower priority request, but any chance this can be setup with multiple providers, say DirecTV and Cox, where it will try one provider and if that fails, it then tries provider two?

#1066

I don't comment on my roadmap, but I will leave it at: this is on my radar.

1 Like
#1067

Just knowing it is there is good enough for me! Thank you again for all you do!

#1068

Looks like another extraordinary list of updates!

I am also going to have to respectfully ask for a checkbox on the h.265 situation, if feasible. I have some clients on down the pipeline that won't do h.265.

#1069

Agreed, this should be a config option.

#1070

Loading 1.7.0 overrode my custom Fox channel config with a cox.com URL. Had to fix it back to the way it was. Nothing in the logs, just whacked it.

#1071

Ditto

1 Like
#1072

@jator @GTFan Thanks both for raising it. It'll be addressed in the next release...I appreciate the specific report, makes tracking these things down a lot easier. :smile:

#1073

I am also going to have to respectfully ask for a checkbox on the h.265 situation, if feasible. I have some clients on down the pipeline that won't do h.265.

Appreciate the feedback. Curious - what downstream clients are you using for PrismCast that don't support HEVC?

#1074

Imo doesn't really matter, should an option. There are still clients that don't support h.265, maybe for performance reasons. You can't assume that they all do which is why it should be an option.

#1075

Imo doesn't really matter, should an option. There are still clients that don't support h.265, maybe for performance reasons. You can't assume that they all do which is why it should be an option.

I appreciate the feedback, but vague assertions like "there are still clients that don't support it" aren't actionable.

If you have a specific client or workflow where this is causing a real problem, I'd like to hear about it - I'm happy to engage with concrete cases, like one of the ones above that I can get my head around (i3 CPU challenges above).

That said, I'm opinionated about the software I write, and I don't add configuration toggles based on hypotheticals. If there's a real-world issue here, show me, and we can discuss it.

#1076

@hjd,

Do you have any insights on the Directv issue @bpd16870 and I have reported?

#1077

I glanced through your other reports, but honestly, I had a tough time following most of them. I've found that the more someone puts into framing a problem, the more I can actually bring to it, and quick flybys without much context tend to slide past me.

That's not me trying to be dismissive, I just need enough specificity to actually be useful. If you can walk me through the situation, what you're trying to accomplish, the exact issue you're having, whether it worked at one point or not, etc...I can get a clearer picture of what's going on, I'm happy to take another look and see where I can help.

If you're trying to get DirecTV Stream up and running...should be pretty straightforward, and there's a wizard in the latest PrismCast that should make it easy to add channels that aren't builtin by default. I'd encourage you to use that instead of trying to manually configure something.

1 Like
#1078

also client's that support h.265, but with sub-par hardware. also it appears all varieties of hardware components have spiked so I'm not sure many new devices will be coming for a while, and most people's older boxes still work for most of what they do. if 1 thing sucks, they just don't do that 1 thing. (but still complain about it) (not sure if that's me right now)
I've been eyeing new server hardware, but had other priorities last fall. luckly I got storage bought, but I'm still stuck on baremin proc wise.

still amazed at all the work you have done on PrismCast btw!

#1079

@hjd, 2 questions.

  1. Can we have Destination America added to the list of channels? My wife likes to have Destination America and that's not available on our YTTV service? Trying to see how I can get just that channel cheaper than having to have a full blown Philo account, but in the meantime, there may be some others who would benefit from adding Destination America? Happy to do some of the legwork if possible (TVE/streaming site is: http://watch.foodnetwork.com/channel/destination-america).

  2. Any plans to add Philo as an available service? I'm not sure how long I'll keep the Philo account active, but happy to do any legwork to set it up and share with you to incorporate into a future release.

Thanks,

Jay

#1080

Well ... to be honest:

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SageTV is dying because we don't have a pre-configured avenue for streaming sources, and I'm directing folks back to Channels DVR. I use Channels DVR as a pool for nearly all my tuners now, and SageTV can access those tuners, opening up many streaming service options.

... and most of us still have a bunch of these HD300's in daily use around the house.

#1081

I know, I know. Realistically, h.265 and 4k are the first things this device can't handle. I don't know of too many other pieces of hardware released in 2010 that are still going strong otherwise. I had this pipe dream once where the Channels DVR guys would adopt some piece of hardware and load just their stuff on it, but alas, it's not to be.

#1082

also client's that support h.265, but with sub-par hardware. also it appears all varieties of hardware components have spiked so I'm not sure many new devices will be coming for a while, and most people's older boxes still work for most of what they do. if 1 thing sucks, they just don't do that 1 thing. (but still complain about it) (not sure if that's me right now)

Thanks for the additional context. HEVC gets enabled in essentially a single scenario - where you have a GPU that works with Chrome/PrismCast. I hear you on the quality of the hardware encoder being a wildcard (and I would like to actually see it visually out of curiosity). Also…when you say “clients” - what do you mean? To elaborate a bit on my end…PrismCast formally supports two client scenarios right now - Channels DVR and Plex. Both can handle HEVC just fine.

I’m trying to get smarter about all the wild ways people use stuff…I’ve learned so much in the past few weeks of the various Rube Goldberg machines people seem to employ. :smile:

still amazed at all the work you have done on PrismCast btw!

Thanks for making me smile on a Saturday morning. Appreciated and hope you continue to enjoy.