i don't think any of these DNS hacks are going to work. at least, i haven't been able to get any of them working (and i've been trying for days)...
@tmm1 can we get some kind of server select option here until they fix this? it's not just me now reporting this, it's happening to multiple people in the LA market...
literally the only thing i can think of to do here without the devs intervening is to set up a server in the middle to literally accept requests directed at hls.locastnet and have them manually go out and hit that same url on lax.locastnet, and pass the data back as if you were requesting lax to begin with. i don't even know if that will work though...
seems locast may have fixed something...i've had KABC up for about 15 minutes with no buffering and no timeout messages in the log.
of course, in the past the minute i tried to type this it would buffer ridiculously after that, so we'll see.
edit: of course. now it's unwatchable again.
in the alternative, since it doesn't seem like the devs are interested in giving us a potential solution at this point even though we are 100% certain what the issue is for some of us (and it's not even just me anymore, multiple people in this thread have confirmed the same issue, so it can't just be written off now as a single person having issues), can someone help me with this so that i can at least continue to use channels for locast until they resolve their own issues?
if not, i'm gonna have to cancel my sub and just use plex full-time. i'd really rather not do that, because the channels UI and features are vastly superior...but the main reason i pay for a sub is unusable at this point and has been for weeks.
@deathbybandaid you still around these parts?
Not trying to make this personal, but you seem sure it's an issue with Channels DVR that the devs "have to fix".
Appears it's an issue with Locast, their CDN's and the popularity of the Olympics.
Not sure why you would cancel a Channels DVR sub for that reason.
I have many issues with Channels DVR doing what I want it to do.
Some I can work around, others not. But it's still the best DVR AFAIK.
I saw you post you also have TVE, so why not use that instead.
I've jumped through much bigger hoops to get what I wanted and made workarounds.
we 100% know what the issue is, and just need a simple override in order to allow anyone having issues to fix it.
it is definitely a locast issue, but it's also something that can be worked around with a little effort. this is the second largest market in the country. it's not like we're talking about some tiny little town here. multiple people in this thread now have confirmed that they're having the same issue. this is no longer a single person having problems.
because locast is the primary reason i have the sub and i literally cannot use it for that purpose right now. i'm not sure why you would continue paying for something that no longer serves the primary purpose of what you originally subscribed for.
i already have a plex lifetime sub and can use fHDHR to get the locast streams into that and watch without the constant buffering. i'm doing it right now.
ideally i'd import those streams into channels to replace the default locast integration, but i can't get that to work and even though i've asked multiple times for help, nobody seems willing to offer any.
you're talking to someone who literally wrote an entire PHP application to re-number channels in the DVR and a second application to get the MLB.tv streams into the DVR...so i take offense at the insinuation that i'm not willing to make any effort to get things working.
i've literally said this exact thing multiple times in this thread.
OK, besides the devs not fixing this Locast issue for you, why can't you use the TVE feed?
If the TVE source works, is it a stream limit that keeps you from using it instead of Locast?
I use HDHR Prime source, TVE source, Pluto source, m3u's of Prime, TVE and Pluto sources in separate DVR instances to fix these issues.
Consider me ignorant since I have TiVo Xfinity Cable (TiVo), TiVo OTA (TiVo), Channels Xfinity (HDHR Prime), Channels Xfinity TVE (TVE), Channels Pluto (M3U), etc.
i.e. I have backup sources.
At least in my case, Locast provides a few essential local channels that my TVE sources do not. Notably, KCAL and KTLA. Although if Locast were to have issues or disappear completely, I'd simply replace it with an HDHomeRun and antenna.
@chDVRuser exactly this. there is no TVE feed of KTLA. or KCAL. or KCOP. or KDOC. etc, etc, etc.
i'd love to do this, but terrain issues prevent me from getting any locals OTA.
@crackers8199 So I saw this thread show up in my email Summary and it piqued my interest. I'm definitely not an expert in this specific field, however given the fact you're at your wits end (and I also greatly appreciate your work on the MLB.tv docker image), thought I'd throw another idea in the ring.
Instead of hardcoding the HLS/LAX IP, since that breaks CDN functionality, have you tried a CNAME? I cannot test it here as I'm outside your market, and typically CNAME's only work if the server supports it, however I checked the TLS certs and lax.locastnet.org IS using a *.locastnet.org wildcard cert (HLS.locastnet.org is not, but that shouldn't matter if you're CNAME'ing "HLS" to "LAX".
You'd definitely need a DNS server you control to make this config and test it out.
No promises or guarantees, just another idea!
Good catch. Unless providing a DNS CNAME alias is trivial for the OP, suggest he try an HTTPS download from lax.locastnet.org with the Host header changed to hls.locastnet.org. Given the wildcard cert, possible the lax CDN will not care about the hostname mismatch, but potentially easier to test in advance.
I tried that and couldn't get it to work, but it's possible I set it up wrong...if you're willing to help me make sure I have it set up correctly I'm willing to try anything at this point! I have Adguard home running as my DNS server and tried a DNS rewrite which is supposed to do exactly what you said, but it didn't work. the streams wouldn't load with that in place...
I emailed Locast engineering about this and am waiting to hear back.
i appreciate that. thank you.
that being said, if their engineering team takes as long as their tech support you're going to be waiting a while. i emailed them the other day as soon as i figured out what was going on and i still haven't heard anything. when my account kept getting screwed up with the too many streams message it took them two full weeks to respond.
CNAME doesn't work, unless i have something set up wrong. this looks correct...
$ dig hls.locastnet.org
; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> hls.locastnet.org
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 61260
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;hls.locastnet.org. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
hls.locastnet.org. 10 IN CNAME lax.locastnet.org.
lax.locastnet.org. 287 IN CNAME fp2752.wpc.9891c.alphacdn.net.
fp2752.wpc.9891c.alphacdn.net. 287 IN CNAME fp2752.wpc.alphacdn.net.
fp2752.wpc.alphacdn.net. 287 IN A 72.21.81.113
;; Query time: 2 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.88.230#53(192.168.88.230)
;; WHEN: Sat Aug 7 15:16:47 2021
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 137
however, when i try to load the streams in channels, i get immediate "playback failed" and this shows up in the logs (full URL snipped for brevity):
at=2021-08-07T15:17:00.890233688-07:00 tag="KCBSDT" action="parseMasterPlaylist" url="https://hls.locastnet.org/proxy/lax/master/xxx.m3u8" status="404 Not Found" err="get https://hls.locastnet.org/proxy/lax/master/xxx.m3u8: 404 Not Found" time="381.860909ms"
if i take that URL and put it into my browser, i also get 404 not found there. however, if i then use the exact same URL but replace hls with lax...it downloads the playlist just fine. which is why i was just wanting to do a simple string replace on the URL. which is what i did with fHDHR, but as i've said a few times although the streams from there play fine in VLC i can't for the life of me get them to work in channels. i've tried both as a fake HDHR (which i know isn't supported, but i'm literally open to trying anything at this point) as well as just custom M3U, neither one has worked.
does not work. sends back a 404, same as the result i get with the CNAME in place...which makes sense.
A reverse proxy would do what you want. Nginx or maybe caddy
i've got a DO server already running with traefik on it...how would i configure it to handle that?
i have the http redirect working, but getting this on https (which means it isn't working completely, obviously)...
This site can’t provide a secure connection
hls.locastnet.org sent an invalid response.
ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR
doesn't look like a reverse proxy is going to work either, unless someone can help me resolve the SSL issues that go along with that...
err="Get \"https://hls.locastnet.org/proxy/lax/master/xxx.m3u8\": x509: certificate is valid for xxx.traefik.default, not hls.locastnet.org\nCould not fetch playlist: https://hls.locastnet.org/proxy/lax/master/xxx.m3u8