PBS Feeds

Yep, went to report to @miibeez and saw I was beaten to the punch:

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Seems like it fails every 5-6 months.

For me, some of the channels are working fine and others aren't. No clue why.

Does anyone know the deeplink to launch your local channel in the PBS app?

SLM seems to generate them fine. Here is an example for an episode of Nature:

No I meant to launch the linear channel, not individual shows. And that's not an app deeplink.

The subnets like Create, World, FNX, and NHK World are clean HLS with no DRM, so they are still being passed through without issue.

The regular stations, key locals, and PBS Kids all have DRM and need the special processing that this project does. Unfortunately, that requires keeping a certain license file up to date inside the Container, and it has expired again.

Deeplinks for linear don't work within the App; you have to use the HENA method. The main local and PBS Kids (on Android TV) are ready out of the box, but you'll have to do some very minor work for the other subnets (and PBS Kids on Roku). Unfortunately, if you are like me and live between two markets, you're going to have to pick one and stick with it.

Just a heads up with SLM Streams, that some programs have DRM and don't work, and some do not and play perfectly. It can even vary within a program, where a bunch of episodes are fine, others have DRM. It's very annoying. But if you are just using Stream Links to launch the app, they all work fine.

Actually, yes, since Stream Links are just "deeplinks", they do work for content, but, as I said, not for linear stations.

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Thanks. So I guess my best step is to (hopefully temporarily) disable the channels that aren't working, while waiting for the license file gets updated? Not something I know how to do, unfortunately, so I can only hope that someone to take care of it. Anyone know if that's likely to happen?

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Like everyone else, wait on the developer of the project to do it.
It seems to happen every 5-6 months.
Watch the GitLab Issue PBS Feeds - #349 by babsonnexus

Meanwhile, you could use PrismCast

I have been relying on my local stations using the PBS app, ADBTuner and BETA: HDMI Encoder Native Apps - Say goodbye to DRM restrictions!

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Nice to have alternatives

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Yeah me too, going native app is better than Prism at this point.

What PBS app dose in very annoying yet DRM is not the correct term. It's aggressive soliciting for "donations". If you want to watch "current" content the begging is not supposed to happen and so far it has not. Go back in there library and the pan handler is in your face most of the time. Glad I've got an antenna that picks up 3 PBS stations.

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Okay, so @miibeez pushed a fix, but the manifest is messed up and only sent out an arm64 update. If you use that one, you'll be all set. However, if you're like me and use amd64, then you are still getting the version from 5 months ago with the issue. You can force it to use the arm64 edition and thus far it is working for me. See info here.

I tried this and it worked initially for one show, then I recorded PBS NewsHour and tried to watch it. It crashed out about 10 minutes in and the docker engine went crazy, the PBS container used 5GB of memory and all the cpus. Had to completely restart the desktop to get docker back because all docker commands returned 500 internal server error.

Will wait for the real fix.

I was going to try using the ARM64 version. However, based upon your crash report, I think I'll wait for the AMD64 bridge to be fixed.

Wow unfortunate. Hopefully something can work soon .
My antenna isn't strong enough for it

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I'm working on a seperate project that also includes PBS access. The problem is PBS just changed the way they do encryption and made things more complicated by adding 6 sec bumpers to each tune that did not have encryption. So it kind of broke everything. I just finished coding a fix and seems stable now. I also added the ability to configure mutiple PBS stations if you happen to be in the middle of multiple DMA's or just like the programming from multiple stations. If you are interested PM me and I will be glad ot invite you to the project, I am definitely more responsive than the dev on the original PBS project and I've been on this forum for years so hopefully a little more trustworthy as well :slight_smile:

Also all of the channels in my m3u have gracenote id's embedded so Channels picks up the guide info easily :slight_smile:

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Ok, this would be good.

Over here in Miami, WLRN has been hit and miss recently with my antenna/new location so having this would be good. I'm usually able to get WPBT, WXEL and WLRN with an HDHR so having a backup is nice

I'll certainly be using this when you're ready share with the rest of the class :smiley:

Thanks, Seth! You have been a help to me in the past, and I'd be happy to work with you on your PBS project. I'll shoot you a PM.

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