Prismcast and HBOMax

Playground Hacks
#1

TL:DR

Is there any known issues with correctly tuning to the predefined channels in PrismCast for HBO Max via Channels? Not sure why, but every other set of predefined channels I have set from 4 other sources all work except those in Max. More details below.

Long version:
In a previous post, I posed the question about moving an instance of PrismCast currently installed on a M4 Mac Mini from one location to another and use it as a "portable" source between two N150 mini pc's I run Channels on in 2 separate locations. The reply was it "should" work and for the most part, it has.

The one exception I have is with getting PrismCast to successfully tune to the preconfigured HBO channels in PrismCast. Everything "seems" to be in order as it was before the move and the predefined channels for HBO worked fine.
Source was added successfully in Channels at the second location, guide populated correctly and when opening PrismCast selections from within Channels DVR, they all work, except for the HBO channels.

When I select any of the preconfigured HBO channels to play, I can see the Chrome window open in PrismCast and navigate to the HBO Max home page where it clearly shows I am logged in, but after a few seconds, the Chrome window goes white then minimizes, never starting the requested channel and I get 500 Internal Error message in the Channels client app.

I have tried the following to troubleshoot:

  1. Removed and re-added HBO Max as a predefined channel source in PrismCast
  2. Reloaded M3U
  3. Went thru the authentication process again for all 5 of my predefined sources in PrismCast which appeared to be successful but still won't tune to an HBO channel.
  4. Verified that all Channels settings are the same between both instances of ChannelsDVR where PrismCast is used as a source.

Having predefined sources from YouTubeTV, USA, HBO Max, Paramount+ and Disney+ as well as a manual setup for Starz, HBO Max is the only one I have issues with. I did notice in the PrismCast logs where it says my subscription for HBO Max may not be active but it is. I can manually go to Max in a browser from the Mac Mini running PrismCast, the N150 running Channels, directly via the Max app on my FireTV Cube and my home PC, log in to Max and play anything I wish. It just won't work in PrismCast so at this point, I am stumped.

The logs from both Channels and PrismCast show the following (sorry about the length but wanted to make sure I didn't exclude something):

ChannelsDVR logs

2026/05/09 07:03:41.493824 [ERR] Failed to start stream for ch9079: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error
2026/05/09 07:03:41.593313 [HLS] Couldn't generate stream playlist for ch9079-dM3U-PrismcastHome-ip192.168.86.21: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error
2026/05/09 07:03:41.593953 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch9079-dM3U-PrismcastHome-ip192.168.86.21 (out=0s finished=false first_seq=0 last_seq=-1)
2026/05/09 08:04:05.667825 [ERR] Could not start stream for M3U-PrismcastHome ch9079 HBO: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error 
2026/05/09 08:04:14.366456 [ERR] Could not start stream for M3U-PrismcastHome ch9079 HBO: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error 
2026/05/09 08:04:22.542589 [ERR] Could not start stream for M3U-PrismcastHome ch9079 HBO: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error 
2026/05/09 08:04:33.567907 [ERR] Could not start stream for M3U-PrismcastHome ch9080 HBO Comedy: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbocomedy/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error 
2026/05/09 08:04:40.947226 [ERR] Could not start stream for M3U-PrismcastHome ch9080 HBO Comedy: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbocomedy/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error 
2026/05/09 08:16:24.658418 [ERR] Could not start stream for M3U-PrismcastHome ch9079 HBO: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error 
2026/05/09 08:22:38.096893 [M3U] Refreshed lineup for PrismcastHome with 54 channels
2026/05/09 08:23:19.362121 [ERR] Could not start stream for M3U-PrismcastHome ch9080 HBO Comedy: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbocomedy/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error 
2026/05/09 08:23:31.769186 [ERR] Could not start stream for M3U-PrismcastHome ch9079 HBO: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error 
2026/05/09 08:25:29.663816 [M3U] Refreshed lineup for PrismcastHome with 54 channels
2026/05/09 08:29:35.330706 [ERR] Failed to start stream for ch9079: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error
2026/05/09 08:29:35.346642 [HLS] Couldn't generate stream playlist for ch9079-dANY-ip192.168.86.248: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error
2026/05/09 08:29:35.347157 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch9079-dANY-ip192.168.86.248 (out=0s finished=false first_seq=0 last_seq=-1)
2026/05/09 08:29:41.851736 [ERR] Failed to start stream for ch9079: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error
2026/05/09 08:29:41.856542 [HLS] Couldn't generate stream playlist for ch9079-dANY-ip192.168.86.248: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error
2026/05/09 08:29:41.857052 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch9079-dANY-ip192.168.86.248 (out=0s finished=false first_seq=0 last_seq=-1)
2026/05/09 08:29:49.252955 [ERR] Failed to start stream for ch9079: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error
2026/05/09 08:29:49.262781 [HLS] Couldn't generate stream playlist for ch9079-dANY-ip192.168.86.248: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error
2026/05/09 08:29:49.262781 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch9079-dANY-ip192.168.86.248 (out=0s finished=false first_seq=0 last_seq=-1)
2026/05/09 08:29:55.768006 [ERR] Failed to start stream for ch9079: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error
2026/05/09 08:29:55.774897 [HLS] Couldn't generate stream playlist for ch9079-dANY-ip192.168.86.248: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from 192.168.86.51:5589: GET: http://192.168.86.51:5589/hls/hbo/stream.m3u8: 500 Internal Server Error

From Prismcast logs

2026/05/09 08:14:17.924 AM] Service filter updated: disneyplus, hbomax, paramountplus, usa, yttv.
[2026/05/09 08:14:21.758 AM] Login mode started for https://disneyplus.com/.
[2026/05/09 08:14:42.832 AM] Login tab was closed. Ending login mode.
[2026/05/09 08:14:43.506 AM] Login mode ended.
[2026/05/09 08:14:45.607 AM] Login mode started for https://hbomax.com/.
[2026/05/09 08:15:02.821 AM] Login tab was closed. Ending login mode.
[2026/05/09 08:15:03.507 AM] Login mode ended.
[2026/05/09 08:15:06.401 AM] Login mode started for https://paramountplus.com/.
[2026/05/09 08:15:09.480 AM] Login tab was closed. Ending login mode.
[2026/05/09 08:15:10.146 AM] Login mode ended.
[2026/05/09 08:15:13.150 AM] Login mode started for https://usanetwork.com/.
[2026/05/09 08:15:18.176 AM] Login tab was closed. Ending login mode.
[2026/05/09 08:15:18.856 AM] Login mode ended.
[2026/05/09 08:15:20.888 AM] Login mode started for https://tv.youtube.com/.
[2026/05/09 08:15:26.832 AM] Login tab was closed. Ending login mode.
[2026/05/09 08:15:27.498 AM] Login mode ended.
[2026/05/09 08:15:29.004 AM] Saved configuration to /Users/jaymoon/.prismcast/config.json.
[2026/05/09 08:16:24.765 AM] [ERROR] [hbo-i0uk6m] Stream setup failed for https://play.hbomax.com: Channel selection failed: HBO tab not found in homepage menu bar. HBO Max subscription may not be active.
[2026/05/09 08:16:24.766 AM] [hbo-i0uk6m] Stream ended after 6s (setup failed).
[2026/05/09 08:16:24.768 AM] GET /hls/hbo/stream.m3u8 from 192.168.86.248 responded 500 in 5815.338 ms.
[2026/05/09 08:19:05.782 AM] Login mode started for https://play.hbomax.com.
[2026/05/09 08:19:31.232 AM] Login tab was closed. Ending login mode.
[2026/05/09 08:19:31.896 AM] Login mode ended.
[2026/05/09 08:19:49.337 AM] Login mode started for https://play.hbomax.com.
[2026/05/09 08:20:36.022 AM] Login tab was closed. Ending login mode.
[2026/05/09 08:20:36.702 AM] Login mode ended.
[2026/05/09 08:20:57.215 AM] Saved configuration to /Users/jaymoon/.prismcast/config.json.
[2026/05/09 08:20:57.216 AM] Predefined channel 'hbo' disabled.
[2026/05/09 08:20:58.367 AM] Saved configuration to /Users/jaymoon/.prismcast/config.json.
[2026/05/09 08:20:58.367 AM] Predefined channel 'hbo' enabled.
[2026/05/09 08:22:04.423 AM] Saved configuration to /Users/jaymoon/.prismcast/config.json.
[2026/05/09 08:22:04.423 AM] Service filter updated: disneyplus, hbomax, paramountplus, usa, yttv.
[2026/05/09 08:23:19.474 AM] [ERROR] [hbocomedy-jz7cyd] Stream setup failed for https://play.hbomax.com: Channel selection failed: HBO tab not found in homepage menu bar. HBO Max subscription may not be active.
[2026/05/09 08:23:19.475 AM] [hbocomedy-jz7cyd] Stream ended after 6s (setup failed).
[2026/05/09 08:23:19.476 AM] GET /hls/hbocomedy/stream.m3u8 from 192.168.86.248 responded 500 in 5795.890 ms.
[2026/05/09 08:23:31.881 AM] [ERROR] [hbo-1ymnmo] Stream setup failed for https://play.hbomax.com: Channel selection failed: HBO tab not found in homepage menu bar. HBO Max subscription may not be active.
[2026/05/09 08:23:31.881 AM] [hbo-1ymnmo] Stream ended after 6s (setup failed).
[2026/05/09 08:23:31.883 AM] GET /hls/hbo/stream.m3u8 from 192.168.86.248 responded 500 in 5837.476 ms.
[2026/05/09 08:29:35.442 AM] [ERROR] [hbo-g0kamw] Stream setup failed for https://play.hbomax.com: Channel selection failed: HBO tab not found in homepage menu bar. HBO Max subscription may not be active.
[2026/05/09 08:29:35.443 AM] [hbo-g0kamw] Stream ended after 6s (setup failed).
[2026/05/09 08:29:35.444 AM] GET /hls/hbo/stream.m3u8 from 192.168.86.248 responded 500 in 5913.523 ms.
[2026/05/09 08:29:41.965 AM] [ERROR] [hbo-vajor2] Stream setup failed for https://play.hbomax.com: Channel selection failed: HBO tab not found in homepage menu bar. HBO Max subscription may not be active.
[2026/05/09 08:29:41.965 AM] [hbo-vajor2] Stream ended after 6s (setup failed).
[2026/05/09 08:29:41.966 AM] GET /hls/hbo/stream.m3u8 from 192.168.86.248 responded 500 in 6395.430 ms.
[2026/05/09 08:29:49.366 AM] [ERROR] [hbo-u2w4qy] Stream setup failed for https://play.hbomax.com: Channel selection failed: HBO tab not found in homepage menu bar. HBO Max subscription may not be active.
[2026/05/09 08:29:49.366 AM] [hbo-u2w4qy] Stream ended after 6s (setup failed).
[2026/05/09 08:29:49.368 AM] GET /hls/hbo/stream.m3u8 from 192.168.86.248 responded 500 in 5826.542 ms.
[2026/05/09 08:29:55.881 AM] [ERROR] [hbo-gg644h] Stream setup failed for https://play.hbomax.com: Channel selection failed: HBO tab not found in homepage menu bar. HBO Max subscription may not be active.
[2026/05/09 08:29:55.881 AM] [hbo-gg644h] Stream ended after 6s (setup failed).
[2026/05/09 08:29:55.883 AM] GET /hls/hbo/stream.m3u8 from 192.168.86.248 responded 500 in 6316.244 ms.

PrismCast after reboot

[2026/05/09 09:20:30.602 AM] Starting PrismCast v1.9.0 with configuration:
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.602 AM]   Configuration file: /Users/jaymoon/.prismcast/config.json
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.602 AM]   Chrome profile: /Users/jaymoon/.prismcast/chromedata
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.602 AM]   Server port: 5589
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.602 AM]   Quality preset: 720p-high (1280×720)
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.602 AM]   Capture codecs: h264, hevc
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.602 AM]   Video bitrate: 10000000
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.602 AM]   Max retries: 4
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.602 AM]   Max concurrent streams: 10
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.602 AM]   Circuit breaker threshold: 10 failures in 5 minutes
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.602 AM]   Chrome executable: autodetect
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.602 AM]   HLS segment duration: 2s, max segments: 10
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.602 AM]   HDHomeRun emulation: enabled (port 5004)
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.607 AM] Using FFmpeg at: /Users/jaymoon/Library/Application Support/ChannelsDVR/latest/ffmpeg
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.609 AM] Saved configuration to /Users/jaymoon/.prismcast/config.json.
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.613 AM] Loaded 1170 channels.
[2026/05/09 09:20:30.613 AM] Loaded health state: 17 channel(s), 3 domain(s).
[2026/05/09 09:20:35.351 AM] Chrome ready: Chrome/148.0.7778.96 (GPU: Apple M4 [AV1, H264, HEVC]).
[2026/05/09 09:20:35.351 AM] [WARN] Bundled FFmpeg is not available. Preroll generation skipped — startup playlists will have no segments.
[2026/05/09 09:20:36.393 AM] Capture system verified successfully.
[2026/05/09 09:20:37.147 AM] PrismCast is now listening on 0.0.0.0:5589.
[2026/05/09 09:20:37.148 AM] HDHomeRun emulation is now listening on 0.0.0.0:5004 (DeviceID: 04687305).
Introducing PrismCast: Browser-based Live TV Capture for Channels DVR and Plex
#2

I just now tuned HBO Max via Prismcast all seems fine

#3

Thanks for checking.

Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things because I use PrismCast to just fill in the holes for channels that no longer offer TVE. I find it odd though that given nothing changed in my setup, both locations where PrismCast is used as a source to identical mini PC's with mirror Channels setups (except the IP used to add PrismCast as a source) and the logs showing the errors in regards to not finding the HBO tab not found and/or my sub may not be active has me totally stumped.

#4

If you swap boxes from one location to another, does that resolve it, at least for the location you're having an issue with?

#5

Boxes? Do you mean both my mini pc and the mac mini?

My setup is where I have "identical" N150 mini pc's, right down to their hardware, OS image and what HDHR they use as a primary source and the mini pc's stay put year round. So I would be hard pressed to suspect it's anything to do with Channels or the mini pc it's installed on.

Then I have one M4 Mac Mini where PrismCast is natively installed and my intent was to move the Mac Mini between the two locations as a "portable" source for Channels so I didn't have to stand up a second Mac Mini. But with both locations being 1500 miles apart, I will have to wait until fall to test that scenerio. :slight_smile:

Everything "looks" fine. Before I disconnected the Mac Mini w/Prismcast, I disabled the source in Channels, shut down the Mac Mini and packed it up.

Then when I arrived at the second location, I stood up the Mac Mini, pinned the IP and then added PrismCast as a source in the second instance of Channels. The guide in Channels populated correctly, PrismCast offers the same channel lineup to Channels as I had at the first site and everything else works as it did before, including YTTV, Starz, Paramount+, Disney+ and USA. But HBO Max channels and the error messages regarding PrismCast not seeing the HBO tab and/or suspecting my subscription is not valid simply doesn't make sense. I have tried at least a couple times of removing HBO Max from PrismCast as a provider then readding it, going thru the authentication process a half dozen times and although PrismCast says authentication was successful, it still won't work. Short of blowing out the PrismCast setup and reinstalling, I am at a loss but not being able to tune to HBO channels isn't at a level where I would even consider doing that.

#6

Must be something with HBO Max and geo-location, Internet IP address difference.
Maybe something Chrome is caching from the other location.

#7

Thanks for the suggestion. I previously thought that as well so previously had just logged out and logged back in to Max using the wizard in PrismCast as well as using the link in the PrismCast channels list to individually authenticate one HBO channel thinking PrismCast stored those logins but that didn't help.

So acting on your suggestion, I just went in to Max and reset my home location to reregister my IP with them then cleared all cookies, cache and other data stored in Chrome on the Mac Mini and deleted everything. When I opened PrismCast back up, I went thru the wizard and logged into all of my providers, which "should" have relogged any discrepencies in location, IP or login info. I even went as far as stopping/starting PrismCast, which usually triggers Chrome to maximize and minimize as it validates every provider login on startup but for some reason, I no longer see that happening either, which is something new but yet YTTV channels still work thru PrismCast where HBO channels do not.

So going a step further, within the Channels tab in PrismCast, I selected the "Manage Channels" tab then selected "Browse Service Channels" and two providers were listed, YTTV, which displayed dozens of channels as expected but when selecting HBO Max, no channels were listed as available from that provider. So if nothing else, your suggestion at least discovered that discrepency as well so thanks.

So, at face value, it appears that I have lost any predetermined channels for HBO within PrismCast because it says none when I browse the service channel list. Is that because PrismCast still isn't recognizing that I am logged into Max or is something else out of whack? I can open Max in a separate tab within Chrome with the PrismCast windows still open beside it, Max clearly shows I am logged in upon opening the browser window and can manually navigate and play anything I want within Max thru Chrome on the Mac Mini, which tells me it's not a IP/location thing, yet PrismCast still returns the following in the PrismCast logs when I try to tune to a HBO channel from ChannelsDVR:

"Stream setup failed for https://play.hbomax.com: Channel selection failed: HBO tab not found in homepage menu bar. HBO Max subscription may not be active."

#8

I would assume it has to log you in to get the list of HBO MAX channels.
If you know where the Chrome profile data is, you could stop PrismCast and close Chrome, delete the Chrome profile directory, then start PrismCast again and authenticate again.

It's here /Users/someuser/.prismcast/chromedata
per this post

I tried seeing what HBO MAX channels were available and it failed because I don't sub to it.

brave_screenshot
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#9

Thanks for that suggestion and all of your assistance, it is appreciated.

Did what you suggested but no joy. Same issue.

So at this point, even though I still don't understand why this happened and really didn't want to go to this extreme, I am just going to uninstall PrismCast completely and then reinstall it but at this point, my use case of just being able to relocate my Mac Mini with a portable, external PrismCast source between two ChannelsDVR servers isn't going to be as seamless as I had hoped. At every step, PrismCast said it authenticated properly and 4 of my 5 services still worked fine, just not with the Max linear channels via the website.

As a career mainframe tech and Windows user for the most part, I am still learning iOS. I love this kind of stuff but there always comes a point of diminishing returns and I learned a long time ago that sometimes, it's just quicker and easier to start over.

Thanks again.

#10

Well, when starting over produces the same result, then what? LOL

So after a complete uninstall and clean reinstall (not restore) of PrismCast, the issue is the same. It look exactly like it would when the channel ID is incorrect but with others saying theirs works fine, I am hard pressed to pursue that path any further. PrismCast takes me to an authenticated home page for Max but that's as far as it gets with the PrismCast logs showing the following:

[ERROR] [hbo-jlmgj5] Stream setup failed for https://play.hbomax.com: Channel selection failed: HBO tab not found in homepage menu bar. HBO Max subscription may not be active.

So I even went as far as adding a few additional providers I normally don't just to see if any others have this issue and none of them did. Services I was successfully able successfully authenticate and tune to in Channels via PrismCast (some directly, some using YTTV provider login).

YTTV, TVE channels, Starz, Paramount+, DisneyNow, USA, Food Network, USA, Fox Sports and Disney + so why not Max?

Chrome opens, and clearly shows I am indeed logged into Max but PrismCast is not recognizing it, sits on the Max home page and fails to open the requested HBO channel with the PrismCast logs showing the following:

[ERROR] [hbo-jlmgj5] Stream setup failed for https://play.hbomax.com: Channel selection failed: HBO tab not found in homepage menu bar. HBO Max subscription may not be active.

So at this point, I am completely out of ideas.

#11

Do you know what that error means ?

I can't get to https://play.hbomax.com because I don't have a sub to it.

Seems PrismCast gets confused about what it's doing with Chrome vs. what Chrome is actually doing.

I tuned to my Local Fox station yesterday (PrismCast Fox One source) and was watching it in Channels DVR and the PrismCast Chrome window was highlighting and playing the Fox News channel on the Fox One website.

I would post in the PrismCast topic thread with a link to this one.

#12

Is your HBO Max subscription an add-on to your YoutubeTV sub, or is it a completely separate sub?

#13

Separate.