This Old House Live Stream

[VTTom]

I just discovered that the Public TV series "This Old House" has a live-stream on their website.

Thought I'd play around with trying to add it as a custom channel.

Wasn't too hard to get at the m3u URL using Chrome developer tools. However, it looks like the playlist only contains a small number of very short snippets, and their web player just constantly reloads the m3u to grab more snippet and stitch it all together as a continuous steam.

Does that mean this is not a candidate for adding to Channels?

The m3u URL is:

https://content-ausw2-up-1.uplynk.com/channel/778dfa39720b47d5ab6de27ee3cf81b7/f.m3u8?expand=WebLive&ad.pod[max_pod_dur]=120&ad.vpi=mp4&ad.media_transcoding=high&ad.device[ifa]=&ad.content[livestream]=1&ad.content_page_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thisoldhouse.com%2Fpages%2Fthis-old-houses-live-channel&ad.custom[path_url]=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thisoldhouse.com%2Fpages%2Fthis-old-houses-live-channel&ad.custom[show]=&ad.token[path_url]=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thisoldhouse.com%2Fpages%2Fthis-old-houses-live-channel&ad.token[video_id]=5db760ad40dfd15cb69dbed9&ad.token[show]=&ad.token[device]=Web&ad.breakend=drop&pbs=4df43bc3791d4bb4a90faa932417a927

Any advice appreciated.

[tmm1]

That is an M3U8 url, and what you're describing is HLS.

You can create a Custom Channel in HLS mode, set it to Text, then use the examples in our docs to specify the metadata. The last line in the text box would be the URL above.

See similar thread: Help creating custom channel for Family Handyman TV - #2 by tmm1

[VTTom]

Aha. Funny there were 2 different post about different channel having similar content so close to each other.

I think I have it working. Now I need to figure out how to populate the guide data.

[Fofer]

"This Old House" streams are also included in the custom channel setups available via Pluto, Plex and SamsungTV Plus. And they all have pretty good guide data!

For Pluto (and Stirr) check out: https://nocords.xyz

Plex:
https://i.mjh.nz/Plex/us.m3u8
https://i.mjh.nz/Plex/us.xml

SamsungTV Plus:
https://i.mjh.nz/SamsungTVPlus/us.m3u8
https://i.mjh.nz/SamsungTVPlus/us.xml

[mtnbkr60]

I tried to set this up but something im doing is not right. I am getting TOH in the guide now and it shows generic info for each half hour, but when I click on watch the link fails. Could you post the exact text you are putting into the custom channels text box please? Thanks.

[Fofer]

More info with screenshots here:

Master-list Free Working M3U (Custom Channels)

This is a list of all working Free & Ethical(ish) M3U stations. If you find more. Please submit and I will edit post to include. If any that I post are not legal. Please post ill remove. If there are multiple versions of m3u I will post US version and All versions only. I will link to where I located source. I do not host, maintain or own these. I just thought it would be nice to have all them collected and on 1 single page Source of Links: https://i.mjh.nz/ These are matained by matthuisma…

[mtnbkr60]

Still not getting a working stream. I get the channel in the guide, but it says it can't find the server.

[mtnbkr60]

This is what I entered

#EXTM3U

#EXTINF:-1 channel-id=“TOH”

https://content-ausw2-up-1.uplynk.com/channel/778dfa39720b47d5ab6de27ee3cf81b7/f.m3u8?expand=WebLive&ad.pod[max_pod_dur]=120&ad.vpi=mp4&ad.media_transcoding=high&ad.device[ifa]=&ad.content[livestream]=1&ad.content_page_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thisoldhouse.com%2Fpages%2Fthis-old-houses-live-channel&ad.custom[path_url]=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thisoldhouse.com%2Fpages%2Fthis-old-houses-live-channel&ad.custom[show]=&ad.token[path_url]=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thisoldhouse.com%2Fpages%2Fthis-old-houses-live-channel&ad.token[video_id]=5db760ad40dfd15cb69dbed9&ad.token[show]=&ad.token[device]=Web&ad.breakend=drop&pbs=4df43bc3791d4bb4a90faa932417a927

[tmm1]

Does that url play in VLC? Maybe it expired.

[mtnbkr60]

VLC errors out

[tmm1]

Probably easier to use via Pluto

[mtnbkr60]

True, but I wanted to bring in this one channel only instead of the 300 auto adds to the guide.

[tmm1]

Just copy the one entry from their m3u then

[Absenm]

@tmm1

Just copy the one entry from their m3u then

And if anyone is curious what that would look like it is...

Stream Format: HLS
Source: Text

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1 channel-id="this-old-house" channel-number="1475" tvg-logo="https://images.pluto.tv/channels/5d51e791b7dba3b2ae990ab2/colorLogoPNG.png" tvc-guide-art="https://images.pluto.tv/channels/5d51e791b7dba3b2ae990ab2/featuredImage.jpg?fill=blur&fit=fill&fm=jpg&h=562&q=75&w=1000" tvc-guide-title="This Old House" tvc-guide-description="For over 40 years, “This Old House” has brought the craft of home repair and renovation to life. Now, the original home improvement show comes to you 24 hours a day, so put on your tool belt and grab a hammer, because it’s time to get to work!" group-title="Home", This Old House
https://service-stitcher-ipv4.clusters.pluto.tv/stitch/hls/channel/5d51e791b7dba3b2ae990ab2/master.m3u8?advertisingId=&appName=web&appVersion=unknown&appStoreUrl=&architecture=&buildVersion=&clientTime=0&deviceDNT=0&deviceId=e103e5ee-3ab8-11ed-98df-90be5a6f2875&deviceMake=Chrome&deviceModel=web&deviceType=web&deviceVersion=unknown&includeExtendedEvents=false&sid=3bfb409c-0ea1-4de8-b732-20fdcf1e1c28&userId=&serverSideAds=true

XML Guide Data:

https://nocords.xyz/pluto/epg.xml

Make sure to map (manage lineup) the one channel to This Old House.

Yes it is over kill on the guide data since you are downloading the full guide data for every channel, but you will get the This Old House Guide Data.

and should look like this

[tmm1]

I believe the docker/nocords xmltv guide data is better. It will pull out season/episode numbers if available, among other things.

[tmm1]

From i.mjh.nz:

<programme channel="5d51e791b7dba3b2ae990ab2" start="20220922210000 +0000" stop="20220922213000 +0000">
  <title>This Old House</title>
  <desc>Tom uses a crane to lift a 17-foot steel beam. Norm sees the insulated concrete forms used for the foundations and above-grade walls. Tom and Kevin discuss new lead laws and the kitchen is gutted.</desc>
  <sub-title>Auburndale</sub-title>
  <category>Instructional &amp; Educational</category>
</programme>

From pluto-for-channels:

<programme start="20220922150000 -0700" stop="20220922153000 -0700" channel="this-old-house">
  <title lang="en">This Old House</title>
  <icon src="https://images.pluto.tv/series/5d55a840e61990eb7a554b99/tile.jpg?fill=blur&amp;fit=fill&amp;fm=jpg&amp;h=900&amp;q=75&amp;w=900"/>
  <date>20101105</date>
  <category lang="en">Series</category>
  <series-id system="pluto">5d55a840e61990eb7a554b99</series-id>
  <desc lang="en">Norm checks the new front entry. Tom turns the flat roof into a pitched one. We review the new kitchen layout. Roger shows native and non-native species. Norm and Tom set new deck footings.</desc>
  <category lang="en">Instructional &amp; Educational</category>
  <category lang="en">Home Improvement</category>
  <episode-num system="onscreen">S32E5</episode-num>
  <episode-num system="pluto">5d5c5d181b7ff225c11c11f7</episode-num>
  <episode-num system="original-air-date">2010-11-06T00:00:00.000Z</episode-num>
  <category lang="en">Educational</category>
  <category lang="en">Home Improvement</category>
  <sub-title lang="en">Auburndale</sub-title>
</programme>

cc @matthuisman

[matthuisman]

looks like i need to update my script

[VTTom]

Thanks, this is working great!

[thedoc31]

This is amazing, I appreciate it so much!

[VTTom]

It seems the EPG data only goes about 1 day out, and I have to manually force the dvr server to reload the xml to get it to refresh.

Is there a way to tell the server to refresh the EPG xml more frequently?