YouTube Playlist as Virtual Channel

I've been happily using hlstube via docker to set up live channels via Custom Channels, of some absolutely fantastic streams I've found on YouTube. Concerts, 24/7 ambient/music streams, webcams around the world, including bird feeders, zoos and other interesting landmarks in various cities. There's all sorts of interesting stuff out there to integrate and channel surf through.

When the Virtual Channels feature was announced here and I started playing around I wondered if these two great ideas could marry, this time with YouTube playlists instead of just live streams.

Like check this out for example:

Just thinking out loud but I think it could be cool to have this big video playlist set up as a Virtual Channel:

And of course there are so many other great YouTube playlists for every interest under the sun. And we can always create our own,.

This makes me think it's possible: https://gist.github.com/elundmark/a3c1cc9b438ff58fbed584e803431a9c

I write this in full acknowledgement that I have zero idea how feasible or worthwhile this would be to pull off, or even if it would be appreciated by enough people to warrant the energy to implement. In fact, it's probably against YouTube's Terms of Service, or something annoying like that. It was just an idea that came to mind and I figured I’d share.

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I currently have Toddlers that are crazy about certain YouTube personalities and shows that are limited to YouTube. There are 24/7 channels on YouTube that play all day long. Shows such as Blippi, Baby Shark, Cocomelon, Masha and the Bear.
I would love to add a Custom channel that will play one of these 24/7 streams and add it to the children's list so it can be selected as a channel. I do not know if this is possible, and if it is can some one guide me on how to get this done. I have two toddlers that would be forever grateful

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You could use hlstube. I use it for a couple of live feeds and it works awesome

I am new to channels (my first month free is still not expired) and have not tried my hand at docker. I am a noob but pretty good at following directions. How am I to get this started or where can I find a guide to get this going. any help is much appreciated.

Are you looking to install docker on the channels server or another server? What OS are you running?

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Windows 10. on the Channels DVR Server. I do not have Docker installed yet. and unfamiliar with the program. most of my client devices are androidTV/GoogleTV.

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I'd say the first thing would be to get docker installed. Here is a tutorial for Windows. Ive never installed docker on windows just linux, but tutorial looks like it is ok. Get that done and then we can tackle the rest.

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Awesome Thank you I will try to tackle this tonight after the kids go to bed

Also consider using portainer with your docker. It helps visualize and manage containers in a gui that is helpful to people new to docker. I like it a lot and it’s free

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Just to make sure I'm not missing something. It is possible to use custom channels plus hlstube for 24/7 live streams on YouTube but not currently possible to use YouTube playlists as "virtual" 24/7 live streams and feed them through hlstube plus custom channels?

No just live streams I believe

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I am at a loss. I have been working on installing docker desktop on my windows 10 computer for the past
hour and followed the directions explicitly but I am pretty sure something is not working right. Docker opens but a red banner appears at the top that says unable to calculate disk size. Then it is open but says Docker Desktop stopped... in big letters in the middle. clicking on the bug at the top for troubleshoot. The restart is faded out. Under get support it goes through a diagnosis and then says diagnosis fails with a red banner that says "Cannot process diagnostics. Reason: Error invoking remote method 'desktop-go-backend': [object Object]" clicking on settings I just get a blue chasing circle that acts like it is trying to open but does nothing. I fear that something is not right and it is not properly setup

Sounds similar to https://www.reddit.com/r/docker/comments/y8v5t0/unable_to_calculate_disk_size/

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Following the directions in the reddit post for the past 20 minutes it has been on the screen delete the following data set(s)
Deleting...
and it continues to cycle as if it is working but it just never stopped. until I clicked out of it and It still does not seem to work.

It may be a new issue with Docker since that redddit post is also from today

one thing I noticed during installation is step 3.

  1. Once you start the installation process, always enable Hyper-V Windows Feature on the Configuration page.

This never happened and never gave me an option to select. I never saw anything about Hyper-V

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From the tutorial you followed

Specifications

1. While choosing for windows 10 or 11 with 64 bit, it must be having higher level of translation
2. 4GB RAM or Higher version but not less
3. BIOS settings should have hardware virtualization support enabled.
4. Hyper V feature, WSL 2 feature and Container feature should be enabled in windows.  
5. Windows supported by Microsoft need to be updated, if computers have older versions of windows.

They should have labeled it Requirements instead of Specifications!

I forgot that docker uses HyperV backend and can be crappy on windows... Another reason mine is on Linux :blush:

See Official page here

and note the choice of backends and requirements

Disclaimer: I run Docker on my Synology NAS's, not my Windows PC.

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The strangest thing has happened. I was working on installing and loading docker for hours following the directions making sure the bios settings were correct and changing settings and I could not get it to start. I gave up. Last night our power went out and I had to restart the server and Docker started!! I know that I had restarted multiple times during my attempts to get it working and it never did. But now it works. I don't know what I did right, or wrong but it seems to load now.

Now that I have a (potential) working docker what are my next steps in loading a 24/7 youtube channel?