Run Your Own Television Network in the Browser with Channel Two

Run Your Own Television Network in the Browser with Channel Two(chrisfinke.com)

57 points by cfinke 3 years ago | 17 comments

oidar 3 years ago |

I've been thinking about making something like this, but for our actual TV. I just want to it to change channels and not think about what is playing. I want my little one to not have to deal with crazy advertisements, but get the benefit of preprogrammed TV. The current batch of solutions for this are:

1) Hardware modulators. This can get pricey, but it is basically the most like regular TV. 2) Kodi + PseudoTV. 3) ErsatzTV. 4) ChannelsDVR 5) dizqueTV

Ideally, I'd like to have stations pulling from Youtube channels, Twitch Live / prerecorded, local media libraries, and some TikTok.

I was thinking of having channels arranged around interests and genres. A few stations I am thinking of are Classic Cartoons, Artisian crafting videos (primarily on YouTube), Train Rides, Classic Sitcoms, Musicals, Music Production, and Kenji-Lopez-Alt would get his own cooking channel.

sphars 3 years ago | |

I'd be interested in doing something similar for my toddler. All I've done so far is that when a specific YouTube channel has new episodes, I just download with yt-dlp and throw them on my Plex server. All to avoid advertising and the "recommendations" when using the YT app.

If you work something out, I'd love to read about it.

agentwiggles 3 years ago | | |

You might be interested in the FakeTV project on Github, specifically "Psuedo Channel". I found it a while back searching about basically the same idea (i.e. "how could I simulate something like TV but provide all my own content").

I haven't tried it out yet, but it seems to be an implementation of the basic idea, and it's in Python, and we're on HN, which means it's a fair bet that you could figure out how to tweak it to your specific desires if you wanted to!

https://github.com/FakeTV https://github.com/FakeTV/pseudo-channel

client4 3 years ago |

I like the project name. It reminds me of a Soviet joke. "In Soviet Russia there are two channels. First is propaganda. Second is KGB telling you to turn back to channel one."

trynewideas 3 years ago |

Having worked with public access TV scheduling and playout software, this is perversely fun to try. Don't forget to fill out your FCC Form 2100 Schedule H, kids!

LocalH 3 years ago |

If one makes something that's good enough at doing this, it could potentially be an alternative for small TV stations to automate their on-air switching. Those commercial solutions are hella expensive.

ApolloFortyNine 3 years ago |

This addon (or something like it at least) has been around for 10 years at least for Kodi. https://github.com/PseudoTV/PseudoTV_Live

Probably the best channel I found was playing a random comedy from a list you provide. You could have it follow release order be random if you want. Most media players have a similar feature though usually called something like a smart Playlist, and that really solves most of the issue.

It is an interesting problem though, but also probably a very real sign that you really need to find a hobby.

hackinthebochs 3 years ago | |

>It is an interesting problem though, but also probably a very real sign that you really need to find a hobby.

A strange sentiment to find on this website.

cfinke 3 years ago | |

I considered using something like that, and I did indeed have a mostly functional prototype built just using VLC and its playlist management features, but I wanted something that had as few dependencies as possible as well as something where I could draw/program any on-screen graphics I wanted without too much hassle.

Also, writing niche software that nobody else will use basically is my hobby, so mission accomplished :)

epakai 3 years ago |

This would be cool if I could broadcast to our set top boxes. My folks don't get along with streaming interfaces, but they can flip to a channel.

edit: I might have it totally wrong, but our STB is QAM/IP. With a QAM modulator it might be possible to transmit on the coax segment, and have the provider's box decode it. The modulators are pricy though, and I'm not sure about putting our own signal back down the (fios) coax segment.

goosedragons 3 years ago | |

Nobody make an open source IPTV STB-style interface yet for something like the RPi? I imagine it'd be easier to make something like that, have a bunch of "channels" and it just changes the IP address of the video. Some of the earliest IPTV providers actually had unencrypted streams so it's not even that different!

krapp 3 years ago | | |

My phone will let me stream whatever I'm watching to a tv set, so I assume any modern smartphone/tv combination will allow that.

epakai 3 years ago | | |

They get lost at switching the TV input to another device. Just injecting a QAM channel would be something they could use.

photoGrant 3 years ago |

Gives me pirate radio vibes from back in the peak of Grime days... Don't know why, just this specific combination.

have_faith 3 years ago | |

Time to bring back Channel U

geoffreypoirier 3 years ago |

Fun implementation.