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Locast support/integration.


smills

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Damien_

Well, and you also have to ask yourself what the true intent of this service really is.  As much as you'd like to believe it is to "bring you the TV you deserve" it is much more likely there is a commercial interest (like gathering data to market to you) underlying that.

 

Plus, the potential for misuse here is just way too high.  Consider sports programming - this service could open up the entire US market to everyone.  That is NOT something that sports franchises or broadcasters will allow to happen.

Keep in mind that quote is from Hollywood/Big Cable's lawyers. How they monetize it is the rub; charging for it directly leads to a different argument (like Aereo) and whether they can charge to deliver content they dont pay for/produce.  

 

I think most of us know that if you get something for free on the internet, most of the time we're going to be the product. That said, as far as I can tell you dont even have to register your email to use the service. Whatever data they're collecting on the backend I'd consider to be fairly reasonable by today's standards. 

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SHSPVR

Well, and you also have to ask yourself what the true intent of this service really is.  As much as you'd like to believe it is to "bring you the TV you deserve" it is much more likely there is a commercial interest (like gathering data to market to you) underlying that.

 

Plus, the potential for misuse here is just way too high.  Consider sports programming - this service could open up the entire US market to everyone.  That is NOT something that sports franchises or broadcasters will allow to happen.

 

There going about it all wrong not only did start geo-blocking even one but it one thing for out side the US but they also started DEMAND “donation” or they cut your service after 20 minutes and service only work if sign so there collect data that not how non profit organizations works even PBS doesn't work like that

Edited by SHSPVR
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 even PBS doesn't work like that

 

PBS is funded by Uncle Sam but, to me, this looks like a commercial enterprise of some sort.

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SHSPVR

PBS is funded by Uncle Sam but, to me, this looks like a commercial enterprise of some sort.

 

It not all funded by Uncle Sam see below

 

CPB is a private nonprofit corporation created and funded by the federal government and is the steward of federal funding for public media. CPB does not produce or distribute programs, nor does it own, control or operate any broadcast stations.

 

PBS is a private, nonprofit media enterprise owned by its member public television stations. PBS distributes programming to nearly 350 locally owned and operated public television stations across the country and is funded principally by these member stations and by CPB.

 

NPR is an award-winning, nonprofit organization that produces and distributes news, information, and cultural programming across broadcast and digital platforms. Launched in 1970 as a radio network by a group of 90 public radio stations, NPR today has 264 member stations that, as independent entities, own and operate 989 stations nationwide and reach more than 36 million people every week.

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SHSPVR

Keep in mind that quote is from Hollywood/Big Cable's lawyers. How they monetize it is the rub; charging for it directly leads to a different argument (like Aereo) and whether they can charge to deliver content they dont pay for/produce.  

 

I think most of us know that if you get something for free on the internet, most of the time we're going to be the product. That said, as far as I can tell you dont even have to register your email to use the service. Whatever data they're collecting on the backend I'd consider to be fairly reasonable by today's standards. 

 

Where do live and have try your self right now

Edited by SHSPVR
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Damien_

Where do live and have try your self right now

I tried it for 5 minutes. Today was the first time i'd heard of it but it seems like a neat service. I get all these stations via OTA but seems kinda cool

 

It not all funded by Uncle Sam see below

 

CPB is a private nonprofit corporation created and funded by the federal government and is the steward of federal funding for public media. CPB does not produce or distribute programs, nor does it own, control or operate any broadcast stations.

 

PBS is a private, nonprofit media enterprise owned by its member public television stations. PBS distributes programming to nearly 350 locally owned and operated public television stations across the country and is funded principally by these member stations and by CPB.

 

NPR is an award-winning, nonprofit organization that produces and distributes news, information, and cultural programming across broadcast and digital platforms. Launched in 1970 as a radio network by a group of 90 public radio stations, NPR today has 264 member stations that, as independent entities, own and operate 989 stations nationwide and reach more than 36 million people every week.

It's not even mostly funded by Uncle Sam. Tax dollars account for <10% of both NPR and PBS gross revenue. 

Edited by meatball
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  • 1 year later...
smills

Locast integration in Emby is still something I would love to see.   The continue to grow and just saw today that they added  Minneapolis.  Since Youtube TV raised it's prices  the popularity of Locast has risen.

I run Channels DVR on my same machine as my Emby Server.  Channels supports Locast as a tuner quite well.
Then I setup Channels as a M3U tuner source  for Emby  and that works well.

The downside here is that  double the io on the serve with both Channels and Emby have it handle the Locast streams.

So why not just watch Locast in Channels and forget about Emby support?    I simply  really prefer the Emby UI   particularly with my larger media library.
 

Edited by smills
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smills

I read this article today.  It might be a solution for some people.  I have NOT tried it.

https://diyfuturism.com/index.php/2020/08/16/plex-locast-recording-local-tv-without-the-antenna/

It appears as if it i they are using an app called "locast2plex"  to basically present locast to plex as if it was an HDHomerun.

https://github.com/tgorgdotcom/locast2plex

Evidently there is a Locast API  since there is a statement there on the locast2plex git

"Perhaps we can investigate getting EPG data through locast later, as the API supports it."

But the Emby EPG does a great job of providing  for everything that locast provides for me.

Reading  on the git  it looks like it can be configured to run as a windows service with NSSM (the way I currently run my Emby server)  and that it can emulate  4 tuner HDHomerun(quatro)

Since (as I mentioned earlier)  I use ChannelsDVR to integrate with locast and TVEverywhere and then provide those "tuners" to Emby  I currently do not have a need for this. 
But still, if Emby would support Locast and TVE  I could get rid of ChannelsDVR (also a good product).

Regards.
 

 

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@smills Have you tried it yet?

If so is there a limit to how many channels you can use at one time?

Have you tried it through a VPN for other markets?

How hard was the setup?

I'm kinda of curious how well this works.

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smills

Locast allows  4 streams at once.    But for something like this I would think a  big caveat is the available horsepower on your server.   Typically when you are viewing you are watching one stream at a time so whatever device you are viewing on only has to handle one stream   but the server you are running your locast2plex on might have to handle multiple streams at once and you need to make sure you don't get resource constrained.

I have not tried it yet.  As I indicated I am basically already doing this with ChannelsDVR which has built-in locast and TVEverywhere support and can then present it's tuners  as M3U  tuners for other software.   I plan on giving it a try when I get around to it but not sure when that will be.  I am running my server on Win10 and it looks like a pretty straight forward install/setup.

 

 

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Sammy
1 minute ago, smills said:

Locast allows  4 streams at once.    But for something like this I would think a  big caveat is the available horsepower on your server.   Typically when you are viewing you are watching one stream at a time so whatever device you are viewing on only has to handle one stream   but the server you are running your locast2plex on might have to handle multiple streams at once and you need to make sure you don't get resource constrained.

I have not tried it yet.  As I indicated I am basically already doing this with ChannelsDVR which has built-in locast and TVEverywhere support and can then present it's tuners  as M3U  tuners for other software.   I plan on giving it a try when I get around to it but not sure when that will be.  I am running my server on Win10 and it looks like a pretty straight forward install/setup.

 

 

Let's just assume for the sake of argument that my server can handle multiple streams. @cayars are you going to give this a try?

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smills

I tried it real quick during my lunch break.   Seems to work.

  • On WIndows10 same system as my Emby server is running.
  • Downloaded and installed python 2.7
  • executed from a terminal command line per the instructions on github
  • In Emby setup a live TV source.  Did not detect this  so set it as a HDHomerun on  localhost:6077
  • When I tried  to watch a stream it tried and failed because it could not find ffmpeg.  So I went an added my ffmpeg location to my system PATH variable and restarted the command window   and then it worked just fine.  Did not try to use the emby bundled ffmpeg but used another recent build.
  • Total setup time maybe 10 minutes.  I already have my local OTA EPG guide data setup for locast via channelsdvr  so I didn;t have to spend any time setting up guide data -  Emby appeared to map it all correctly.

 

Seems to work  and i am able to watch the stream from locast.  Seems be be using very little additional resources on my system.   I have not tried recording or watching for any significant duration to comment on stability.  Have not tried running it as a service.

 

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smills

@cayars I am a locast supporter.   I use locast for my local channels everyday.   Works very well for me. 

I also have an HDHomerun (actually 2 of them) to use as a backup if my broadband is down. 

Why locast?

First, I believe in what they are doing and want them to keep doing it.
Second I use the locast preferentially over the HDHomerun because I live in a somewhat fringe area and dont get great reception on all the channels in my metro area so I get better quality on a lot of the streams via locast.

 

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all4dom

I would love to have my locals stream through emby. My network broadcast fee keeps going up with spectrum & I have only a small streaming package including my network channels. 

Hopefully if this is done emby dvr would work recording the shows? 

Maybe 1 day even beu g able to access some free and or paid subscription sites through emby. I hate the fire TV interface & I read here the same type of setup is coming to. Roku soon. That's a shame because the roku right now has the cleanest ui out there.

I hope you guys can do.this.

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Well i haven't tried it myself, but it makes locast appear like an HD Homerun which you can then import into Emby Live TV.

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all4dom

I see someone posted someone posted some instructions above so I will give it a try later this week but would have been great if it were included in emby.

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smills

FYI,  tried it on a raspberry Pi4 4GB  running  Raspbian  Buster that already had ffmpeg and python installed.

  • cd to directory where I want to install locast2plex
  • git clone https://github.com/tgorgdotcom/locast2plex.git
  • cd into locast2plex directory that is created by git
  • execute locast2plex from commandline with:  
  • Quote
    • python main.py -u:b.scott.mills@gmail.com -p:4theTv --debug --addy:192.168.2.10 --port:6077
  • then setup the source in Emby as a HDHR on that IP and port.

It just works.  

Locast2PlexOnPi.thumb.png.4881ede78d448fa2deb42b4c30a277e6.png

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