Capture Input

[codechurn 9]

Is it possible to take a video input via a capture card and present it as a "channel" in Emby somehow? 

[Luke 42083]

Hi, does it have an M3U output feature by chance?

[Carlo 4561]

On 11/24/2021 at 10:39 PM, codechurn said:

Is it possible to take a video input via a capture card and present it as a "channel" in Emby somehow? 

If it generates a TS (transport stream) or HLS it can be used.  But be warned not all captured boards are created equal with some producing what I'd consider substandard quality streams.
Back in the day before we had tuners and cable cards you had no choice but use these combined with IR blasters to record from cable boxes. I used to have about a dozen cable box/capture/IR blasters setup. That used to be "fun" and a bit tricky to make sure the IR blaster only changed the channel of the cable box you wanted and not one near by.

What I would ask is what you're trying to capture and how often you will be doing this?
What interface will it be using?  If it's HDMI you may/may not be able to capture it depending if if uses HDCP (copy protection) or not or if you can bypass it.

Knowing what you're trying to accomplish will get you a better answer.

 

[codechurn 9]

I was going to capture the output via HDMI of a PC. I picked up one of these assuming that I could plug it into the HDMI port and then configure Emby to access this stream via its m3u Live TV Tuner support. It seems like it should work in theory, which of course means I'll probably run into some sort of snag.

Your back in the day config sounds a little intense. Was that your home DVR setup?

[Carlo 4561]

Yes, that was for a DVR setup using SageTV when I used to be one of the SageTV devs. It was also my person home system as well as a few neighbors who were connected to my LAN for both TV and Internet. I was using dedicated Internet over Frame Relay back then when others were using slow dialup modems.

I've never seen or used that device so I'd have no idea how well it will work.  Have you tried it yet in Emby?
If not I'd start out loading the IPTV plugin from the catalog and using that vs Live TV as it will allow you to quickly make changes and try specific protocols that capture device supports.  Then if you wanted you could try making it a part of an m3u file loaded into Live TV if that's the overall objective.