PrismCast turns Chrome into a DVR-friendly streaming server
PrismCast is an open-source project allowing users to capture live video from various web-based TV streaming sites, including Hulu, YouTube TV, and Sling TV, and deliver them as HLS or MPEG-TS streams. It integrates with DVR platforms like Channels DVR and Plex through HDHomeRun emulation, using Google Chrome to access and re-stream content. The server supports multiple concurrent streams, offers a web interface for management, and includes reliability features like intelligent playback recovery and predictive pretuning.
Key Takeaways
- PrismCast supports 8 built-in services: Hulu, YouTube TV, Sling TV, Fox, HBO Max, DirecTV Stream, Spectrum TV, and Xfinity Stream.
- The server can stream up to 10 channels simultaneously, with configurable limits and a web dashboard for health status, memory usage, and logs.
- Plex integration works through built-in HDHomeRun emulation on port 5004, while Channels DVR connects through an M3U playlist at `/playlist`.
- Reliability features include intelligent playback recovery, resolution degradation detection, predictive pretuning, circuit breaker protection, and a `/health` endpoint.
- The Docker image includes Google Chrome, Xvfb, VNC, and noVNC, with Intel Quick Sync GPU acceleration support via `/dev/dri`.
Why It Matters
PrismCast gives Channels DVR and Plex users a browser-based way to turn web TV streams into DVR-friendly feeds without changing the underlying service login flow. The project spans both direct HLS output and MPEG-TS via HDHomeRun emulation, which matters because it bridges two common live-TV ingestion paths in the streaming stack. The concrete signal to watch is adoption: the repository shows 26 stars, 7 forks, 35 releases, and a latest tag of v1.10.3.
Read full article at github.com
Enjoy our coverage?
Add StreamingMeme as a preferred source on Google to see more of our streaming news at the top of your Search results.
Add as preferred source