New app: ErsatzTV — turn your own library into live TV channels
Posted by tomspark
Two of you asked for this one, so Tom put it in. ErsatzTV is in the app list as of v1.6.474. What it actually is. It's not another player. It builds real TV channels out of the movies and shows you already own — with a proper channel guide — so instead of scrolling a library deciding what to watch, you turn the TV on and something is already playing. Build a 90s-sitcoms channel, a channel that's nothing but one show, a channel of your own home videos. Whatever you've got. How to get it. Update your box from Settings → Updates → Update SparkBox, then open Apps and switch on ErsatzTV. That's it — one click, no config files. Getting your first channel going takes three steps in order, and it's worth doing them in this order or nothing plays: 1. A media source — point it at your Jellyfin, or straight at your media folder. 2. A collection — group what you want on the channel. Start small, like a single show, so you can tell it's working. 3. A channel + schedule — the schedule is the bit people miss. Without one the channel exists but shows nothing. Then add it to Jellyfin under Live TV, or point any IPTV app at your box, and the channels show up next to everything else. Full walkthrough: https://tomsparkbox.com/guides/ersatztv-setup One honest caveat before you enable it. Jellyfin only does work when you press play. ErsatzTV is running a broadcast, so it's re-encoding video for as long as a channel is live. On a box with Intel Quick Sync, turn hardware transcoding on and the GPU absorbs it. Without one, expect steady CPU load and stick to a channel or two. It's off by default for exactly that reason — enable it when you want it. Your media folder is mounted read-only, so ErsatzTV can't alter your originals no matter how you set a channel up. If you build something good, post it — genuinely curious what channels people come up with. — v1.6.474