9 comments

  • oknosoknos1 hour ago
    Really nice, great project, thanks! How about an „I feel lucky“-button for random discoveries?
    • dtagames41 minutes ago
      Great idea! We can't guarantee the pick will load but it could have a "roll again" option, lol.
  • ItemId483256244 hours ago
    This is great! I like it a lot better than tv.garden<p>Two issues i had:<p>1. Closed captions didnt work on firefox (windows) - the menu did appear where im suppposed to be able to select a cc option but i cant actually click on any of them<p>2. Closed captions did work on chrome (windows) but i could only just barely click the menu icon; putting the mouse over most of the menu buttons caused them to disappear, so i had to click the very lowest part of the button<p>but otherwise terrific, especially if this is updating from github live as you say; lots of channels were dead on tv.garden (maybe its different now - i dont actually watch tv that often unless an event is going on like moon landing or something)
    • dtagames40 minutes ago
      Thank you so much! You are right that captions aren&#x27;t addressed well. I can look at them more. It&#x27;s something I like, too, especially for language learning.
    • striking2 hours ago
      You can force them to be visible by right-clicking on the video element, choosing &quot;Inspect&quot;, and pasting `$0.getRootNode().querySelector(&#x27;video&#x27;).textTracks[1].mode = &#x27;showing&#x27;` into the Console.
  • dtagames4 hours ago
    I built this app for myself after being disappointed with the options for viewing IPTV online. Thousands of global channels broadcast their streams but there&#x27;s no great way to find, filter, save, and share them.<p>Since it was launched during the war, comparing news broadcasts from different countries and perspectives became the number one use case. But not far behind was <i>language learning</i>, something I used TV for as a kid when I was an exchange student to Spain.<p>Several technical challenges had to be overcome to make this work:<p>- How to get channel data and keep it updated?<p>- How to handle geoblocking or off-air channels?<p>- How would users save channels and share them with friends or across devices?<p>- Could you operate your living room TV with your phone <i>as a remote</i>?<p>I&#x27;m pleased to say that TV Explorer addresses all of these issues, and lots of other ones like different devices sizes and orientations, browsers, and user preferences. To connect a user across all the apps developed with my platform, called Watson, TVE uses common authentication and user login for all Watson apps -- itself a challenge to develop and implement.<p>Here&#x27;s how those things were handled:<p>- Channels are loaded <i>live</i> from a public repo on git, maintained by an established community.<p>- A graceful scanning interface detects dead or blocked channels and keeps their status for users.<p>- Deep linking (with screenshots on mobile!) encourage viral sharing.<p>- Yes, you can! I call it the $1,000 remote. TVE acts like a search and channel changer for your living room set.<p>I&#x27;d love to hear what you think... and what challenges you&#x27;ve had deploying your side projects!
  • zuzululu2 hours ago
    thank you for this! now I can watch Korean TV and learn Korean.<p>I do wonder why the video keeps buffering and timeline is in a loop, it loads a segment then timeline jumps back.<p>Other than that this is lovely I can use it as sort of something in the background while i work and also explore other countries.
    • dtagames38 minutes ago
      You are most welcome and thank you for letting me know you like it!<p>I have seen the buffer and repeat issue with some channels. It&#x27;s hard to know why it&#x27;s happening. The app works by giving the stream URL from the broadcaster to a video player element in your browser. It just uses standard web protocols and tries to get the data from the stream as fast as it can. I&#x27;ve found these international sources can be iffy sometimes. Others are rock solid and you can watch high dev TV like it&#x27;s from your home town!
  • IcyHordr1 hour ago
    This is VEEEERRY GOOD!
    • dtagames40 minutes ago
      As a dev, I love hearing this. Thank you so much!
  • phusuke2 hours ago
    Is there a better way to browse through the list? Currently the player takes up most of the screen and I can only see like 2 channels in the table and it&#x27;s hard to scroll.
    • dtagames37 minutes ago
      Thank you for this input. Designing for small screens has been a challenge. You can use the settings (gear icon) to remove the rows you don&#x27;t use, which frees up more space for channels.<p>I like your idea, though. What&#x27;s another way you&#x27;d like to browse them?
  • cwharris4 hours ago
    This is awesome! We need more projects like this!<p>I&#x27;m sitting here watching music videos from Mongolia, having a legitimately cool digital experience. It just _feels_ different, like I&#x27;m a kid in the 90&#x27;s scanning cable channels, finding whatever&#x27;s interesting. Roulette-like, but with results filtered by what different cultures find generally acceptable. Very early-internet vibes on this, but with modern quality and presentation.<p>I love it. I have no reason to love it. But I do. And that&#x27;s the best part.
    • dtagames36 minutes ago
      Hey, you! I know where you got that Mongolian channel because I like it, too!<p>Thank you so much. This is the kind of feedback I live for. To make something people love.
  • lobf3 hours ago
    Love this. I’ve been working on a couple of options for better IPTV viewing and curating too, so this is wonderful. Thanks!
    • dtagames36 minutes ago
      Thank you so much! That means a lot coming from somebody who knows the landscape.