LOCAST
 

I have been trying to get a good OTA signal for the past year and running into some problems. The only alternative seems to be putting an antenna on the roof. :thumbdown I then found LOCAST which has been working great. (And at $5 a month it is a real bargain)

Recently Channels DVR added LOCAST as a supported tuner. I tried it and it works great recording broadcast channels. ($8 per month)

It got me thinking, if Channels DVR was able to write a software tuner for LOCAST, why couldn't someone create an OpenDCT type of network tuner that SageTV could use to record from LOCAST?

What does everyone think?

That would be amazing!

At first glance this sounds like Aereo that was shut down that had these tiny antennas to record or rebroadcast OTA TV.

This article says that they were sued 14 months ago. Doesn't seem as if the case has been heard yet.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/th...cognize%20this.

Here is another story: https://www.nexttv.com/news/locast-e...alling-aereo-2

I can't put my fingers on it right now, but what I read is that because locast.org is set up as a non-profit, they have a good chance of succeeding where Aereo failed.

Or if only you could add a M3U tuner in SageTV or OPENDCT. I have TVE XFINITY and Locast working on EMBY/NEXTPVR using Channels DVR as a backend supplying the M3U feed.

What is an M3U tuner and what is TVE Xfinity? Does that allow you to access LiveTV via Comcast's Xfinity service?

https://community.getchannels.com/t/...erywhere/18127

Very interesting. There seems to be a Docker container for the Channels DVR-TVE. It would be cool if you could access this via a Docker on a system also running SageTV in a Docker (or on Windows).

You need a cable subscription for TV Everywhere. I like Channels DVR because it records from LOCAST without a cable subscription.

LOCAST is staying in business because they are a non-profit.

Apparently someone figured out how to integrate Locast into Kodi.
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=334947

You do not need a Cable subscription a Philo Youtube hulu etc will do.

A major U.S. cable or OTT provider like AT&T TV Now, Cox, Direct TV, Direct TV Now, Dish Network, Frontier, FuboTV, HTC Digital, Hulu Live TV, Optimum, PSVue, Philo, Sling TV, Spectrum, Verizon Fios, Xfinity, YouTube TV, etc.

And it works for Emby as well.

Is LOCAST a moving target, that would require constant developer attention to keep it working properly?

How does Locast.org comply with copyright?

Locast.org operates under the same copyright statute that allows broadcast translators to receive and transmit a primary local broadcast TV station without a copyright license, meaning it may provide the digital translator service to you even if local broadcasters object.

Before 1976, under two Supreme Court decisions, any company or organization could receive an over-the-air broadcast signal and retransmit it to households in that broadcaster’s market without receiving permission (a copyright license) from the broadcaster. Then, in 1976, Congress passed a law overturning the Supreme Court decisions and making it a copyright violation to retransmit a local broadcast signal without a copyright license. This is why cable and satellite operators, when retransmitting a broadcast signal, either must operate under a statutory “compulsory” copyright license, or receive permission from the broadcaster.

But Congress made an exception. Any “non-profit organization” could make a “secondary transmission” of a local broadcast signal, provided the non-profit did not receive any “direct or indirect commercial advantage” and either offered the signal for free or for a fee “necessary to defray the actual and reasonable costs” of providing the service. 17 U.S.C. 111(a)(5).

Sports Fans Coalition NY is a non-profit organization under the laws of New York State. Locast.org does not charge viewers for the digital translator service (although we do ask for contributions) and if it does so, will only recover costs as stipulated in the copyright statute. Finally, in dozens of pages of legal analysis provided to Sports Fans Coalition, an expert in copyright law concluded that under this particular provision of the copyright statute, secondary transmission may be made online, the same way traditional broadcast translators do so over the air.

For these reasons, Locast.org believes it is well within the bounds of copyright law when offering you the digital translator service.

Apparently the Plex code takes the Locast stream and converts it to act like an HDHomerun tuner.

So, it is possible to do the same for SageTV?

That's way beyond my pay grade! Hopefully someone with real knowledge and experience will comment.

I've been skimming the Reddit and GitHub pages to try and understand how it works and have reached my limit. I did see that someone had installed the software on a Pi, which would be pretty slick if one could just buy one, plug it in, find it as a tuner, and go from there.

There must be a gotcha here... if Locast is an IPTV stream and can be picked up with Sage, why can't any other IPTV stream be accessed as well? I'm sure I'm missing something.

Here's a link to what I think is the code to read the Locast stream..

There is also Telly. IPTV proxy for use with Plex Media Server.

Another option
https://github.com/tgorgdotcom/locast2plex

Without digging into the LOCAST website too much, is it absolutely tied to geolocation such that you can ONLY get the locals in your area and you have to be in the "viewing area" of one of their sites? Or could you easily VPN your way around it?

The reason I ask - and this would seem to me to be a big sticking point - is rights to professional sports games. For instance, if you live in Chicago you can watch the Bears on your local CBS or Fox, but if you are a Bears fan living somewhere else, your only options to see the Bears would be paying for something like DirecTV's NFL package (premium $$$). MLB is well-known too for paying to keep cutting-edge algorithms in place to prevent people from watching out-of-market games. With LOCAST, if there was not strict geolocation, you could choose Chicago as your locals and watch the Bears or Cubs game. It would be way cheaper for sports fans to get LOCAST just for out-of-market sports than to pay for the officially-sanctioned league option.

So while they may not get shut down by the FCC, they may get sued by the NFL or MLB.