Post #4112095

2026-07-26 12:44 UTC

I was ill last week and discovered something uncomfortable: a huge Jellyfin library isn't entertainment, it's homework. Every time I opened it, it asked "what do you want?" and I just scrolled. So I built a TV station instead. ErsatzTV turns a media library into real linear channels with schedules and logos. It ships for Linux, Windows and macOS. My server runs FreeBSD. Turns out the entire porting effort was one conditional. The code asked "is this Linux?" when it meant "is VAAPI available?" VAAPI is userspace, FreeBSD has it, and .NET has had OSPlatform.FreeBSD for years. One || later: Intel hardware transcoding in a Bastille jail that can see exactly one GPU and one read-only dataset. I now have a sci-fi channel. I don't know what's on tonight. That's the point. https://blog.hofstede.it/building-my-own-tv-station-ersatztv-in-a-freebsd-jail-with-intel-hardware-transcoding/ #FreeBSD #ErsatzTV #Jellyfin #SelfHosting #Jails #dotnet

Replies (6)

@fallbackerik@mastodon.social 2026-07-26 13:33

@Larvitz@burningboard.net will it play ads every 15 minutes? Maybe this could be simulated with trailers.

Open ##4112938
@dvandal@infosec.exchange 2026-07-26 19:27

@Larvitz@burningboard.net I did a similar project a few weeks ago! - I had a “Space” channel for my space related scifi, plus science channel space related stuff, who’s filler is NASA videos - A Knock-Off adult swim that has cartoons I like with Adult Swim bumpers - A Twilight Zone channel that just shuffles that And a few others. What I have been thinking of doing is automating pulling in youtube videos and adding them into a growing library to make a PBS/YouTube SciFi channel, which would be pretty cool. Haven’t gotten to tackling that just yet

Open ##4119263
@sri@mastodon.social 2026-07-26 19:53

@Larvitz@burningboard.net you know, it would be kind of rad if we added "commercial breaks" but it's just reads trending mastodon posts through whisper. Or even popular blog that you could read later. I boosted your post talking about a 'free desktop' tv station so to speak, but I dont know how I would generate content from gnome and kde's youtube channel and turn it into a station...

Open ##4119797
@claudius@darmstadt.social 2026-07-26 20:36

@Larvitz@burningboard.net seems like they are currently rewriting in rust with help of GenAI 😬

Open ##4120482
@RussSharek@mastodon.art 2026-07-26 12:48

@Larvitz@burningboard.net That's really cool! We did something similar with our music collection, and listen to a lot more music as a result.

Open ##4198413
@tomap@hachyderm.io 2026-07-26 14:02

@Larvitz@burningboard.net I would add Battlestar Galactica also

Open ##4198419