ErsatzTV
Build live IPTV channels from your media with HDHomeRun emulation and XMLTV guide.
ErsatzTV is a self-hosted application for configuring and streaming live custom channels built from your own media library. It schedules your videos into 24x7 channels, transcodes them on the fly with ffmpeg, and presents everything to your media server as if it were a physical HDHomeRun network tuner with a matching program guide.
Key features
- Emulates an HDHomeRun tuner so Plex, Emby and Jellyfin discover your channels for live TV
- Schedules your own media into 24x7 channels with flexible playout rules
- Transcodes on demand with bundled ffmpeg and outputs HLS or MPEG-TS
- Serves an XMLTV guide so your player shows a full program schedule
- Web UI on port 8409 for channels, schedules, media sources and logs
Use cases
- Run a personal 24x7 retro TV, music video or seasonal channel from your library
- Give Plex, Emby or Jellyfin a live TV lineup backed by content you already own
- Curate themed channels with scheduled blocks, filler and program guide data
Why run it on the NetActuate edge Running ErsatzTV in a PoP close to your viewers shortens the delivery hop for its HLS and MPEG-TS output, so channels start faster and rebuffer less on the way to your players.
Deployed from the NetActuate marketplace it boots pre-configured from your seeded server name and starts only after first-boot configuration completes, so the appliance is never serving in a half-initialized state.
Note on access: ErsatzTV has no built-in authentication. Put a TLS-terminating proxy in front of it or restrict access to trusted source IPs before exposing it.
Upstream project: ErsatzTV (https://ersatztv.org/), an independent open source project. ErsatzTV is not affiliated with or endorsed by NetActuate; NetActuate packages the unmodified upstream 26.6.0 release binary on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
Frequently asked questions
How do I deploy ErsatzTV on NetActuate?
Use the Deploy on NetActuate button to talk to our team. We provision ErsatzTV on a NetActuate virtual machine in the point of presence you choose, close to your audience. Each deployment runs in the single location you select.
What does it cost to run ErsatzTV?
ErsatzTV is open-source software and free to run on the marketplace - you pay only for the NetActuate compute (virtual-machine size and location) it runs on, at standard rates. There are no usage-based software fees.
Where can ErsatzTV run?
ErsatzTV can be deployed in any of NetActuate's 45+ points of presence across every continent, so you can place ingest, transcode, delivery and caching close to your contributors and viewers.
Who supports ErsatzTV?
NetActuate operates and supports the underlying infrastructure - the virtual machine, network and edge platform. The application itself is supported by its upstream open-source project.
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