I just recently found out about FieldStation42. It takes quite a bit of configuring, but I really like the idea.
this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2026
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Like others have said, ErsatzTV is no longer developed, but Tunarr picks up where it left off, including a settings import from ErsatzTV to make migrations easier.
This may be a dumb question but isn't OTA TV still basically exactly what you describe?
I probably could've clarified that - the key here is it's my media put on my schedule.
As others have said, ersatztv would be the way to go, but apparently is no longer being developed. I’m still using it, but there was a conversation a few days ago that might have some leads on good replacements: https://lemmy.ml/post/44804563
There's also pluto tv, xumo, etc that have live channels that basically run content throughout the day.
Tunarr
Jellyfin has an iptv addon you can install
Ive tried ersatz and a couple of other things it was cool
if you're needing this channel on multiple devices at once (synced-ish) then ersatz is the way to go.. but it uses some hardware/horsepower and it bugged me seeing the metrics spin up on that server for me to wanna have some background noise
instead, i found out kodi can do smart playlists!
I have jellyfin/emby feeding several kodi installs, and made various playlists based around various rules (can be genre, folder, tags, or TV show titles etc), with one of the rules being playcount for episodes/movies being under a certain number.
added a script for starting each playlist to buttons in home assistant, and bam, poor mans channels.
when an episode gets finished, the playcount goes up, keeping us from seeing the same episodes.
i know we're getting crazy here but i even created a variable, so when the house knows i put it in "TV mode" like that, it maps my channel up and down buttons to the skip foward, skip previous buttons, making it feel more like channel surfing. which is a little much, but puts a smile on my face.
in the home assistant script, you could add a "skip 3 minutes" when "changing channels" so it feels like real TV, no need to see the first few minutes of speed! Where is Sandra Bullock!?
Your "poor man's channels" is a slick fix. I haven't messed with HA yet, but didn’t think about whether that could cue up specific playlists. That'd get me one bit closer.
ErsatzTV is great for this, but it just entered maintenance mode and I don't think any forks are currently continuing the work. Still, it'll probably continue to work without issues for a long time.
Dang. Yeah, that's exactly what I want. Shame to see it's unmaintained, but I'll have to give it a shot anyway.
I ran it for a while and it was a little confusing to set up but worked well in the end. I did have some major issues with trying to use it alongside my HDHomeRun (local antenna channels) in Plex. xTeve allows you to combine the two programming schedules into one since Plex only allows for one at a time, but for whatever reason the output would come out all scrambled with shows being tied to the wrong channel. It seemed to work fine in Emby, so it should work fine in Jellyfin, and you likely wouldn't even encounter this since most people don't have live TV setup anyways.
I was just about to set up ErsatzTV for this exact thing, but the maintainer announced recently that he’s not updating it anymore and nobody is taking over. It’s probably fine for now, but I’m hesitant to start running it. He’s encouraging forks, but none are really the clear successor yet as far as I know. I don’t know if there’s anything else comparable.
Try just using digital TV. I get like 20 channels on mine with just a coax cable hooked to a VCR!
But then I'm tied to "normal" tv channels saturated with ads, yeah?
That's very much part of the experience you seem to crave /s
Maybe there is a FOSS self hosted solution for mixing good old tv ads into the mix!
Ersatz actually does allow you to do this. Its kinda neat to find old 80s and 90s commercials and mix them in with your 80s and 90s TV shows.
Okay that would be fun. Couple retro commercials between an episode every now and then would be cool.
It won't really feel like a tv channel until I put 5 minutes of prescription drug commercials between every cut in a show.
prescription drug commercials
Referencing anal leakage and death while an upbeat jingle plays in the background to some smiling old people playing horseshoes or hiking in nature.
Talk to your doctor today!
Indeed
ErsatzTV is what I use, but it's definitely overkill for my usage. I just want a channel that plays Friends, Seinfeld, The Office, Parks & Rec, all shuffled, all day.
ErsatzTV definitely works for that, but it's overkill for just that use case.