Pluto TV script

Chris G · 2024-12-04T23:26:25+00:00

Here is my custom Pluto TV script for TVHeadand. It requires Streamlink and makes use of TVHeadends useful pipe options. It queries the Pluto TV API directly...

Chris G

Barry

When you create a new mount (-v), the folder on your local machine will be empty, unless the Docker image is configured to populate these directories on startup.

The config dir has data in it for (probably) 2 reasons.
1: The Docker image puts in default options if it's empty.
2: This is where configs are saved when you alter them in TVH web UI.

/recordings, /custom-cont-init.d, and /custom-services.d are supposed to be empty.
/recordings is where recordings will be saved.
/custom-cont-init.d, is where you need to put the Streamlink install script.

You need to understand why directories need to be mounted.
The Docker containers you create are sort of read only.
You can make changes inside the container, but any changes are lost on a restart.
The mounted volumes are where you store persistent data.
In the case of the custom-cont dirs, these are just locations that the linuxserver.io images check for custom scripts users want to run, in my case, install Streamlink.

Barry

Chris G Hi Chris, my patient Guide! Thanks for the explanations; I had a problem with TVHeadend being super-sluggish and was thinking maybe those were or part of the cause. (Went back a couple of SD card backups.)

...OK: Good News! I've finally have streamlink.sh installed; on reboot I should see Streamlink is installed. Fingers crossed, which makes it difficult to type.

Chris G

Barry

Docker has basically 0 overhead (this is why the self-hosted community loves it).
TVH should run the same whether it's natively installed or running inside a Docker container.
https://stackoverflow.com/a/26149994

Barry

Chris G Hi Chris! Yes, from what I've read Docker is super-fast. Not sure why sluggish on this end -- possibly the SD card? Will figure that out later.

Bad news: Streamlink is not installing. Good news: I found out why. Bad news: not sure how to fix it.

To see if running: docker exec -it TVHeadend sh streamlink Got "no such file or directory".

ls -halt /mnt/containers/TVHeadend/custom-cont-init.d/streamlink.sh --> is present, with the correct contents, BUT owned by me: barry:barry. "Needs to be owned by root otherwise ignored."

sudo chown root:root /mnt/containers/TVHeadend/custom-cont-init.d/streamlink.sh Now showing root:root.

Reboot. No streamlink; script ownership back to me! I think it might be because the TVHeadend directory belongs to me, which I should be able to fix with sudo chown -R /mnt/containers/TVHeadend, but want to check before I create other issues.
barry@raspberrypi:~ $ ls -halt /mnt/containers/TVHeadend/custom-cont-init.d/streamlink.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 barry barry 68 Sep 27 19:27 /mnt/containers/TVHeadend/custom-cont-init.d/streamlink.sh

The permissions:

ls -halt  /mnt/containers/TVHeadend/	==> barry:barry

barry@raspberrypi:~ $ ls -halt  /mnt/containers
total 12K
drwxr-xr-x 18 barry barry 4.0K Sep 28 08:10 TVHeadend
drwxr-xr-x  3 root  root  4.0K Sep 27 15:16 .
drwxr-xr-x  4 root  root  4.0K Sep 27 15:16 ..

Chris G

My script is -rwxr--r--
Does the script exist if you search for it inside the docker container (is the mount correct).

You can see in the logs that it detects 2 files and runs them both:

libdvbcsa.sh and streamlink.sh

Barry

Hi Chris! Looks like the first part of the problem is the script fails to maintain the permission:

Inside container ==> barry@raspberrypi:~ $ docker exec -it TVHeadend /bin/bash
root@raspberrypi:/# find / -type f -iname streamlink.sh 2>/dev/null
/config/custom-cont-init.d/streamlink.sh

root@raspberrypi:/# ls -halt /config/custom-cont-init.d/streamlink.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 abc users 68 Sep 27 19:27 /config/custom-cont-init.d/streamlink.sh

root@raspberrypi:/# chown root:root /config/custom-cont-init.d/streamlink.sh

root@raspberrypi:/# ls -halt /config/custom-cont-init.d/streamlink.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 68 Sep 27 19:27 /config/custom-cont-init.d/streamlink.sh

reboot

barry@raspberrypi:~ $ streamlink
bash: streamlink: command not found
barry@raspberrypi:~ $ docker exec -it TVHeadend /bin/bash
root@raspberrypi:/# streamlink
bash: streamlink: command not found
root@raspberrypi:/# ls -halt /config/custom-cont-init.d/streamlink.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 abc users 68 Sep 27 19:27 /config/custom-cont-init.d/streamlink.sh

So for some reason the user and group keeps returning to abc:users. Tried 'sudo chown' but get a command not found. Somewhere in the instructions if not configured to be executable won't run, and needs to be owned by root. Plus is run at a certain time so looks like I couldn't even run a cheat script to change the ownership.

Barry

Hi Chris!
Revisiting your reply/question (#72). Short answer: neither file found in the log. Below are my notes which as I interpret it is the script isn't being loaded, and I'm guessing because I'm doing something which is causing the ownership to revert to abc:users.
barry@raspberrypi:~ $ docker logs -f TVHeadend | grep -i libdvbcsa.sh
==> Doesn’t work → displays entire docker log to screen

barry@raspberrypi:~ $ docker logs -f TVHeadend > /mnt/ramdisk/TVH.log
barry@raspberrypi:~ $ ls -halt /mnt/ramdisk/ TVH.log

barry@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /mnt/ramdisk/TVH.log | grep -i libdvbcsa.sh
==> NF (also tried w/o /sh)
barry@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /mnt/ramdisk/TVH.log | grep -i streamlink.sh
==> NF (also tried w/o /sh)

barry@raspberrypi:~ $ head /mnt/ramdisk/TVH.log
[custom-init] No custom services found, skipping...
[migrations] started
[migrations] no migrations found
───────────────────────────────────────
("LSIO" in ASCII, which was pretty much illegible in the proportional font here!)

→ Later, using head -n 40

Setting permissions
[custom-init] No custom files found, skipping...
[ls.io-init] done.
[custom-init] No custom services found, skipping...
[migrations] started
[migrations] no migrations found
usermod: no changes

As always, a big Thank You!

Barry

Hi Folks!

Took a few days off to clear my mind: I was starting to think in loops which didn’t give me new ways of trying to fix the problem(s).

Still getting the “ unknown playlist format for network 'Pluto TV (IPTV)'” error. I’m pretty sure I have Streamlink installed to my TVHeadend Docker container. (If someone wants to give me the test command I will re-run to be certain.)

I tried Jack’s version of the Python script (post #39). Rebooted and let run. Playlist error.
I tried Chris’ update (post #40). Reboot, let run, playlist error.

Tried the filename in lower case for each (Jack’s and Chris’) as I think Jack mentioned about finding something (Docker??) didn’t like upper case nor spaces. ...And I re-looked at the error message: “spawn: Executing "/Scripts/PlutoTV.py"” which is obviously looking at the original script name. And if uppercase is an issue is my subdir ‘Scripts’ also part of the problem? (I know Ubuntu and Raspbian are case-sensitive but as long as match we’re OK.) I’m thinking more something I’m overlooking because this is my first foray into Docker stuff.

Thanks!

Barry

Hi Folks!

I think I finally figured out my “iptv: unknown playlist format for network 'Pluto TV (IPTV)'” error: the python script needed to be inside the TVHeadend Docker – I had it ‘outside’ in the Raspberry Pi OS (/home/barry/scripts/plutotv.py) – obviously my first time fiddling with anything Docker!

Got what looks like a decent output in the log (at the bottom of the Electronic Program Guide) but so far nothing appearing; I have OTA station listings; Pluto set with a 100 offset. Right now waiting for everything else to do its magic…..

Barry

Barry Returned from lunch, noted the EPG chart needed reloading -- ta-da! OTA and Pluto stations listed!! Haven't done more than a cursory check but so far looking good! Now to test recordings!

mason

Anyone else having issues with the stream not resuming when the ads hit? EPG and everything else works fine. I can resume the stream manually after but it just sits at the last frame and never resumes on it's own if left to it's own devices. Relevant logs below:
2025-11-14 12:25:11.850 subscription: 0007: "HTTP" subscribing on channel "Modern Marvels Presented by HISTORY", weight: 100, adapter: "IPTV #1", network: "PlutoTV", mux: "python3 - Modern Marvels Presented by HISTORY", service: "Modern Marvels Presented by HISTORY", profile="webtv-vp8-vorbis-webm", hostname="192.168.1.5", username="admin", client="Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:142.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/142.0"

2025-11-14 12:25:11.850 spawn: Executing "/usr/bin/streamlink"

2025-11-14 12:25:12.388 spawn: [cli][info] Found matching plugin pluto for URL https://pluto.tv/live-tv/65775d29dfed030008cb3db2

2025-11-14 12:25:13.731 spawn: [cli][info] Available streams: 240p (worst), 360p, 480p_alt, 480p, 720p (best)

2025-11-14 12:25:13.731 spawn: [cli][info] Opening stream: 720p (hls-pluto)

2025-11-14 12:25:14.079 transcode: 0006: 01:H264: ==> Using profile webtv-vp8

2025-11-14 12:25:14.079 transcode: 0006: 02:AAC: ==> Using profile webtv-vorbis

2025-11-14 12:25:14.096 libav: AVCodecContext: v1.14.1

2025-11-14 12:28:33.901 spawn: [stream.hls][info] Filtering out segments and pausing stream output

2025-11-14 12:30:34.000 spawn: [stream.hls][warning] Encountered a stream discontinuity. This is unsupported and will result in incoherent output data.

2025-11-14 12:30:34.000 spawn: [stream.hls][info] Resuming stream output

2025-11-14 12:30:38.871 spawn: [stream.hls][warning] Encountered a stream discontinuity. This is unsupported and will result in incoherent output data.

2025-11-14 12:30:38.872 TS: PlutoTV/python3 - Modern Marvels Presented by HISTORY/Modern Marvels Presented by HISTORY: H264 @ #481 Continuity counter error (total 1)

2025-11-14 12:30:43.845 parser: PlutoTV/python3 - Modern Marvels Presented by HISTORY/Modern Marvels Presented by HISTORY: H264 @ #481: DTS and PCR diff is very big (10826867)

2025-11-14 12:30:43.845 tsfix: transport stream H264, DTS discontinuity. DTS = 30197805, last = 19379805

2025-11-14 12:30:44.895 TS: PlutoTV/python3 - Modern Marvels Presented by HISTORY/Modern Marvels Presented by HISTORY: AAC @ #492 Continuity counter error (total 1)

2025-11-14 12:30:44.918 tsfix: transport stream AAC, DTS discontinuity. DTS = 30198405, last = 19386885

2025-11-14 12:30:44.918 transcode: 0006: 02:VORBIS: [aac => vorbis]: Detected framedrop in audio (19388805 != 30198405)

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