Oh also "why do this?"

1) It's interesting technology and I'm nerdy for it

2) I don't watch broadcast TV anymore because (despite the hundreds of channels) there's nothing I would want to watch at the time i want to watch it, and also I'm fed up with streaming.

I want something good to watch and it be in rotation so I don't have to choose. If I'm forced to choose I end up watching a documentary for the tenth time instead of something else I've got waiting.

I want some semblence of old style British analogue TV back and as I can't get it anywhere else I'm going to make it myself.

With the four modulators that I have I'm thinking of recreating something akin to the viewing habits I had on early Sky TV:

A channel of kids shows/cartoons during the day and movies in the evening (Cartoon Network & TNT)
A channel of scifi programs and more adult anime (Sci-Fi Channel/Bravo)
A general entertainment channel (Sky One)
A documentary channel (History)

I want the system to show programs in episode order but not as a box set binge style. For example the scifi channel would show an episode of Star Trek TNG and then an episode of Babylon 5 and then maybe The X-Files.

The cartoon channel would show an episode of Earthworm Jim, then Gargoyles, then MLP, etc and then in the evening it becomes a movie channel and starts showing movies.

Okay I’ve found a project on GitHub that might be able to do this! Will test it out when everything arrives.

If all goes to plan I’ll have four raspberry pis, each acting as a video player, into the modulators and then into a cable TV network broadcasting over the terrestrial UHF frequencies. No actual over the air broadcasting so it should stay self contained.

The MATV/cable headend gear arrived last week and it wasn’t in a great state; it had been packed in situ so some stuff broke in transit. It’s not a huge deal to repair though, just some plastic pieces.

Gonna try looking into the software over the next couple of days. Tried to work on it last night but for some reason I couldn’t get the Pi I wanted to use connected to the WiFi.

I’ve been a bit introspective over the last few days as to why I want to do this project. Part of it is that it’s fun and interesting, but the other part is that I’m now getting sick of current broadcast TV as well as algorithmic streaming. Places like YouTube are starting to feel more like TV in how they are pushing stuff that I have zero interest in.

This whole project will let me choose what shows I want to watch and then give them to me like broadcast TV of old.

@renbymon This a really neat idea and I’d love to see more of this as you implement it

@vulpine It's going to take some work and I'm gonna need another raspberry pi to get all the playout devices together (four in total, I have three alread) but ultimately I want it to be a whole house deal; UHF in every room to plug an analog TV in and get some decent telly.

@renbymon this sounds similar to something I saw on hackaday a while back.
https://hackaday.com/2023/07/13/recreating-the-golden-era-of-cable-tv/

Not sure how close that is to what you're picturing, but it might have some useful bits you can adapt.

@garrwolfdog I had forgotten about this! I think it did spark something but I was a little disappointed that they didn’t share their code for the project.

@renbymon It wasn't THAT long ago. you could always message them on hackaday and ask if they could share the code or something?

@garrwolfdog Well I spent a bit of time this morning looking at projects and I’ve found something on GitHub that does what I want. :)

github.com/TheDerpySage/comfy-channel

@renbymon Ooh, I like the idea a lot, could be fun.

@pippin Oh I guess so! I wasn’t sure really, but I’d like the videos to be as native as possible. The kit has arrived anyway so I’ll see how it looks on actual hardware in the next few days. :)