alt.hn

5/29/2026 at 4:39:09 PM

Show HN: TV Explorer. Adding advanced UI to free online TV

 https://tvexplorer.live

by dtagames

5/29/2026 at 10:26:14 PM

The first thing I do in a hotel room is turn on the TV and browse through all channels. I’ve watched folk dances in Romania, dubbed Indian shows in Bulgaria and even soft porn in Albania. This gives me that same feeling without the travel and hotel room!

Can you share more about the Watson framework - is that something one could use for their own ideas? I’m going through other websites you’ve built as well - very cool ideas!

by sidhusmart

5/30/2026 at 1:23:16 AM

I do that in hotels, too!

I'd definitely like to talk about Watson and I'm interested in folks who might like to build with it. Let's connect through my LinkedIn or email, both on my portfolio site at https://davidbethune.com

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 12:56:41 AM

Haha, Albania is exactly that. Any bar or kafana starting from 8-9pm just has soft porn on.

by nathancahill

5/29/2026 at 11:58:30 PM

I do the same even though I never watch regular television where I live.

But my disappointment with streaming TV is that it's not the same as actual live TV. I want to see local news clips and commercials, weather updates, announcements for local events, etc.

Without all that, it's just a bunch of pre-recorded content that you can't pause or rewind.

by russellbeattie

5/30/2026 at 1:24:12 AM

TV Explorer shows whatever the original channel broadcasts. Many include commericals, and I love that part!

by dtagames

5/29/2026 at 5:15:15 PM

This is great! I like it a lot better than tv.garden

Two issues i had:

1. Closed captions didnt work on firefox (windows) - the menu did appear where im suppposed to be able to select a cc option but i cant actually click on any of them

2. Closed captions did work on chrome (windows) but i could only just barely click the menu icon; putting the mouse over most of the menu buttons caused them to disappear, so i had to click the very lowest part of the button

but otherwise terrific, especially if this is updating from github live as you say; lots of channels were dead on tv.garden (maybe its different now - i dont actually watch tv that often unless an event is going on like moon landing or something)

by ItemId48325624

5/29/2026 at 6:39:54 PM

You can force them to be visible by right-clicking on the video element, choosing "Inspect", and pasting `$0.getRootNode().querySelector('video').textTracks[1].mode = 'showing'` into the Console.

by striking

5/29/2026 at 8:51:51 PM

Thank you so much! You are right that captions aren't addressed well. I can look at them more. It's something I like, too, especially for language learning.

by dtagames

5/29/2026 at 4:39:16 PM

I built this app for myself after being disappointed with the options for viewing IPTV online. Thousands of global channels broadcast their streams but there's no great way to find, filter, save, and share them.

Since it was launched during the war, comparing news broadcasts from different countries and perspectives became the number one use case. But not far behind was language learning, something I used TV for as a kid when I was an exchange student to Spain.

Several technical challenges had to be overcome to make this work:

- How to get channel data and keep it updated?

- How to handle geoblocking or off-air channels?

- How would users save channels and share them with friends or across devices?

- Could you operate your living room TV with your phone as a remote?

I'm pleased to say that TV Explorer addresses all of these issues, and lots of other ones like different devices sizes and orientations, browsers, and user preferences. To connect a user across all the apps developed with my platform, called Watson, TVE uses common authentication and user login for all Watson apps -- itself a challenge to develop and implement.

Here's how those things were handled:

- Channels are loaded live from a public repo on git, maintained by an established community.

- A graceful scanning interface detects dead or blocked channels and keeps their status for users.

- Deep linking (with screenshots on mobile!) encourage viral sharing.

- Yes, you can! I call it the $1,000 remote. TVE acts like a search and channel changer for your living room set.

I'd love to hear what you think... and what challenges you've had deploying your side projects!

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 11:41:00 AM

On iPad (latest hardware and OS) every page including the home page, all list blocks are a mass of [data-noir...] instead of whatever the blocks of lists are supposed to be.

On home page, the problem starts in the three blocks below "Where to start? Have a look at these..."

On video page, the top logo and socials row works, the video embed works, everything else is [data-noir...].

by Terretta

5/30/2026 at 7:03:21 PM

Hmmm... There are other users on iPad so this is odd. If you contact me through my site or the help page, I can help diagnose it.

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 3:19:06 AM

This is an amazing product. One of the coolest things about this is that there’s no commercials. Where the commercial time would be on BBC Earth, it’s a loop of animals with soothing music. 10/10 experience

Why not window.history.pushState like https://tvexplorer.live/tv?channel=bbc-earth - that way browser back/forward acts as changing the channel

by abailin

5/30/2026 at 3:29:16 AM

Thank you, and that's a good idea that I can definitely implement.

by dtagames

5/29/2026 at 8:04:34 PM

Really nice, great project, thanks! How about an „I feel lucky“-button for random discoveries?

by oknosoknos

5/29/2026 at 8:51:05 PM

Great idea! We can't guarantee the pick will load but it could have a "roll again" option, lol.

by dtagames

5/29/2026 at 9:50:29 PM

Hey this is pretty cool, I think probably the best iteration of these I´ve seen so far.

I´m surprised to see so many regional channels in my country I´d never guess existed.

I think a nice addition would be a filter to easily see the most relevant/national channels of a country, so I don't have to scroll through many regional ones.

by dysoco

5/30/2026 at 1:25:37 AM

[dead]

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 6:21:16 AM

This is nice! Good for language learning, especially the option to rewind. You could add an option to go back, say like 10 seconds with one click. Then you can listen again which is good for learning

by mahoogkamer

5/30/2026 at 2:17:51 PM

Thank you! That's a great idea. It's already possible in limited way with the controls in the video player, but a dedicated button would be easier to find.

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 4:55:15 AM

This is great.

I've been wanting a nice way to put on various TV shows to practice a different language, especially in a way I can quickly put one on in the background and then tune into it here and there, yet every time I'd try to look into "ip tv" the search results were full of crapware and spam.

Request: Add a "Health" header to the `healthy | dead` column that we can click like the other columns to filter it. What happens is that I end up with a lot of channels known to be dead and don't want to keep having to scroll past them.

by hombre_fatal

5/30/2026 at 2:16:37 PM

[dead]

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 4:08:25 PM

Very cool. What does the browser/device need to enable Casting? I have multiple cast targets on the lan (chrome and AirPlay), but the app (iPhone/Safari) does not find them. I’ve tried disabling content blockers and tweaking security settings, but no dice.

by threecheese

5/30/2026 at 7:02:17 PM

Howdy and thanks for the compliment! Apple doesn't allow real Chrome on their devices (only a skinned version of Safari) and I can only cast with real Chrome in the browser, desktop or mobile.

If you have access to a Windows or Android device, that should work. I would love to support Apple but they aren't interested in having Windows developers.

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 7:08:23 AM

Slightly off-topic: There is just too much content in this world... How to know what is important and relevant? Imo that's the main question. I'd rather have access to nothing except a carefully curated stream of relevant news. Hackernews is somewhat working but a bit too restricted and also not perfect.

by fittingopposite

5/30/2026 at 2:19:45 PM

I thinks that's 100% on topic. What I'm planning is an upvote system, also like HN. What do you think?

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 9:48:20 AM

[dead]

by emmelaich

5/30/2026 at 8:12:39 AM

This is very cool. Has potential to be an OTT platform standalone. !

One feature suggestion would be to only display those channels that are active and can be viewed. Some of the channels have restrictions it seems like and some channels have high latency to open.

by ajithhyd

5/30/2026 at 7:40:17 AM

It's great ! I am just missing the ability to explore TV channels on a world map though - like when I spend too much time on Google Map/Earth. Later on, you could also add some gaming options like GeoGuessr :)

by tom-wal

5/30/2026 at 7:04:04 PM

It's there! Right on the home page. Click around in that map. So glad you're liking the app.

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 3:26:13 AM

I like this a lot and I've just been watching the default BBC Earth and it's amazing.

edit: It appears to be Seven Worlds, One Planet narrated by you know who.

by daveevad

5/30/2026 at 3:28:08 AM

Awesome! Thanks so much.

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 2:59:30 AM

Would love a native Apple TV app for this, or even just the ability to Airplay the video which doesn’t seem possible right now.

by knuit

5/30/2026 at 3:30:40 AM

Indeed. I would love to support Apple but they don't let people develop for their platform with Windows computers.

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 12:58:13 AM

I would have killed for this when I was learning languages. Bookmarking it for when I learn French.

by nathancahill

5/29/2026 at 7:30:57 PM

thank you for this! now I can watch Korean TV and learn Korean.

I do wonder why the video keeps buffering and timeline is in a loop, it loads a segment then timeline jumps back.

Other than that this is lovely I can use it as sort of something in the background while i work and also explore other countries.

by zuzululu

5/29/2026 at 8:54:08 PM

You are most welcome and thank you for letting me know you like it!

I have seen the buffer and repeat issue with some channels. It's hard to know why it's happening. The app works by giving the stream URL from the broadcaster to a video player element in your browser. It just uses standard web protocols and tries to get the data from the stream as fast as it can. I've found these international sources can be iffy sometimes. Others are rock solid and you can watch high dev TV like it's from your home town!

by dtagames

5/29/2026 at 5:03:26 PM

This is awesome! We need more projects like this!

I'm sitting here watching music videos from Mongolia, having a legitimately cool digital experience. It just _feels_ different, like I'm a kid in the 90's scanning cable channels, finding whatever's interesting. Roulette-like, but with results filtered by what different cultures find generally acceptable. Very early-internet vibes on this, but with modern quality and presentation.

I love it. I have no reason to love it. But I do. And that's the best part.

by cwharris

5/29/2026 at 8:55:45 PM

Hey, you! I know where you got that Mongolian channel because I like it, too!

Thank you so much. This is the kind of feedback I live for. To make something people love.

by dtagames

5/29/2026 at 6:45:09 PM

Is there a better way to browse through the list? Currently the player takes up most of the screen and I can only see like 2 channels in the table and it's hard to scroll.

by phusuke

5/29/2026 at 8:54:55 PM

Thank you for this input. Designing for small screens has been a challenge. You can use the settings (gear icon) to remove the rows you don't use, which frees up more space for channels.

I like your idea, though. What's another way you'd like to browse them?

by dtagames

5/29/2026 at 11:01:41 PM

I saw this on a 13” MacBook Pro, hardly a small screen! I’d like to be able to drag the top of the channel guide up to make the video shrink.

by quietsegfault

5/30/2026 at 1:27:22 AM

On a Mac, you can adjust your browser width to get the look you want. Play around I and see if you get the "split point" where channels go on the right side, and reach out to me if it still needs work. It should be great on any desktop machine!

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 2:31:20 AM

need this on the cheap roku tvs

by tt_dev

5/30/2026 at 4:50:15 AM

It's on the list! Roku requires a special workaround because I can't run a full web app on that box, but I have a solution in the works and I'm glad you want it, too!

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 8:03:23 PM

> full web app

Which features do they not support?

by DANmode

5/31/2026 at 4:00:36 AM

It's not a box that runs a browser. Apps for Roku are built with a special, limited language where TVE is in Typescript.

by dtagames

5/29/2026 at 8:20:10 PM

This is VEEEERRY GOOD!

by IcyHordr

5/29/2026 at 8:52:41 PM

As a dev, I love hearing this. Thank you so much!

by dtagames

5/31/2026 at 5:12:15 AM

i really like this.

by Jotalea

5/30/2026 at 12:18:32 AM

I like it! I was looking for something like this just yesterday.

by 2OEH8eoCRo0

5/30/2026 at 1:27:48 AM

Awesome! Great minds think alike.

by dtagames

5/29/2026 at 10:26:20 PM

I loved it!

It’s also interesting going through different channels across multiple countries, and after some time you notice you have either state sponsored channels or corp sponsored ones in most cases. State sponsored are either brainwashing through news and such, or distracting with some funny shows while the country is in ruins. Corp sponsored are riddled with ads and such, and also a bit of first category.

Edit: it would be great to add some maybe big buttons at the bottom or similar, so you can navigate with a remote on a TV, or better, make it a PWA and installable on TV boxes, maybe kodi addon.

by tamimio

5/30/2026 at 1:30:06 AM

Thank you! This is great input.

Just to clarify, the app does nothing to the channels, neither adding or removing them. They come from a public GitHub repo, linked from the help page. So any sponsored versus commercial versus nonprofit channels, etc, are just whatever the IPTV community has found.

I agree that it could use some more "big button" style navigation.

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 9:54:31 PM

No I understand that, it’s a UI for all of the channels, which is great!

Another note, I have an old iphone (7 plus) with iOS 15 I think, I use it as an ipod in a speaker I have, but it seems the site won’t open there regardless of the browser I tried, it just throws a css error and nothing works, is there an info on the minimum supported webkits/iOS?

by tamimio

5/31/2026 at 4:01:53 AM

If you contact me via the help or from my portfolio site I'd be happy to help diagnose.

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 4:14:10 PM

interesting!

by smy_smy

5/29/2026 at 6:28:34 PM

Love this. I’ve been working on a couple of options for better IPTV viewing and curating too, so this is wonderful. Thanks!

by lobf

5/29/2026 at 8:56:02 PM

Thank you so much! That means a lot coming from somebody who knows the landscape.

by dtagames

5/30/2026 at 8:02:28 AM

[dead]

by daniel_morris