KD^3C^3 - 20251019 In her palace with her epaulettes
IF you follow my social media account (and no worries if you don't) you have probable seen me tooting about ErsatzTV this week. It's been the project that has taken up the most of my brainspace.
I learned about ErsatzTV specifically because a youtube video about it got removed, by youtube. Now for a number of reasons, youtube isn't always forthcoming about why a certain video gets removed. The biggest reason is that if they were very explicit about specific rules, then people would do everything they can to be following the letter of the law, while trying to get around it in spirit. This is a pretty common moderation problem on any platform of significant size or reach. In my opinion it's another reason why small self-hosted or community-hosted but interoperable social media networks are a better idea than one singualr silo with a million users and an always overworked moderaton team. Smaller instances are easier to moderate and easier to have firm and understandable rules on.
I heard about ErsatzTV because a couple other youtubers were talking bout how this particular video got removed, in the normal youtube way of not explaining why or offering any steps to mitigate the issue. What's funnier, is that these two youtubers, in half a second of search found other videos on the exact same topic. They weren't really talking about what the tool does or how it works (maybe to avoid getting their video removed?) but I did the same search and found how to use ErsatzTV.
ErsatzTV is, as the name implies, a way of replicating the TV experience of yore. Nowadays everythign is streaming on demand, and unless you're watching something like Pluto (and I like Pluto) the idea of channel surfing, or flipping, is completely gone. You pick what you want to watch next and then you watch it. Some of that choice is often heavoly influenced by an algorithm these days, but unless you're on tiktok you are still picking what to watch next.
Back in the days of cable, you picked what to watch by flipping through channels to see what was on, or stopping on the TV Guide channel as it scrolled through a schedule showing everything that was airing, as well as what was coming up. Ersatz TV attempts to replicate that experience but with your own media.
Assuming you are like me and have studiously digitized your entire physical media collection, you can use a tool like ErsatzTV to convert that collection of media files into a bunch of programmed streaming channels based on your own preferences. The specifics of how it all works is better left up to an instructional video (which this is not) but you can schedule shows to air at certain times of days, like a real TV network, or just have some group of shows or movies playing on an endless shuffle. It's a great way to reduce decision paralisys from "What do I watch from these hundereds of shows and movies?," to "What do I want to watch from what's on right now?"
Once I got the software up and running, it's integrated with my plex server, so I can sit on the couch and flip through the guide to see what's on. I've only built out 4 channels so far, but I want to work on some others.
The four I have so far are:
Criterion Channel (Kevin's Version)
Law & Order
MiSTRaxx
Star Trek
The simplest channels are the ones I built first. First up was The Criterion Channel (Kevin's Version). The Criterion Channel Streaming service has a 24/7 stream of movies playing and you can just flip it on and watch something. It's great, and the reason I finally subscribed to the channel. But I've got my own rather extensive collection of movies from the Criterion Collection, and since they were already tagged as such in my plex server, I could set up a channel that just shuffles through all of them, so I can do the same thing, and watch a movie that I already own from the collection.
The Law & Order channel was equally easy to set up, I have all of Law & Order (the original series) on DVD so I could just play those on a shuffled loop forever, and it does. I added some complexity because I also have a few seasons each of Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit, so I did some tweaking and now those are mixed in as well. Recuse are you really recreating the cable experience if you can't find law & order playing somewhere at all hours of the day?
Now that I knew how to create channels shuffling through multiple shows, I was ready to set up the MiSTRaxx channel. Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a great show, lasting 13 seasons, but it also spawned a bunch of spinn off media like Cinematic Titanic, The Film Crew, Rifftrax, and The Mads are Back, all of which are variations on "telling jokes over cheesy movies." While I don't have a complete collection of everything they've put out (there's a lot) I do have a bunch of it from all the different shows. And it's one of those categories that always feels a little tricky to decide what to watch, because there's just so much of it. But now I don;t have to! if I want something cheesy and funny, I can just let the schedule decide for me.
The Star Trek channel works much the same way. Although this is one I really need to put some more effort into. I've been slack in my collecting and i only own The Next Generation and Lower Decks on DVD. I actually picked up Deep Space Nine used on Ebay last week, but I haven't finished the process of digitizing it yet for my plex server. It really behooves me to pick up the other series on disc, includeing Voyager, The Original Series, and yes, even Enterprise. I should also probably pick up the new era shows too. Discovery and Picard are ended, so if I spot the complete series on the cheap I'll grab them, and Prodigy is a very well made star trek show that is IMO overlooked because it was made for Nickelodeon. So even though the channel is up and running, I still have some work to do to get it into the shape I want it.
I do have some plans for future channels, but they're going to take more work, either in collecting the media in the first place, or doing some manual scheduling instead of my current practice of "Shuffle everything let randomness sort it out."
Channels I want to make include:
1960s & Earlier - Like my version of the Criterion Channel, I want to have a channel showing all my movies I own from the 1960s or earlier. This one is harder to build because I have to manually create the list of movies, sorting by date isn't currently an option.
A Cartoon Network - I have fewer cartoons than I expected. I have about a dozen seasons of the Simpsons, the complete Batman Animated series, and the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and a few other individual seasons of shows, but it turns out this is a pretty big gap in my collection. I could spin up a channel with what I have, and probably will, but it's another space I want to grow my collection.
Murder & Mystery - What it says on the tin, mystery shows. I alrady have Columbo, the Rockford files and Miami Vice, but I think I need to add at least Murder, Shw Wrote and Magnum PI to feel like I've got a handle on the genre. I'd also throw some newer shows in like Poker Face and Veronica Mars, both of which I already own.
Blue Skies - The USA Blue Sky period had a lot of great shows that exemplify the cable TV aesthetic and ethos to me. I want to included shows like Burn Notice (owned) and Psych and Monk (Not owned) but also adjacent shows from other networks like Warehouse 13, Eureka, and the Stargate Franchise.
One Season Wonders & Weirdos - This would be a home for the orphans in my collection. Shows that were cancelled too soon, or even if they managed to get a few seasons feel like they have been forgotten in the grander narrative. I've got shows like Wonderfalls, Boomtown, The Class, Cop Rock, The Middle Man, Kingdom Hospital, Sports Night, Clerks, and Ninja Turtles The Next Mutation. Bonus points for you if you actually remember any of these shows. I'd recommend all of them. Except Ninja Turtles The Next Mutation. It's pretty bad.
Nostalgia Bait - This is the one that's going to take the most work, because I want to build out an actual schedule. The plan is to start it with an afternoon block, but I'd like to eventuall expand it to a full day of programming. The idea is to replicate the TV schedule of my memory. Not anything that actually existed, but what my brain thinks TV was like. So we'll have Saturday morning cartoons of course, but also a weekday afternoon schedule that starts at 3PM with back to back episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel (because I Started watching them ins syndication) and a double shot of The Simpsons (same reason) the eveneing slots are a little open, but after nine, we get Nick at Night, which is to day sitcoms from the past. And the past of my childhood, not the current block of Nick At Night shows which includes Spongebob Squarepants, Friends, Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory. All of which should be considered too new to appear in my block of "classic sitcoms".
After than I'll probably throw in a couple general purpose movie channels, but much more granular than that and I'm getting back to the point where I should just manually pick what to watch.
I learned about ErsatzTV specifically because a youtube video about it got removed, by youtube. Now for a number of reasons, youtube isn't always forthcoming about why a certain video gets removed. The biggest reason is that if they were very explicit about specific rules, then people would do everything they can to be following the letter of the law, while trying to get around it in spirit. This is a pretty common moderation problem on any platform of significant size or reach. In my opinion it's another reason why small self-hosted or community-hosted but interoperable social media networks are a better idea than one singualr silo with a million users and an always overworked moderaton team. Smaller instances are easier to moderate and easier to have firm and understandable rules on.
I heard about ErsatzTV because a couple other youtubers were talking bout how this particular video got removed, in the normal youtube way of not explaining why or offering any steps to mitigate the issue. What's funnier, is that these two youtubers, in half a second of search found other videos on the exact same topic. They weren't really talking about what the tool does or how it works (maybe to avoid getting their video removed?) but I did the same search and found how to use ErsatzTV.
ErsatzTV is, as the name implies, a way of replicating the TV experience of yore. Nowadays everythign is streaming on demand, and unless you're watching something like Pluto (and I like Pluto) the idea of channel surfing, or flipping, is completely gone. You pick what you want to watch next and then you watch it. Some of that choice is often heavoly influenced by an algorithm these days, but unless you're on tiktok you are still picking what to watch next.
Back in the days of cable, you picked what to watch by flipping through channels to see what was on, or stopping on the TV Guide channel as it scrolled through a schedule showing everything that was airing, as well as what was coming up. Ersatz TV attempts to replicate that experience but with your own media.
Assuming you are like me and have studiously digitized your entire physical media collection, you can use a tool like ErsatzTV to convert that collection of media files into a bunch of programmed streaming channels based on your own preferences. The specifics of how it all works is better left up to an instructional video (which this is not) but you can schedule shows to air at certain times of days, like a real TV network, or just have some group of shows or movies playing on an endless shuffle. It's a great way to reduce decision paralisys from "What do I watch from these hundereds of shows and movies?," to "What do I want to watch from what's on right now?"
Once I got the software up and running, it's integrated with my plex server, so I can sit on the couch and flip through the guide to see what's on. I've only built out 4 channels so far, but I want to work on some others.
The four I have so far are:
Criterion Channel (Kevin's Version)
Law & Order
MiSTRaxx
Star Trek
The simplest channels are the ones I built first. First up was The Criterion Channel (Kevin's Version). The Criterion Channel Streaming service has a 24/7 stream of movies playing and you can just flip it on and watch something. It's great, and the reason I finally subscribed to the channel. But I've got my own rather extensive collection of movies from the Criterion Collection, and since they were already tagged as such in my plex server, I could set up a channel that just shuffles through all of them, so I can do the same thing, and watch a movie that I already own from the collection.
The Law & Order channel was equally easy to set up, I have all of Law & Order (the original series) on DVD so I could just play those on a shuffled loop forever, and it does. I added some complexity because I also have a few seasons each of Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit, so I did some tweaking and now those are mixed in as well. Recuse are you really recreating the cable experience if you can't find law & order playing somewhere at all hours of the day?
Now that I knew how to create channels shuffling through multiple shows, I was ready to set up the MiSTRaxx channel. Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a great show, lasting 13 seasons, but it also spawned a bunch of spinn off media like Cinematic Titanic, The Film Crew, Rifftrax, and The Mads are Back, all of which are variations on "telling jokes over cheesy movies." While I don't have a complete collection of everything they've put out (there's a lot) I do have a bunch of it from all the different shows. And it's one of those categories that always feels a little tricky to decide what to watch, because there's just so much of it. But now I don;t have to! if I want something cheesy and funny, I can just let the schedule decide for me.
The Star Trek channel works much the same way. Although this is one I really need to put some more effort into. I've been slack in my collecting and i only own The Next Generation and Lower Decks on DVD. I actually picked up Deep Space Nine used on Ebay last week, but I haven't finished the process of digitizing it yet for my plex server. It really behooves me to pick up the other series on disc, includeing Voyager, The Original Series, and yes, even Enterprise. I should also probably pick up the new era shows too. Discovery and Picard are ended, so if I spot the complete series on the cheap I'll grab them, and Prodigy is a very well made star trek show that is IMO overlooked because it was made for Nickelodeon. So even though the channel is up and running, I still have some work to do to get it into the shape I want it.
I do have some plans for future channels, but they're going to take more work, either in collecting the media in the first place, or doing some manual scheduling instead of my current practice of "Shuffle everything let randomness sort it out."
Channels I want to make include:
1960s & Earlier - Like my version of the Criterion Channel, I want to have a channel showing all my movies I own from the 1960s or earlier. This one is harder to build because I have to manually create the list of movies, sorting by date isn't currently an option.
A Cartoon Network - I have fewer cartoons than I expected. I have about a dozen seasons of the Simpsons, the complete Batman Animated series, and the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and a few other individual seasons of shows, but it turns out this is a pretty big gap in my collection. I could spin up a channel with what I have, and probably will, but it's another space I want to grow my collection.
Murder & Mystery - What it says on the tin, mystery shows. I alrady have Columbo, the Rockford files and Miami Vice, but I think I need to add at least Murder, Shw Wrote and Magnum PI to feel like I've got a handle on the genre. I'd also throw some newer shows in like Poker Face and Veronica Mars, both of which I already own.
Blue Skies - The USA Blue Sky period had a lot of great shows that exemplify the cable TV aesthetic and ethos to me. I want to included shows like Burn Notice (owned) and Psych and Monk (Not owned) but also adjacent shows from other networks like Warehouse 13, Eureka, and the Stargate Franchise.
One Season Wonders & Weirdos - This would be a home for the orphans in my collection. Shows that were cancelled too soon, or even if they managed to get a few seasons feel like they have been forgotten in the grander narrative. I've got shows like Wonderfalls, Boomtown, The Class, Cop Rock, The Middle Man, Kingdom Hospital, Sports Night, Clerks, and Ninja Turtles The Next Mutation. Bonus points for you if you actually remember any of these shows. I'd recommend all of them. Except Ninja Turtles The Next Mutation. It's pretty bad.
Nostalgia Bait - This is the one that's going to take the most work, because I want to build out an actual schedule. The plan is to start it with an afternoon block, but I'd like to eventuall expand it to a full day of programming. The idea is to replicate the TV schedule of my memory. Not anything that actually existed, but what my brain thinks TV was like. So we'll have Saturday morning cartoons of course, but also a weekday afternoon schedule that starts at 3PM with back to back episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel (because I Started watching them ins syndication) and a double shot of The Simpsons (same reason) the eveneing slots are a little open, but after nine, we get Nick at Night, which is to day sitcoms from the past. And the past of my childhood, not the current block of Nick At Night shows which includes Spongebob Squarepants, Friends, Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory. All of which should be considered too new to appear in my block of "classic sitcoms".
After than I'll probably throw in a couple general purpose movie channels, but much more granular than that and I'm getting back to the point where I should just manually pick what to watch.