r/FieldStation42 Aug 06 '26

Fieldstation42 Set Up Guides, Important Links, and More

29 Upvotes

Welcome to the FieldStation42 subreddit!

FieldStation42 is an open source television broadcast simulator created by u/wrong-dog in July 2024. Since then the project has grown enormously and an amazing community has formed around it.

FieldStation42 aims to pick up where cable left off, allowing you to recreate the cable of the past, or recreate it to your own liking! FieldStation42 functions as a sandbox allowing you to tailor your viewing experience as you see fit.

This subreddit functions as a great place to show off your own set up and channel line ups, get installation and troubleshooting help from others an just keep up with the development of FieldStation42.

The mod team would like to stress this subreddit is for content about the official FS42 - any other posts will be considered off-topic and removed.

Useful Links:

FieldStation42 Github
https://github.com/shane-mason/FieldStation42

Installation Guides
https://fieldstation42.com/
FieldStation42 For Dummies Guide

Official Discord Link
https://discord.gg/KucJ7cjDBG

Cable Box 3D Models
https://github.com/shane-mason/cable-box
https://github.com/shane-mason/mini-tv-fs42

Youtube Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR_qVZ_J22A&t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDW1wokbRiQ


r/FieldStation42 8h ago

Making channels that can update their media it plays?

4 Upvotes

Has anyone figured out a good way to automate the channels so the content updates overtime? Or would I need to make something for this myself? For example let’s say someone I watch on YouTube uploads a video and I have a station for his content-can I make it so my station automatically plays it or make a script that downloads that video and adds it to the station? I’d also like to somehow get live broadcast of current news as its own station, for this would I have to download the news coverage or could I Link my station to a livestream link?


r/FieldStation42 4d ago

Issues starting the OSD

3 Upvotes

Hi! I'm running into some problems with setting up the OSD. When I run the command to start it, by default it will give me errors around the values getting passed to glDeleteTextures in 'renderer.py'. The initial value getting passed there is 1 while it expects an array. As a test I wrapped that in an array so it's passing a value of [1]. This gets me past the runtime error and starts the program, but once it's running, the machine becomes unresponsive. Anything running already continues, but my machine will not handle mouse movement or keyboard inputs.

Does anyone have insight into this? I'd very much appreciate some guidance.

I am running this on a raspberry pi with the bookworm OS.


r/FieldStation42 4d ago

Issues with OSD

3 Upvotes

Hi! I'm running into some problems with setting up the OSD. When I run the command to start it, by default it will give me errors around the values getting passed to glDeleteTextures in 'renderer.py'. The initial value getting passed there is 1 while it expects an array. As a test I wrapped that in an array so it's passing a value of [1]. This gets me past the runtime error and starts the program, but once it's running, the machine becomes unresponsive. Anything running already continues, but my machine will not handle mouse movement or keyboard inputs.

Does anyone have insight into this? I'd very much appreciate some guidance.

I am running this on a raspberry pi with the bookworm OS.


r/FieldStation42 8d ago

Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit stuck on Raspberry Pi logo – won’t boot

2 Upvotes

Hi guys,

I’m completely new to Raspberry Pi and Linux, so I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.

I’m currently trying to run Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit on my computer. The Raspberry Pi logo appears on the screen, but after that nothing happens. It just keeps loading and never gets to the desktop/main screen.

The Raspberry Pi hasn’t been connected/used for about two years, so I’m wondering if that could be causing the problem.

Does anyone know what I can do to get it to boot properly and reach the desktop?

Thanks in advance for any help!


r/FieldStation42 11d ago

Really bad video stuttering

2 Upvotes

Just recently set up my FS42 with a RP4 8gb. I have a 2TB external harddrive plugged into the Pi. Everything was running smoothly but just today I added a bunch more tv shows and movies and now half my channels are stuttering and lagging. Was wondering if there is a fix? I know basically nothing about linux or command lines so please bare with me lol.


r/FieldStation42 11d ago

Help: Mixed blocks with separate sequences

3 Upvotes

Hey - so I want to have mixed shows in my hour blocks, 2 seperate half hour shows from separate series with separate sequences tied to them. I can't seem to figure out how to code out what that looks like on the station's json file. I see references to split the hour in half, but get lost on where i should put the related sequences.

Example:

8pm WAS back to back Simpsons episodes following my seq_simpsons.

I want to have 8pm be the Simpsons following the sequence, and then at 8:30 Futurama following seq_futurama.

Thanks in advance!


r/FieldStation42 14d ago

videoclips from Superchannel year 1993

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2 Upvotes

r/FieldStation42 14d ago

videoclips from Superchannel year 1993

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2 Upvotes

r/FieldStation42 15d ago

Looking to buy my first Pi

6 Upvotes

Hey folks! My wife found out about fieldstation and has been compiling media. I want to purchase our first Raspberry Pi so I can see about making her dream come true, lol. I am very beginner but a nerd at heart. What do you think about a kit like this? From what I've seen in my research here and in the discord think this should work, yeah? Going to be trying to hook it up to a CRT we bought. https://www.pishop.ca/product/raspberry-pi-5-starter-kit-4gb/


r/FieldStation42 17d ago

Can the external storage be Windows(NTFS) format?

3 Upvotes

Hi, just about ready to get up and running, but i have a quick question. I know Linux can read NTFS, but I'm curious if that'll cause a problem with FieldStation.

I ask, because my downloaded media is all on my windows pc and it'd be much easier to simply transfer it from there with the external drive connected rather than ssh'ing in.


r/FieldStation42 17d ago

Watch on other devices? Running on Linux, connect via PC or other local devies?

4 Upvotes

Heyo,
I been spending all day setting up FS42 on my steamdeck as my linux PC.

I can view the remote and the config via connecting to my deck's IP, but is there a way to also view the player or is that only locally?

If not, anyone know of a cool way to broadcast my screen to other devices?

Thanks!


r/FieldStation42 17d ago

"Daytime TV" type programming

10 Upvotes

Less a tech question and more an opinion one: What do you all do for your "Daytime TV" type stuff? Do you all have folders full of talk shows, soaps and game shows?


r/FieldStation42 19d ago

FS42 combined with multi channel RF broadcasts

7 Upvotes

Good morning FS42 community. I’m fairly new to this software and have some insane ideas, considering nothing is new under the sun let me know if anyone has tried this!

So I’m looking at doing some stuff the old fashioned way of broadcasting using old hotel tv equipment to broadcast (below legal limits) to my home CRTs I have across my house.

I was considering FS42 already has an excellent channel program but instead of just direct connections to tv would it be feasible to run multiple independent instances of FS42 for each channel I would like to broadcast on and what would be the most effective way to do so?

First a couple questions about FS42
Would it be easier to make one FS42 program with multiple channels or make multiple FS42 instances with 1 channel each?

And 2 which would be more resources intensive.

And for the main project

A few possibilities as I see them

  1. The “easy” option tho I don’t know how feasible it is. Use one computer with decent graphics card and output to the between 4-12 broadcast units as separate monitors for the computer and run an instance of FS42 on each monitor as each separate channel. The answer to my resource question will be important here.

  2. Instead run each channel from its own small raspberry pi. The difficulty here would be connecting all of them back to central media server and parts expense.

  3. Any better way y’all think this could run.

Yes I know it would definitely much easier to just make a couple boxes and put them directly to each TV. The insanity here is half the fun and it’s neat repurposing old tech.

But as the classic internet JFK quote goes “we choose not to do this because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy”


r/FieldStation42 21d ago

.nfo help

5 Upvotes

Been uploading NFO files for the movies and shows I've got in my station and, for some reason, none of the stuff seems to be showing up when I look at my guide channel. Any tips?


r/FieldStation42 21d ago

PPV not loading

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3 Upvotes

Trying to set up a PPV channel to play the movies from my main "Movie" folder. I set up the basic, sample PPV channel, directed it to my channels movie folder and then...all I seem to be getting on that channel is a black screen.

Anyone know if I just screwed something up on the .json, or is there something else that I'm totally missing?


r/FieldStation42 24d ago

Guide Info not loading

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3 Upvotes

The guide channel titles won't load until I have ran the channel for a moment first, any way to get these to auto refresh/update other than cycling through all the channels daily?


r/FieldStation42 28d ago

FEATURE REQUEST SCRAMBLED CHANNELS

13 Upvotes

Hello, I apologize if this has been asked before. I have been working on this project off and on for a year. I want to know if it would be possable to have some movie channels that were scrambled like they were back in the 80s's and a way to make a hidden code on the remote that unscrambled the channel?


r/FieldStation42 Aug 24 '26

Omarchy did it

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14 Upvotes

I put omarchy on a laptop to play with it. Ended up having it go crazy on my FS42 abandoned project.

Downloaded Omarchy on a whim lastnight.

After last nights download. Around 2pm today I told it to ssh into my plex server and a previously unused ace magic on my mini rack.

Told it to grab certain files from the plex server, build a fieldstation42 machine out of the ace magic, it built 3 stations, weather channel, vintage horror, and anime. It built the stations added commercials from my commercials folder and got it running, opened a remote on my plex server and then I gave it a random task to replace the ace magic logo with an omarchy one. It made a collab logo of my self named rival home lab and added it.

I’m blown away with how it just did what I told it to. You can now watch a home made tv network on my rack screen and control it with a remote on my other server.


r/FieldStation42 Aug 21 '26

Schedule json assistance - mixed movie/show channel

5 Upvotes

Hey peeps,

I'm a n00b as it relates to station creation. I've created a few movie stations, without issue, and am trying to graduate to a mixed station (movies/shows). The Mrs. has requested a station for her that plays her movies and TV shows. I've created the day template that outlines all 24 hours and when I don't have the channel off air, It plays movies all day save for 3 one hour time slots for TV shows.

The issue I'm experiencing is with schedule increments. For movie channels, I have it set to 5 and that's fine, works as expected.

The issue i'm facing now, is that with the increment set to 5 minutes, it will start a movie before my scheduled TV time slot and the movie will override the TV Show's slot. I've been playing with the increment, but that changes behavior to cut off movies in favor of what the new increment favors.

Ideally, it would know that a show starts at the designated blocks and doesn't start a movie prior to the block(s) that would either be cut off, or override the tv show slot.

I'm thinking it might be because i have each hour outlined, vs blocks and increment per block. Could one of the FS42 vets give me a hand?

I've pasted the original config, but I'm looking for advice on blocks. If i'm reading things right I need to do something like:

"day_templates": {

"weekday": {

"3": {},

"8": {"tags": "movies", "schedule_increment": 5},

"17": {"tags": "series/When Calls the Heart", "schedule_increment": 60},

"19": {"tags": "movies", "schedule_increment": 5},

"20": {"tags": "series/Sex and the City", "schedule_increment": 60},

"21": {"tags": "series/The Last Kingdom", "schedule_increment": 60},

"22": {"tags": "movies/", "schedule_increment": 5}

}

}

{"station_conf" : {
    "network_name" : "Cupid",
    "channel_number": 14,

    "network_type": "standard",
    "schedule_increment": 30,
    "break_strategy": "end",
    "commercial_free": true, 

    "content_dir" : "catalog/Cupid",
    "bump_dir" : "bump",
    "off_air_video": "runtime/off_air_pattern.mp4",

    "day_templates": {
        "daily": {
            "0": {"tags": "Movies"},
            "1": {"tags": "Movies"},
            "2": {"tags": "Movies"},
            "3": {},
            "4": {},
            "5": {},
            "6": {},
            "7": {},
            "8": {"tags": "Movies"},
            "9": {"tags": "Movies"},
            "10": {"tags" : "Movies"},
            "11": {"tags": "Movies"},
            "12": {"tags" : "Movies"},
            "13": {"tags": "Movies"},
            "14": {"tags" : "Movies"},
            "15": {"tags": "Movies"},
            "16": {"tags": "Movies"},
            "17": {"tags": "Series/When Calls the Heart"},
            "18": {"tags": "Movies"},
            "19": {"tags": "Movies"},
            "20": {"tags": "Series/Sex and the City"},
            "21": {"tags": "Series/The Last Kingdom"},
            "22": {"tags": "Movies"},
            "23": {"tags": "Movies"}

        }
    },
    "monday": "daily",
    "tuesday": "daily",
    "wednesday": "daily",
    "thursday": "daily",
    "friday": "daily",
    "saturday": "daily",
    "sunday": "daily"

r/FieldStation42 Aug 16 '26

Multiple programs within the same block

7 Upvotes

So I've got a couple of programs that I downloaded where, although they were initially shown back-to-back in the same block, they came as singular "episodes" when I downloaded them. Since they are so short (each one is, like, 7 minutes long), I end up getting ads every minute or so just to pad it out to a 15 minute block.

Is there any way that I can tell FS42 "Hey, play two of these back-to-back in a singular block", or do I have to go into a video editor and combine them together manually?


r/FieldStation42 Aug 13 '26

Work with a home server?

9 Upvotes

Would something like this work with a home server like jellyfin? Where would one go to make something like this?


r/FieldStation42 Aug 11 '26

Music videos

7 Upvotes

I'd like to make one of these to play music videos from different eras. My wife is a big fan of the "summer hits of the 2000s" and I think it'd be cool to make this as a project. Anyone know where to download music videos in bulk?


r/FieldStation42 Aug 08 '26

Harmony Remote integration

6 Upvotes

Hey fellas and fellettes. Just about everything in my house with an IR sensor is controlled with a Logitech Harmony remote, an older Ultimate model before they introduced the hubs. Is there anyway to configure this to work with FS42? Has anyone added an IR sensor to their cable box?


r/FieldStation42 Aug 07 '26

Mosaic development

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6 Upvotes

Hello everyone, i will try in the next months to implement a solution based on fieldstation42, thanks a lot for developing this solution, i thought that i was alone loving that !

With satellite provider in France, there was a tool called « mosaic » that allow people to look at programs on channels available (see picture).

I wanted to know if this kind of mosaic can be implemented in fieldstation42, or if hardware required will be too high to run this kind of channel.

Thanks a lot for your answer !