PC Caster is a Windows desktop app that lets you cast live HLS (Documentation Index
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.m3u8) streams from your PC to a Roku TV on the same network. It handles everything phones can’t: it sniffs the real stream URL out of a web page, works around the Referer and TLS protections those streams use, and drives a custom Roku channel it installs and controls for you.
Installation
Install Python, run run.bat, and get the app running in under five minutes.
Quickstart
Find your first stream and cast it to your TV in five steps.
Roku TV Setup
Enable Developer Mode on your Roku and install the PC Caster channel.
Find Streams
Use the built-in browser scanner to capture .m3u8 URLs from any page.
How PC Caster works
Most live stream sites protect their.m3u8 files: they check the HTTP Referer header and the TLS fingerprint of the client. A Roku TV (or VLC with a raw URL) fails both checks and gets a 403. PC Caster solves this with a three-part pipeline running entirely on your PC.
Find the stream
Click 🔍 Find .m3u8 and paste the streaming page URL. A real Chromium browser opens — click the server you want and press play. PC Caster watches the network traffic and captures the
.m3u8 URL plus the Referer header the player sent.Proxy it locally
PC Caster starts a local HTTP server on port 8011. Every request from the Roku is re-fetched from the CDN using
curl_cffi (which impersonates Chrome’s TLS/JA3 fingerprint) with the captured Referer injected. Playlist files are rewritten so all segment and key URLs route back through the proxy too.Key features
Stream Scanner
Headless Chromium (Playwright) watches every network request and surfaces all
.m3u8 URLs with their Referer headers.HLS Proxy
Spoofs Chrome’s TLS fingerprint via curl_cffi and injects captured Referer/Origin headers so any device can play locked streams.
Custom Roku Channel
A sideloaded BrightScript channel the app installs once and controls via ECP deep-link and /input on every cast.
Auto Device Discovery
SSDP scan finds Roku and Fire TV devices on your LAN automatically, with manual IP fallback.
PC Test Mode
Preview the proxied stream in VLC on your PC before sending it to the TV.
Troubleshooting
Common failure modes with clear fixes — firewall rules, expired tokens, missing Playwright, and more.
PC Caster is a Windows-only application. It uses Windows-specific features including the taskbar AppUserModelID, Windows Firewall rule management via
netsh, and pythonw.exe for windowless launch.