Installing ErsatzTV on MacOS 11.7.9 for Jellyfin 10.8.13 | ErsatzTV | Page 1

vast sky Jul 8, 2025, 10:42 PM

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hi, I'm trying to install ErsatzTV v25.1.0 on my MacBook Pro (late 2013) running OS 11.7.9 (BigSur). I chose this version because I think its the newest release thats compatible with my Mac and Jellyfin (10.8.13).

However, when I go to open the application after instal it keeps coming up with this message (picture). i have checked the Secutiry & Privacy section in my settings to see if I can manualy allow the application to open but there's no alert there to allow me to do so.

I am the only user/administrator on this laptop.

Can someone advise on how to proceed?

rustic needle Jul 8, 2025, 11:27 PM

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Do you have your allow apps section in security and privacy set to “App Store and identified developers”

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Or just App Store

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If you do have it set to the former and you still aren’t seeing the manual allow prompt, then open terminal and do:

cd ~/Downloads (or ~/Desktop if it’s on your desktop)
sudo chmod -R 755 ErsatzTV.app <- you will have to substitute the actual filename for ersatz if it’s not “ErsatzTV.app”, as I don’t know it off the top of my head

vast sky Jul 8, 2025, 11:31 PM

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rustic needle Do you have your allow apps section in security and privacy set to “App Store an...

yep already set to App Store and identified developer

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the app is in my applications folder, this is what my terminal is looking like. i've tried various combination (black squares block out my user name)

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(Sorry pretty new to this so really dont know what i'm doing)

rustic needle Jul 8, 2025, 11:37 PM

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Its 2 separate commands; cd to ~/Applications first and use ls to check if its in the folder

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You can also just drag drop it into Downloads or something first and run what I sent if it’s easier to access

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it won’t hurt anything

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you can move it back afterwards

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no, it’s cd ~/Applications, sorry for the miscommunication

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CD means “change directory”

vast sky Jul 8, 2025, 11:46 PM

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Also tried to move it into dowloads but it just created a shortcut

rustic needle Jul 8, 2025, 11:48 PM

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Try removing the tilde and just going to /Applications, and run ls first to confirm, don’t run any further commands unless you know it’s in there

vast sky Jul 8, 2025, 11:48 PM

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Sorry what is "ls" is it sudo chmod -R 755 ErsatzTV.app

rustic needle Jul 8, 2025, 11:49 PM

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Just “ls” as-is

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it means list

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It will print whatever is in the current folder you’re looking at in terminal

vast sky Jul 8, 2025, 11:50 PM

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dont understand why its coming up with permission denied

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i should have full access and permissions

rustic needle Jul 8, 2025, 11:51 PM

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Because you’re just typing /Applications, you need to use cd /Applications

vast sky Jul 8, 2025, 11:51 PM

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ah sorry

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done whats the next instruction after cd/app

rustic needle Jul 8, 2025, 11:52 PM

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ls

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It will print everything in it, scroll through and check if Ersatz exists in it

rustic needle Jul 8, 2025, 11:53 PM

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vast sky ah sorry

no prob though, if you just type it as-is, it will try to execute whatever you typed, which in this case it’s a folder so you cannot do that

vast sky Jul 8, 2025, 11:53 PM

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rustic needle Jul 8, 2025, 11:53 PM

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Yeah so now run sudo chmod -R 755 ErsatzTV.app

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It should print nothing

vast sky Jul 8, 2025, 11:54 PM

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it asks for passwords then prints nothing as you said

rustic needle Jul 8, 2025, 11:54 PM

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Try launching the app again now

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normally

vast sky Jul 8, 2025, 11:54 PM

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still error pop up from initial picture

rustic needle Jul 8, 2025, 11:54 PM

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And still nothing in your security and privacy?

vast sky Jul 8, 2025, 11:55 PM

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rustic needle Jul 8, 2025, 11:56 PM

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I have a machine running Big Sur I can attempt it on, just a moment

vast sky Jul 8, 2025, 11:56 PM

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Thanks, not sure if its my inexperience or wires getting crossed

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 12:01 AM

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Just checking, did you grab 25.1.0 on purpose? It shouldn’t matter for this problem but current is 25.2.0

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 12:01 AM

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yes because i can only run jellyfin 10.8.13 on my mac

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 12:01 AM

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Just wanted to replicate your environment on my end

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 12:01 AM

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dont think 25.2 is compatible with that version of jellyfin

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but please correct me if im wrong

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 12:02 AM

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I’m not totally sure of why it wouldn’t be but I’ll just grab 25.1.0 anyways

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 12:03 AM

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i have to admit i asked chat gpt about it. just bcause i had so much trouble installing jellyfin since my macos is outdated. its what the ai suggested

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 12:07 AM

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I mean there may be issues with it authenticating with jellyfin to use the libraries, that I’m not completely aware of any gotchas on with versioning

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It’s not a prob though was just checking

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 12:09 AM

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This is what the AI told me earlier

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 12:10 AM

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I mean hey it could be correct. Not something I’ve encountered since I don’t run older Jellyfin’s, I understand why you do in this case though

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and yeah getting the same error

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Lemme hop back a few versions

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Yeah I can’t get any version to launch either myself

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Jason might have some advice here

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I have a bunch of dev stuff turned on on this box as well so not really sure what’s up, even allowing apps from Anywhere doesn’t allow me to launch it

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 12:23 AM

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rustic needle Yeah I can’t get any version to launch either myself

ah thanks for taking a look anyway. really appriciate you sticking with me 😅

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I'll wait to hear from jason 🙂

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if you have any other tips for Jellyfin with my set up please drop me a DM.
really appricaiate your help. have a good night 🙂

blazing marlin Jul 9, 2025, 12:24 AM

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i was just going back through the supported macos versions for someone else earlier today, let me see about 11.7.9

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 12:24 AM

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I tried all the way back to 0.5.8 but did not go further

blazing marlin Jul 9, 2025, 12:25 AM

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the only jellyfin change is that their newer server finally supports api requests with no admin id - so the latest etv will not work with old jf versions that still requires a user id on api requests

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it looks like .net dropped big sur support between 7 and 8

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 12:26 AM

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I’m on 11.7.10 so very similar

blazing marlin Jul 9, 2025, 12:26 AM

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so v0.8.4-beta should probably work since its still dotnet 7

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but i dont like recommending old versions

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 12:27 AM

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Yeah even with 0.5.8 it gives the same no permissions popup and nothing in sec/privacy which is interesting

blazing marlin Jul 9, 2025, 12:27 AM

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let me see where i got the code signing stuff figured out

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 12:28 AM

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(it's 1:30am here, I will try any advice tomorrow and let you know if it works on my end. thanks again for both your help)

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 12:28 AM

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I think Big Sur was pretty weird about this stuff too, I remember encountering a lot of random problems I didn’t have on either Catalina or Monterey

blazing marlin Jul 9, 2025, 12:29 AM

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you can try codesign --force --deep --sign - /Applications/ErsatzTV.app

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 12:30 AM

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blazing marlin you can try `codesign --force --deep --sign - /Applications/ErsatzTV.app`

This worked for me on 25.2.0, I’m assuming it should also work for 25.1.0

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@vast sky try this tomorrow

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 12:31 AM

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Thanks both. Will report back tomorrow

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 12:32 AM

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yeah still worked on 25.1.0 as expected. Should be the fix for you

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thanks jason

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In my case it complains it’s not from a verified developer (normal) and prompts in secprivacy like you’re normally supposed to see

blazing marlin Jul 9, 2025, 12:38 AM

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i dont remember specifics, but i do remember some issue about new code signing/validation not working on older macos versions which is why you may need to sign locally

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 12:50 AM

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I’m assuming since 25.1 and 2 started without crashing, it should be okay to use those?

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Otherwise drop down to 0.8.4 as soft-recommended

blazing marlin Jul 9, 2025, 12:52 AM

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yeah if they run i would 100% use the latest version - i was just going by what dotnet said is supported

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 6:40 PM

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hi guys, sorry what order shouold i input the promts?

blazing marlin Jul 9, 2025, 6:42 PM

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it should all be one command

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just copy and paste the entire thing

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codesign --force --deep --sign - /Applications/ErsatzTV.app

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 6:46 PM

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do i add anything after? or do i just wait? i've tried to open the app again but it doesnt do anything

blazing marlin Jul 9, 2025, 6:55 PM

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check by the clock - it puts a menu there

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 7:11 PM

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sorry which clock? like the notifications? there's nothing there

blazing marlin Jul 9, 2025, 7:15 PM

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so you run the command in the terminal, then the app should launch like normal by double clicking on it in the applications folder

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 7:23 PM

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nothing happens when i do that 😦

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 7:38 PM

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Double click the app and then screenshot your whole top bar

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But you should’ve got a verification popup that you would have to allow in secprivacy

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 7:41 PM

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I'm an idiot i was expecting a thing to pop up for me to allow it to open

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I think we've done it

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i opened the web ui and this came up, does that look right?

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 7:43 PM

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You’ll need to install ffmpeg I believe but yes it’s at least running

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 7:44 PM

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am i ok to use the latest version of ffmpeg?

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 7:44 PM

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Stick with 7.1.1 if possible

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 7:46 PM

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which of these do i go for?

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 7:46 PM

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Those are for linux, use the macOS version

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I would just grab these to start (these are from that site)

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https://evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/ffmpeg-7.1.1.zip

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https://evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/ffprobe-120196-g6b028859d9.zip

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Hard to type on mobile, one moment

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 7:50 PM

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i opened the right one first

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not sure if thats wrong

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 7:52 PM

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you don't open it directly; Just make a folder somewhere and put both ffmpeg and ffprobe inside

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Then go back to Ersatz's webUI, navigate to Settings on the left bar

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There are two paths here, note: do not copy what I have in this screenshot

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You'll need to provide the path to where they are on those first two lines

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If you can tell me/us what folder you ended up putting them in, I can help give you the fullpath

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 7:55 PM

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rustic needle If you can tell me/us what folder you ended up putting them in, I can help give ...

I just put it in a “keep” folder in downloads

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 7:56 PM

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It's wherever you want to put them, there is no requirement for the folder name but I would just make sure you know what it's for

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And that they're the only two files in the folder

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Just so they don't get all jumbled with other things

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So in this example, if you ended up putting them in just Downloads/keep, then you'd do this:

open terminal
cd ~/Downloads/keep
pwd, press enter
Note the path, it should look similar to /Users/conner/Downloads/keep
In ersatz settings UI, put the full path followed by a /ffmpeg and /ffprobe, so it looks similar to the following:

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let me know if you have any questions

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:01 PM

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done

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:01 PM

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Any path does not exist errors?

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or all green

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:02 PM

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😭

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:02 PM

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that's not a huge deal or anything, let me look for 6.1

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It's just a warning

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https://evermeet.cx/pub/ffmpeg/ffmpeg-6.1.zip
https://evermeet.cx/pub/ffprobe/ffprobe-6.1.zip

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:04 PM

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shall i delete the old ones?

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:04 PM

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Yeah just replace those two you had from 7.1

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then just refresh ersatz' webui

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The hardware acceleration warning will not go away until you select a hardware acceleration mode. This is normal

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:06 PM

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rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:06 PM

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hold up

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let me make sure it's actually the macos binary lol, there's no naming scheme on their repo for these zip's

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yeah it should be. Did you get any popup when you double-clicked ffmpeg/ffprobe earlier by accident

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To allow it to run or anything

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On my test mac I did get the secprivacy notice to allow it, you'll have to do that first

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I hate mac sometimes

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:20 PM

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rustic needle To allow it to run or anything

Yeh there was a pop up. I didn’t really read it 😅 just approved it

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:21 PM

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rustic needle I hate mac sometimes

Yeh as my Mac has gotten older it’s become more and more frustrating 🥲 but she’s stuck by me for over a decade

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:22 PM

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I don't have a problem with mac in general, I like it a lot, I just hate the hoops. I would prefer it just give you a button to press allow and authenticate yourself to finish the very first time, vs having to open the application to receive the error, then manually open secprivacy and click unlock, followed by open anyway, followed by yet another prompt, then open the application again

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:23 PM

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I get that. But tbh I think that’s what’s protected my laptop from viruses all this time. When I judged to have hp laptops I’d kill then with viruses every couple years 😅

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:24 PM

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well I mean it solves nothing... It's just more hoops when the application already cannot run without your approval in both scenarios

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You can allow it via terminal in 1 command of course but it's still something that annoys me 💀

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How does ersatz healthchecks look now?

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:27 PM

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I haven’t done anything since I sent the last screenshot

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Sorry did I miss a message?

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:27 PM

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Yeah, you'll need to go double-click both binaries again and allow them

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since they're new

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The ffmpeg/ffprobe new copies

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Then refresh ersatz's webpage

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:29 PM

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rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:29 PM

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all good

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To make that message go away, you'll have to go to FFmpeg Profiles on the left sidebar, then edit the one that's default, and select a mode under Hardware Acceleration in the middle

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I don't know what modes MacOS has available

blazing marlin Jul 9, 2025, 8:30 PM

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should just be video toolbox

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:31 PM

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🎉

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:33 PM

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happy ersatz-ing fam

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Go test authenticating to jellyfin though and make sure that works

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:33 PM

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i am connecting with jellyfin now. what is Api Key

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:33 PM

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You have to make one in your jellyfin admin dashboard

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It will ask for app name, just call it anything you want, like "ErsatzTV"

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It will generate a key, use that

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:34 PM

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done

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connected, now what do i do?

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:35 PM

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To the right of the jellyfin server in your media sources list, press the play button, and choose the libraries you want to sync

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Your media will appear under Media -> TV Shows, Movies, Other Videos ,etc

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It may take a little bit of time to sync

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:37 PM

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do you mean the one labeled "playback"?

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:38 PM

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Nah at this point you do everything in the ersatz UI

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API key was the only thing needed

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:40 PM

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ok i think i got it, i did edit libraries and ticked the ones i want and then refresh libraies

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how do i access my channel? is there an ip address somewhere i plug into jellyfin?

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:41 PM

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There's a bunch more steps to actually creating a channel that's watchable, I would advise at this point to follow the guide pages; starting here: https://ersatztv.org/docs/user-guide/add-media-items

Since you've already passed the Install stage

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:42 PM

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Thank you

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:43 PM

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But for the address for jellyfin, if it's running on the same machine as you say, you can just use:

M3U: http://localhost:8049/iptv/channels.m3u
xmltv provider: http://localhost:8049/iptv/xmltv.xml

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Since jellyfin will just be re-streaming the channel through its own address/player

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You can probably just move onto the Create Collections page actually

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I don' t think there's really anything left to do in add media items for you

vast sky Jul 9, 2025, 8:50 PM

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Thank you both! have a great day/night

rustic needle Jul 9, 2025, 8:51 PM

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np have a good one

#Installing ErsatzTV on MacOS 11.7.9 for Jellyfin 10.8.13