SAL Install

SAL: install guide

SAL is a remote that jumps to the best game on. Put games on in two or three tabs of your own streaming service; SAL keeps the best one on screen, changes the channel at each break and comes back when play resumes. It runs on your computer and sends nothing anywhere.

An early build for friends: it will make wrong calls; telling Noah about them is the point.

What you need

  • YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, or NBA League Pass (the last two less tested).
  • A laptop or desktop with Chrome or Brave.
  • The zip from Noah or watchsal.com, unzipped somewhere it stays (Documents, say): SAL runs from that folder, clutch-0.4.3.

Install (two minutes)

  1. Go to chrome://extensions (in Brave, brave://extensions).
  2. Turn on "Developer mode", top right.
  3. Click "Load unpacked" and choose the clutch-0.4.3 folder. A card named SAL appears.
  4. Click the puzzle-piece icon beside the address bar and pin SAL. Keep one copy of SAL: remove any older one first.

The first time (ten minutes)

  1. Click the SAL icon. The start screen opens with a YouTube TV tile. Another service too: Connect another service. No YouTube TV: in Settings, untick YouTube TV under Services you have, press Save settings, then pick yours under Connect a live sports service.
  2. Press Open on the tile and log in yourself in the SAL window.
  3. YouTube TV or Hulu: press Learn now in the Learn my channels box. SAL visits every channel in your guide once (about 5 minutes; hands off meanwhile). Learn again if your package changes.
  4. In Settings, untick sports you don't watch, pick a Favorite team, and reorder games under Rankings.

Every session

  1. Press Open on your service's tile (Open another for more) and put a live game on in each tab, one per stream your plan allows, three at most (Streams at once on YouTube TV in Settings; one such field per service).
  2. Arm each tab: with it in front, click the SAL icon. The icon shows ON and the row says Armed.
  3. Optional: Open the Peacock tile, play a show, tick Use during breaks (and, in Settings, Captions on the show during breaks).
  4. Press Start. The window goes full screen.

A new tab says Learning mark for about a minute, while SAL learns its picture.

NBA League Pass

  1. In Settings, under Services you have, tick NBA League Pass and save; set its streams field to 3 on the premium plan, 1 otherwise.
  2. Press Open on its tile and log in. Open a game, press "Watch Live" yourself, then click the SAL icon on that tab.
  3. Press Start. From then on SAL changes games in that tab itself; a game blacked out where you live shows a notice, and SAL moves on.

What you'll see

Each cut dips to black and a card names the game, never the score; a dark card with the SAL mark stays while a picture loads, up to 15 seconds. When every game is in a break you get the Control room (Every game is in a break) with the scores, or your Peacock show.

Move the mouse for the bar: the games numbered 1 to 3, each with Lock, then Pause, Bad cut, Report and SAL. Keys:

  • Alt+B: bad cut, right after a change you didn't want.
  • Alt+L: lock the game on screen; SAL leaves only for its breaks. Alt+1, Alt+2, Alt+3 lock the game numbered 1 to 3 on the bar. Again to unlock. (Alt+2, Alt+3, Alt+R and Alt+Shift+L: on the picture and SAL's pages only.)
  • Alt+Shift+P: pause switching; again to resume.
  • Alt+R: report a problem.
  • Alt+Shift+L: the lobby.

The lobby

Click SAL on the bar, or Lobby in the Control room; the game keeps playing. Each tab shows its game, score and picture status; Switch to… changes its game. Back to the game or Escape returns. Stop, or closing the SAL window, ends the session.

Report a problem

Press Alt+R, Report on the bar, or Report a problem in the lobby. Tick what happened (Wrong channel, Cut too early, No sound...), add a line, and press Save. A small file (sal-report-…) lands in Downloads: what SAL did in the last 15 minutes and why, no video or account details. Nothing is sent by itself; email it to hello@watchsal.com.

After the night, press Copy in the start screen's Last session box and paste it into an email, with the file from Review sessions, Export .jsonl, and a few lines on how it felt.

What to do when

  • Wrong channel: press Alt+B. If a tab says Wrong channel, put the right one on there; SAL learns it.
  • A tab says No picture. Press Reload on its row, or start the video in the tab yourself; SAL takes it back once it plays. If a reload fails, SAL stops using the tab and says so.
  • A game says No player. Its page shows a notice, often a blackout; SAL leaves it for that game.
  • No sound: report it, then press Escape: a crossed-out speaker on the tab means muted; click it.
  • A tab says Page changed. The site changed under SAL. Report it.
  • A tab says Re-arm. Its capture ended (a browser restart does that). Click the SAL icon on it.
  • Too many streams: close a tab, or lower that service's streams field in Settings.
  • Anything else: pause, report it, then carry on or Stop.

What SAL changes

SAL changes the channel, the way you would with a remote. It doesn't change the streams, and your subscriptions and their terms are your own.