https://github.com/judog24/receive-criterionchannelnowplaying
A PowerShell module and Mastodon bot that fetches the movie currently playing on the Criterion 24/7 streaming channel
https://github.com/judog24/receive-criterionchannelnowplaying
mastodon movies powershell
Last synced: 2 months ago
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A PowerShell module and Mastodon bot that fetches the movie currently playing on the Criterion 24/7 streaming channel
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/judog24/receive-criterionchannelnowplaying
- Owner: judog24
- Created: 2025-05-29T05:17:37.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-04-28T23:02:50.000Z (2 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-04-29T01:09:06.138Z (2 months ago)
- Topics: mastodon, movies, powershell
- Language: PowerShell
- Homepage: https://cheddarcrackers.club/@CriterionPresents
- Size: 925 KB
- Stars: 0
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
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Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
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README
# Receive-CriterionNowPlaying
A PowerShell module and Mastodon bot that fetches the movie currently playing on the Criterion 24/7 streaming channel.
Follow here: [@CriterionPresents@cheddarcrackers.club](https://cheddarcrackers.club/@CriterionPresents)
## Why?
The Criterion Collection dedicates itself to distributing important classic and contemporary films. The company offers a streaming service, The Criterion Channel, that makes these films more accessible and affordable than buying individual Blu-rays. Subscribers of the service get access to Criterion 24/7 which is a continuous broadcast of films from the collection. A public website [whatsonnow.criterionchannel.com](https://whatsonnow.criterionchannel.com/) displays the movie currently playing along with how many minutes until the next movie begins. I wanted a way to get alerts when a new movie is playing so I could discover more movies within the collection.
## How?
[whatsonnow.criterionchannel.com](https://whatsonnow.criterionchannel.com/) is a simple website. It asks a question and answers it right away within the page's HTML. No extra DOM manipulations/javascript required. A simple web request with PowerShell parses the page easily. Well at least in PowerShell 5.1.
It turns out PowerShell Core does not have a built-in HTML parser so I had to utilize the PowerHTML module. I read that this feature was removed to ensure cross-platform compatibility. Apparently the parser in 5.1 utilizes Internet Explorer's engine. I guess I should be glad that Microsoft hasn't attempted to port Internet Explorer to Linux.
## Mastodon Bot Features
Running the bot will require Mastodon credentials. I use `Invoke-MastodonBot.ps1` in a GitHub workflow that runs once an hour. Movies typically last more than one so I added some logic to only create a new post if the movie has changed since the last time the script has ran. This is accomplished by storing the unix timestamp of when the next movie starts in `NextMovieTime.txt` and checking it against the current time.
I also have a script `Invoke-ForceMastodonBot.ps1` that will bypass this check and post regardless if the same movie is playing if I ever want the bot to do that for some reason.
### Example Post
## Example Local Command
I can also just run a script, `Invoke-CriterionChannelNowPlaying.ps1`, to simply check what is currently playing on Criterion 24/7 without involving Mastodon.
```PowerShell
PS C:\Users\judog\Documents\git\Receive-CriterionChannelNowPlaying> .\Invoke-CriterionChannelNowPlaying.ps1
Now Playing: The Hit.
Next film starts in: 75 minutes
```
## Notes
The Criterion Channel contains a lot of foreign films. Special characters do not always display correctly on [whatsonnow.criterionchannel.com](https://whatsonnow.criterionchannel.com/). For example, I have seen Peppermint Frappé as Peppermint FrappÄ. Currently, the bot just posts what it finds on the page so those errors currently persist.