BETA: Custom Channels via M3U Playlists

After playing with it today it dose work. I Created a dummy guide file from xteve using the 60min option. This creates 1hr shows with the channel name + day and time block ie "Cam1 Wed 10:00-11:00". Then record like normal from guide or drop down quick guide. Now that I known it works. I'm looking for a better way to create the dummy guide information. The problem with this one is it uses day of week not the full date and you wouldn't be able to record the same time block on 2 different Wednesdays because the dvr would see that show as already recorded.

Thanks, I'm looking at xteve now. The issue you stated above about it using day of week and not date would be a issue, especially given the fact that you can pretty much set your watch by the morning and evening movements of the wildlife around here. I've never used xTeve before, so I'm play a bit of catch up on learning the setup of it. Looks promising if we can get a date instead of the day of week into the data.

Chief

Will the docker update automatically? or do I need to do it?
Thanks!

I'll let you know if I find anything more promising. If this works out I may just set an additional rp4 server just for my cameras. My current camera DVR system only records 4 of my cameras. I added 3 more cameras since that and never added another recorder.

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BTW thanks you gave me the idea.

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No, you'll need to pull the LATEST to update it manually.

But I just snuck in some helpful stuff. It now shows the version that's running, and does an update check to let you know if there's a newer version.

You can view this on the status page at the root of the URL. I bet some of you didn't even know this page existed!

Here's what it looks like now.

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I've got xTeve up and running, recording works great. I'll keep at it to see if I can get a date stamp instead of just the day. Given the lack of settings for that in the interface, we may have to look under the hood to make that change. I'll shoot a note out to the developer if I don't figure anything out soon. Thanks for putting me on this, as it solves the immediate problem, now we just need to tweak it and make it better :slight_smile:

Chief

Heh, I'm a little disappointed in myself, normally I would of explored and found that page already :wink:
Thanks for the hint :wink:

Chief

Any chance this update helps with the freezing that's happening during the new TPIR channel when it goes to commercial?

"TPIR" meaning "The Price is Right: Bob Barker Era" channel that Pluto.tv just launched this week.

My video stream stops when it goes to commercial and then resumes when the commercial break ends. It does look and feel like a "freeze" but if I do nothing, it eventually resumes on its own. It's kind of weird.

I am also unable to record episodes beyond the first one I recorded. Since all of Pluto's airings on this channel share the same metadata ("episode 1") Channels DVR thinks they are all identical and therefore won't allow me to "duplicate" recordings. The client UI shows the record button on other episodes, but it doesn't actually work. I was hoping Channels would allow some sort of manual / forced record so we could record a few episodes anyway even if their metadata wasn't accurate but that doesn't appear to be the case. This new channel addition is fun, but just isn't fully compatible with Channels DVR at this time.

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Right... this is the same problem I detailed above as well. It's almost as though it's switching to a different video feed for the commercials...however, in the actual Pluto app, the transition is seamless. This also affects recordings (since you can record at least one episode at a time). Upon playback, the Channels app freezes. Hopefully they can find a solution! I think it's quickly providing to be one of Pluto's most popular channels.

This project has absolutely nothing to do with streaming quality or anything like that. All it does is provide URLs to the streams.

Right... so maybe the issue is with the way the Channels video player handles the video coming from Pluto? I didn't mean to upset you... I was just trying to solve the problem.

Have you found a solution for getting Channels to record all episodes from the price is right channel? I noticed you posted about it above and I'm in the same boat.

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I have not... the guide lists them as all the same episode, so Channels has no way of knowing, unfortunately. Pluto would need to start putting episode information in the guide (and it's weird they're not...maybe because the channel is too new??). I just wish it would stop freezing. Trying to troubleshoot if it's a combination of me using the Shield or if it's something else.

For what it's worth, I didn't read maddox's reply as being "upset," he is just clarifying what Channels DVR is actually doing with the Custom Channels feature. Just like it doesn't work with TWIT.tv because they use Ustream for broadcasting, which separates the video from the audio feeds. I don't think it's necessarily within the scope of this project to guarantee compatibility with everything we manage to find and throw at it. It would be nice to see, of course, but it's also important to keep appropriate expectations in check.

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I'm on AppleTV and it's not freezing or crashing or requiring me to touch the remote, it's just pausing... and then resuming a couple of minutes later without any commercials.

I'm kind of appreciating it, actually, now that I know what's happening and that it's not actually frozen.

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Ah, I was worried perhaps I had ruffled feathers unexpectedly. I know not to expect it to work perfectly, but I suspect Pluto may do whatever they're doing with this channel with newer, forthcoming channels... whatever that is. I've noticed that if I leave it it does resume in the show... but if you join the feed in a commercial break, you have to back out and come back once the show resumes or you're forever stuck in the commercial break. Good to know this isn't just happening on Android, as you have an Apple TV. Pluto must be doing something different with this channel for some reason. However, because of that freezing, trying to watch any recording back, the same freezing happens in the recording.

No feathers ruffled. I was just trying to set expectations on how this stuff works. The Pluto docker project is doing nothing but providing the custom channels, you shouldn't expect performance to change with any of it's updates. Just channel configuration and EPG information.

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Ah ok!! :smile: good to know - wasn't sure at first if there was any connection to it. Sounds like it must be something Pluto is doing specifically with the "TPIR: The Barker Era" channel. Any ideas what it could be? So far, it's happening to both Apple TV and Shield users. I certainly don't expect Channels to fix it if it's something on Pluto's end... but maybe something you could tell us that we can't necessarily see on the surface? P.S. - THANK YOU for the Docker solution... it's really awesome to run that all locally.