Beta: Web Admin v2

Beta Community DVR Beta
#1

Today we're introducing the next generation of the Channels DVR Server web admin. This is a complete rewrite cleaning up and incorporating everything we've built over the last decade with a fresh consistent design.

We're launching it in beta and need your help to put it through its paces.

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What it is not

Let's start with what the new admin is not. It does not reinvent features. No features have been expanded or changed. This was on purpose.

The goal of v2 was to get everything Channels DVR Server already does on a new platform, along with some quality of life improvements, to set us up for the future to THEN improve all of its features along with some new ones.

The old web admin was really holding us back and we think we're now set up for the future.

What is not done yet

v2 is pretty feature complete, but it's missing a couple things:

  1. No onboarding
  2. It is mobile optimized but still needs a huge review and improvements. Mobile may be rough right now.
  3. Needs more refinement

How to get it

After updating to the pre-release, you can switch back and forth between v2 and legacy with a switcher. You can find it under your account dropdown in each interface. Simply choose it and it will switch you back and forth.

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You can set v2 as your default admin interface by visiting Settings > General > Interface in v2. Then, whenever you visit your admin, it will load that instead. We highly suggest you do this.

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This is only available on the pre-release, and not available on the stable release.

What's cool about it?

SO MUCH! We're so pumped on the new admin. As said, it's mostly all doing the same thing, but it's FULL of quality of life features that really level up Channels and its curation tools.

Some of our favorite improvements:

  • Light/Dark mode along with a few fun custom themes
  • Advanced Grid guide
  • Command palette to quickly jump to sections or run actions - command/control-k
  • Key commands for power users for editing some items (Press ? to see a panel of available commands on movies and TV shows)
  • View Details on Airings displaying full coverage of metadata of airing items (like on videos)
  • New web player supporting Commercial Skip, Intro Skip, and Auto Play
  • Status section giving details about your library
  • Backups manager
  • Log panel with filtering support
  • Activity popover with richer presentation
  • Advanced Client settings management

We think the power users and ultra curators are going to love the Command Palette and Keyboard Shortcuts. They're incredible at helping you get so much stuff done so much faster. They help you zip across the interface.

And there's so much more.

Just show me what it looks like!

Here's some shots:

Movie

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TV Show

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Episode

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Grid Guide

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Guide Airing

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Keyboard Shortcuts

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Command Palette

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From You

We'd love if you could start using this as your main interface for a bit to help catch some bugs before it goes out to pre-release.

Please use this thread for feedback. We'd love to hear about:

  • Performance issues
  • Poor accessibility
  • Incomplete implementations
  • Anything broken, or bad
  • Things that are just not available that were in the legacy admin

Thanks!

13 Likes
DVR Pre-Release Notes
#2
#3

Yay! I like Video Store.

#4

My favorite so far is the grid guide where the header stays at the top as you scroll (and rendering seems faster).
Second is the "dark" mode.

Great work.

#5

I use Channels almost exclusively for the DVR functions and not as a library but the focus of the new version seems to be more on viewing the library. In the Legacy view, I'm typically in the Manage section under DVR. What would be the equivalent of that in the new interface? Thanks in advance, appreciating the update already!

#6

Library Episodes and Library Movies sorted by Added

1 Like
#7

Looks great, I really love what you did with the Logs page, so much easier to read. Thanks for the dark mode too, my eyes thank you. Love all the data on the Status Page, nice and easy to read. Has a nice "app-like" feel, integrates well with what we see on the apple tv. Seems pretty snappy, even loading all that data on the Status page is pretty snappy.

There is one thing I use all the time that is missing, a Manage page for the DVR, like mantooth said. Having it makes it real easy to scroll through and verify commercials with a minimum of clicks, checked for interrupted recordings, etc. Could be something like a Recent Recordings.

Great work, loving it!

1 Like
#8

One problem with doing it that way is that it groups show episodes instead of showing a list of recent recordings, adds clicks to get the same info that one click reached. I think Manage section on the old interface made it much easier to manage recent recordings.

#9

Actually Library Episodes sorted by Added is the same as the old Manage recordings.
It's just split up between Episodes and Movies now.
I agree though that it's a change I don't like and will have to accomodate.

#10

As @chDVRuser said, this is handled by the Library section now. You can list episodes without being grouped by a show. Grouping by a show is just an option.

There are also more filtering options as well, So if you're verifying commercials you can set it to Episodes, and only unverified. These options are also sticky and will be the same when you go back. They are also sticky per CONTENT type, so each filtering options you choose will stay for each content type you view.

I think you'll find it's exactly the same, and with more options.

1 Like
#11

Love the themes, works great on my iPad mini, will try on the laptop and iPhone tomorrow, hopefully someday we get color or theme changes on the client. Been messing around with COAX lately, glad to see some new life here.

#12

Also loving the View Details on the scheduled airings

#13

It's now an advanced filter

Screenshot 2026-10-02 220939
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1 Like
#14

Screenshot 2026-10-03 at 12.16.28 AM
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#15

Overall, it is :heart_eyes:.

The web player looks very nice... but playing is not smooth, as if it was skipping frames. Not sure if it's just my system.

Server running in a Docker container on an Unraid system.
Admin page opened in Microsoft Edge on a Windows PC.

Logs submitted — reference 998569e2-d234-44c8-bea1-4a2721e054fe.

#16

In the Legacy view there was a visual indicator of the Verified badge after verifying/editing the commercials on a recording. I'm not seeing anything like that in v2 in the Library. Will some sort of visual indicator for verified commercials be added back into v2 at some point?

EDIT: I see now that if I click "Edit Commercials" again the Mark as Verified button just says Verified but it would be great to have some sort of visual indicator as well before having to click through to "Edit Commercials."

1 Like
#17

Cool stats on the status page.

Speaking of the status page, the last 2 bottom sections are cut off on a mobile device.

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It's possible to scroll to the right to see the missing part.

Maybe it's by design?

A lot to explore but time for bed. :laughing:

#18

This was missed and will be coming.

1 Like
#19

This looks great so far! The virtual channels interface is way better now.

1 Like
#20

The following are fixed in the latest pre-release:

  • Personal Sections page error
1 Like