Is it possible to obtain the categories that part of m3u/xc server for custom channels?
are you asking if you can just pull a category FROM a custom m3u source?
Yes, I would like to the categories from a custom m3u source
I use IPTVBoss to control my list of channels and even have categories which i export to my dropbox and use that to add to the Channels app
do what with the category?
got ya.. as far as i know-- there isn't a way to pull categories in.
what i did as a workaround is just add multiple sources and they all pull in a different category. i dont use ipTVboss so not sure if that's possible. I use Threadfin and it has a way to query the m3u file for a category. As example, "Events" is one of my m3u categories and I have a custom channel to pull it like this:
http://192.168.86.72:34400/m3u/threadfin.m3u?group-title=Events
then I set the XML file to the main XML file from Threadfin.
Can you message me or show me example of the category within the Channels? So i can get better understanding
heres two examples... both pulling from Threadfin as the m3u aggregator (similar to IPTVBoss i suspect- I just use it for a M3U editing functions.. i just wanted self-hosted option)
*Threadfin pulls in the main external source
*Then, threadfin breaks out the categories/group-titles
Let me try this.
I tested this but it doesn't work well for my specific use case.
After several tests, I discovered that Threadfin doesn't allow you to use the same channel across different categories. In my setup with 200 channels, only 180 were successfully mapped. When checking the mapping options, the remaining 20 duplicate channels simply weren't displayed.
I then tried using my m3u file directly from IPTVBoss to Channels. While I could create channel collections manually (a tedious process), I noticed another issue: whenever selecting a channel with duplicates, the collection would display both versions without any option to control this behavior.
The solution was to remove all duplicates from my m3u file in IPTVBoss, which fixed the display bug in Channels.
My next challenge is figuring out how to add an additional provider as a backup. I'm concerned about how this will interact with duplicate channels again. The whole situation is quite frustrating.
Perhaps I didn't understand your original question then-- i thought you just wanted to pull the categories/groups from the M3U?
Maybe start from the top - what exactly are you trying to do?
Yes, my original question was about pulling categories from an M3U source. Let me clarify what I'm trying to accomplish:
I want to import the existing group categories from my M3U/XC stream directly into the Channels app's category system, rather than having to manually recreate them. I use IPTVBoss to manage my channel list which has well-organized categories, and I was hoping there would be a way for Channels to recognize and import these category structures automatically.
I tried your Threadfin approach but ran into issues with duplicate channels. I need a solution that maintains my category organization while handling channels that might appear in multiple categories (like a News channel that could be in both "News" and "US Channels" categories).
The manual collection creation works but is extremely time-consuming with 200+ channels across multiple categories. I'm looking for a more automated approach that would preserve my existing category structure without having to manually rebuild it in Channels.
I also noticed that Channels doesn't handle duplicate channels well either. I attempted importing 2 sources with the same channels (same names and everything) but from different providers - one enabled, one disabled. I discovered that the EPG/programming gets glitched, only showing what's currently playing with the rest of today's programming empty. As soon as I completely removed the disabled source, it fixed itself.
It seems Channels doesn't handle duplicate channels well. Even having an identical disabled source in the configuration causes programming guide issues. This creates another challenge for implementing a backup provider solution, as the app gets confused by identical channels from different sources even when one is disabled.
Ultimately it looks like there's no option actively that allows importing categories from an m3u file/link source to Channels Collections. It also doesn't seem possible to have a duplicate source with the same channels but different provider - even having a backup source disabled until needed causes EPG issues.
I'll probably need to just stick with my current setup for now using IPTVBoss to manage my channels and categories, and manually create collections in Channels as needed. It's not ideal for my workflow, but at least it avoids the EPG glitches.
Thanks for sharing your experience with Threadfin. Maybe in a future update, Channels will add better support for importing categories directly from m3u sources and handling duplicate channels more gracefully.
I understand now. I think you're probably right- not a great way to accomplish this. Only other thing I could think of is use "Automatic Channels" groupings and hide every source except for the source you setup to pull in with Threadfin/IPTVBoss.. not sure that'd catch the duplicates though.
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