FastChannels - FAST Channels aggregator/manager

Playground
#407

I had to do a batch update to disable my erroneous name match - I'll think through how to fix that in next version.

I think you guys will like my next update anyway. I found a site that we can reverse lookup Gracenote (not 100% but good data). So instead of just guessing what Gracenote station has on, you can self-audit even better.

As example: looking at channel "Sonic the Hedgehog" via Gracenote helper. The top line is what our built-in guide shows as now playing, then it looks up (via CDVR) a list of candidates for Gracenote. Then, the helper looks up (with the new API) what's playing on those Gracenote IDs. Then, you can use your human brain to decide if you want to use that new Gracenote ID.

image
image622×727 56.7 KB

4 Likes
#408

That is just awesome - amazing work, mate

#409

I love this new project.
works so nice and smooth. I like only running one docker rather than 4 or 5. Running the streams through playlist manager.

thanks

#410

Love where you're going with this.

Without having the Episode Title, it's going to be hard to compare Sonic The Hedgehog episodes on a Sonic The Hedgehog channel.

One thing everyone should do first is to verify that the scraped guide data (top line) is actually what is airing on that stream. Even scraped guide data from the source can be wrong.

#411

i dont disagree with what you're saying, but at same time, it's simply a helper. no way for this to be 100% perfect. It'll definetly require the human audit piece.

2 Likes
#412

True.
Just wanted to let everyone know that before spending the time trying to match a GN ID with the scraped guide data, verify that the scraped guide data (top line) is actually what is airing on that stream.
Otherwise, you're wasting your time.

#413

I just noticed that Philo offers free channels...maybe they are considered a FAST provider now too?

#414

There are a lot of FAST TV providers. I think that many/most? streaming providers offer access to a set of FAST channels in hopes that you will eventually sign up for their paid service. It looks as if Philo offers just over 130 FAST channels.

I have DirecTV as my paid content provider. So, I know that DirecTV also offers over 150 FAST channels for free with "My free DirecTV".

It's easy to get overwhelmed with so many providers. Many are repeats of the same or similar set of channels. I think that it's important to stay focused on the providers which offer the most channels and best quality streams.

2 Likes
#415

Question about DRM and Dead channels, audit and inspect.

I know an audit can mark a sources channels as DRM and Dead, and that you can manually re-enable those channels. I tried doing an inspect on a single channel, it returned with an error, but was still marked as enabled.

Can you manually audit a single channel so that if it's DRM or Dead it will mark it?

#416

And...Philo has been very reliable and has quality, at least for TVE.
Some of the providers included in FAST, i have never heard of, nor do they offer anything of quality, to me. It already can be overwhelming.
However, one just has to take a minute, scroll the list of channels in each provider, and decide if it is for them.
FAST makes it easy to compare sources per channel in one spot.
Most, is not always best.

I wish i could fully hide/not show disabled sources entirely from the Dashboard page, would clean things up alot to be able to "focus" on things. Like you can show/hide disabled channels in the channels page.

Point is, what is quality, or interesting, or what is "best", is subjective to the user.

Just saying, if it is possible to add Philo as a fast source at some point, would be welcome.
Not a big deal.

#417

inspect doesn't change channel status-- it's more of a one-off checker for you. I could implement auto-shut off channel, but figured if you are being that tedius of checking one-offs, you'd shut off channel yourself since your right there in the ux.

1 Like
#418

I agree wholeheartedly. I welcome access to any source which offers quality in terms of stream stability, video clarity, and/or genre variety. In this "wild west" world of streaming, my head is constantly reeling trying to find the best combination. I appreciate that @KineticMan has created, and is supporting a tool we can all use to find our own vision of the best content selection.

#419

I'm happy to look at Philo. Quick eye test looks like it's a ton of duplicates (which I suspect any new provider I may add in the future will be the case). But, the guide data/stream quality may be better. I'll add to list to at least investigate.

3 Likes
#420

You're creating work for me!
But I don't mind.

Any way to scrape the channel descriptions from the sources?

Wine Watches & Whiskey DistroTV Live Channel
Wine Watches & Whiskey DistroTV Live Channel600×590 354 KB

I mean, some channel names obviously reveal what the channel is about, others not so much.

Also found a mis-categorization
brave_screenshot
Don't think it's Local News. Is it?

#421

Yeah, I could probably make a helper that would show the logic of why one category was picked or another. But honestly, a lot of them I just fed the channel list into a LLM and told it to categorize to the best of its abilities. Obviously not great for maintenance long-term. Definitely could improve upon that.

2 Likes
#422

Philo is using DRM for the free channels. Most of the stuff they provide is already available through other sources.

2 Likes
#423

Well, that sucks, if true for all their channels.
Maybe useful for Guide Data then perhaps, if their streams match the other FAST ones.
They seem to have at least a few days of data.

#424

How are you determining that?
You also said Fox One was DRM (and it's not)

2 Likes
#425

Hi there,
firstof all,
fox hasn't worked in about a month.
I also know how Philo was designed. all there channels are indeed drm proteccted.

#426

● FastChannels v2.3.0

  • Category override — click any category label in admin/channels to see how it was categorized (which rule fired and why), then manually override it from the full canonical list. Override sticks through scrapes until you clear it.
  • Community Gracenote Map on GitHub Gist — the community mapping file now lives on GitHub so it can be updated without a code release. URL is configurable in Settings → Gracenote if you want to point to your own. More to come here later.
  • "Review & Apply" flow for Community Map — instead of applying a community match directly, it now opens the Gracenote Suggestions popup first so you can verify the match before committing.
  • tvtv now/next in Gracenote Suggestions — each suggestion card shows the tvtv guide's current program (with subtitle) alongside the channel's own scraper data, making it much easier to confirm you're picking the right station.
  • Community Map browser added to admin/help — accessible from both Help and Settings.
  • Stream audit deduplication — kicking off a stream audit while one is already queued/running for that source is now a no-op instead of stacking duplicate jobs.
  • Scraper phase timeouts — all scrapers now have default per-phase timeouts (init/bootstrap/channels/EPG) to prevent a slow or hanging source from blocking the worker indefinitely.
  • Automatic schema migrations — category_override column and tvtv subtitle column added automatically on first boot after upgrade, no manual steps needed.