I was tinkering with the IPTV / M3U stuff and wondering if it can record or does it just stream what you provide?
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It can record. However, because of the way Channels currently operates, you need to have guide info for the program you are recording.
There is a workaround to create a manual channel/time-based recording, but no UI for that. To record something using Channels' interface (either direct from the DVR's web UI, or a client app) there must be an entry in Channels' guide database.
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For getting M3U playlists to fully work with Channels, you need two things: a properly tagged playlist, and a valid XMLTV file. For the former, there is a document about Custom Channels. For the latter, look at the XMLTV DTD.
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Thank you!
This is what worked for me, and was actually a page taken out of the Plex/xteve playbook.
I initially paired down my Playlist at Epg.Best to bring thousands of channels down to around 150 and inputted the new Playlist and EPG URLs into my Channels Plus server with decent, but not perfect results.
I recorded a couple of movies and TV episodes and while successful, the movies ended up being recorded to the TV Show folder.
I then reformulated the playlist at EPG.Best to spoof the channels numbers of my local cable company.
I had multiple options but choose Spe¢trum because more of the channels I wanted were on their guide for my area.
Naturally, I had to bounce any channels that weren't available with the local cable company.
At EPG.Best, I went through the playlist removing certain channels while setting the remaining channels numbers to match the channel number listed on Spe¢trum's guide, just like you would map channels in xteve for use in Plex.
I then added my Playlist while pointing the Channel Plus guide data to my local cable company and boom, I had my locals mixed in with the new virtual tuner followed by the TV Everywhere channels from my Philo subscription and The credentials of YoutubeTV from a friend.
In comparison to a direct Playlist added to Emby or an xteve tuner added to Plex, the channels from my spoofed Playlist tuner opens as fast as they would open in Tivimate.
I'm so very impressed.
It's been about 2 weeks now without issue.
I'm just waiting to see if something breaks before eliminating the two TV Everywhere tuners.
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So you you are getting your cable companies feeds directly into Channels without a Hdhomerun prime?
No, I spoofed the channel numbers of my local cable company by running my IPTV Playlist through epg.best in order to add the new formulated Playlist to Channels Plus in a way where I could point the EPG to the default guide data for that local cable company.
I used a cheap sub to EPG.Best to remap channel numbers and to remove any channels that weren't served by the local cable company.
This way, Channels Plus handled the guide data just like it would for any type of HDHomeRun tuner, instead of of supplying my own guide data that would have also come from EPG.Best.
The OP was asking about adding his IPTV service to Channels Plus, and I explained how I did it differently from how I've read that others have accomplished it.
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Here's a screen shot of my spoofed M3U tuner, but it's getting its guide data just like a HDHomeRun Prime would because I had previously changed all the channel numbers in the playlist, before adding it as a tuner.
I hope I've been able to explain this clearly enough for others to try it out.
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I guess the question is, with channels m3u support, why all the extra steps and guide stuff and pruning the list when it can all get done in channels, and why plex for TV when you have channels?
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