Is it possible to create a custom YouTube channel?

Just wondering if it would be possible to create a custom channel or use stream links to point to my YouTube channel subscriptions?

For YouTube Live streams, check out hlstube or the Kister Method:

For downloading regular YouTube channels and subscriptions, check out TubeSync, MediaHuman or others:

You can automate these so they download then Channels DVR can create a collection, Virtual Channel, etc.

Thank you for all of the info. That said, I also decided on MediaHuman and it seems to be working very well. I have a few follow up questions:

Since I want to delete watched videos, have you found a way to automate this or at least hide watched videos to avoid clutter and confusion?

It looks like Channels will periodically scan for changes in the watched folders, however I don’t think it will automatically prune deleted items. Have you found a work around for this?

Thanks for all of your help and suggestions :grinning:.

Asked and answered here:

I just watch and delete this imported content via the Channels interface, so I'm not having to delete twice.

I'm doing the same. Periodically I open the Channels Web UI, go to the video group and hit the Select all checkbox to select all the videos in the group. Then I deselect the first 5 or so videos, then Select Delete under the Actions pulldown. I've thought about writing a script using the Channels API to do the auto pruning but it's not moved to the top of my to-do list.

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I don’t see an option to delete videos from within Channels…

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Do you have a server-side setting to prevent deletion via the clients? Because I delete these imports the same way I delete any regular recording...

That was the issue, thank you!

Now, if I can just figure out how to manually sort my videos I’ll be set…

How often does Channels scan watched folders for changes?

I'm not sure but found this from awhile back:

You can also invoke it manually via the "Maintenance" gear on the Server. Pretty sure there's a curl command too.

Excellent. You’ve been a tremendous help, thank you again. By the way, have you found a solution or workaround for manually sorting your videos?

I put them all in a Show Collection. Personally speaking I sort by "Date Updated" so the most recently updated YT channels show first. But if you change the sort to "Custom" you can manually drag them into any order you prefer.

Smart playlisting would be cool here, I've yet to figure out how to mix and match some of these downloads into a separate on-demand Collection of their own (as opposed to a Virtual Channel.) I don't believe it's possible yet but hopefully one day in the future.

In my case, I don’t use sub folders and instead store all of my YouTube videos in one folder so I don’t really have the option to manually sort them. Perhaps I would be better off creating a folder for each YouTuber?

Yeah, that's what I did, for me and the content I'm downloading, and how I end up watching it, separate folders works out better for me.

One more question for clarity sake. When I delete a watched video in Channels, it is not deleted on the server, is this normal behavior or do I have a permission issue?

When you delete it, it’ll still be there … until the DVR’s trash is emptied. Then it’s removed from the drive. Mine is set for 10 days.

You are a wealth of information my friend :grinning:. Thank you once again!

You can edit the metadata to create a sort order you want and then use alphabetical.

Here's an example of one I did:

If you don't want to see the sort in the title, you can use a hidden field instead:

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Interesting. Thanks so much for sharing. The big issue for me is that I generally sort my YouTube videos based on content into a playlist, so it’s very dynamic and impossible to predict. I’m hoping that Channels will eventually support dragging videos into a custom order…

Any idea how this script could be adapted to add the YouTube author to the Channels episode title field and the YouTube video title to the Channels summary field? This way, it would show the YouTube channel name above and a description of the video below. Since I keep all of my videos in the same folder, it would make it much cleaner and clear what I’m watching. I do it this way, so I can watch all of my videos in succession without having to play each individually.