Moving to Channels from larger alternatives

#1

Hey,

So after recent layoffs in alternative software (which seem to include a lot of the tech/server side bits I care about), having not great experiences with open source alternatives, I thought I’d give Channels a go.
I’m like one of the weirder users who has no interest in LiveTV or DVR options.
Originally heard about Channels from ATP, but previously when I looked - it seemed very LiveTV/DVR based.

Based on setting this up while on plane Wifi and testing streaming from airports - so far I’m pretty impressed ! (Only care about Library features).
Setup was quick/easy; I wish port forwarding had uPNP for laziness, but doing it manually is fine.
nginx reverse proxy seems to work fine for admin interface, perhaps not for channels app - or maybe config blip I need to dig into further.
I really like the simplictic web admin interface - though client overrides section could perhaps be reworked a little…

Biggest request would be for ability to hide all DVR/Recording/LiveTV options and use as only a library server+frontend. Having all the tabs along the bottom for options I’ll never use is a bit messy.

Also huge fan of stats feed for video feed - great to quickly see what video feed is coming through.

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#2

Welcome!

Your experience is totally understandable. Our roots in live TV and DVR certainly show and we're currently doing work to help make live TV and DVR just another feature rather than the MAIN feature. It's going to take a little time though.

You probably felt it in the onboarding of the app, which we're currently working on making a little better for those that only care about the media library aspects.

While Channels' roots are in Live TV and DVR, our (developers) souls have been in media libraries for ages, it's why the features are there you want. We're just sort of in a transition period to getting Channels more welcoming to those that only have personal media, as well as those that want Live TV & DVR.

As for hiding Live TV and DVR aspects, these are all doable in the TV based apps (Apple TV, Android TV, and Fire TV). We just need to make this more manageable for the mobile versions as well. You can learn about managing the navigation here: Channels Support - Customize Sidebar

Thanks for the feedback and we welcome more as you gather it. And again, welcome!

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#3

To hit on another couple points:

You don't necessarily need to use a reverse proxy if you turn on the Remote Streaming feature, after that you can just hit https://my.channelsdvr.net. Then of course, with this feature, the Channels apps will let you easily log in remotely, without having to directly point it at your server. Using it this way on a mobile device, will easily allow you to roam in and out of your local network and Channels will determine if it should connect remotely or via the local lan.

If your reverse proxy is in place because you want to use your own domain, beware that you can accidentally expose your server to the internet without authentication, as Channels DVR Server does not require authentication from local lan IP addresses, which reverse proxies look like to it.

I personally do this at home, but my services are not actually exposed via these proxies to the internet and I just use a VPN to access them.

Just a little information for ya.

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#4

Oh thanks for the quick response - unexpected !
I absolutely understand your origins and it makes total sense thats front and center; I suppose I just wanted to give feedback that due to recent changes, there may be others like me (or a market to expand).

As I’m traveling, not yet had a chance to try out AppleTV - that’ll be my true test! :slight_smile:

Reason for reverse proxy was I was around limiting access to only VPN’d connections and giving my some more control on IP whitelisting etc.
(and being able to simply use https:/…. and not worry about weird ports or proxies for access).

Only other thing that comes to mind; I’d love if packages were created (deb/rpm) vs the current install procedure; or at least have option to easily create dedicated user etc.
Not a huge deal - it’s obviously easy to change permissions and systemd service files to make things work.

Looking forward to learning more about channels and making it work for me, as hopefully, my main streaming app. Keep up the great work, looking forward to seeing where you take it.

#5

:wink:

:+1:

Thanks! Stick around the Community as they're always coming up with wacky things and are super helpful, we're all friendly around here.

#6

Back when I was using Arch I created a PKGBUILD for Channels to install it to /usr/lib/chanels-dvr and keep its data in /var/lib/channels-dvr. It also included a service unit as well as sysusers and tmpfiles files for creating the necessary files, folders, and users to keep it all separated. Perhaps you can use it to craft your own package for whichever distro you are using. (I've switched to using the published container in Podman personally, so I no longer maintain the PKGBUILD.)

#7

You may change your mind about those tabs once you experiment with Virtual Channels :slight_smile:

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#8

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