Multiple user support?

[scratchyone]

I've seen some old threads on this but haven't been able to find anything recent. I've been setting up Channels DVR for me and my family and it's amazing. But I'd like to be able to allow my parents to add their own DVR items without having to worry about them accidentally deleting mine, and it would be nice to be able to have a separate watch history. Is this possible? Is basic multi-profile support somewhere on the timeline? Alternatively, can I run multiple local servers for each of us without having to pay for 3 separate subscriptions? Just hoping there's some reasonable solution to allow a family to use this nicely.

[Rice]

@scratchyone

But I'd like to be able to allow my parents to add their own DVR items without having to worry about them accidentally deleting mine, and it would be nice to be able to have a separate watch history. Is this possible?

Nope

@scratchyone

Alternatively, can I run multiple local servers for each of us without having to pay for 3 separate subscriptions?

Yes, a single subscription is all that is needed but only one dvr can be used for remote viewing(outside the LAN) via built in remote streaming. It’s not exactly convenient to switch servers on the same playback client, possible but not realistic long term. A better option would have a client device for each server on their own Tv and or TV input.

[ChannelSam]

As you have seen This appears to be the only way...
Set up a main dvr server with your sources...
Then you can feed your sources to "sub" dvr servers (one for each unique "profile") using channels-dvr m3u output from main dvr-server.

I thought I knew what I was doing

Channels is designed to have a single server and multiple clients. Servers don’t talk to each other. Is there a reason you want multiple servers like this?

Channels M3U Export: Documentation

@tmm1 Can you provide a list of parameters that are available when downloading the M3U playlist? I have read through various threads trying to document all the variables but wanted to have a complete list if possible. So far this is what I have... M3U: Playlist can be downloaded at "/devices/ANY/channels.m3u". Example: http://ip:8089/devices/ANY/channels.m3u?session=xxxx&bitrate=2000&filter=hd In this example are the following parameters: ANY: Leave as is for all sources or replace with t…

Connect client to the sub server for the prefered profile. As long as each client is always used with the same sub server this should work very easy once setup.

It has been brought up for a few years that it would be nice if CDVR would save the IP addresses of previously connected servers and make them selectable from a list. But this has not happened and probably won't.

[Morris_Altman]

You can use Collections or Personal Selections. They are managed from the server interface under Libraries

[Rice]

@ChannelSam

It has been brought up for a few years that it would be nice if CDVR would save the IP addresses of previously connected servers and make them selectable from a list. But this has not happened and probably won't.

At least on iOS and Apple TV it remembers the last 3 server ip’s.

[chDVRuser]

@Rice

on iOS and Apple TV it remembers the last 3 server ip’s

And the port number

Show the server IP:PORT connected to

This was done in the latest TestFlight beta:

[scratchyone]

Thank you all, seems setting up multiple servers is the ideal solution here!

[ChannelSam]

@Rice and @chDVRuser

Thanks for the information/links on server and port showing last ones... I did a search and looked at the old posts to see if anything had changed and somehow missed that. Sorry.

Looks like it was only added to Testflight ~Oct 4, 2025 if I am reading it right so I don't believe it is available in the stable version yet.

When I get a chance I am going to have to spin up a 2nd server again and see if it is there in the main releases or watch for it to show up in the near future.
I run both ATV 4k clients and Android clients.

Edit: Re-reading that it may just be the :port part that was added recently to test flight. It had been a long time since I had 2 servers running so I am still looking forward to trying this again.

[slampman]

I host a seperate channels server for my elderly mother on my docker server. We share a couple HDHR's as well. I set up my movies folder as a network share so she can have access to my movie library. On my server I set channels to save a seperate edl file for each movie so that my edited comskip timings for commercial skip will work for her as well. I also set the permissions on her server to where she can delete her own recordings but cannot delete imports. Works out great.