Willing to entertain another suggestion for channel numbering? 
Instead of a 'start' value, how about an 'offset' value which gets added to the channel number from the provider? That way you can easily reference the provider guide/emails and new stations get inserted in the right place.
(I did this on a custom mod to the original pluto-for-channels and it works really well)
I have been testing the non docker m3u for Pluto and wow, it works great, plus not launching Docker has my PC running much faster. Where can I donate to support your continued efforts?
Thanks fofer and tvdvr!! Sorry I couldn't reply earlier, I'm getting ready for some international travel and today of all days our fiber internet died. 
It's not easy filing out all the airline "travel ready" forms and pages just to get on and off a plane during a pandemic, especially when the only internet we have is tethering our phones! But it's all good now. Thanks again and enjoy.
-Hank
Thank you so much. I plugged in the links you posted and they worked like a charm! I would never
have figured that out on my own. Not to be greedy, but do links exists for Plex? If so, could you send
those to me. Again, thank you so much! You're the best! Have a great Christmas! I will with plenty
to watch!!!
Thank you, @HankLloydRight for these sources and happy new year!
To start the year in a good way, I just set up a recurring monthly PayPal donation to help with your server costs. Since I pay $8/month for Channels, I figured I'd do the same for you.
I hope this helps and will inspire others to do the same. 
You're welcome, and Thank you, that's very generous of you!
Happy New Year!
This is great, I ditched docker which was flaky (after updates) and taking up a lot of resources on my server.
Possible fix in v2022.01.20.2019
is there a way to do a custom epg if we're using the custom start number, or is that not necessary?
edit: nvm, seems not necessary...but i've got no logos or guide images on stirr. what am i doing wrong?
edit 2: @HankLloydRight looks like there's a bug in the custom playlist generator for stirr that is borking the icons. this is a sample of what the m3u looks like (note the tvg-logo value):
#EXTINF:-1 channel-number="9520" channel-id="stirr-dco" tvg-id="dco" tvg-logo="https://nocords.xyz/stirr/imgs/4419db00f90d6a8c24fc03e2c6ccfdab.pnghttps://nocords.xyz/stirr/imgs/4419db00f90d6a8c24fc03e2c6ccfdab.png?cb=c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b",STIRR | National
Yes, I'll get that fixed shortly. There's a current problem with the GO program loading the data from STIRR. As I was debugging this yesterday, I must have borked something with the image replacement NOCORDS is doing. I'll definitely get it fixed in the next couple of hours. Thank you.
Can someone running the STIRR GO Docker see if your code is running, or erroring out? This is what I'm getting currently, and I don't know why:
2022/02/01 09:14:19 Beginning cache fill
2022/02/01 09:14:19 Found 110 channels in lineup, getting channel metadata and guide. This may take a moment.
.....................2022/02/01 09:14:20 Error when filling cache unexpected end of JSON inputOk, please try the custom page again, I fixed the logo bug, but the STIRR JSON error is still causing a problem.
Stirr docker keeps restarting every minute. Checked the docker hub but no update. States updated 9 months ago so stirr must have made so change.
logos look good now, thanks!
#HankLloydRight you rock!
Your non-docker source for Pluto worked like gangbusters right out of the gate!
Now my cup runneth over with 335 free channels thanks to you and your project.
You're very welcome and thanks for the support!
And yeah, PlutoTV can be a bit overwhelming at first. 
I've been using the https://nocords.xyz/pluto/playlist.m3u playlist and it works great. I am wondering (and I am still pretty much of a novice) if this playlist exists in a mpeg-ts output format? Or if I can convert it to mpeg-ts?
The Playlists on nocords.xyz are simply lists of channels and where to access that content from the providers. Unless Pluto and/or Stirr offer mpeg-ts streams for their channels, there's no way to 'convert' the playlist themselves to a different format. It's really just a large text file. But if those individual streams are available in a different format, let me know and maybe nocords.xyz can produce a playlist that points to those streams. But since nobody else has ever mentioned mpeg-ts streams, I suspect they don't exist. Sorry.