OliveTin for Channels: An Interface for Misc Channels DVR Scripts & Tricks

[bnhf]

@jsfullam

I suppose I didn't understand as I rarely watch anything live. I can't stand commercials. So, I pre-record everything. I even start recording some shows which I end up watching live, just to create a recorded buffer. Then, I can skip through commercials and catch up by the end of the live broadcast.

That's a good way to do it too -- no doubt. This is just an alternative approach that some like (including me), especially for those of us that use a two screen approach to watching TV.

For example, as I'm typing this Titanic is on the big screen (premium channel), which I've seen many times -- and even owned on DVD. I know it well enough, I can enjoy "watching it", without giving it 100% of my attention.

I set it up earlier today when I was watching one of my virtual channels, and the auto switch happened when the movie started. I haven't touched the remote since this morning. This just offers another option for your TV experience.

[jsfullam]

Most of our movie collection falls into that category of not requiring 100% attention. I'll have to give your channel changing idea a try. It's another example of how much flexibility Channels DVR offers. Sweet!

[bnhf]

Gotta say, being able to exclude channels from Comskip processing is still one of my favorite OliveTin-for-Channels features. Perfect for premium movie channels and PBS:

[chDVRuser]

Thanks for the reminder
Moved Sources from one server to another and it's so much trouble to update
Source Priorities, Channel numbers, Hidden&Favorites, Passes, cron jobs, Fake Channels pointing to Real Channels, Comskip Disabled, etc

[rakgupta]

Does anyone have a working sample for the "environment variables" section for MacOS (preferably with ChannelsDVR on a NAS)? I have Docker and Portainer working (I think), but I'm stuck at what the environment variables/Docker Compose section would look like.

I have ChannelsDVR running on a NAS (WD MyCloudEX2Ultra). Thanks for your help.

[bnhf]

@rakgupta

Does anyone have a working sample for the "environment variables" section for MacOS (preferably with ChannelsDVR on a NAS)? I have Docker and Portainer working (I think), but I'm stuck at what the environment variables/Docker Compose section would look like.

I have ChannelsDVR running on a NAS (WD MyCloudEX2Ultra). Thanks for your help.

You might want to try the new OliveTin EZ-Start option I launched yesterday. It allows you to spin-up OliveTin with just two env vars, and then you can use an OliveTin Action to figure out the rest:

OliveTin EZ-Start: A New Way to Deploy OliveTin-for-Channels Using Just Two Environment Variables to Get Started!

Given the kind of download numbers OliveTin-for-Channels has enjoyed (pushing towards 25K), it's clear that most users have been able to spin-it-up without assistance. Having said that, there's also clearly another group of users that would like to have it in their toolkit, but have found the environment variables required challenging. Well, this project is for you! We're going to use the power of OliveTin to create the set of env vars you'll need to be able to take full advantage of that power…

[Fofer]

@bnhf

Gotta say, being able to exclude channels from Comskip processing is still one of my favorite OliveTin-for-Channels features. Perfect for premium movie channels and PBS:

Great idea! Does this also work with OTA channels? I just tried turning off Comskip processing for my local PBS (on channel 28.1) but got this error:

[bnhf]

@Fofer

Does this also work with OTA channels? I just tried turning off Comskip processing for my local PBS (on channel 28.1) but got this error:

I'm seeing that too. Easy fix. I'll push an update tomorrow.

[bnhf]

@bnhf

Easy fix.

@Fofer Fix pushed as :latest (:2025.03.19) (builds are UTC).

[bnhf]

New bnhf/olivetin:latest (aka bnf/olivetin:2025.03.22) pushed late yesterday with support for @CoderLuii's new ChannelWatch script. ChannelWatch supports Pushover notifications for channel tuning on your CDVR server. Additional notifications types planned, along with support for more notifications services. More details here:

ChannelWatch: Real-Time Alerts for Your Channels DVR

First, many thanks to @CoderLuii for creating this tool! I know a lot of you remember back to when there were dozens of user-created CDVR-related scripts, all with different installation methods, often different by operating system. OliveTin-for-Channels was created to consolidate these tools in one place, with a common menu system. This allows for leveraging a relatively complete set of the values needed for scripts and tricks like this to work. Continuing that tradition, I've added ChannelWa…

[bnhf]

In case you missed it, OliveTin-for-Channels now has an EZ-Start option. Using EZ-Start allows one to spin-up OliveTin with just two env vars, and then use OliveTin itself to finish the configuration via an Action.

Future plans for OliveTin EZ-Start, include being able to launch it from the command line, and then spin-up Portainer using a Project One-Click Action. Using this approach, new users could install OliveTin first, then Portainer, then the Docker version of Channels DVR, and finally whatever extensions -- all from OliveTin!

More details here:

OliveTin EZ-Start: A New Way to Deploy OliveTin-for-Channels Using Just Two Environment Variables to Get Started!

Given the kind of download numbers OliveTin-for-Channels has enjoyed (pushing towards 25K), it's clear that most users have been able to spin-it-up without assistance. Having said that, there's also clearly another group of users that would like to have it in their toolkit, but have found the environment variables required challenging. Well, this project is for you! We're going to use the power of OliveTin to create the set of env vars you'll need to be able to take full advantage of that power…

Many thanks to @mjitkop and @chDVRuser for the original ideas that led to OliveTin EZ-Start!

[jsfullam]

@mjitkop and @bnhf , I love the "Create Movies List in CSV Format" action. I import the data to Excel so that I can quickly identify duplicate movies for removal.
I'm wondering if you could create/add a similar action which would make the same type of CSV list for TV Shows.

[bnhf]

New bnhf/olivetin:latest (aka bnhf/olivetin:2025.03.24) pushed today supporting the latest v0.3.0 version of ChannelWatch, plus improvements to the new OliveTin EZ-Start process.

More details here:

ChannelWatch: Real-Time Alerts for Your Channels DVR

Indeed I have. Once again, thanks @CoderLuii for expanding the capabilities of this tool. I've added v0.3.0 to OliveTin-for-Channels, with support for multiple DVRs, as before: [screenshot-htpc6-2025_03_24-14_00_44] Set log_level to 0 to kill the active instance of ChannelWatch for the selected DVR. The icon will remain green as long as there's at least one instance running. Be sure to select at least one notification method. Also, thanks to some fine stress testing by @TerryD, @Edwin_Perez …

And here:

OliveTin EZ-Start: A New Way to Deploy OliveTin-for-Channels Using Just Two Environment Variables to Get Started!

Given the kind of download numbers OliveTin-for-Channels has enjoyed (pushing towards 25K), it's clear that most users have been able to spin-it-up without assistance. Having said that, there's also clearly another group of users that would like to have it in their toolkit, but have found the environment variables required challenging. Well, this project is for you! We're going to use the power of OliveTin to create the set of env vars you'll need to be able to take full advantage of that power…

[bnhf]

@Jean0987654321

I tried using this and I get this error from channelwatch

[2025-03-25 01:13:55] Log file: /config/channelwatch.log (keeping 7 days)

[2025-03-25 01:13:55] Log level: 2 (Verbose)

[2025-03-25 01:13:55] Starting ChannelWatch v0.3

[2025-03-25 01:13:55] ERROR: CHANNELS_DVR_HOST environment variable not set

What does your Standard Output and Standard Error look like? You should redact whatever keys/tokens are in there...

[bnhf]

@Jean0987654321 What are the exact values you're using in the dvr field (ip:port)?

[Jean0987654321]

192.168.1.72:8089

[bnhf]

@Jean0987654321

192.168.1.72:8089

One feature I've added is to handle hostnames, in addition to IP addresses. I'll switch this up to pass through IPs, and only "process" hostnames to extract the IP. ChannelWatch appears to handle IP addresses only. And OliveTin allows hostnames (which are great for Tailscale MagicDNS, among other things) Give me a bit, and I'll push a fix.

[bnhf]

@Jean0987654321 A couple of tweaks required to handle hostnames AND IPs, so I'll push a fix tomorrow. Thanks for letting me know.

[bnhf]

@Jean0987654321 I believe I have it. Fix pushed as :latest (:2025.03.25). Give it a go if you would please.

[Jean0987654321]

Yep...that worked. Thanks