Pluto for Channels

[fredster]

I find the @maddox solution quite a clever approach ... it basically let's Channels manager the streams as individual tuners. I tried it out with setting up 6 single channel sources and recorded 4 channels simultaneously...it worked great. The Pluto-for-Channels web screen is a nice touch.

It would be nice if it was handled similarly to HD Homerun (4 tuners), where we could just indicate the number of tuners/streams at 12 (or whatever) and the proxy would manage the tuners/streams...that would allow a single channel lineup. The interface to manager the tuners is already built into Channels, so it seems like the new proxy just needs to leverage that type of API to the proxy.

Looking forward to what's next on this evolution.

[speedingcheetah]

Pretty much all Pluto channels are freezing/buffering in Channels for me, both on Apple TV and Nvidia Shield. During add breaks. Not ever ad the y play causes freezing, but most do.

My mother keeps closing the channel and re-opening it, but that does not seem to be necessary, as after several seconds to 15 secs later of just leaving it in its buffering state, the ad continues to play or skips to the next ad.

I have both servers bypassed unblock/unfiltered for my Adguard Home DNS filtering, so that is not the issue. I was not having this issue before the recent Pluto change.

One server is using the Windows.exe for Pluto, the other the last version of Maddox docker(will be moving to KineticMan one when I have the time to do that.

[frazzxr]

I started having the issue I guess that i addressed by logging into pluto using the new docker container by maddox. It worked for a couple of days, but today I am getting various errors and cannot watch pluto channels.

Hopefully I did the login correct. I added a couple env vars:
PLUTO_USERNAME
PLUTO_PASSWORD

Is anyone else having this issue? Am I doing something wrong?

2026/03/01 09:02:10.995810 [ERR] Could not start stream for M3U-PlutoTV ch9088 Dateline 24/7: M3U: Could not fetch playlist from cfd-v4-service-channel-stitcher-use1-1.prd.pluto.tv: GET: https://cfd-v4-service-channel-stitcher-use1-1.prd.pluto.tv/v2/stitch/hls/channel/637413d8531e0c0007442d6d/master.m3u8?  401 Unauthorized

[mtnbkr60]

go to your sources, select Pluto and from the drop down click reload m3u.

[frazzxr]

Thanks, that did the trick. Is this going to be a daily thing I need to do?

[jxxaxxy]

Whats your custom channel screen setup?

[arizonaralph]

Which Pluto project is recommended to use on Olivetin?

[bnhf]

@arizonaralph

Which Pluto project is recommended to use on Olivetin?

Update OliveTin, and the @KineticMan version is the only one available to install now. All versions are still available to delete, if you've previously installed via One-Click.

[eddiem5]

I agree 100% - working more like HD Homerun.. But regardless, I am thrilled to have the docker - thank you Maddox...

One question for a topic that frustrates me, how did you handle the issue of a channel lineup with each tuner. I spent the time to hide the channels from the second and third tuner but it is over 400 channels so takes freaking forever...

Just wondering but love having PlutoTV back to my channels.

[bnhf]

@eddiem5

One question for a topic that frustrates me, how did you handle the issue of a channel lineup with each tuner. I spent the time to hide the channels from the second and third tuner but it is over 400 channels so takes freaking forever...

Two posts up from the fredster post you're replying to here is your answer -- you should be using the @KineticMan Pluto-for-Channels project:

Pluto for Channels - KineticMan docker

If anyone interested, I put a quick fork out that might solve the multi-stream issue. When Pluto TV introduced mandatory account login, all the existing solutions (jgomez177, nuken, maddox) authenticate correctly — but they all share a single hardcoded clientID. Pluto TV uses this to identify your "device", and enforces one active stream per device. So every time you tune a second channel, it kills the first one. The Fix Instead of one clientID, the app now maintains a pool of virtual device …

[laughsbrightly]

Also using the Maddox docker. I just bit the bullet and hid them while I was in Zoom meetings. If one of the developers gets bored someday, it would be nice if there were bulk options available in channel management, but I don't plan on doing this often, so not a huge deal.

[Fofer]

@eddiem5

I spent the time to hide the channels from the second and third tuner but it is over 400 channels so takes freaking forever...

@laughsbrightly

it would be nice if there were bulk options available in channel management, but I don't plan on doing this often, so not a huge deal.

Until then, this bookmarklet has been a godsend:

Channels Helper bookmarklet for working with Manage Lineup

Since we can now add all these awesome TVE and m3u channel sources for things like Pluto, Plex, etc., I've found myself struggling to manage the hundreds of channels often listed in the Manage Lineup dialog (Admin Settings website \ Sources). I decided to try to throw a little javascript at the problem last night, and wound up ultimately settling on a simple Bookmarklet you can use to do things like Block/Unblock all, Fav/Unfav all, sort channels by name, sort channels by number, etc. It adds …

[fredster]

Creating multiple sources with the same channel list doesn't replicate the channels...so you don't need to create separate groups of channels for each source. Channels just sees all the sources as a pool from which to draw and will manage opening a stream in whichever source is available. In summary, you don't need to edit the 400 channels... just create multiple sources of the same list with a single stream each and let Channels do the management.

This approach works great, but it looks like it has been replaced with the newer KineticMan docker proxy which maintains 10 (default) rotating streams so you don't need to create multiple sources. I haven't tried it yet, but that sounds like a better path forward (much like my original request of making it look like HD Homerun). I'd recommend checking that solution out... and if it doesn't work for you, you can always go back to the multiple source approach.

[rpaulmerrell]

I would personally spend too much time on this.
Pluto tv servers will be updated sometime in 2026.
I am willing to bet that DRM will eventually be added to the channels.
Get what can be working going good enough for all until it changes.

[jkr4m3r]

@rpaulmerrell

I am willing to bet that DRM will eventually be added to the channels.

Yup, corporations are not our friends.

[eddiem5]

Thank you for your kind and complete post here.. I used the bookmarklet which I found quite useful.. Having the channels replicated multiple times is just messy and confusing.. I admin two channels servers, one for myself and one for my kiddo.. So less replicated channels makes sense to me...

But thanks - you are likely correct, I should care honestly but I like things tidy and neat...

[mjitkop]

Anybody else using Pluto TV UK and not getting any guide data?

[jkister]

I just hooked the docker and source config in channels. seems to work but every ~5-15 min or so the stream will stop and i need to launch a new one. also sometimes the stream starts and i see a still image with no audio and i have to start a different stream to make it play.

what can i check? hls.log is flying by, my eyes dont see anything interesting though. the log coming out of pluto-for-channels is just basic http gets on the playlist.m3u and epg.xml

[speedingcheetah]

Change to mpeg-ts. Pluto is very bad for streaming quality video. Their ads cause issues.

[jkister]

@speedingcheetah

Change to mpeg-ts. Pluto is very bad for streaming quality video. Their ads cause issues.

just came back to say it happens during ads seems like mpeg-ts fixes it the commercial issue.

sometimes the stream still starts with a frozen image though.