Pluto for Channels

[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.

[mjitkop]

I know why I don't have guide data for Pluto TV UK.

To set up my Pluto TV source, I used the @KineticMan version:

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 …

Unfortunately, there are playlists only for all or local regions.

After creating the original source for the local region (using the OliveTin Project One-Click action), I manually created the source for the UK region by duplicating the local URL and replaced "local" with "uk".
The video streams actually work but there is no XML file generated for the EPG.

Question for @KineticMan: it seems that the streams exist by simply replacing "local" with "uk" in the URL. Do you think EPG could be generated too?

[Bobby_Vaughn]

Add it in your environmental variables and it will generate the epg data too.

[mjitkop]

Cool, thanks. I will give it a try after dinner.

[KineticMan]

I didn't want to break anything that was already working, but I had planned on improving this a bit. Was thinking of just generating the XML/M3U every couple hours (on demand with caching) for all sources (US, West, East, UK, etc). not sure a big need for it, but just to make setup easier for anyone so they dont have to mess with any env variables.

[mjitkop]

That fixed my guide issue with Pluto TV UK. Thanks!

[fredster]

Just a quick update... I migrated to the @KineticMan docker proxy yesterday ... worked like a charm (recorded 5 movies and 1 TV show all at the same time to check functionality). It's exactly what was needed to operate very much like an HD Homerun source. You just add a single source and you get up to 10 simultaneous streams...the proxy handles the stream management with a single user account/login. I highly recommend moving to that proxy agent.