Pluto For Dummies

[jkr4m3r]

I'm seeing duplicates of certain stations since the recent updates. First I noticed is there are 2 Star Trek stations at 150, before there was a secondary one that repeated the same several episodes over and over again without commercials. Now that's the only one available, and 2 channel 150s appear in the list.

When loading Manage lineup it appears like this:

If I click on one of them they both become Star Trek2:

This was happening with both the Docker container and php versions Wednesday night/Thursday morning. It happens on several stations that I bothered to select, CSI being another one I recall.

Docker container version is 1.2.8, php version is updated by @HankLloydRight so I can't give any version info there.

[HankLloydRight]

I saw the same thing last night. I don't know where the source of the bug is (see next posts). Here's an example for Star Trek -- they both have channel number 150:

#EXTINF:0 channel-id="star-trek-1" channel-number="150" tvg-logo="http://images.pluto.tv/channels/5efbd39f8c4ce900075d7698/colorLogoPNG.png" tvc-guide-art="http://images.pluto.tv/channels/5efbd39f8c4ce900075d7698/featuredImage.jpg?fill=blur&fit=fill&fm=jpg&h=562&q=75&w=1000" tvc-guide-title="Star Trek" tvc-guide-description="Boldly go to the channel that brings you Star Trek: The Next Generation, along with the USS Enterprise’s big-screen adventures, all day long." group-title="Entertainment", Star Trek

#EXTINF:0 channel-id="star-trek-2" channel-number="150" tvg-logo="http://images.pluto.tv/channels/5f77879983bec60007e2a196/colorLogoPNG.png" tvc-guide-art="http://images.pluto.tv/channels/5f77879983bec60007e2a196/featuredImage.jpg?fill=blur&fit=fill&fm=jpg&h=562&q=75&w=1000" tvc-guide-title="Star Trek 2" tvc-guide-description="Boldly go to the channel that brings you Star Trek: The Next Generation, along with the USS Enterprise’s big-screen adventures, all day long." group-title="Pluto TV", Star Trek 2

Any of the channels where there's a -1 and -2 channels with the same name has this problem, including Nosey, Love and hip-hop, CSI, and others.

Additionally, in the tvOS app, hangs for about a minute when browsing the guide on the double channels and then the on-screen guide also changes both to the "2" version.

[HankLloydRight]

Looks like it's in the source data direct from Pluto:

{"_id":"5efbd39f8c4ce900075d7698","slug":"star-trek-1","name":"Star Trek","hash":"#StarTrek","number":150,"summary":"Boldly go to the channel that brings you Star Trek: The Next Generation, along with the USS Enterprise’s big-screen adventures, all day long."

{"_id":"5f77879983bec60007e2a196","slug":"star-trek-2","name":"Star Trek 2","hash":"#StarTrek2","number":150,"summary":"Boldly go to the channel that brings you Star Trek: The Next Generation, along with the USS Enterprise’s big-screen adventures, all day long."

[HankLloydRight]

If you switch back to "Ignore channel numbers from M3U" it works again.

Also, wasn't there a ST:TOS channel? I can't find it now. Just two TNG channels.

[babsonnexus]

No, just the one Star Trek channel that does all series.

The Pluto Docker has been like this forever, it's not new. It's coming from Pluto for some odd reason and part of the reason I originally switched to ignoring channel numbers (aside from the overlap with real channels from other services).

[HankLloydRight]

@babsonnexus

No, just the one Star Trek channel that does all series.

But there are two distinct ST streams with different programming on them.

[babsonnexus]

Huh, I thought the 2nd one was just the same programming, but apparently not. I've had it unfavorited for so long that I hadn't seen it's weird guide data. It looks like the channel is caught in some type of temporal loop:

The metadata is messed up, too:

I took a look at the m3u and every channel that has a "2" or a "3" version has a group-title="Pluto TV" in its code line as opposed to one of the intended categories:

[HankLloydRight]

@jkr4m3r

php version is updated by @HankLloydRight so I can't give any version info there.

On the https://nocords.xyz/ home page, I added a line to indicated the pluto-for-channels version running on the backend:

Running pluto-for-channels version: 1.2.8

[jkr4m3r]

StarTrek2 channel has always been there, but it shows no commercials and plays the same 7-8 episodes in a loop, or this was how it was when I investigated when the Pluto container was first released.

[retrostream]

I am working on improving the guide data, so specifics about which channels and programs are not acting well would be appreciated.

Hello Aman, my Series Passes are not recording from PlutoTV channels. For example, Midsomer Murders episodes are recording from OTA PBS stations, but not the eponymous PlutoTV channel. Thanks.

[tmm1]

You would need a separate pass for the Pluto guide data

[retrostream]

Thank you Aman. I see that Series passes for PlutoTV have a unique Series Pass ID. Is there a way to combine the 2 so it doesn't record programs already in the DVR?

[tmm1]

No

[swatpup928]

@Channels2021

http://127.0.0.1:8080/epg.xml

excellent work! Only problem is it only shows 1 day of guide. How can we see the full guide?

[chDVRuser]

You only get 12hrs of guide for Pluto

[thehodapps]

Thank you for the info. I have one question. Where do I run this command?

docker run -d --restart unless-stopped --name pluto-for-channels -p 8080:80
-e PLUTO_USERNAME='[email protected]'
-e PLUTO_PASSWORD='yourpassword'
-e START=80000
jonmaddox/pluto-for-channels

If it is a command prompt, I get error messages such as:

C:\Windows\System32>docker run -d --restart unless-stopped --name pluto-for-channels -p 8080:80
'docker' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Please be specific I have limited knowledge of this kind of stuff.

Thank you in advance!

[jkr4m3r]

@thehodapps

Thank you for the info. I have one question. Where do I run this command?

The Maddox version is mostly obsolete, you should look for...

This one of you're on Windows and don't want to mess with a container:

Pluto-Windows_4C Released

I'm going to start a thread for the Windows Pluto App. I will stop maintaining my Docker version since @maddox and @KineticMan have fixes for the stream limit issue on theirs. Pluto Windows 4 Channels DVR A native Windows bridge for integrating Pluto TV channels into Channels DVR. This application replaces the need for Docker by providing a standalone .exe that runs in your system tray, manages M3U playlists, and automatically updates EPG data. Username and Password fields have been added to t…

Or Kineticman's container 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 …

[slampman]

@thehodapps

Please be specific I have limited knowledge of this kind of stuff.

First and foremost... Educate yourself on docker, Google is your friend. "How to use Docker on Windows". You will be amazed at the amount of knowledge there is to be had...

[thehodapps]

Thank you for your reply. Limited as in one-time I have used Docker desktop to get Pluto setup initally some years ago. Hard drive crashed and now I do not remember anything about containers. I installed Docker Desktop and ran jonmaddox script or container and now I need to figure out where to run the command to have my username and password loaded for Pluto. I can handle the rest, I think.

I have searched Google high and low and I cannot find the answer to this specific question.

[chDVRuser]

If you're going to be installing a Pluto docker container I would recommend FastChannels instead.
Channels — Community

FastChannels - FAST Channels aggregator/manager

Wanted to share something I've been building called FastChannels — a self-hosted FAST channel aggregator that scrapes free ad-supported streaming services and delivers unified M3U playlists and XMLTV EPG guides for Channels DVR (and any other IPTV client). Why FastChannels? The problem it solves: Pluto TV, Tubi, Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Xumo, Plex, DistroTV and others each have hundreds of free live channels —but they're siloed. Getting them all into Channels DVR meant maintaining separa…