User Assignable Categories for Live Channels

scottw · March 12, 2023, 4:29pm

Currently in the guide there are some predefined categories, All, HD Channels, SD Channels, Movies, Sports, etc... Some are useful, for example "Favorites", or "Movies". Others not so much. My family watches a wide variety of programming, not all of it curated to the DVR.

Currently there is no way to sub-categories groups of live streams. For example, all channels that have something to do with 'animals', or 'Science' or in the case of my spouse 'Crime Dramas'.

PlutoTV for example has many channels dedicated to specific subject content but those listings always end up 'below the fold'.

Like Collections for recorded/curated content, how about allowing users to manage groupings of live channels from the server/admin side? Just like 'Favorites' but user named? Then allow those sub-categories to appear in the guide alongside of or in replacement of "kids" or "news" etc...?

I mean how many times has there been bad weather, but your local OTA news hasn't started yet? So you get into the guide, then page down... maybe down some more... then remember you need to sort by 'All Channels', then page down....

Now compare that to an experience where there is a 'weather' sub-category of live streams. Pull up the guide, select 'weather' and boom. Specific streams regarding weather. Or in my spouse's case 'crime dramas'.

tmm1 · March 12, 2023, 4:30pm

You can create Channels Collections on your server

Fofer · March 12, 2023, 4:33pm

I’d put this up there as one of my very favorite features of Channels DVR, it’s a real differentiator in this particular space. So customizable, so very useful! And it makes syncing chosen channels between multiple client devices an automatic breeze.

Heh, I just had a flashback, a couple of years ago I requested this same feature. I called them "Channel Categories" too.

maddox · March 12, 2023, 4:48pm

maddox · March 12, 2023, 4:50pm

scottw · March 13, 2023, 1:34am

No Kidding!? I was under the impression 'Collections' were for curated (recorded) content only and not live streams.

This is fantastic news. I can finally move all the crime shows out of the guide and into their own category.

Update: Ahh.... I see where the issue was. I was looking under 'Library' and saw the collections option there and not under 'Live TV', where there is another 'collections' option.

Thanks everyone.

scottw · March 13, 2023, 2:04am

Follow up questions. Once I create these live tv collections is there a way to reorder them in the list, like the individual channels? Or do they default to the order they are created?

maddox · March 13, 2023, 2:20am

Click the Learn More button on that page to read through the documentation. It’s all explained there.

You add them with Server Side Settings which allows you to apply them to all your clients or just the ones you want. They appear in the order you apply them.

scottw · March 13, 2023, 10:35am

Protip: The order your collections show up in Channels is determined by the order that you add them in the setting.

Ah... then I officially change my enhancement request to adding the 'move' functionality found when changing the order of channels within a collection to the collection level itself!

I don't want to make it seem like I don't appreciate the collection functionality, it really is amazing and I wish I found it sooner. Tell everyone there thanks for this.