User Friendly .m3u export options

Channels DVR Server Feature Requests
#1

@racameron mentioned something in another thread that really seems like something that more users could take advantage of, if it was a bit more known and easy to do. His post here:

Doing this manually works great, but running curl can prove to be a challenge for less savvy users. Additionally, we know a lot of users wish for a PC client, for a variety of reasons. It seems to me that providing regularly updated m3us of all channels via the server somehow would be a nice option. It could be added to the experimental section, for example. When you check the box a URL to the .m3u appears that you can download and load into VLC, or any other player that could use it. I don’t know if VLC will pull a m3u file via HTTP, but if so you could just give the URL to the m3u on the server and not even need to mess directly with the file. It’s true that the guide data is not there, but with the playlist view you can see all channels, and search by name. Even better, no transcoding is needed I don’t think, so you get full quality playback with all of the VLC features for free. VLC is free and open source, and multi platform, so you can run it on pretty much any PC OS. It seems like something a lot of users could take advantage of, and not a lot of effort to implement.

I also wonder if it’s possible to generate an m3u of the library content (I think it might be). If so, you could also have a playlist of library content to watch recordings or imports. Obviously this wouldn’t sync Watch status, but still might be a good option for some.

Just some thoughts.

#2

Seems like this should work. All curl does is download to a file.

2 Likes
#3

This works just put the M3U url in VLC.

1 Like
#4

Cool. So I’m that case since the m3u is generated on demand I guess all I’m really asking for is to have it discoverable in the web UI somewhere with maybe some basic instructions so your average user can take advantage of it. :smiley:

#5

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#6

Since I'm the referenced individual in the OP, I feel I ought to have some input here. This request seems superfluous, as all of the requisite parts are already implemented.

The whole point of this seems to be asking for undocumented and unsupported API endpoints be codified and exposed in the administration web UI. Since the backend API is undocumented and subject to change, this has no future.

Also, this has been discussed previously:

(Search is your friend.)

1 Like
#7

Oh well, the arbiter has spoken.
Was a good conversation while it lasted.

#8

just have some options in the server UI to download the m3u lists.

Like all channels, Favs only, and perhaps by source.

#9

These options already exist by using query parameters, as have been documented in these forums.

If you are savvy enough to make use of these features, you're savvy enough to be able to search for them.

#10

too lazy. just give me the UI buttons.... :upside_down_face:

Anyways, i recall trying that while back, when i wanted to try to get Emby to use Channels. did not work. Either nothing downloaded or came up, or what it produced did not function.

I just need the Favs list. how do you pull just them, And i mean Favs of ALL source, not just one.

#11

It's undocumented... :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

#12

right, expect for here it is not.

#13

Fair enough.
Let us know when you discover it!

#14

i would assume since they are using /### there is some syntax for how it all works.

/ANY
/TVE-"provider"

what other ones are there? someone search the forms and post full list? or is there a post of that already?

#15

The one who asks should try that.
/ANY means any DeviceID
Check http://127.0.0.1:8089/devices for them
And the json "Channels": [ will have "Favorite": 1 for favorite channels
But I don't know how to pull an m3u with only favorite channels.

#16

that with my server ip just gives a huge page of text. what is that? seems to list everything. codecs and channels and so many fields.

#17

If you can't parse the JSON output, then what are you looking for? A completely boneheaded point-and-click interface to a completely unsupported API?

The whole point of the DVR server API is that it is undocumented and unsupported. What works today may not work tomorrow.

If you want to figure out what works, enable the logging on your server and use a packet sniffer. If that doesn't make sense to you, then perhaps you should stick to the published documents for support.

1 Like
#18

this and only this

Edit: found an old post

http://x:8089/devices/ANY/channels.m3u?filter=favorites

This gives me a nice spaced out list..but it is just tve, missing OTA.
That seems to work.
However, i di manage to export .m3u of each TVE source separately. It only shows my favs, as I have eveything else not fav disabled, so it must not populate that.

2 Likes
#19

Did you ever bother to use the search. This is the second top post for the same content:

(That link is to the previous thread ... which will direct you to the proper post and answer. Just a hope that maybe you'll search for answers already given, instead of relying upon constant responses. Normally I may give leeway, but for such a regular poster, you really ought to know better.)

#20

search rarely works for me. too small and formatted wrong, maybe mobile issue. away form pc for a while.

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