I typically have my Guide filtered to only show my favorites so I don't have to scroll through so many channels. I've been playing with a virtual channel for the past couple of days and am not seeing a way to mark the channel as a favorite. Maybe I'm just overlooking it?
Looks like you can't manage that via the original "favorite" (hearts.) At least not in the webUI. But what I've done instead (using AppleTV) is create a Channel Collection called Favorites, and I use that instead. You can add Virtual Channels to those. I find channel favorites much easier to manage this new way, for what its worth.
Weird. It should be abailable to mark as favorited like anything else. We’ll check it out.
To clarify, I couldn't figure out how to mark Virtual Channels as favorites in the webUI. But I can in the tvOS Settings > Manage Sources screen.
Ah ok. Virtual Channels have a source in the sources list, they should be favorite-able there.
They are. I have a virtual channel as a favorite. Going to Settings > Manage Sources > Virtual Channels allowed me to favorite a channel within the client.
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Thanks for the replies. I was only looking in the server UI like I had done with my other sources. I was able to favorite them via the UI on my iPad.
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Did this ever get solved? I am still unable to favorite Virtual Channels from the Source list. I can only favorite them at the local client level which is not very manageable for a multi device setup. Ever virtual channel i have to go around to all the tv's, tablets and phone to set it as a favorite
Use Channel Collections. Those support virtual channels, and are managed once from the server.
Yeah I can do that, but I was hoping for a way to do it with out the wife complaining. If I make her use an option other then favorites I will get the ' you continue to make things harder for me' with all this stuff.
Create a channel collection called "Favorites". The built-in categories in Channels are mutually exclusive with channel collections.
They may seem like the same thing to me and you. But to her and my daughter they are not. I tired just adding a Collection and adding to one device. When I do that I lose a lot of the built in options like movies, etc. It only gives me the All, HD Favorites and the collections I selected.
If I don't add the collection to the client the collection doesn't show up in the drop down. So the fact that
- Their extra filters are gone
- Again the favorite option doesn't work and all the global and per client items aren't an option
- The collection can't be edited from her client
My wife favorites change an a whim not having everything she want to browse in one 'favorites' is a no win scenario for me.
And I know you are gona say well she is already using the Movies and Kids filters why would this be a big deal. That is the hole point of your significant other being illogical to no end!
Best way I can put it to illustrate her point is
lets say 1 owe you 1000 dollars and i give you 18 stacks of 1's (stacks are in groups of 50 bills) then i say i slipped 2 50 dollar bills in somewhere into those stacks and you have to go search for it. That is basically the logic i get from my wife on how i just took something that should be simple like favorites and made it harder.
I under stand the logic strait out there but this is simple compared to the stuff i get about the reset of the home automation and how she can't even flip on the right light any more.
You are correct: those additional dynamic categories are removed when you use channel collections. However, you can create as many collections as you like, and populate them with whichever channels you like. This will allow your wife and daughter to each have their own list of favorite channels, rather than some dynamic ever-changing list.
Of course, if you are using and Apple TV, then you can recreate the dynamic categories, too. Channel collections will allow you to create dynamic entries just as the default categories do. However, the caveat with this is that dynamic (or, "Automatic" as they're labeled in the web UI) channel collections are only available to Apple clients; Android clients will only see the manually added channels.
The advantage of the channel collection method: You can have a set of channels defined for particular genres (news, movies, sports) that will always include certain channels. Then, you can augment that static list of channels with those that are currently airing content that matches certain categories. So, collections can give you all the features you currently have, plus more.
Of course, you don't need to use the feature. However, the syncing of favorites, and other arbitrary channel groupings, is handled via channel collections; and until I hear otherwise, this is the path forward for Channels.
Yes, it was explained in the thread that you have to do it on the client. You can't favorite Virtual Channels in the web ui do to their nature.
As for managing channels across clients, as it was already explained, this is done with Channel Collections. This is how we've decided to handle channel sync and this won't change.
In case you're unaware, you can manage settings on a per client level on the server. Just add a setting like you do in server side settings and it will override on just that client. This is how you can get different channel collections for each client.
As for losing the filtered collections that are there by default, if you're on tvos, you can recreate them with Automatic Channels via a channel collection.
- Movies - Content Type = Movies
- News - Genre = News
- Sports - Content Type = Sports
- Drama - Genre = Drama
- Kids - Genre = Children
This is all the apps do anyways to provide this functionality. With Automatic Channels, you can do even more.
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