Virtual Channels - How is everyone using this feature?

Thanks, that makes sense. Now I have to figure out why the files that are written by TubeSync do not have the proper group privileges so that Channels can successfully delete the source files. My grasp of Linux privs is pretty tenuous so I need to do some reading. Doing this on a Synology NAS.

I’d love to use Virtual Channels more but I want to watch unwatched seasons/ episodes in order it I’ve used the sorting for this but it doesn’t seem to work consistently. What’s really odd is it seems to start out correct and plays oldest season / episodes first but then a couple days later is showing me more recent seasons when there are many unwatched episodes from older seasons. It does this without me changing anything in the sort order.

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Since virtual channels are designed to mimic traditional live channels, it is supposed behave the way you described because that is exactly how a traditional live channel would function. Basically once a virtual channel is first generated you are at the mercy of that initial real-time “playlist”.

For example if you were watching the real live BBC America Dr. Who marathon that comes on around the holidays and you stopped watching around S01E05 and then returned 14 hours later you would end up resuming around S02E04. This is the exact behavior that virtual channels are supposed to replicate.

The watched condition available in virtual channels comes in to play only when the virtual channel is generated, by either only allowing watched episodes or excluding watched episodes. Virtual channels do not regenerate in real-time.

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The Virtual Channels feature was not designed to serve this purpose.

So why not just play these shows directly from your library?

Settings → Playback → Auto Play

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Just trying to understand virtual channels. thought i found a use case but like everything I come up with, I find out “that’s not how it’s supposed to work”. Guess it’s just not for me.

What you are describing sounds more like a playlist than a virtual channel. Such a feature is on the roadmap, but there is no timeline:

Why would a playlist be required for this? Why not just start playing the oldest unwatched episode from the library, and let the rest of the show's episodes keep playing from there? What am I missing?

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That’s what I do now and it works fine. If virtual channels worked the way I thought it did, it would be less clicks and I’d be able to easily see the next episodes in the guide.

Sometimes I’ve actually watched some of the unwatched episodes or may want to skip an episode or two for other reasons. And yes, I know I can see that in the episode guide but when it’s show with a lot of seasons / episodes, that’s a lot of scrolling.

In any case, I’m not trying to make virtual channels into something they’re not and am glad to have an answer that explains the behavior I’m seeing.

I've been working on this for days and can't seem to get the media to download to the correct location on MyCloud. What could be the issue?

docker run -d --name tubesync -e PUID=1000 -e PGID=1000 -e TZ=America/Chicago -v /RICKS-MYCLOUD/Channels_Local_Media/YouTube/tubesync-config:/config -v /RICKS-MYCLOUD/Channels_Local_Media/YouTube/tubesync-downloads:/downloads -p4848:4848 Package tubesync · GitHub

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I'm afraid I'm not much help with this issue. I'm no docker expert. I mostly stumble my way through setting things up on docker.

My best guess would be some permissions issue. Maybe tubesync doesn't have write premissions to your Channels_Local_Media directory?

Thanks for the thought. It's really strange. It says it is downloaded but I sure can't find the media that was supposedly downloaded :frowning:

I finally found a perfect use case for Virtual Channels (for me). I like watching / listening to the music videos on the Vevo & MTV channels on Pluto sometimes. If I’m just sitting on the couch it’s easy enough to channel surf between the different channels to avoid the commercials but if I’m busy doing something the commercials get old quick.

So I recorded a bunch from different channels then set my rule to include anything from those channels so now I can watch / listen commercial free.

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Anyway to do the same thing but with 1 episode in a random order?

@PWBNetworks There is a "random" sort option. Which just plays all content selected in a mixed order. Im not sure I understand what you want to do because a mini-marathon plays items in order 3 episodes at a time. Are you asking for shows in order 1 at a time rotating?

Right. 1 episode per series in order so all 7 shows will play an episode at random before rotating back to the series again and repeating but showing a new random episode ie

Family guy s3ep5
Rick and morty s1 ep 7
Etc until coming back to family guy for a different episode

Random would be the closest way to do this but you will end up with some instances of back to back episodes of the same show but they would not be in sequence which is sort of what you want.

I am using this feature with my TV shows and Movies. I have wanted this feature from Plex for years and I'm so happy Channel's has added this option. This has exceeded my expectations and I now have about 30 stations and growing and it feels like they are really playing 24/7 because the guide is constantly updating. It's fantastic how I click on a channel and it starts playing like it's already been on. The smart playlist feature makes everything so much easier to setup just like in the Plex Playlists. The Channel's DVR has been rock solid for years and always works that's why I used it because Plex randomly has issues with their live guide.

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I now have 109 virtual channels! they are by far and away the most watched channels I have, and it's allowing us to watch content we would have otherwise forgotten about. Big fan!

One thing I noticed, is that sometimes I'll have the same thing playing on 2 VC's - commonly this happens with movies. I have enough movies in my library to avoid this, is it possible to make a change to the way the channels schedule to reduce overlaps?

I’m unable to find the comment to quote but I believe @maddox stated VC’s are not supposed to schedule the same content simultaneously on the guide. I also could have imagined this. I think it also depends on the VC setting, as one channel and another could end up on the same content by chance base on their scheduling rules.

yeah I thought I had seen maddox reference that previously too. I do think maybe I've overcooked the number of channels and the multiple scheduling processes might be part of the reason why.