Virtual Channels per client?

I'm not sure if this is a feature but I have not found it if it is. Is there a possibility of creating Virtual Channels (24/7) but limiting them to certain clients? This would be useful as I can restrict certain channels from certain clients.

Thank you,

Corey

You can make a channel collection and assign it to a specific client via server side settings

You also may want to disable the default/built-in channel collections (which remain when channel collections are used) for the client, since the virtual channels would otherwise still be visible in those collections. Under Choose a Setting to Override > General > Live TV:

  1. All Channels Collection
  2. HD Channels Collection
  3. Favorites Collection (if any "restricted" Virtual Channels are marked as favorite)

Additionally, even when the default/built-in channel collections are disabled for the client, unless
General > Live TV > Quick Guide is set to Current Collection, the "restricted" virtual channels can still be viewed via the Quick Guide. I suspect this is the same for
General > Live TV > Channel Surfing as well.

I'm requesting Virtual Channels. I don't see an option to create a Virtual Channel for a specific client. When going into Server Side Only I see the I can checkbox Channel Collections. I can then see, "Available" and "Selected". But I am unable to choose either. This may be because I do not have Channel Collections set up. Again, I just want to restrict Virtual (24/7 - import) channels.

You would first need to go to Live TV > Channel Collections and create a new collection with the virtual channels you want. Then you can assign that collection to your client under available.

Thanks for the follow up but Miles is correct. Even though I can set one specific client for the Virtual Channel using Channel Collections the content within that channel is still accessible by the other clients. For example, I uploaded a video clip and created a test channel. I then created a channel collection with this test channel. The collection only shows up on my phone (as I set it up) but the content of the channel showed up in the, "HD" preset Channel Collection. I would have to delete, "HD" on every client to restrict them. If it were a movie I would have to delete, "Movie" as well. This is a function of how well you designed the channel collections to aggregate content so it's understandable but hinders this use case.

So I'll ask again as a feature request to restrict Virtual Channels (and their content) to specific clients? It may not be possible (and that's ok) but I would find it useful. And perhaps others would as well.

Awesome service - keeps getting better!

Yes. The solution is that you program EVERY client with Channel Collections, so then you can exclude that channel.

And that's the rub. We find the Movie Collection and Sports Collection useful. Thank you for the response but that is not an ideal solution for us.

Until dynamic rules come to Channel Collections, it is unfortunately an either/or situation.

Same here. Happens often here, new useful and wanted features are added at the expense of useful and wanted features that came “out of the box”.

Fast iterations that happen in this software will cause you to change your workflow often and makes you balance what feature you rather have than having both. It’s one or the other, usually not both.

See BETA: Automatic Channels for Channel Collections - Use rules to pull in channels dynamically

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Amazing! I'll set some up in the coming days and test for bugs. Thank you for the quick response to my query. Amazing service and support!

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I cannot figure this out for some reason. I created two virtual channels:

  • Kids Halloween Movies
  • Adults Halloween Movies

Each is placed in it's own channel collection of the same name.

By default both appear in my livingroom and kid's room clients.

If I go to the kids client and set Server Side Only > Channel Collections with only Kids Halloween Movies selected I still see Adults Halloween Movies channel in the guide. It does change the filters to not include all the default channels, but the channel itself still appears in the guide.