Help

Quick reference for the admin UI, common terms, and source-specific notes.

Quick Start

  • Use Sources to enable providers, configure credentials, and run scrapes.
  • Use Channels to enable, disable, inspect, and resolve duplicates.
  • Use Feeds to build named M3U + EPG outputs for your players.
  • Use Settings to configure your server URL and Channels DVR address.

Links

Channel Terms

  • Active: channel still exists upstream (set by scraper).
  • Enabled: channel is included in your M3U / EPG output (set by you).
  • DRM: stream is protected — not playable in generic IPTV clients.
  • Dead: stream audit found this channel is not currently playable.

Feeds

  • The built-in Default feed includes all enabled channels.
  • Create custom feeds to filter by source, category, language, or a hand-picked channel list.
  • Each feed has its own stable /feeds/<slug>/m3u and /epg.xml — cached for fast delivery.
  • Set Channel Number Start on a feed to number channels sequentially from a given number.
  • /m3u/gracenote feed variants are for Channels DVR guide matching via Gracenote.
  • Add to Channels DVR registers the feed directly in your DVR. Configure the DVR URL in Settings first.

Duplicates Helper

  • Finds channels with the same name across multiple sources.
  • Healthy channels are preferred over DRM, Dead, or inactive ones.
  • Source priority breaks ties between equally healthy matches.
  • If every duplicate is unhealthy, the whole group is disabled.

Inspect & Stream Audit

  • Inspect tests a single channel's full resolve path — identifies dead manifests, VOD-only streams, DRM, and resolver failures. Also shows stream variant stats (resolution, bitrate, codecs).
  • Stream Audit health-checks every channel for a source in bulk and marks dead/DRM channels inactive automatically.

Gracenote

  • Gracenote IDs link channels to Channels DVR's guide database for rich EPG matching.
  • Auto: scrapers fill IDs automatically when available (e.g. Pluto's native station IDs). Controlled by the toggle in Settings.
  • Manual: you set the ID — it is never overwritten by a scrape. Use the Gracenote Helper popup on any channel row in Channels.
  • Community Map: curated CSV mappings for sources that don't expose native IDs.
  • Set mode to Off on a channel to exclude it from Gracenote routing entirely.

Source Notes

  • Roku: some channels expose sparse future guide data; short EPG windows are expected.
  • Sling Freestream: guide data works, but streams are DRM-only for generic IPTV clients.
  • Amazon Prime Free: excluded from M3U output by default. Without cookie auth, channel discovery is limited.
  • Samsung TV Plus: EPG covers approximately the current day. Region is configurable in source settings.
  • Pluto TV: session pool size is configurable in source settings if you have many concurrent viewers.

Reports

  • Channel Changes BETA — inferred "New", "Now Inactive", and "At Risk" channels from data FastChannels already stores.

Community Gracenote Map

Channels with curated community IDs. Applying sets the channel to Manual mode — it won't be overwritten by future scrapes.

Status legend
AppliedCommunity tmsid is already the active ID on this channel
AvailableNo Gracenote ID set, in auto mode — community tmsid can be applied
Has native IDChannel is in auto mode with a scraped ID that doesn't match the community tmsid
ManualChannel is in manual mode with a different tmsid than the community one
OffGracenote is disabled for this channel entirely
ChannelSourceIDStatus
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