Summary
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NEW: [SLM] SLM Streams - Watch internet videos inside the Channels DVR internal client player
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MODIFIED: [PLM] Expanded Streaming Stations functionality
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MODIFIED: [PLM] Quality of life and user control improvements
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MODIFIED: [PLM/MTM] Enhancements for 'Update m3u(s) and XML EPG(s)' process
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Other backend and performance updates and fixes as listed below.
NEW: [SLM] SLM Streams - Watch internet videos inside the Channels DVR internal client player
You can now stream static videos from places like YouTube, Twitch, Daily Motion, and plenty more inside the Channels DVR internal client player! Read all about the details in the Wiki:
MODIFIED: [PLM] Expanded Streaming Stations functionality
Streaming Stations now supports more than YouTube, but can do things like Twitch live streams, news station websites, and plenty more! You can read all about in the Wiki:
There may have also been a change related to how latest live videos are handled by YouTube. A modification has been made, as well, to deal with this situation.
MODIFIED: [PLM] Quality of life and user control improvements
PLM has gotten a bit of a facelift and a bone marrow transplant. New and modified functionality includes:
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Parent Stations: Ability to turn off individual parent stations without deleting them. This allows a station to be disabled without having to remove it or make it unfavorited in Channels DVR.
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Child Stations: Can override the 'Stream Format' of a child station. For instance, if you set a playlist as HLS, you can set an individual station in that playlist as MPEG-TS. PLM will correctly parse this out to expected end-result playlists to be consumed by Channels DVR.
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Child Stations: In both assigned and unassigned stations, the second choice of 'Make Parent' has been removed and the remaining button (formerly 'Set Parent') is now 'Save'. This removes redundancy that is taken care of by the Parent column and makes space for other functionality like the Stream Format override highlighted above.
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Filters: Filters are now remembered upon save/add/delete and are cleared upon cancel. This way, for instance, if you save an item, your last selections are still in place. This is also the first step towards possibly addressing request #14.
You can read about many of these changes in the updates Wiki. All together, this resolves #39.
MODIFIED: [PLM/MTM] Enhancements for 'Update m3u(s) and XML EPG(s)' process
The 'Update m3u(s) and XML EPG(s)' process and its related downstream impacts have been updated in a number of ways for enhanced system performance and reliability. This includes:
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The use of the 'temp.txt' file has been deprecated, meaning there is no longer a need for the offset to remove it if it still exists. This should fully eliminate any potential issues that have existed in the past from this methodology.
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Reordered various actions to speed up the process and remove redundancy.
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Created a 'spacer' so that the process does not take over all system resources and make Streaming Library Manager less or non-responsive. Taken together, this might make the overall process slower, but the performance gains far outweigh the tradeoff.
Other Updates and Fixes
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FIXED: [SLM] Bug introduced at some point would cause generated stream link system files to never be removed. This has been corrected, along with various other areas and functions that were impacted by this.
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FIXED: [MTM] Disharmony between SLM 'End-to-End' and 'New & Recent Releases' automation routines has been resolved.
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MODIFIED: [PLM] On main chart, in dark mode, numbers were too light to read. This has been changed per request #42.
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FIXED: [PLM] Some of the generated playlists could have an incorrect/unrecognizable name.
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MODIFIED: [MTM] Reports & Queries is now a dropdown list instead of individual buttons. This is much easier and cleaner to use.
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NEW: [MTM] There is a report to see Movies and Shows by Library Collection in Channels DVR. You can also filter for "No Library Collection" in order to find ones that lack an assignment. This closes out #38.
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MODIFIED: [MTM] Backup process now ignores files in the base backup directory. This resolves an issue (most notably on Mac devices) where startup would fail from because files that did not belong were in the directory.
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MODIFIED: [GEN] 'Help & Resources' now links to the Wiki.
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MODIFIED: [PLM] PLM and Streaming Stations are now on by default for new installations. Further, the default station for PLM has been set to 1000 and for Streaming Stations 2000. Since PLM and Streaming Stations are mature now, it makes sense to have them on from the get go. Of course, it is still possible to disable them at any time.
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NEW: [GEN] There is a 'prerelease' version path for those wanting to test new functionality before they become available to the general public. Read about it here.
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MODIFIED: [GEN] A lot of documentation updates have been made to the Wiki for the ease of finding content and to catch up to the many features listed above.
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MODIFIED: [GEN] Various performance updates, code organization, and other internal considerations.