Custom Channels Extension

JioTV Go now supports adding custom channel sources that will be visible on both the web dashboard and IPTV clients.

Configuration

To enable custom channels, set the custom_channels_file option in your configuration file or use the JIOTV_CUSTOM_CHANNELS_FILE environment variable.

Via Configuration File

YAML (jiotv-config.yml):

custom_channels_file: "./configs/custom-channels.yml"

JSON (jiotv-config.json):

{
  "custom_channels_file": "./configs/custom-channels.json"
}

Via Environment Variable

export JIOTV_CUSTOM_CHANNELS_FILE="./configs/custom-channels.json"

Performance Considerations

⚠️ WARNING: Adding excessive custom channels may impact performance

Recommended Limit: Keep custom channels under 1000 channels for optimal performance.

Performance Impact of Excessive Channels (>1000):

Slower Operations: Channel listing, filtering, and search operations become noticeably slower
Increased Memory Usage: Higher RAM consumption, especially during startup and operations
Longer Startup Times: Application takes more time to initialize and load channels
UI Responsiveness: Web dashboard may become less responsive with large channel lists
IPTV Client Impact: M3U playlist generation and loading times increase significantly

Best Practices:

Split large channel collections into multiple configuration files if needed
Remove unused or duplicate channels regularly
Consider using channel categories to organize and filter channels effectively
Monitor application logs for performance warnings when loading channels

The application will log warnings when you exceed the recommended limit and provide guidance on potential performance impacts.

Custom Channels File Format

JSON Format

{
  "channels": [
    {
      "id": "custom_news_1",
      "name": "Sample News Channel",
      "url": "https://example.com/news/playlist.m3u8",
      "logo_url": "https://example.com/logos/news.png",
      "category": 12,
      "language": 6,
      "is_hd": true
    },
    {
      "id": "custom_entertainment_1",
      "name": "Sample Entertainment Channel",
      "url": "https://example.com/entertainment/playlist.m3u8",
      "logo_url": "https://example.com/logos/entertainment.png",
      "category": 5,
      "language": 1,
      "is_hd": false
    }
  ]
}

YAML Format

channels:
  - id: custom_news_1
    name: Sample News Channel
    url: https://example.com/news/playlist.m3u8
    logo_url: https://example.com/logos/news.png
    category: 12  # News
    language: 6   # English
    is_hd: true
  - id: custom_entertainment_1
    name: Sample Entertainment Channel
    url: https://example.com/entertainment/playlist.m3u8
    logo_url: https://example.com/logos/entertainment.png
    category: 5   # Entertainment
    language: 1   # Hindi
    is_hd: false

Field Descriptions

id: Unique identifier for the channel (required)
name: Display name of the channel (required)
url: Direct stream URL (M3U8/HLS format recommended) (required)
logo_url: URL to channel logo image (optional)
category: Category ID (see Category IDs below) (required)
language: Language ID (see Language IDs below) (required)
is_hd: Whether the channel is HD quality (boolean) (required)

Language IDs

0: All Languages
1: Hindi
2: Marathi
3: Punjabi
4: Urdu
5: Bengali
6: English
7: Malayalam
8: Tamil
9: Gujarati
10: Odia
11: Telugu
12: Bhojpuri
13: Kannada
14: Assamese
15: Nepali
16: French
18: Other

Features

Web Dashboard Integration: Custom channels appear alongside JioTV channels in the web interface
IPTV M3U Support: Custom channels are included in generated M3U playlists
Filtering Support: Custom channels work with language and category filters
Live Streaming: Direct streaming support for custom channel URLs
Error Handling: Graceful handling of missing or invalid custom channels files

Usage Examples

Add a custom news channel:

{
  "id": "my_news_channel", 
  "name": "My News Channel",
  "url": "https://streaming.example.com/news.m3u8",
  "category": 12,
  "language": 6,
  "is_hd": true
}

Access via web interface: Navigate to http://localhost:5001 and your custom channels will appear in the channel list
Access via IPTV: Use http://localhost:5001/playlist.m3u to get an M3U playlist including custom channels
Direct stream access: http://localhost:5001/live/my_news_channel.m3u8

Notes

Custom channels are loaded at startup. Restart the server after modifying the custom channels file
Only M3U8/HLS URLs are recommended for streaming compatibility
Ensure custom channel IDs are unique and don't conflict with existing JioTV channel IDs
If the custom channels file is not found or contains errors, the server will continue to work with only JioTV channels

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