LiveTV requests -> Edit channel lists and Favourites view in HomeScreen

[DarkStar1977 119]

Hi Emby Team.

1.- While in the US is so common that you have LiveTV providers that "sell" their service, in Europe is more common that LiveTV is used with free services, so you end up looking for iptv databases from different sources to be added to emby.

As a result, you may add sources from different IPTV lists that contains repeated channels.

Example:

Source 1 contains: TvChannel 1, TvChannel 2, TvChannel 3, TvChannel 4

Source 2 contains: TvChannel 4, TvChannel 5, TvChannel 6, TvChannel 7

Once those are added to emby LiveTV, you have 2 "TvChannel 4".

I would like to request:

The ability to remove a Channel -> This will make possible to remove duplicate or non-working channels and will avoid that "Refresh Channel task" will downlad the guide for this channel twice.

 2,- In HomeScreen View today you can only see:

I would like to have the ability to see only channels marked as "Favourites".

Thanks in advance.

 

[Luke 42077]

Quote

The ability to remove a Channel

hi, you can do this in live tv setup, in the channels tab.

[DarkStar1977 119]

3 hours ago, Luke said:

hi, you can do this in live tv setup, in the channels tab.

No, I can't

There's no Delete option.

[Carlo 4560]

9 hours ago, DarkStar1977 said:

No, I can't

There's no Delete option.

Click on the green circle to the left of the channel.
That determines if the channel is used or not.

[DarkStar1977 119]

Just now, Carlo said:

Click on the green circle to the left of the channel.
That determines if the channel is used or not.

Thanks, very aligned with the rest of the interface ... XD

In any case is not what I'm requesting, I want to remove it from the channel list.

[Carlo 4560]

Emby is always going to show you the channels it has imported in that list.

However, for your potential use, you may want to try testing this:
Edit a channel's metadata and add a tag such as HIDE and then save it.

Now go to users, select yourself as a test and go to the Parental Control tab.
Set it to look like this and save it.

You should no longer see this channel in general use of Emby.
Once satisfied, add the parental restriction to each user on the system and no one will see it.

You can pretty much use the HIDE tag anywhere on the system to hide things.

[DarkStar1977 119]

On 4/4/2025 at 5:53 PM, Carlo said:

Emby is always going to show you the channels it has imported in that list.

However, for your potential use, you may want to try testing this:
Edit a channel's metadata and add a tag such as HIDE and then save it.

Now go to users, select yourself as a test and go to the Parental Control tab.
Set it to look like this and save it.

You should no longer see this channel in general use of Emby.
Once satisfied, add the parental restriction to each user on the system and no one will see it.

You can pretty much use the HIDE tag anywhere on the system to hide things.

Guys, you always do the same: Someone request a feature based on a simple example on why is requesting this and you provide a what you believe is a workaround because you only see the simple example provided.

If I request a "delete" is because I need a delete not a way to go channel by channel flagging it with a HIDE tag.

I have those tv sources:

That provide around 14.000 channels

and 3rd of them are duplicated or not working because are geo-blocked.

I want to delete it one by one once imported with a simple "Delete button", not going one by one, editing the metadata, and putting a tag to not seeing it.

Said that, no one answered to my 2nd request:

2,- In HomeScreen View today you can only see:

I would like to have the ability to see only channels marked as "Favourites".

Thanks.

[Carlo 4560]

After seeing your setup, I can understand your needs much better, so thank you for that.
What you asked for specifically, isn't currently possible in Emby.

I don't remember exactly how TVNext handles deleted channels but I do know a couple of other features built in could be super helpful for you.
TVNext has better control over channel import using filtering functionality.
TVNext can automatically (and manually) stack channels so if you had 7 versions of CNN they would all be stacked sources of the same channel with only one CNN channel  showing up in normal use.
During input (loading) of channels, TVNext will test each channel to make sure it works as well as gather basic meta-data for the channel e.g. resolution, bitrate, latency that is used to enhance LiveTV performance.

I'm not implying TVNext will solve your LiveTV channel issues, but it will go a long way, making your channel easier and manageable.

Regardless of using the current LiveTV or the upcoming TVNext version, you may want to try a couple different M3U/M3U8 playlist editors such as M3U4U, IPTVEditor or IPTVBoss.
These are dedicated IPTV channel management tools that can help you eliminate channels in bulk (e.g. country, language, group) from playlists making each list far easier to work with. They can also do mass search/replace of channel names, rename or create groups, sort channels in each group, etc  Once setup, they can process your playlists daily.

[DarkStar1977 119]

6 minutes ago, Carlo said:

What you asked for specifically, isn't currently possible in Emby.

I know that's the reason why this is called "Request" you may call it  RFE ...

7 minutes ago, Carlo said:

TVNext has better control over channel import using filtering functionality.

I cannot find anything on emby, including plugins called TVNext, I've searched in Google and nothing related appears ....

8 minutes ago, Carlo said:

Regardless of using the current LiveTV or the upcoming TVNext version, you may want to try a couple different M3U/M3U8 playlist editors such as M3U4U, IPTVEditor or IPTVBoss.

Yeah, that's a great suggestion if you know what are the duplicated or non-working channels before import, but you don't until those are imported in emby.

So suggesting once imported 7 sources, going manually compare one by one edit the playlist one by one and then delete the imported channels and reimport a new playlist, will take me up to year 2035.

So. please consider adding a "delete" button for upcoming releases.

Thanks.

[pwhodges 2012]

3 hours ago, DarkStar1977 said:

I cannot find anything on emby, including plugins called TVNext, I've searched in Google and nothing related appears ....

TVNext is a newly written replacement for the live TV functionality in Emby.  It was completed as a functional draft several years ago, but has been slow to get added in to Emby.  Emby staff are now committed to adding it to the next beta (4.10).

Developers and testers during alpha-testing reported dramatic improvements in many areas of TV operation, which has led to frustration that it is taking so long to be made available:

Paul

[DarkStar1977 119]

17 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

TVNext is a newly written replacement for the live TV functionality in Emby.  It was completed as a functional draft several years ago, but has been slow to get added in to Emby.  Emby staff are now committed to adding it to the next beta (4.10).

Developers and testers during alpha-testing reported dramatic improvements in many areas of TV operation, which has led to frustration that it is taking so long to be made available:

Paul

WoW, looked at the document and seems impressive.

If had this 2 additional features will be even better

- Delete channels

- Export Channels into m3u list.

[Carlo 4560]

13 hours ago, DarkStar1977 said:

I know that's the reason why this is called "Request" you may call it  RFE ...

I cannot find anything on emby, including plugins called TVNext, I've searched in Google and nothing related appears ....

Yeah, that's a great suggestion if you know what are the duplicated or non-working channels before import, but you don't until those are imported in emby.

So suggesting once imported 7 sources, going manually compare one by one edit the playlist one by one and then delete the imported channels and reimport a new playlist, will take me up to year 2035.

So. please consider adding a "delete" button for upcoming releases.

Thanks.

If it were me, I'd load each m3u and bulk edit channels not wanted, such as languages other than English. Or perhaps the channels are listed by country  and I can remove everything but the USA. I'd then remove all the local CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, PBS, CW channels not in my local area. I then remove sports channels I don't use or out of season (add them back when the season starts).  I normally remove 24/7 channels, PPV except the first 5 (depends on provider use) and all VOD movies and shows.  This will normally get me down to 200 or 300 channels that will get used.  I could load the resulting m3u file in any IPTV player or VLC and test each channel. Any channel that doesn't play can be deleted.

After I've done each playlist like this I can combine the playlists into a "master playlist". I'd adjust my groups, sort my channels, search/replace channel names, sort again, etc I might have 4 or 5 dupes of my local channels. I'll test each channel for load speed and quality, keeping the best and "deleting" the rest. Some lists might be SD only so I won't even test them unless there is no HD or better version.  It doesn't take long to do this once you get into a rhythm.  Then once you have your set of channels, you can edit logos, set channel numbers, edit station names, etc 

Besides editing the m3u playlists, you can add provider guide info that can be exported with your channels so you won't be importing tons of data that isn't useful.

You now have a great set of managed channels and guide info to load in Emby.

I think you'll find this or a variation, is how most people handle this type of thing, because its generally the easiest way.

[Apotropaic 41]

Hi @DarkStar1977if you’re using M3U playlist files then the following plugin may be of interest, apologies if you’re not.

With this plugin you can pull in a M3U playlist on a schedule from a local file or from the internet, configure it to ignore particular groups or channels based on strings and then export the result out as another M3U file for Live TV and/or VOD. You can even run a post processing script to remove/edit things further if you need.
The author @mickle026is actively developing the plugin so may be able to incorporate a de-duplication feature or whatever else you can think of.

[Luke 42077]

On 4/21/2025 at 10:20 AM, DarkStar1977 said:

Guys, you always do the same: Someone request a feature based on a simple example on why is requesting this and you provide a what you believe is a workaround because you only see the simple example provided.

If I request a "delete" is because I need a delete not a way to go channel by channel flagging it with a HIDE tag.

I have those tv sources:

That provide around 14.000 channels

and 3rd of them are duplicated or not working because are geo-blocked.

I want to delete it one by one once imported with a simple "Delete button", not going one by one, editing the metadata, and putting a tag to not seeing it.

Said that, no one answered to my 2nd request:

2,- In HomeScreen View today you can only see:

I would like to have the ability to see only channels marked as "Favourites".

Thanks.

HI, did you try simply unchecking it from live tv channel management?

[DarkStar1977 119]

7 hours ago, Luke said:

HI, did you try simply unchecking it from live tv channel management?

Yes and it's very complicated to handle it this way.

You may first go to a channel, check if it works or it's duplicated.

Then you must go to channel management and look for it, but the ordering is based on imported m3u filles tthis means that you may manually look for it over 14.000 channels because there are only filter options based on the guide, not even an option to sort them by channel number or name,  and then once u've found it, uncheck it.

As you can imagine takes so much long time, that's why I want a "delete" button, if the channel is duplicated or does not work (geo-blocked), right click -> Delete from the channel directly.

[Luke 42077]

OK we'll look at improving this. Thanks for the feedback.