Usage ‐ PLM ‐ Regular Activity ‐ m3u(s) and XML EPG(s) - babsonnexus/stream-link-manager-for-channels GitHub Wiki

At any time, on the Final Playlists page, you can click the Update m3u(s) and XML EPG(s). This is the process that will parse through all of these parent-child assignments and create the playlists and guide links that you will load into Channels DVR or other tools. It should be noted that when PLM processes a station, if a certain field does not have a value in the higher priority playlist, it will take that field from a lower priority one. For instance, if your preferred playlist does not have a "description", but a lower priority one does, it will get that "description" and make it available in the final output.

As before, this process can be automated and is discussed later. At this point, though, you will now have fully active m3u and EPG files that you can integrate. The links will be visible in this section of the page:

"Gracenote" m3u files do not have XML EPG data because the guide information comes from the loaded Gracenote ID. On the other hand, all the "Non-Gracenote" m3u(s) do require their own corresponding XML EPG. Either way, each is split between "HLS", "MPEG-TS", and "STRMLNK" options since those are interpreted by Channels DVR differently. Also, depending on circumstances described below, you may end up with multiple of these lists.

From this point, you could directly load these playlists into Channels DVR with a click of a single button.

This is true for all Playlist Manager final result playlists and guide data:

Clicking on any of these active buttons will result in completely filled in 'Custom Channels' being added to Channels DVR.

For Gracenote or ones without guide data, they may look something like this:

If the playlist is associated with guide data, that will be set, too, and be made to refresh hourly:

Being that these are normal 'Custom Stations', you are free to update them from there. Accidentally clicking the button again will not result in two sources, but the same source being reset to default. HLS, MPEG-TS, and STRMLNK all function exactly the same.

For Non-Channels DVR users, they will just see disabled buttons:

For now, this is a Channels DVR only function, but the code is built to allow the same function for other tools in the future.

At this point, you have everything you need and can continue using PLM as a regular function. However, there are several settings and automated routines to consider before proceeding.