FastChannels 5.6.0

✨ New

• Custom playlists (#21): add your own M3U playlist, optionally with its XMLTV guide, from Sources → Custom Sources → + Add Playlist. Each playlist is its own source, so channel numbers, categories, review, Gracenote IDs, the enable switch and feed filters work as they do for built-in sources. Check playlist previews channels, groups and guide coverage before importing, and you can untick groups you don't want.
  • Channels the guide doesn't cover get placeholder guide blocks, using Channels DVR's tvc-guide-title / -description / -art / -placeholders hints. A per-playlist Fill missing guide data toggle turns them off.
  • Per-group rules for channels that drop out of the playlist: Linear groups disable a missing channel after 1–30 missed imports; Event groups hide a missing channel immediately and delete it after 1–30 misses. Pinned channels are exempt, and an import that suddenly loses most of the playlist changes nothing.
  • Pausing a playlist keeps its channels and edits; Delete playlist removes it completely.
  • FastChannels never connects to playlist streams itself, so playlists have no Stream Audit. Streams that need a User-Agent/Referer are imported, but those headers aren't sent yet. See docs/custom-playlists.md.
• ESPN+ event channels: the ESPN source can add ESPN+, ACC Extra and SEC Plus events from the next 48 hours as temporary channels with guide data. Opt in per service on the ESPN card.
  • Pick all sports (including ones ESPN adds later) or only the ones you pick, down to individual leagues: one checkbox per sport, expandable to leagues, with a live count of matching events. Optionally hide studio shows and uncategorized programmes.
  • An event channel retires two hours after its scheduled end, which leaves room for overtime, and is deleted a day later. Events ESPN drops from its schedule, or that your filter excludes, leave the output right away.
• Event channels everywhere: event channels (ESPN and playlist Event groups) have a calendar icon on the Channels and Guide pages, and Channels, Guide and feeds have an Events filter (events only / no events). A channel you disable yourself stays disabled; only events FastChannels hid on its own come back.
• Mixed guide mode (Beta): each feed has a Guide Mode. Mixed puts the feed's XMLTV and Gracenote channels in one playlist (/feeds/<slug>/m3u/mixed), so Channels DVR needs one source instead of two. Requires Channels DVR 2026.08.25+; older or stable-track servers get a warning you can confirm past. Switching doesn't renumber channels, and Add to Channels DVR offers to remove the leftover Gracenote source. PrismCast, Android Bridge and ah4c bridge playlists get mixed variants too.
• Add whole feed as one source (Beta, ah4c): for a mixed feed, one Channels DVR source carries the feed's regular channels and its ah4c-bridged DRM channels. Each channel is routed when tuned (/play/auto/…), so its URL doesn't change if it starts or stops needing the bridge.
• Add Native to Channels DVR: registers a feed's native output, every channel on FastChannels' scraped guide, as its own source.
• DirecTV Stream: sign in with a code: approve a link in your own browser; no password is stored. Email/password still works and is the fallback. Sessions of both kinds now renew from their refresh token instead of a full login every 75 minutes. Sign-in protocol worked out by mackid1993, thanks!
• TV Everywhere: separate sign-in per source: NBC, FOX, Warner, A+E, AMC and Discovery can each use a different TV provider than the shared one. Choose A different sign-in, just for this source on the source's card; its networks sign in one after another by phone link.
• TCM added to Warner Bros Discovery TVE.
• Amazon Prime Free in HD on FastChannels Player: up to 1080p, previously capped at 576p. Browser playback stays SD (Amazon only grants HD keys to hardware-secured devices).
• Feeds: new feeds get a free block of channel numbers so they can't shift existing feeds, and the Order tab warns when newly matched channels break your sort.

🔧 Fixes

• Fresh installs losing Gracenote IDs (#70): on a new install the settings row wasn't created in time, so two old one-time migrations ran again on the first restart and cleared every community-mapped Gracenote ID. Fixed, and those two migrations are retired.
• Re-adding a feed to Channels DVR now keeps the source's existing settings (e.g. a stream limit you set in the DVR) and tells the DVR to re-read the playlist.
• Channel number locks: a lock now always beats a number remembered from before, lock changes update feed number pools right away, and Lock All refuses numbers that clash with another feed.
• ESPN events: evening games no longer drop out of the lineup at midnight UTC (8 PM Eastern), and overtime is no longer cut short when a scrape runs during the two-hour grace.
• Event marker: a playlist group or tag literally named "event" no longer turns ordinary channels into event channels.
• TV Everywhere: channels switched off as "not authorized" come back when a sign-in for that network succeeds, not merely when the login changes.
• FOX One: a failed guide page is retried, and one bad page no longer fails the whole scrape.
• Tubi: the login token is reused between scrapes (it lasts 14 days) instead of a full sign-in every time.
• Roku: dated 24-hour guide fetches with a staggered refresh.
• Frndly TV: channels outside your plan are marked not authorized by the stream audit (and return if your plan changes), and an API error no longer forces a new sign-in.
• Logs: quieter access logs for successful polls, previews and license requests; signed URLs and account emails are masked.

⬆️ Upgrading

No manual steps: pull the new image/tag. New database columns are added automatically on first boot, and existing feed output is unchanged.

docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

(If you build from source instead: git pull && docker compose up -d --build.)

FastChannels Player is unchanged at 5.2.10. If your devices are already on 5.2.10 there's nothing to update. If not, open Bridge → FastChannels Player devices and click Update to 5.2.10 per device, or Update all.