Release v1.0.0

[v1.0.0] - 2026-05-23

Initial public release of RetroStation MC.

RetroStation MC is a proof-of-concept TV station / master-control style application that renders a retro electronic program guide into an HLS video stream. It is designed to work alongside RetroIPTVGuide or other IPTV clients by exposing M3U and XMLTV-compatible outputs.

Added

• Flask-based web application for RetroStation MC.
• Browser-based admin dashboard.
• Admin preview player using HLS playback.
• SQLite-backed configuration database.
• SQLite-backed application event log.
• M3U playlist parser for channel metadata.
• XMLTV parser for programme metadata.
• Normalized guide state generation through guide_state.json.
• Pillow-based headless guide renderer.
• FFmpeg-based HLS encoding pipeline.
• HLS master playlist endpoint.
• Standby video playlist handling.
• Live guide playlist handling.
• Backward-compatible /hls/guide.m3u8 endpoint.
• Stream versioning for standby/live transitions.
• Single-channel M3U output endpoint.
• Single-channel XMLTV output endpoint.
• Background music upload support.
• Background music selection and enablement controls.
• Silent AAC fallback audio generation when no background audio is selected.
• Configurable diagnostics and HLS buffering settings.
• Log export in JSONL format.
• Log export in CSV format.
• Bundled sample M3U playlist data.
• Bundled sample XMLTV guide data.
• Bundled JSON-based visual themes.
• Dockerfile for container builds.
• Docker Compose example for local deployment.
• Project documentation set covering installation, configuration, architecture, API behavior, troubleshooting, and development workflow.

Changed

• Establishes RetroStation MC as the project name for the station-control / guide-rendering application.
• Establishes v1.0.0 as the baseline release for future documentation, issue tracking, and version comparison.

Known Issues

• No built-in authentication is included in v1.0.0.
• The application should be deployed on a trusted local network or behind external access controls.
• The renderer is implemented in Python/Pillow as a validation-oriented implementation and may be replaced or optimized in later releases.
• HLS timing and live-edge behavior may require tuning depending on host performance, FFmpeg behavior, browser buffering, and client playback behavior.
• Standby/live switching depends on playlist state, segment generation, and client refresh behavior.

Security

• v1.0.0 should not be exposed directly to the public internet.
• Operators should place the application behind a reverse proxy, VPN, authentication layer, or trusted LAN boundary if remote access is required.