Play video directly from playlist without opening media info page

[godztian]

In the Plex web app, I can start to play the stream directly, by pressing the play icon channel icon (Screenshot attached below)

However, on other apps I cannot do this (iPhone and Apple TV), Then I have to choose the channel to get a new page loaded. Then I can start to play the channel. I would like an option to always start playing the channels, and not opening the new page. I hope this made sense :)

[godztian]

Hi - I just found out there is a IPTVLite bundle as well, which seems to be exactly what I was looking for! :)
https://github.com/Cigaras/IPTVLite.bundle

I'll check it out properly - The only thing missing in this version is the channel logos...

[Cigaras]

I have had very similar issues #15, #66 and #76. The problem is I do now own an Apple device and have no way to debug this, so @godztian if You would be willing to help be a bit, I need to You to make a simple playlist with no logos and no groups, just plain two urls, something like this:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:0,ABC News
http://abclive.abcnews.com/i/abc_live4@136330/index_1200_av-b.m3u8
#EXTINF:0,NDTV
http://bglive-a.bitgravity.com/ndtv/247hi/live/native

And test this playlist in both regular and Lite versions of my plug-in and share the results.

[godztian]

Hi. I will definitely help you anyway I can - but I just left for easter holiday, which means I cant do much for the next week. However, as I said in my first reply here, is that the IPTVLite appear to work as I want.

I have the same playlist both in IPTV and IPTVLite. Ill upload sone screens from my iphone...

[godztian]

[godztian]

Could it be related to the EPG functionality of IPTV, which is not a part of the Lite-version?

[Cigaras]

I attached a Lite version with some fake EPG data and a full version with EPG removed, please test both and share Your results (I tried both in Android and did not find any differences):

IPTVLiteTest.bundle.zip
IPTVTest.bundle.zip

[godztian]

Ive tested both now, and both are "broken" now. Both show that extra screen.. screens attached...

[Cigaras]

I forgot to change the playlist in full IPTV version, please remove the group-title attributes (even better all atributes) and try again.

[godztian]

Just updated, but still the same. See attached screenshots...

[Cigaras]

I made You two more versions to test:

IPTVTest.bundle-2.zip - this one has altmost all VideoClipObjects/MediaObject attributes removed to match the Lite version
IPTVLiteTest.bundle-2.zip - this is Lite version with no EPG but with addition *args parameter to match the full version

[godztian]

I used the included playlists. Lite ia back to working, but full still

have that extra screen...

[Cigaras]

Last idea I have is to get rid of ListItems() procedure as it is absent in Lite version, but even if it does help it wont work with big playlist that require pagination (Lite version would simply time out with a big playlist) so this might be a dead end...

IPTVTest.bundle-3.zip

[godztian]

Then I dont know if this is good orbad news: the extra page still appears!

I have never programmed in Python before, but I've written some in other languages. Ill have a go at the code myself when Im home next weekend and post the results here.

That said Im very happy with the lite version. I think I will continue to use that, and hope you will keep them both up to date :)

Thanks for your effort so far! :)

[godztian]

Just noticed something: Lite version does not sort the channels, so they appear in random (?) order? I habe two channels from the same source, Fox News and CNN. The URL to the HLS-streams have some tags which are connected to the IP or hostname for my router, so these channels only works when Im at home. When I tried to play Fox now, it was not able to do so, and continued to CNN (which does also not work), and then continued to MSNBC, which played fine. I dont think Ive seen this behavior with the full IPTV-version.

Is this behavior possible to achieve with only one listing in the channel list, but multiple links to various HLS streams? This is related to one of my other requests btw!

[Cigaras]

Attached one more version to test, this time removed custom artwork and icons same as in Lite version, the only thing different now is how plug-in reads the playlist file what has nothing to do with Plex GUI.

IPTVTest.bundle-4.zip

However I am starting to suspect that additional screen after choosing the menu item is intended by Plex and should be there, it is Lite version that is having some kind of miscommunication with iOS app because Android app shows extra screen in both Lite and Full versions.

As for Your second comment, Yes, Lite version has no sorting to keep it light, ir lists streams the way it reads them from playlist file. As for non working streams, I do not understand what is the issue, what behaviour is bothering You.

[godztian]

seems you nailed it this time. Now the full version is behavinf the way I would like! :)

[Cigaras]

I have made a new test version to confirm this, it has all the sorting and pagination but no artwork or icons or other metadata:

IPTVTest.bundle-5.zip

But if this is the case, I am not going to strip streams from all the metadata just to be able to play them instantly on iPhone, I would advice to make a suggestion to Plex developers to add an option to iOS client to play an item directly from the list as in most other clients.

[godztian]

Hi again Cigaras,

I've tested IPTVTest.bundle-5.zip now, and it seems like your suspicion is correct. This version works.
I can raise a request with the Plex guys, maybe they are able to do something on their end. Do you have any technical things I can tell them, so they know exactly what is causing this issue?

And until they fix anything, or if they can fix anything, is it possible to have a boolean flag in IPTV, to enable/disable the artwork/icons?

thanks in advance!

[Cigaras]

I am sorry to say that, but in my opinion not showing the extra screen when metadata is missing is the error here and I have very little desire to exploit this error any further because it might require major changes in my code to support both variants and I do not have a device to test it.

Also Plex developers have other important iOS problems to solve (#81) so You might have hard time getting their attention.