171 lines
9.3 KiB
Markdown
171 lines
9.3 KiB
Markdown
# Channel Architecture
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## Channel Entity
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Defined in `ErsatzTV.Core/Domain/Channel.cs`. Key fields:
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- **Identity**: `Number` (e.g., "1", "2.1"), `Name`, `UniqueId` (GUID for M3U/XMLTV)
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- **Encoding**: `FFmpegProfileId` — video/audio codec, bitrate, resolution, hardware acceleration
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- **Streaming**: `StreamingMode` (TransportStream, HLS Direct, HLS Segmenter, TS Hybrid)
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- **Behavior**: `PlayoutMode` (Continuous vs OnDemand), `IdleBehavior` (StopOnDisconnect vs KeepRunning)
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- **Visual**: `WatermarkId`, `FallbackFillerId`, artwork (logos)
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- **Mirroring**: `PlayoutSource` (Generated vs Mirror) — a mirror channel copies another with optional time offset
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- **Display**: `Group`, `Categories`, `ShowInEpg`, `IsEnabled`
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- **Audio/Subtitle defaults**: preferred language codes, subtitle mode
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## Content Sources
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Channels get content through a **Playout** → **ProgramSchedule** → **ProgramScheduleItem** chain.
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### Collection Types
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| Type | Description |
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|------|-------------|
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| `Collection` | Manual grouping of media items with custom playback order |
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| `MultiCollection` | Aggregate of collections + smart collections |
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| `SmartCollection` | Query-based (Lucene.Net) dynamic filtering |
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| `Playlist` | Ordered items with per-item config (count, fillers, playback order) |
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| `TelevisionShow` / `TelevisionSeason` | Structured TV hierarchy |
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| `Movie`, `Episode`, `MusicVideo`, `OtherVideo`, `Song`, `Image` | Individual media items |
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| `RerunCollection` | Wraps any collection with separate first-run/rerun playback orders |
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| `SearchQuery` | Dynamic results from a search |
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| `RemoteStream` | External stream URLs |
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### Media Sources
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Media items are imported from configured libraries (Jellyfin, Plex, Emby, or local filesystem). Each source type has its own entity variants (e.g., `JellyfinMovie`, `PlexEpisode`).
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## Scheduling
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### Schedule Kinds
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- **Classic**: Traditional ProgramSchedule with items — the most common
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- **Block**: Template-based block scheduling
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- **Sequential**: Strict sequential ordering
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- **Scripted**: External script-driven playout
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- **ExternalJson**: Playout defined by external JSON file
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### Schedule Item Types
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Each `ProgramScheduleItem` is one of four concrete types:
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1. **One** — Play exactly 1 item per cycle
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2. **Multiple** — Play N items (fixed count, collection size, or playlist item size)
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3. **Duration** — Fill a time window (with tail mode: none, offline, slate, or filler)
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4. **Flood** — Play items continuously until the next fixed-start item
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Items can have `StartType` of Fixed (anchored to clock time) or Dynamic (follows previous item).
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### Playback Orders
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`Chronological`, `Random`, `Shuffle`, `ShuffleInOrder`, `MultiEpisodeShuffle`, `SeasonEpisode`, `RandomRotation`, `Marathon` (group by show/season/artist/album/director).
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### Filler System
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`FillerPreset` defines content to fill gaps. Each schedule item can have:
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- **PreRoll** — before main content
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- **MidRoll** — during (chapter breaks)
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- **PostRoll** — after main content
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- **Tail** — pad remaining time in a duration block
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- **Fallback** — channel-level default when nothing else available
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Filler modes: Duration, Count, Pad (to nearest minute), RandomCount.
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### Alternate Schedules
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`ProgramScheduleAlternate` overrides the main schedule for specific days of week, days of month, months of year, or date ranges. Useful for seasonal programming or weekend variations.
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The date predicate itself is `IAlternateScheduleItem` (`ErsatzTV.Core/Domain/Scheduling/`), implemented by
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`ProgramScheduleAlternate` (classic playouts) and `PlayoutTemplate` (block playouts). Both are evaluated by
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`AlternateScheduleSelector.GetScheduleForDate`: rows are tested in `Index` order, **first match wins**, and
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the broadest/unconditional row placed **last** acts as the catch-all default. `DaysOfWeek`, `DaysOfMonth`
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and `MonthsOfYear` are ANDed with the date range, so a row only matches when *every* condition holds.
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### Recipe: seasonal / holiday programming
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Date-conditional scheduling is fully supported — there is no need to hand-build it seasonally. The
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mechanism is named "Alternate Schedules" (classic) / "Playout Templates" (block), which is why it isn't
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obvious if you go looking for "seasonal".
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**Classic playout — a December holiday channel:**
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1. Build the seasonal schedule at `/app/schedules` (clone your normal one, swap in the holiday content).
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2. Go to `/app/playouts/{id}/alternate-schedules`.
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3. Add a row pointing at the seasonal schedule; tick **Limit to date range**; set start `12/1`, end `12/31`.
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4. **Leave the start/end year fields empty** — see the gotcha below; this is what makes it recur.
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5. Add (or keep) a row for your normal schedule with no conditions, ordered **last** — the catch-all for the
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other eleven months.
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**Block playout — same idea, plus holiday branding:**
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1. Build the seasonal `Template` at `/app/templates` (a day-grid of `Block`s).
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2. Go to `/app/playouts/{id}/templates`, add a date-limited `PlayoutTemplate` row for it (same
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date-range fields, same empty-years rule, same catch-all-last ordering).
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3. Optionally set that row's **DecoTemplate** for seasonal watermarks/filler — one `PlayoutTemplate` row
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carries both a `Template` and an optional `DecoTemplate`, so branding is date-gated along with content.
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**Gotchas** (all enforced in `AlternateScheduleSelector.cs:32-40`):
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- **Empty years = repeats every year.** Years default to the *queried date's* year, so `12/1 → 12/31` with
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blank years fires every December, forever. Set explicit years only for a genuine one-off window.
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- **It's both years or neither.** The explicit-year branch requires `StartYear` **and** `EndYear` to be set.
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Filling in only one silently falls back to the yearly-repeat behaviour.
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- **Wrap-around ranges work — but only with blank years.** `11/1 → 2/1` correctly spans the new year. Setting
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explicit years disables wrap detection (`reverse = false`), turning the range into a plain start→end window.
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- **Invalid dates are clamped, not rejected.** A start of `2/31` rolls to the 1st of the next month; an end of
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`2/31` reduces to the last day of February (leap-year aware).
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- **Decos have no dates of their own.** `DecoTemplateItem.StartTime`/`EndTime` are *time-of-day*. Date-gate a
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deco via the `PlayoutTemplate` row that carries its `DecoTemplateId`; a playout's default `Playout.DecoId`
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is deliberately never date-gated (it's the fallback).
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Not supported: *soft* prioritization ("prefer collection X in December" without swapping the schedule).
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Selection is binary first-match-wins — see `decisions.md` 2026-07-17 (#73) and the weighting work in #70.
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## Playout Pipeline
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```
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Channel
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└── Playout
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├── ProgramSchedule
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│ └── ProgramScheduleItems (One|Multiple|Duration|Flood)
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│ └── Content source (Collection, Playlist, SmartCollection, etc.)
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├── PlayoutItems (generated — the actual timeline)
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│ └── MediaItem + start/finish times + filler kind + watermarks
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├── PlayoutGaps (time periods with no content)
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└── ProgramScheduleAlternates (day/date overrides)
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```
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The scheduling engine (`ErsatzTV.Core/Scheduling/`) resolves schedule items into concrete `PlayoutItem` entries with precise start/finish times. Each `PlayoutItem` references a specific `MediaItem` and includes trim points (`InPoint`/`OutPoint`), filler classification, and per-item audio/subtitle overrides.
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## Watermarks
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`ChannelWatermark` supports modes: Permanent, Intermittent, OpacityExpression. Image sources: custom
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upload, channel logo, or built-in resource. Positioned with percentage-based margins and z-index.
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A watermark is a **shared, named entity** (unique `Name`), referenced by playout items, schedule
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items, block items and decos; a channel points at one via `Channel.WatermarkId`. It is not
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per-channel state.
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`DbInitializer` seeds one shared preset named **`Channel Bug`** (`ImageSource = ChannelLogo`,
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Permanent, TopLeft, Scaled 5% width, 1%/1% margins, 80% opacity). Because `ChannelLogo` resolves
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each channel's own `ArtworkKind.Logo` artwork at render time, this single row makes every channel
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that points at it use its own logo as its on-screen bug — one uploaded image drives both the guide
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listing and the bug (#67). An existing `Channel Bug` row is adopted untouched, never overwritten, and
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a `ConfigElement` marker (`watermark.channel_bug_seeded`) makes the seed run once per database, so a
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deliberately deleted preset is not resurrected on the next restart.
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Quick-add channel creation defaults to the preset, and the channel editor's Branding tab exposes it
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as a "Use logo as on-screen bug" toggle. On a **fresh** install the seed also stamps the preset onto
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the system channel templates it creates, so the library-to-lineup builder (which inherits
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`WatermarkId` from the selected template) gets the default too. On an existing install the templates
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are left alone, so builder-created and auto-tuned channels there inherit whatever the template
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already specifies.
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**Limitation:** a logo set via **External logo URL** cannot drive the bug. `WatermarkSelector`
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resolves it to the URL and then `File.Exists`-checks it, which is never true, so the watermark is
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silently dropped — the URL wins for the guide listing but disables the on-screen bug. Tracked as
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**#502**; the editor does not offer a bug preview in that case.
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Note: `ChannelLogoGenerator.GenerateChannelLogoUrl()` hardcodes `localhost` for watermark logo
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fetching — see issue #1 for details.
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