This update modifies the timestamp parsing logic to accommodate various formats, including those using both dash and colon as separators for hours, minutes, and seconds. The changes ensure that timestamps like "HH-MM-SS" and mixed formats such as "HH-MM:SS" are correctly parsed and normalized. Additional tests have been added to validate these new parsing capabilities.
- Updated the catch-up stats UI to advance to the next EPG programme when playback continues past the original programme's end, improving user experience.
- Enhanced the `get_programme_info` function to resolve the guide entry based on the playhead position, ensuring accurate display of the current programme.
- Introduced new utility functions for computing catch-up playback position and checking if the playhead is outside the displayed programme window, optimizing session management.
- Added tests to validate the new functionality and ensure correct behaviour of the catch-up features.
- Introduced an optional `duration` parameter for catch-up sessions, allowing clients to specify the programme length in minutes. This value is preferred over EPG-derived durations and includes a buffer for provider lag.
- Updated the API views and serializers to accept and process the new `duration` field.
- Enhanced the catch-up proxy implementation to utilize the client-supplied duration, improving playback accuracy.
- Added tests to validate the new duration handling and ensure proper integration with existing functionality.
- Improved multi-provider failover by preferring streams with sufficient catch-up days.
- Added new helper functions for calculating programme age and ordering catch-up streams.
- Removed deprecated XMLTV settings from the frontend and backend.
- Updated tests to validate new stream ordering logic and catch-up functionality.
Updated the catch-up timestamp normalization to reflect XC client specifications. Introduced a new mechanism to handle near-EOF duration probes, ensuring that playback statistics are preserved without reanchoring to the end of the file. Additionally, improved the handling of presentation lengths in the timeshift proxy to align with XC behavior. Updated tests to validate these changes and ensure robust playback functionality.
Add end-to-end catch-up support for XC clients and native apps: provider
proxy with failover and per-viewer session pooling, REST session minting
for tokenless playback URLs, catch-up admin stats, combined connection
stats, and Stats UI with dedicated cards plus websocket updates.
Includes Redis namespace consolidation under timeshift:* (dropping legacy
timeshift_ id prefixes), dedicated catch-up stop by session_id, and
cleaner channel/client metadata split for stats keys.
Closes#133
Aligns catch-up with how live and VOD manage provider capacity:
- Reserve a provider profile slot (connection_pool) before every upstream
connect, walking the account's active profiles default-first when the
default is at capacity (profile_full/credential_full are transient and
never mark the account decisive). Credentials for the reserved profile
are resolved via get_transformed_credentials — the same credential
extraction live playback uses — so pool accounting and real upstream
usage always agree. All eligible streams blocked on capacity alone
returns 503 (the VOD pool-exhausted precedent).
- Release exactly once via a one-shot Redis ownership token consumed with
a transactional GET+DEL: the generator finally, the response-close
wrapper, failed failover attempts and session takeover all share it, so
no path can double-decrement and a client disconnecting before the
first chunk still releases (Django registers the iterator's close() as
a resource closer). Failures between reservation and the streaming
response owning the slot release before propagating; an ownership-token
write failure releases directly and reports transient unavailability.
- One catch-up session per user and channel: a new request (programme
jump or seek) displaces the user's previous session on that channel —
its slot is released synchronously, its stats are unregistered, and its
generator is stopped through the standard stop-key mechanism — so rapid
seeking cannot stack upstream provider connections.
- rollup_channel_catchup_fields self-heals channels left flagged
is_catchup with no remaining catch-up stream (outside the
account-scoped CTE), covering bulk removals on manual/multi-provider
channels regardless of how the link rows disappeared. A regression test
locks the ChannelStream post_delete signal firing on queryset bulk
deletes.
Backend test suite grows to 94 (slot reservation/release on every
failover outcome, profile walk, mixed capacity-vs-upstream precedence,
exception-path release, token exactly-once semantics, takeover scoping
and ordering, never-started-generator release, rollup self-heal).
Two coupled fixes that make catch-up play the requested programme:
1. Try the PATH catch-up form (/timeshift/.../{start}/{id}.ts) BEFORE the
timeshift.php query form. Empirical testing showed some XC providers
return the LIVE stream on the query form (HTTP 200, silently ignoring
`start`) — a valid MPEG-TS indistinguishable from a real archive, so the
cascade accepted it and the user always got live content. The PATH form
actually seeks. Candidate ordering now lives in
build_timeshift_candidate_urls() with the full rationale.
2. Strict-UTC XC API surface + single proxy-time timezone conversion:
- xc_get_epg start/end always UTC, server_info.timezone always "UTC",
time_now UTC — the timezone triple is consistently UTC.
- Removed the global default_timezone setting and the
_convert_xmltv_to_local_timezone rewrite entirely.
- The proxy converts the client's UTC timestamp to the SERVING provider's
own zone (server_info.timezone captured on account refresh, read from
the account's default profile) right before building the upstream URL —
DST-correct via ZoneInfo, no-op for UTC/unknown zones. Verified against
a real provider: it interprets the URL timestamp as its LOCAL wall
clock, so pure UTC pass-through seeks 1-2h off.
- EPG duration lookup keeps the ORIGINAL UTC timestamp (programmes are
stored in UTC) — exactly one conversion in the whole chain.
Also per review feedback:
- Removed the debug_logging toggle — verbose timeshift logging now follows
the standard logger DEBUG level (DISPATCHARR_LOG_LEVEL).
- Removed the dead default_language setting (never read anywhere; the EPG
lang field is hardcoded). TIMESHIFT_DEFAULTS is down to
xmltv_prev_days_override, and the Settings UI shows that single field
with accurate help text.
- Validate the timestamp up front (400 on malformed input) instead of
forwarding it verbatim into the upstream URL.
- Redact the upstream URL in the connection-error log (requests exceptions
embed the full URL, which carries XC credentials).
- URL-encode XC credentials in both URL builders.
- Request identity encoding upstream (the TS-sync peek reads raw bytes).
- Poll the stop key on the 5-second heartbeat cadence instead of every 100
chunks (~25 MB), so stream-limit terminations free the provider slot fast.
- New tests: proxy timestamp wiring (converted value reaches the URL
builder, original UTC value reaches the duration lookup), _redact_url,
decisive 3xx break (anti ban), invalid timestamp rejection; deflaked the
format-cache promotion test (django cache persists across runs).
- Channel resolution: resolve by Channel.id first (what the XC API emits
to clients), fall back to provider stream_id for backward compatibility.
Fixes 404 on all timeshift requests from XC clients.
- Stream management: timeshift is now a first-class citizen alongside live
and VOD in the stream-limits system. get_user_active_connections()
detects type='timeshift', attempt_stream_termination() sets a Redis
stop key (same pattern as VOD), and the timeshift view calls
check_user_stream_limits() before connecting upstream. The stream
generator checks the stop key every 100 chunks. Fixes infinite retry
loops on max_connections=1 providers for live→timeshift and
timeshift→timeshift transitions.
- Streaming: replaced HTTPStreamReader thread+pipe with direct
iter_content+yield (same pattern as VOD proxy). The pipe approach
deadlocked under gevent because the reader thread's select() competed
with the greenlet's pipe read for hub scheduling. Throughput went
from ~74 B/s to 13+ MB/s.
- TS preamble: peek now strips pre-sync bytes (PHP warnings, BOM) before
prepending to the stream, preventing corrupt TS output.
- Credential safety: _redact_url() now truncates to scheme://host/...
to avoid leaking XC path-based credentials in logs.
- Tests: updated 5 tests that referenced the removed HTTPStreamReader.
21/21 timeshift tests pass.
- Migration: fixed SyntaxWarning for unescaped regex in 0038.
Adds native catch-up/timeshift replay for Xtream Codes providers through
the same HTTPStreamReader transport pipeline as live TV.
Timeshift proxy (apps/timeshift/):
- URL cascade: 3 candidate timestamp formats per provider, per-account
format cache for fast-forward seek performance
- MPEG-TS preamble stripping (shared with HTTPStreamReader)
- Stats integration: timeshift viewers appear on /stats with TIMESHIFT badge
- Auth via hmac.compare_digest on XC password
Catchup detection — denormalized for zero-cost output queries:
- Stream.is_catchup + Stream.catchup_days populated at XC import time
- Channel.has_catchup + Channel.catchup_days + Channel.catchup_provider_stream_id
rolled up via ChannelStream post_save signal (UI path) and explicit SQL
after bulk_create (import path)
- _xc_channel_entry() reads denormalized fields instead of per-channel
custom_properties JSON introspection (eliminates N+1 queries)
- Migration 0038 backfills existing data via raw SQL
XC API enhancements:
- server_info.timezone + start/end + time_now use configured timezone
(triple consistency rule — fixes wrong-programme-plays bug)
- Dynamic has_archive flag + auto prev_days for catch-up channels
- XMLTV timestamps rewritten to local timezone for catch-up clients
HTTPStreamReader extended (apps/proxy/live_proxy/input/http_streamer.py):
- 1 MB pipe buffer via fcntl F_SETPIPE_SZ (eliminates producer/consumer
ping-pong that halved throughput)
- Pre-opened response= for URL cascade workflows
- strip_ts_preamble= for XC servers emitting PHP warnings before TS
- find_ts_sync() as shared utility
- Builds on upstream O_NONBLOCK + select() write loop
Provider stream_id lookup order:
- stream_xc() and xc_get_epg() try internal Channel.id first, fall back
to provider stream_id only when needed (avoids unconditional query on
every request)
Also includes:
- VOD provider cascade in stream_vod() — iterates all M3U relations by
priority when first provider is at capacity
- Defensive null-safety: custom_sid: None → "" in get_live_streams,
get_vod_streams, get_vod_info, get_series_info (fixes iPlayTV crash on
JSON null for string fields)
- Timeshift settings UI (timezone selector, debug toggle)
- StreamConnectionCard violet TIMESHIFT badge
- Orphan cleanup skips timeshift_* virtual channels
