ErsatzTV Documentation

To set up your own live TV experience with ErsatzTV, follow these steps:

1. Install ErsatzTV: Download and set up the server on your system.
2. Add Your Media: Connect your media libraries and collections.
3. Create Channels: Design and schedule your own live channels.
4. Stream Anywhere: Watch on any device using IPTV and EPG support.

ErsatzTV uses custom templates to generate XMLTV fragments for different media types. These templates must be placed in the ChannelGuideTemplatesFolder of your file system layout. The system looks for specific .sbntxt files to render data for various content types.

Required template filenames:

• movie.sbntxt (for Movies)
• episode.sbntxt (for Episodes)
• musicVideo.sbntxt (for Music Videos)
• song.sbntxt (for Songs)
• otherVideo.sbntxt (for Other Video types)
• remoteStream.sbntxt (for Remote Streams)

If these files are missing, the system will log an error and fail to generate the corresponding XMLTV fragments. Ensure these files exist in your custom templates directory and restart ErsatzTV if you add them after startup.

The XMLTV generation process is controlled by several configuration keys via the IConfigElementRepository:

XmltvBlockBehavior options:

• SplitTimeEvenly: Divides the total block duration equally among the items in the group.
• UseActualTimes: Uses the actual start and finish times of the items.

When attempting to update FFmpeg settings, the following errors may be returned if the tool paths are invalid:

• ffmpeg path does not exist: The path provided for the FFmpeg executable is not found on the file system.
• Unable to verify ffmpeg version: The FFmpeg executable exists but failed to return a valid version string when run with the -version argument.
• ffprobe path does not exist: The path provided for the FFprobe executable is not found on the file system.
• Unable to verify ffprobe version: The FFprobe executable exists but failed to return a valid version string when run with the -version argument.

When attempting to add a show to a playlist via the AddShowToPlaylist handler, the following errors may occur if validation fails:

• Playlist does not exist.: The provided PlaylistId could not be found in the database.
• Show does not exist: The provided ShowId could not be found in the database.

Use the UpdateSmartCollection command to modify the properties of an existing Smart Collection. This operation updates the collection's Name and Query.

When a Smart Collection is successfully updated, the following side effects occur:

• Search targets are notified of the change.
• The Smart Collection cache is refreshed.
• All Playouts that utilize this specific Smart Collection are queued for a refresh using PlayoutBuildMode.Refresh via a background service request (BuildPlayout).

Validation Rules:

• The Id must refer to an existing Smart Collection. If not found, it returns an error: SmartCollection does not exist.
• The Name must not be empty.
• The Name must not exceed 50 characters.
• The Name must be unique across all Smart Collections. If a duplicate is found, it returns an error: SmartCollection name must be unique.

Use the RemoveItemsFromCollection command to remove specific media items from an existing collection.

When items are removed:

1. The collection is updated in the database.
2. The search index is automatically reindexed for the removed items via ReindexMediaItems.
3. All playouts using the modified collection are automatically refreshed using BuildPlayout with PlayoutBuildMode.Refresh to ensure the changes take effect in scheduled broadcasts.