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Channels and categories
The channels subscribers watch on their boxes, under Live TV > Channels: each with its streams, a category and a programme guide.
| Channel | What viewers pick on the box: a number, a name and a logo, in a category |
| Stream | An address the channel plays from. A channel can have several, tried in order |
| Category | Groups channels in the box's lists, such as News or Sports (Live TV > Categories) |
| Programme guide | What is on now and next, from XMLTV files: see Programme guide |
Which channels a device gets
A device sees only the channels its tariff plan pays for:
- base channels: every device gets them, whatever its plan;
- the channels of the TV packages its plan includes (Tariffs > Service Packages);
- every channel, when one of those packages holds the whole catalogue;
- never a switched-off channel.
How a box plays a channel
- Asks for the code if it is locked. With parental control on for the box, a channel that is censored, or in a censored category, needs the viewer's access code.
- Takes its streams in order. The switched-on streams, lowest priority number first, skipping a stream whose user-agent filter does not match the box.
- Picks a server. A stream with load balancing plays from one of the streaming servers it lists: see Streaming servers.
- Plays the address with the player the stream names, such as
ffmpeg.
A channel's settings
| Setting | |
|---|---|
| Number | Its position on the remote; no two channels share one. Boxes list channels by it, and viewers type it to change channel |
| Name | Shown on the box and in the guide |
| Category | The list it appears under on the box |
| EPG id | The channel's id in the XMLTV files (xmltv_id), which brings it its programme guide |
| Logo | Uploaded in Mintrix and sent to Ministra. Mintrix keeps its own copy for its apps, at most 320×180 |
| Base | Every device gets it, whatever its plan |
| Censored | Locked behind the viewer's access code when parental control is on |
| Enabled | Switched off, no device gets it |
| Catch-up | Records the channel so viewers can go back in time: the recorder, how many hours back and where it is stored |
A stream's settings
| Setting | |
|---|---|
| Address | The player word and address, as Ministra keeps them, such as ffmpeg http://cdn.example.com/news.m3u8 |
| Priority | Lower plays first; the next one is the fallback |
| User-agent filter | Used only for boxes whose user agent contains this text, such as a model name; empty for all |
| Load balancing | Plays from one of the streaming servers it lists instead of its own host |
| Monitoring | Ministra checks the stream and switches it off while it fails, so boxes fall back to the next one |
| Temporary link | A short-lived token added to the address (Ministra, Flussonic, Nginx, Wowza and others), checked by the streaming server |
Temporary links and Mintrix's MAG app
Mintrix's own MAG app skips streams with a temporary link until the streaming servers check Mintrix's tokens. Give such channels a plain stream as well.
Categories
Categories are ordered by their number. A censored category locks all its channels behind the access code on boxes with parental control on.
Import from an M3U playlist
Import M3U adds channels from a playlist:
- new channels are created with their streams; entries with the same name become one channel with several streams;
group-titlepicks the category: each group goes into a category of the same name, or into a new one created in Ministra first;tvg-chnogives the number; channels without one, or whose number is taken, go after the last channel;tvg-idgives the EPG id andtvg-logothe logo, if you choose to take them;- Play with puts a player word, such as
ffmpeg, before every URL that has none, as Ministra expects; - channels that already exist (by name) are skipped, or get the playlist's streams.
The import runs in the background; you can close the window. Each channel is saved in Ministra first, and what fails is listed with the reason.
Channel order
Reorder puts channels in a new order by dragging them: they swap the numbers they hold between them, so a category keeps its own number range and other channels keep theirs.
Kept in step with Ministra
Channels, their streams and categories are synced both ways: saved in Mintrix they go to Ministra first; changed in Ministra they come back with the next sync. Categories and streaming servers come before channels, so each channel finds them. Mintrix keeps a copy of every logo, refreshed with each sync.
A channel saved in Ministra's own admin
When Ministra refuses a save, such as "Name … is already used by channel …", the channel in Mintrix and the one in Ministra no longer match. Settings > Ministra > Sync now for Live TV brings Ministra's channels back; see Troubleshooting.