iptvnator/docs/architecture/m3u-playlist-module.md

M3U Playlist Module Architecture

This document describes the M3U playlist module architecture, which handles traditional M3U/M3U8 playlists (as opposed to Xtream Codes or Stalker Portal).

Overview

The M3U playlist module provides:

• Channel list display with virtual scrolling (90,000+ channels support)
• EPG (Electronic Program Guide) integration
• Favorites management with drag-and-drop reordering
• Channel grouping, search, and per-list channel sorting
• Per-playlist group visibility management in the groups view
• Video playback with multiple player backends

Module Structure

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         VIDEO PLAYER PAGE                            │
│          libs/playlist/m3u/feature-player/src/lib/video-player/     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌──────────────────────┐  ┌────────────────────┐ │
│  │   Sidebar   │  │    Video Player      │  │  EPG Timeline      │ │
│  │             │  │  (ArtPlayer/Video.js)│  │  (panel below)     │ │
│  │ ┌─────────┐ │  │                      │  │                    │ │
│  │ │Channel  │ │  │                      │  │                    │ │
│  │ │List     │ │  │                      │  │                    │ │
│  │ │Container│ │  │                      │  │                    │ │
│  │ └─────────┘ │  │                      │  │                    │ │
│  └─────────────┘  └──────────────────────┘  └────────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        NgRx STORE (m3u-state)                        │
│                         libs/m3u-state/                              │
│  ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐  │
│  │ Playlist │ │ Channel  │ │   EPG    │ │Favorites │ │  Filter  │  │
│  │ Reducer  │ │ Reducer  │ │ Reducer  │ │ Reducer  │ │ Reducer  │  │
│  └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

M3U Parsing (iptv-playlist-parser fork)

All four parse call sites (Electron playlist-source.ts import, playlist-refresh.worker.ts, web-backend /parse, PWA playlists.service.ts) use the 4gray/iptv-playlist-parser fork, pinned by commit SHA in package.json. The fork tracks upstream freearhey/iptv-playlist-parser (currently synced to v0.15.2) plus three deliberate deltas iptvnator depends on:

• radio attribute — item.radio (string, 'true' triggers the radio player, EPG suppression, and external-player gating app-wide). Upstream does not have this field; it must survive every upstream sync.
• Pipe stripping — item.url is cut at the first |; |User-Agent= / |Referer= params still land in item.http. Upstream 0.15.0 stopped stripping, but iptvnator consumes item.url verbatim in hls.js/mpv/vlc, catch-up URL building, and url-keyed favorites.
• #KODIPROP lines before #EXTINF are preserved (since v0.15.2-iptvnator.2) — Kodi property lines apply to the next list entry, so ones placed above the #EXTINF are buffered and attached to that item's raw in file order (case-insensitive prefix); other stray # lines outside an open item are still dropped. The DASH + ClearKey feature extracts inputstream.adaptive.license_* config from item.raw, so this delta must survive every upstream sync.

There is intentionally no URL validation (upstream removed it in 0.15.0): any non-empty non-# line after #EXTINF becomes the item URL. This is what fixes issue #1189 (Pluto TV JWT URLs longer than validator's 2084-char IE-era limit used to be rejected, and the stalled item index collapsed the whole playlist into one channel). # comment lines and unknown directives are appended to item.raw and never treated as URLs.

The behavioral contract is guarded by apps/web/src/app/iptv-playlist-parser.contract.spec.ts (jest maps the module to the real parser source) and by the fork's own test suite.

Initial URL Import Performance Benchmark (Electron)

The Electron E2E project has a deterministic initial-import benchmark for 10,000-, 50,000-, and 100,000-channel M3U playlists. It uses only generated fixtures served by an ephemeral 127.0.0.1 HTTP server; provider URLs, credentials, and playlist data must never be used. Each formal scenario runs one warm-up, five measured iterations, and one diagnostic iteration in a fresh Electron process and data directory:

perf_output="$PWD/dist/performance/$(date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ)-m3u-import"
IPTVNATOR_PERF_OUTPUT_DIR="$perf_output" \
IPTVNATOR_PERF_VARIANT=baseline \
pnpm nx run electron-backend-e2e:benchmark-m3u-import

Use a new output directory and IPTVNATOR_PERF_VARIANT=after for the identical post-change run. Formal runs require a clean worktree and record the commit, source-state hash, runtime, and exact fixture identity. A development smoke run uses one warm-up, one measured iteration, and one diagnostic iteration per size:

IPTVNATOR_PERF_OUTPUT_DIR="$PWD/dist/performance/<timestamp>-m3u-import-smoke" \
IPTVNATOR_PERF_VARIANT=smoke \
IPTVNATOR_PERF_SMOKE=1 \
pnpm nx run electron-backend-e2e:benchmark-m3u-import

Smoke runs may use a dirty worktree and validate only the harness; they cannot support a performance claim. If another local application owns port 9222, smoke only may set IPTVNATOR_PERF_CDP_PORT to an unused loopback port; formal runs fail closed unless CDP uses 127.0.0.1:9222. Raw captures and JSON results stay under the gitignored dist/performance/ tree; preflight rejects a symbolic link in any existing output-path component before creating artifacts. Headline distributions contain only the five measured runs: warm-up and diagnostic profiles are never mixed into them.

The benchmark attributes these non-additive intervals:

Field	Boundary
dataAcquireMs	loopback response acquisition
m3uParsingMs	parser call
normalizationMs	parsed-item normalization
mainToRendererCloneProxyMs	sum of normalized import-result delivery plus the upsert and GET main-response-to-preload-success legs
storeImportDispatchMs	renderer import dispatch
rendererToMainCloneProxyMs	sum of the upsert and GET preload-source-to-main-request legs
mainToDatabaseWorkerCloneProxyMs	sum of the upsert and GET main-request-to-worker-receive legs
playlistSerializationMs	database-worker playlist JSON serialization
sqliteWriteMs	SQLite upsert, including its autocommit
sqliteReadMs	SQLite read of the newly persisted playlist
playlistDeserializationMs	database-worker parseAppPlaylist, including playlist JSON parsing
databaseWorkerToMainCloneProxyMs	sum of the upsert and GET worker-response-post-to-main-response legs
storePublishChannelsMs	renderer channel publication
angularRenderingMs	publication end to the terminal two-frame paint proof

ipcStructuredCloneProxyMs is the explicit sum of the four directional proxy fields. Each directional field can combine the applicable initial-result, upsert, and DB_GET_APP_PLAYLIST legs. The worker stamps responsePostedEpochMs after request profiling is finalized and immediately before each response is posted; the database-worker-to-main proxy ends when main receives that response. These fields are attribution aids, not an additive waterfall: scheduler work and gaps can remain inside total wall time, and a proxy can include response construction, dispatch overhead, and structured clone work. Initial import does not create indexes; indexAndCommitMs is therefore N/A with indexes-not-created-during-import;sqlite-autocommit-included-in-sqlite-write.

Instrumentation is development-only, opt-in, fail-neutral, and count-only. It must not scan or log playlist payloads to generate metadata. Renderer long-task, frame-gap, and heartbeat samples are clipped to the measured operation boundary. The external heartbeat uses a fixed 50 ms deadline grid: each renderer delivery records every elapsed deadline, and successful shutdown performs one terminal-clipped drain after any in-flight delivery. The capture fails closed unless the final sample count matches the complete operation grid, preventing coordinated omission when an import blocks several ticks. Main capture stops only after the upsert and route-reload GET responses plus both asynchronous preload success markers have arrived, so return-clone attribution cannot race capture shutdown. Formal comparison fails closed after writing raw results if exact-window renderer RSS, database-worker peak heap/external samples, or the database worker's explicit post-GC heap is missing or incoherent. Both initial-import database requests in every measured run must also contain coherent event-loop delay, event-loop utilization, and thread-CPU metrics; the validity record exposes the exact expected and valid request counts rather than silently dropping nullable samples. An iteration failure idempotently stops renderer timers, closes trace listeners/output, and starts best-effort probe/session teardown without waiting on a wedged renderer before Electron is closed. A partial capture-start failure performs the same rollback before it escapes to the benchmark lifecycle. Diagnostic artifacts require separate renderer, main, and database-worker CPU profiles plus renderer/main/database-worker heap snapshots and a Chromium trace; raw profiles remain ignored.

Playlist Refresh And Startup Auto-Update (Electron)

Two paths re-download an M3U playlist from its original source:

• Explicit refresh — PLAYLIST_REFRESH runs in playlist-refresh.worker.ts, reports progress through PLAYLIST_REFRESH_EVENT, and is cancellable via PLAYLIST_CANCEL_REFRESH. Cancellation is owned by the main process: it first sends the cooperative cancel message, then terminates the one-shot worker without waiting for its event loop. The cancel IPC resolves only after the worker has stopped, the correlated cancelled event has been emitted with the last known phase, and a structured cancellation result is ready. That result crosses both Electron IPC and the context bridge unchanged; PlaylistRefreshService converts it into a renderer-local AbortError. Relying on an error created in main or preload would lose its name at one of those serialization boundaries. A cancelled refresh must not update the renderer store or reach SQLite.
• Startup auto-update — after loadPlaylistsSuccess, AppComponent sends AUTO_UPDATE_PLAYLISTS for every playlist with autoRefresh === true. The main process fulfils it in playlist-auto-update.ts on top of playlist-source.ts.

Both share one download contract, because this path is unattended and a hostile or dead source must never stall startup (issue #931):

• Every HTTP hop uses the idle timeout PLAYLIST_FETCH_TIMEOUT_MS (30s, exported by playlist-source.ts). Without it a host that accepts the connection and then goes silent keeps the request pending forever. Redirects are followed one hop at a time, so each hop is bounded separately.
• Auto-update refreshes at most AUTO_UPDATE_CONCURRENCY (3) playlists at a time. Sequential refreshes let one slow host delay every remaining playlist; an unbounded fan-out would download and parse arbitrarily many large M3U files in the main process at once.
• Each playlist's failure is isolated and logged; the successful ones are still returned, in the order they were requested. Playlists with neither a URL nor a file path are skipped with a warning.
• preserveAutoUpdatedPlaylistFields() re-applies the user-owned fields (_id, autoRefresh, favorites, userAgent) onto the freshly parsed playlist.
• Playlist URLs frequently carry Xtream-style username/password query parameters, so refresh logging goes through redactSensitiveData() from @iptvnator/shared/logging.

Refresh Cancellation Performance Regression

The Electron E2E project includes a deterministic 100,000-channel cancellation benchmark. It uses only a loopback synthetic M3U server, performs one warm-up, five measured runs, and one diagnostic run, and writes summaries plus raw profiles below the gitignored dist/performance/ directory:

perf_output="$PWD/dist/performance/$(date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ)-m3u-refresh-cancel"
IPTVNATOR_PERF_OUTPUT_DIR="$perf_output" \
IPTVNATOR_PERF_VARIANT=after \
pnpm nx run electron-backend-e2e:benchmark-m3u-refresh-cancellation

The output path must be an absolute, previously unused descendant of dist/performance/. A formal run fails on a dirty worktree and records the commit, source-state hash, OS/architecture, Node, Electron, and fixture identity in its manifest. Commit the harness first and capture baseline from that clean commit; commit the production change separately, rebuild, and capture after with the same harness and machine. Set IPTVNATOR_PERF_SMOKE=1 for one measured run during harness development; smoke runs may be dirty and must not support before/after claims.

The target reserves and verifies CDP port 9222, freezes renderer long-task, frame-gap, and heartbeat probes before forced post-GC heap collection, and builds the Electron main process, renderer, and workers with optimized, source-mapped performance configurations before enabling opt-in worker profiling. Renderer RSS is scoped to the Playwright page's exact BrowserWindow and webContents: every sample matches getOSProcessId() to one exact app.getAppMetrics() PID and creation time, while responsive and unresponsive events come only from that window. Identity changes, missing or ambiguous process metrics, and invalid working-set values fail closed with a raw reason and nullable RSS; summaries exclude unavailable RSS instead of reporting zero. Formal runs also list every invalid measured capture under summary.validity.rendererRss and fail after persisting the raw summary unless all measured iterations contribute one valid exact-window RSS value. Each worker response retains a raw request-scoped record containing request/operation identity, received/work/flush timestamps, thread CPU, event-loop utilization, event-loop delay, and fixed unavailability or invalid reasons. Missing or malformed profiling metadata still produces an outcome with its request identity, nullable metrics, and a fixed capture-unavailable reason. A worker terminated before it can flush the capture reports the metric as unavailable rather than zero.

Database-worker post-GC heap is not inferred from a heap snapshot. The harness selects exactly one current-generation database worker independently of its sampling timer, waits for any in-flight sample plus one final sample, stops the worker CPU profile, sends an explicit-GC one-shot probe over a transferred MessagePort, and takes an optional diagnostic snapshot only afterward. Capture stop first closes a synchronous request cutoff and stops the main CPU profile, so worker profile writes and heap snapshots cannot appear as application stacks in main.cpuprofile. A database request observed after that cutoff cannot restart worker sampling or profiling; it records database-worker-activity-after-cutoff and invalidates the post-GC value. Worker artifacts include a stable isolate ordinal in their filename so an invalid multiple-worker capture cannot overwrite another isolate's profile. The raw heap and unavailability reason form a strict XOR; playlist workers terminated during cancellation report worker-force-terminated-before-gc instead of a snapshot-derived heap. Warm-up and measured cancellation invoke the real worker termination before best-effort finalization so profiling cannot delay headline acknowledgement metrics. The separate diagnostic iteration stops its CPU profile before termination; its timings are excluded from headline distributions. That pre-termination drain is bounded; timeout invalidates the profile and worker termination still proceeds. Late termination completions are generation-gated so they cannot mutate a reused record or append timeline events after an atomic capture rollover. The benchmark fails closed unless the diagnostic iteration observed cancellation, its profile is inside the iteration directory and parses with non-empty nodes and samples, and the dying worker has no heap snapshot.

Headline worker memory distributions include every matching isolate and exclude only nullable unavailable values. This aggregation is not used as a validity shortcut. Runs that reach database persistence must independently contain exactly one database worker with a coherent numeric post-GC heap. Parsing cancellation happens before the renderer dispatches persistence, so a run with no database request is explicitly N/A: operation-cancelled-before-database-phase, not a missing capture. Any database activity in a run that observed the cancellation effect is unrelated contamination and invalidates the run. Duplicate, busy, late, timed-out, or malformed captures are listed under summary.validity.databaseWorkerPostGc and invalidate the benchmark. The benchmark writes manifest.json and summary.json first, then fails the formal run so the raw evidence remains available without supporting a before/after claim. A formal cancellation run also requires the cancellation effect in every measured iteration. Database-worker values are comparable only when every measured iteration reaches that phase and has one valid capture.

Seed setup runs inside its own capture generation. The harness requires an observed seed database request, a completed playlist upsert, and no pending request, then persists that generation as seed-main-capture.json. Main capture finalization validates one idle database worker with a coherent explicit-GC result and atomically rolls the clean cutoff into the measured generation before yielding. A request before rollover remains late and rejects the transition; a request after rollover belongs to the measured generation. This prevents seed writes or an unobserved stop/start gap from crossing into measured main RSS, worker peaks, or profiles; generation selection also excludes the seed worker record. Since the production M3U database payload deliberately omits the refresh operation ID, the benchmark correlates only a valid preload start marker to the exact database operation and playlist. A missing or ambiguous marker leaves the raw operation ID null with a fixed reason; it does not infer identity from timing alone.

Headline worker fields named *WorkerRequest* are distributions of individual request metrics. In particular, request p95/p99 distributions are not presented as an operation-wide or process-wide percentile, and database request percentiles are never collapsed with Math.max. Diagnostic CPU profiles, heap snapshots, and Chromium traces are excluded from the five-run headline distributions.

Reporting The Auto-Update Result

Because auto-update isolates failures, it must also report them — otherwise a dropped playlist is indistinguishable from a successful refresh. autoUpdatePlaylists() returns AutoUpdatePlaylistsResult (libs/shared/interfaces/src/lib/playlist-auto-update.interface.ts): the refreshed playlists plus one outcome per requested playlist, in request order.

Outcome status	Meaning
updated	Source fetched/read and parsed; playlist is in playlists
failed	Source unreachable, unreadable or unparsable
skipped	Playlist has neither a URL nor a file path, so there is nothing to refresh from

ElectronService dispatches updateManyPlaylists with the refreshed playlists only, logs the titles of unresolved playlists, then derives the snackbar from those outcomes (apps/web/src/app/services/auto-update-playlists-feedback.ts): AUTO_REFRESH_UPDATE_SUCCESS when everything updated, AUTO_REFRESH_UPDATE_PARTIAL / AUTO_REFRESH_UPDATE_FAILED (error styling, dismissable) when some or all playlists failed, and AUTO_REFRESH_UPDATE_SKIPPED when the only unrefreshed playlists lacked a source. A batch that both failed and skipped uses AUTO_REFRESH_UPDATE_PARTIAL_WITH_SKIPPED, because the plain partial message names only updated/total/failed and would leave the skipped playlists as an unexplained remainder. Every count the user sees must reconcile with total, and success is never reported unconditionally — a silently dropped playlist used to look like a successful refresh. playlist-auto-refresh.e2e.ts guards this by restarting the app against a killed playlist server.

State Management (libs/m3u-state/)

State Structure

// libs/m3u-state/src/lib/state.ts
interface PlaylistState {
    active: Channel | undefined; // Active channel being played
    activePlaybackUrl: string | null;
    activeEpgProgram: EpgProgram | undefined;
    currentEpgProgram: EpgProgram | undefined;
    epgAvailable: boolean;
    channelsLoading: boolean; // Route still resolving channel data
    channels: Channel[]; // All channels from current playlist
    playlists: PlaylistMetaState; // Playlist metadata (entity adapter)
}

// libs/m3u-state/src/lib/playlists.state.ts
interface PlaylistMetaState extends EntityState<PlaylistMeta> {
    selectedId: string;
    allPlaylistsLoaded: boolean;
    selectedFilters: string[]; // 'm3u' | 'xtream' | 'stalker'
}

PlaylistMeta is the persisted playlist-facing subset of the playlist entity. For M3U playlists it now also carries hiddenGroupTitles?: string[], which is used by the groups view to remember which group titles the user has hidden.

Actions

Action Group	Actions	Purpose
PlaylistActions	loadPlaylists, addPlaylist, removePlaylist, parsePlaylist, setActivePlaylist	Playlist CRUD
ChannelActions	setChannels, setActiveChannel, setAdjacentChannelAsActive	Channel selection & navigation
EpgActions	setActiveEpgProgram, setCurrentEpgProgram, setEpgAvailableFlag	EPG state
FavoritesActions	updateFavorites, setFavorites, hydrateFavorites	Favorites management
FilterActions	setSelectedFilters	Playlist type filtering

Key Selectors

// Channel selectors
selectActive; // Current playing channel
selectChannelsLoading; // Channel list loading flag
selectChannels; // All channels array
selectFavorites; // Favorite channel URLs

// Playlist selectors
selectAllPlaylistsMeta; // All playlists
selectActivePlaylistId; // Selected playlist ID
selectActivePlaylist; // Active playlist object
selectPlaylistTitle; // Title with "Global favorites" fallback

// EPG selectors
selectIsEpgAvailable; // EPG data available flag
selectCurrentEpgProgram; // Current playing program

Channel List Container

Location: libs/ui/components/src/lib/channel-list-container/

Component Architecture

channel-list-container/
├── channel-list-container.component.ts   # Parent - shared state coordinator
├── channel-list-container.component.html
├── channel-list-container.component.scss
│
├── all-channels-view/                     # Virtual scroll + debounced search
│   ├── all-channels-view.component.ts
│   ├── all-channels-view.component.html
│   └── all-channels-view.component.scss
│
├── groups-view/                           # Expansion panels + infinite scroll
│   ├── groups-view.component.ts
│   ├── groups-view.component.html
│   └── groups-view.component.scss
│
├── favorites-view/                        # Drag-drop reordering
│   ├── favorites-view.component.ts
│   ├── favorites-view.component.html
│   └── favorites-view.component.scss
│
├── recent-view/                           # Recently viewed channels
│   ├── recent-view.component.ts
│   ├── recent-view.component.html
│   └── recent-view.component.scss
│
└── channel-list-item/                     # Individual channel display
    ├── channel-list-item.component.ts
    ├── channel-list-item.component.html
    └── channel-list-item.component.scss

Data Flow

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              ChannelListContainerComponent                    │
│                      (Parent)                                 │
│  ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │ Shared State (Signals):                                │  │
│  │  - channelEpgMap: Map<string, EpgProgram>              │  │
│  │  - progressTick: number (30s interval)                 │  │
│  │  - shouldShowEpg: boolean                              │  │
│  │  - favoriteIds: Set<string>                            │  │
│  └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
│                           │                                   │
│     ┌─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┐            │
│     ▼                     ▼                     ▼            │
│ ┌─────────┐         ┌──────────┐         ┌───────────┐      │
│ │   All   │         │  Groups  │         │ Favorites │      │
│ │Channels │         │   Tab    │         │    Tab    │      │
│ │  Tab    │         │          │         │           │      │
│ └────┬────┘         └────┬─────┘         └─────┬─────┘      │
│      │                   │                     │             │
│      └───────────────────┴─────────────────────┘             │
│                          │                                   │
│                          ▼                                   │
│              (channelSelected) output                        │
│                          │                                   │
└──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┘
                           ▼
                    Store Dispatch
              ChannelActions.setActiveChannel

Loading States

• M3uWorkspaceRouteSession owns route-driven channel loading for the player/sidebar routes: all and groups.
• The route session sets channelsLoading before getPlaylist() resolves and clears it when ChannelActions.setChannels lands.
• The route session dispatches reducer-only FavoritesActions.hydrateFavorites after that persisted read. Hydration must not use the persistence-bearing setFavorites action: doing so reads and rewrites the complete M3U payload again just to store favorites that already came from SQLite.
• ChannelListContainerComponent now renders a dedicated skeleton state while channelsLoading is true.
• ChannelListContainerComponent no longer clears channels on destroy; route/session code is the single owner of shared list lifecycle during navigation.
• The dedicated /workspace/playlists/:id/favorites and /workspace/playlists/:id/recent collection routes do not drive the shared sidebar channel list; they default to the playlist scope so rail links always open the current playlist view, not the last persisted global scope.
• M3U favorites and recent collection rows preserve their full Channel payload on unified live items so the shared live list can open the read-only channel details context menu without reconstructing partial channel data.
• Recent live rows support context-menu removal in the unified all-playlists view; the row-level delete shortcut remains available on playlist-scoped M3U recent rows.
• Empty playlists and empty search results are no longer conflated:
  • loading: skeletons
  • empty source: no channels in the playlist after loading completes
  • empty search: no matches within an already loaded playlist

Group Visibility Management

• GroupsViewComponent owns the M3U-only "Manage groups" action and dialog in libs/ui/components/src/lib/channel-list-container/groups-view/.
• The groups rail header also owns an inline search toggle that filters the currently visible groups without mutating the workspace-level route search term used by the broader channel views.
• The dialog operates on the full grouped dataset, while the left rail and channel pane render only groups whose titles are not listed in hiddenGroupTitles.
• ChannelListContainerComponent reads hiddenGroupTitles from the active M3U playlist metadata and passes it into the groups view. Saving dialog changes dispatches PlaylistActions.updatePlaylistMeta.
• PlaylistsService.updatePlaylistMeta() persists hiddenGroupTitles into the stored playlist payload, and M3U refresh/update flows preserve the existing value when refreshed playlist data omits the field.
• The groups route keeps the manage action reachable even when every group is hidden by separating "playlist has no groups" from "no visible/search-matching groups" empty states.

Channel Sorting

• AllChannelsViewComponent owns sorting for the all-channels list and persists the selected mode under m3u-all-channels-sort-mode.
• GroupsViewComponent owns sorting for the selected group's channel pane and persists the selected mode under m3u-groups-channel-sort-mode.
• Both views support three modes: Playlist Order, Name A-Z, and Name Z-A. Playlist Order is the default and preserves the original channel order from the M3U playlist.
• Sorting is applied after the current search filter and before virtual-scroll rendering. Playlist order avoids cloning the full list when no search term is active.

ChannelEpgMetadata Pattern

For performance optimization, EPG data is kept in a side-car map instead of being cloned onto every channel (the older EnrichedChannel pattern that spread-cloned every channel on every ~30 s tick was removed — channel-list-container/epg-enrichment.util.ts):

// libs/ui/components/src/lib/channel-list-container/epg-enrichment.util.ts
interface ChannelEpgMetadata {
    epgProgram: EpgProgram | null | undefined;
    progressPercentage: number; // Pre-computed by parent
}

The renderer now keeps two lookup maps for M3U collection views:

• channelEpgMap for current-program preview data
• channelIconMap for XMLTV channel icon fallback data

Logo resolution is runtime-only and follows this rule:

1. playlist tvg-logo
2. matched XMLTV <channel><icon src="...">
3. generic live_tv fallback in the list item component

EPG lookup keys use the same precedence in both program and icon paths:

1. tvg-id
2. tvg-name
3. channel name

All four collection tabs (all-channels, groups, favorites, recent) share a single EPG-enrichment implementation in channel-list-container/epg-enrichment.util.ts, fed the same channelEpgMap/channelIconMap from the container — there is no per-tab EPG logic:

• calculateEpgProgress(program, now?) — clamped, rounded progress in [0, 100], guarded against missing/invalid timestamps and zero-length programmes (never returns NaN).
• resolveChannelEpgProgram(channel, channelEpgMap) — the current programme for a channel by its lookup key (used by the per-item recent view).
• buildChannelEpgMetadataMap(channelEpgMap, now?) — the side-car key → {epgProgram, progressPercentage} map (used by all-channels/groups/ favorites). Callers read their progressTick() signal first so the computed re-runs on the ~30s tick.

EPG Panel (Timeline & List views)

The programme guide under the player renders in one of two interchangeable views, chosen by the epgViewMode setting ('timeline' default, or 'list'; Settings → EPG → Guide view):

• Timeline — a horizontal ribbon (app-epg-timeline, libs/ui/epg/src/lib/epg-timeline/).
• List — a vertical, single-day programme list (app-epg-list-view, libs/ui/epg/src/lib/epg-list-view/) with a prev/today/next stepper.

Both are shared by all four live surfaces: the M3U video player, the unified live tab, and the Xtream and Stalker live-stream layouts (replacing the former vertical app-epg-list / app-epg-view). EpgListViewComponent mirrors EpgTimelineComponent's input/output contract 1:1, so each host swaps them with a plain @if (epgViewMode() === 'list') { <app-epg-list-view … /> } @else { <app-epg-timeline … /> } — identical bindings in both branches. Hosts read epgViewMode from SettingsStore (a signal), so flipping the setting swaps the panel live. The setting flows end-to-end (Settings.epgViewMode → DEFAULT_SETTINGS → SettingsStore/StorageMap → the segmented control in settings-epg-section) and needs no backend change. The control is Electron-only in practice — the EPG settings section (and the form control) is gated behind supportsEpg, which is false in PWA; there the stored value simply stays at the 'timeline' default.

Both components stay presentation-focused; the reusable, view-agnostic pieces (shared by the timeline and the list) are split out and re-exported from @iptvnator/ui/epg:

• epg-timeline.utils.ts (axis/blocks/date helpers) + epg-timeline-render.util.ts (short-programme tiers, grouping, zoom bounds) — the ribbon geometry.
• epg-archive.util.ts — catch-up gating (isWithinArchiveWindow, canCatchUpProgramme, epgDialogActionFor) off when/startMs primitives.
• epg-summary.util.ts — EpgTimelineSummary + collapsed-summary progress maths (summaryProgress / summaryMinutesLeft / …).
• epg-programme-dialog.service.ts — EpgProgrammeDialogService, opens the shared details dialog and returns the chosen live / timeshift action.
• epg-timeline-scroll.controller.ts — TimelineScrollController (ribbon scrolling + channel-select auto-focus); timeline-specific, kept out of the component so it stays under the line ceiling.

The list view (epg-list-view/) composes those same shared modules — it does not duplicate classification or gating logic. It reuses classifyTimelineWhen / hasProgramsForDateKey / nearestDateKeyWithPrograms, epg-archive.util, epg-summary.util, the epg-date helpers, EpgProgrammeDialogService, and the shared app-epg-timeline-empty-state — and drops all ribbon geometry, zoom, and horizontal scroll. It filters the loaded window to the selected day (overlap-based, matching hasProgramsForDateKey), sorts, and deduplicates via a pure buildEpgListRows (epg-list-view.utils.ts); renders each row through the dumb app-epg-list-view-row; and delegates its own vertical auto-focus + sticky "now" strip to EpgListScrollController (epg-list-scroll.controller.ts). Render states, the collapsed inline summary, the date stepper, catch-up/timeshift activation, and the details dialog behave identically to the timeline.

• One channel, preloaded window. The panel always shows a single channel. Each provider returns a multi-day window in roughly one call (M3U GET_CHANNEL_PROGRAMS; Stalker get_epg_info; Xtream get_simple_data_table), so the whole ribbon is rendered up front and day navigation is scroll within the loaded window — no per-day lazy fetch. The date stepper / "Now" jump scroll the ribbon; the day label follows the scroll position.
• Auto-focus on channel select. When a channel's EPG (re)loads or the ribbon (re)mounts, the timeline centres the currently airing programme in the viewport instantly (behavior: 'auto', no scroll animation) — selecting a channel lands on "now" without the user pressing the Now button. The jump is deduped by programme-set identity (programsFocusKey), so the 30s now-tick, zoom changes, or a host re-emitting the same data never re-jump the viewport; switching channels (or returning after viewing an empty-day channel) re-centres. The explicit "Now" button still animates (behavior: 'smooth') since it is a deliberate user action. See TimelineScrollController.maybeAutoFocus / focusCurrentProgram in epg-timeline-scroll.controller.ts.
• Controlled component. app-epg-timeline is presentation-only: it takes programs, archivePlaybackAvailable, archiveDays, activeProgram, isLivePlayback, loading, emptyReason, selectedDate, collapsed, summary and emits programActivated, returnToLive, selectedDateChange, openEpgSettings, retry, collapsedChange. The host layout owns playback, persists the collapse state (live-epg-panel-state in localStorage), and (for the M3U player) the EpgActions.setCurrentEpgProgram / setEpgAvailableFlag / setActiveEpgProgram dispatches. The timeline owns the single panel bar — collapse chevron + channel name on the left, return-to-live / jump / date stepper on the right — and the collapsed inline summary; the former app-live-epg-panel wrapper has been removed from the live layouts.
• Dynamic bar subtitle. Under the channel name the bar shows the now-playing programme title when expanded and a summary exists (.epg-timeline__subtitle) — readable title style, not the uppercase mono label. During timeshift it switches to the archive programme with a history icon and cyan accent (.is-arch). It falls back to the static sourceLabel (Timeline / Xtream / Stalker Portal) only when collapsed or when the channel has no programme.
• State-aware toolbar controls. The right-side controls are hidden (not disabled) when they cannot act, so a channel with no EPG shows a clean bar instead of dead controls: showRibbonControls() gates "Now" + zoom to the ribbon state only (nothing to jump to or zoom otherwise), and showDateStepper() keeps the date stepper for ribbon and empty-day (the only states where the channel has EPG on some day), hiding it for the no-EPG-anywhere states and while loading. Return-to-live is a playback control (!isLivePlayback()) and is independent of EPG state.
• State-driven affordances. Blocks are coloured past / now / future, with a red "now" playhead. Catch-up "Watch" appears on past blocks — and as a start-over replay button on the currently-airing block — only when archivePlaybackAvailable (Xtream tv_archive, M3U catchup-*); Stalker is schedule-only (dimmed past + a notice, no false buttons). The "i" button opens the shared app-epg-item-description dialog with a state-aware action.
• Empty / error states. emptyReason selects one of six states (loading skeleton, empty-day, channel-unmapped, provider-no-epg, m3u-needs-setup, error) via app-epg-timeline-empty-state. Icon tone is neutral for info, blue for actionable, red for errors; an action button is shown only when one really exists. The empty-state host flex: 1-fills the area below the toolbar and centres within that (compact icon/title/sub), rather than a fixed min-height that used to overflow the compact inline panel and push the icon/text — and the empty-day action buttons — below the visible edge. empty-day itself is decided by hasProgramsForDateKey, which is overlap-based (a programme counts for a day when [start, stop) intersects it, end-exclusive) — so a film that starts the previous evening and runs past midnight still keeps the ribbon on "today" while it airs, matching the sidebar (which matches by "airing now"); a start-date-only check used to drop to empty-day after midnight even though the programme was on air.
• Short-programme strategy. In a proportional ribbon a 5-minute programme would be an unreadable sliver, so buildTimelineRenderItems (epg-timeline.utils.ts) applies a layered fix: (A) a minimum block width (TIMELINE_MIN_BLOCK_WIDTH_PX); (B) width-adaptive content tiers — wide (title + time, 3-line clamp) → med (one-line ellipsis) → narrow (vertical title, no time) → micro (just a marker); (C) a hover/focus popover revealing the full title + time + description for any non-wide block (it flips above the block when the panel is near the screen bottom); (D) a px-per-minute zoom slider (tick density adapts via timelineTickStepForScale); and (E) grouping of ≥4 consecutive short (<10 min) programmes into one dashed "N short" chip when zoomed out (scale < TIMELINE_GROUP_ZOOM_MAX), expanded by clicking it. The ribbon canvas lives in the child app-epg-timeline-track; the parent owns the scroller, toolbar (incl. the zoom slider) and state.
• Panel height & titles. Block titles wrap onto as many lines as the card height allows and are clipped (not single-line ellipsis); the foot ("ON NOW" tag / "Watch") stays pinned at the bottom. With an inline player the guide is a compact panel (.epg.epg--inline → flex: 0 0 clamp(180px, 36vh, 264px) in _portal-layout.scss) so the player stays dominant; with an external player the guide keeps flex: 1 and fills the whole content area. In list mode the hosts also set .epg--list, which raises only the inline clamp (--epg-inline-height: clamp(280px, 46vh, 430px)) — vertical rows need more height than the ribbon; the timeline height is unchanged, and the collapsed 56px clamp still wins because the modifier sets just the CSS variable.
• Wide-tier description preview. When a block is the wide tier (rendered width ≥ 132px, i.e. long programmes and/or zoomed in) and the programme has a desc, a dimmed (--text-secondary) preview of the description renders under the title (.epg-timeline__block-desc). Gated to wide only, so narrower cards and the moderate default zoom stay clean; the full description still lives in the hover popover for every tier. To avoid ugly mid-line cuts, wide-tier time/title/desc use flex-shrink: 0 so flexbox can never shrink them to a fractional height: each self-clips on whole lines with an ellipsis via -webkit-line-clamp (title ≤ 2 lines, description ≤ 3) instead of being cut mid-line by the parent's overflow: hidden. At the usual inline panel height the title + 3-line preview fit without the parent clipping at all.

Playlist-Declared EPG Sources

Some M3U providers declare XMLTV sources in the playlist header instead of requiring the user to add them in Settings. The importer extracts EPG URLs from #EXTM3U header attributes x-tvg-url, url-tvg, and tvg-url in @iptvnator/shared/m3u-utils, then stores the normalized, deduplicated candidates on Playlist.detectedEpgUrls.

Playlist.epgUrls is the enabled playlist-scoped subset used for automatic import and lookup. Two additional lists preserve user edits:

• Playlist.manualEpgUrls stores URLs the user explicitly added for this playlist, including detected catalog URLs the user manually enabled.

• Playlist.disabledEpgUrls stores detected URLs the user removed from this playlist so playlist refreshes do not silently re-enable them.

• Up to five detected URLs are enabled automatically.

• Larger header lists are treated as provider catalogs. The importer keeps all candidates in detectedEpgUrls, but auto-enables only recommended URLs whose guides/<country> path matches playlist hints such as tvg-country or the country suffix in tvg-id (channel.ua). Language hints are used only when no country hints are present. If no recommendation can be made, the importer falls back to the first five detected URLs so generic provider catalogs still produce usable local EPG sources instead of silently enabling none.

• Recommendations are capped so a malformed or global provider list cannot start dozens of XMLTV downloads during playlist import.

These URLs are playlist-scoped by default:

• libs/m3u-state auto-fetches enabled epgUrls when M3U playlists are loaded, added, or refreshed, using the same EPG progress/import pipeline as Settings-managed XMLTV URLs. Before fetching, playlist URLs already present in global Settings are filtered out so the same XMLTV URL is not downloaded twice. Within a running session, the effect remembers the last fetchable URL set per playlist and only re-fetches when that URL set changes; metadata-only edits such as renaming a playlist or hiding groups do not re-download local EPG sources. When the local URL set expands, only newly added fetchable URLs are downloaded; disabling or removing one source does not re-download the remaining sources. Explicit playlist refreshes bypass that session fetch key and re-download the current fetchable local EPG URLs. Partial metadata updates that omit epgUrls preserve the previous fetch key, while an explicit empty epgUrls list clears it. Add/update metadata effects trigger playlist-local EPG fetches only after the playlist persistence call succeeds, and metadata updates that do not include any EPG source fields do not evaluate the fetch plan.
• The Electron EPG database stores source_url on imported programs so current program lookups can ask for the active playlist's EPG sources first. Existing databases backfill this column from epg_channels.source_url once, in bounded batches, after the scoped indexes are created. When multiple EPG files reuse the same XMLTV channel id, the channel row keeps its original source_url attribution instead of being overwritten by the last imported source; program scoping remains source-specific through epg_programs.source_url.
• ChannelListContainerComponent enables EPG rows when either global settings URLs or the active M3U playlist has epgUrls. EPG availability refreshes are debounced so several playlist-local XMLTV imports completing close together coalesce into one visible-channel EPG refresh. The visible channel list also refreshes when the effective EPG source context changes, so a playlist whose epgUrls arrive after the channels are rendered does not wait for the next periodic refresh before showing current programs. A successful EPG import clears current-program lookup caches before publishing availability, so an early "no current program" lookup cannot mask freshly imported rows until the TTL expires.
• Scoped lookups fall back only to Settings-managed EPG URLs for channels missing from the playlist-declared source. Playlist-local sources from other playlists are not treated as global fallback sources. Single-channel current program lookups include the source URL set in their cache and in-flight keys, so playlist-local and global lookups deduplicate without reusing the wrong source scope. Batch current-program lookups use the same source-scoped per-channel TTL cache and order-insensitive in-flight batch deduplication before reaching IPC; missing exact channel-id matches are resolved with batched id/display-name candidate queries rather than a per-channel fallback loop. Those candidate queries match the raw key case-sensitively as well as via LOWER(): SQLite's LOWER()/COLLATE NOCASE only fold ASCII, so for non-ASCII names (Cyrillic, Greek, …) a LOWER()-only match would miss channels whose M3U name and EPG display_name share the same casing — the raw exact match keeps parity with the timeline's single-channel exact-display-name lookup, and the JS resolveChannelMetadataCandidate then folds with full-Unicode toLowerCase(). The "airing now" window is compared with timezone-aware SQLite datetime() on both sides (EpgQueryService.isAiringAt), not raw string comparison: stored EPG timestamps often carry an offset (e.g. +03:00) while now is built as UTC (…Z), so a lexical compare would be wrong by the offset and surface a stale (or no) current programme. After the scoped + legacy candidate queries, any candidate that resolved by id/display-name but still has no in-scope current programme is retried once unscoped (all sources), mirroring the timeline's own unscoped getChannelPrograms lookup. This keeps the channel-list "now" line consistent with the timeline when a channel's row and its programmes carry different source_url values (shared XMLTV ids across multiple imports), where the channel resolves in scope but its programmes are tagged with a source that is not currently enabled. When upgrading an existing database whose historical programs have no source_url, scoped program and metadata queries try those legacy unscoped rows only after the requested source scope returns no result, so old EPG data remains visible without taking precedence over freshly imported scoped data. Channel metadata lookups use the same playlist-first, Settings-managed fallback strategy so icons and display names can still come from global EPG sources when the playlist-local guide only supplies programs. If multiple EPG sources reuse the same XMLTV channel id, channel metadata and display-name fallback lookups treat a channel as source-scoped when either the channel row itself or matching programs are tagged with the requested source_url.
• The playlist details dialog shows enabled EPG URLs with explicit actions to refresh, remove, or add a source to global Settings. It also allows adding one or more manual playlist-local sources and indicates when additional detected candidates were not auto-enabled. Removing a playlist-local source also clears programs tagged with that source_url and prunes only orphaned channel rows for that same source before saving the playlist metadata change, so a failed cleanup keeps the source enabled and visible. Shared XMLTV channel ids from other sources are preserved. Detected playlist sources are not silently promoted to global settings.

Performance Optimizations

Optimization	Implementation
Virtual Scroll	CDK virtual scroll for 90,000+ channels
Computed Signals	enrichedChannels computed signal replaces template pipe
Debounced Search	300ms debounce on search input
Global Progress Tick	Single 30s interval instead of per-item intervals
OnPush Change Detection	All components use OnPush
Infinite Scroll in Groups	IntersectionObserver loads 50 channels at a time
Memoized Group Enrichment	enrichedGroupChannelsMap computed signal

Tab Components

AllChannelsViewComponent

• Inputs: channels, channelEpgMap, channelIconMap, progressTick, shouldShowEpg, itemSize, activeChannelUrl, favoriteIds
• Outputs: channelSelected, channelPlaybackRequested, favoriteToggled, sidebarToggleRequested
• Features: Workspace search, persisted channel sorting, virtual scrolling, no-results placeholder

GroupsViewComponent

• Inputs: Same as AllChannelsViewComponent + groupedChannels
• Outputs: channelSelected, channelPlaybackRequested, favoriteToggled, hiddenGroupTitlesChanged, sidebar sizing outputs
• Features: Resizable groups rail, local group search, group visibility management, persisted selected-group channel sorting

FavoritesViewComponent

• Inputs: favorites, channelEpgMap, channelIconMap, progressTick, shouldShowEpg, activeChannelUrl
• Outputs: channelSelected, channelPlaybackRequested, favoriteToggled, favoritesReordered
• Features: Drag-and-drop reordering with CDK DragDrop, read-only channel details context menu

RecentViewComponent

• Inputs: recent channels, channelEpgMap, channelIconMap, progressTick, shouldShowEpg, activeChannelUrl
• Outputs: channelSelected, channelPlaybackRequested, removeRecent
• Features: Read-only channel details context menu, row-level and context-menu removal

EPG Integration

EpgService (@iptvnator/epg/data-access)

class EpgService {
    // Fetch EPG for multiple URLs
    fetchEpg(urls: string[]): void;

    // Get programs for a channel
    getChannelPrograms(channelId: string): void;

    // Batch fetch current programs
    getCurrentProgramsForChannels(
        channelIds: string[],
        options?: { sourceUrls?: string[] }
    ): Observable<Map<string, EpgProgram>>;

    // Batch fetch XMLTV channel metadata for logo fallback
    getChannelMetadataForChannels(
        channelIds: string[],
        options?: { sourceUrls?: string[] }
    ): Observable<Map<string, EpgChannelMetadata | null>>;

    // Observables
    epgAvailable$: Observable<boolean>;
    currentEpgPrograms$: Observable<EpgProgram[]>;
}

EPG Components

Component	Purpose
EpgTimelineComponent	Horizontal timeline for one channel
EpgListViewComponent	Vertical single-day list alternative
EpgItemDescriptionComponent	Program details dialog
MultiEpgContainerComponent	Grid view of all channels' schedules

Video Player

Location: libs/playlist/m3u/feature-player/src/lib/video-player/

Supported Players

• ArtPlayer (default) - Modern player with plugins
• Video.js - Fallback with HLS support
• HTML5 - Basic video element
• Audio - For radio streams

Player Features

• Channel navigation (prev/next)
• Favorites toggle
• EPG sidebar
• Collapsible inline EPG panel for internal players, persisted through the shared live-epg-panel-state preference
• Multi-EPG modal view
• Channel info overlay
• External player support (MPV, VLC) in Electron
• M3U archive/catch-up playback for supported replay schemes

Archive / Catch-Up Playback

• The shared EPG UI only shows the archive replay badge when the host confirms that the selected M3U channel has a playable replay scheme. Archive days alone are not enough.
• M3U catch-up support is resolved in @iptvnator/shared/m3u-utils from channel metadata and the archived program start time.
• Supported replay precedence:
  1. catchup.source if it is an HTTP(S) URL. IPTVNator rewrites or appends standard utc and lutc query params on that URL.
  2. Legacy same-stream shift playback when catchup.type === 'shift'. In that case IPTVNator rewrites or appends utc and lutc on channel.url.
  3. Legacy same-stream shift fallback when no explicit catch-up mode is declared, archive-day metadata exists (tvg.rec, timeshift, or catchup.days), and channel.url itself is an HTTP(S) stream URL. This covers providers that only advertise archive retention such as tvg-rec="7" but still expect standard utc and lutc query params on the live URL.
• tvg.rec, timeshift, and catchup.days still define the archive window shown in the EPG, but replay remains unavailable when the provider declares a different explicit catch-up scheme that IPTVNator does not understand or when the stream URL itself is not an HTTP(S) replay target.
• Active replay is stored separately from the selected channel in playlistState.activePlaybackUrl. Inline and external players use activePlaybackUrl ?? activeChannel.url, and returning to live playback clears the override.
• The unified favorites/recent live tab (libs/portal/shared/ui/.../unified-collection/unified-live-tab.component.ts) hosts the same timeline but does not use the NgRx playlist state; it keeps its own activeTimeshift signal, resolves the replay URL with resolveM3uCatchupUrl, and swaps the inline player's playback target (or hands the URL to the configured external player). Selecting another channel, closing the player, or "Return to live" clears the override.
• Catch-up activation is never silent: if the replay URL cannot be resolved for a programme the user clicked, both hosts surface a EPG.TIMELINE.CATCHUP_FAILED snackbar instead of doing nothing.

DASH + ClearKey Playback

MPEG-DASH (.mpd) channels play through a Shaka Player source engine inside the existing built-in players — exactly like hls.js/mpegts.js. There is no new player in settings.

DRM data flow (M3U module only; Xtream/Stalker have no DRM concept):

1. The playlist parser fork does not interpret #KODIPROP: lines, but preserves them in item.raw for both layouts: unknown lines between #EXTINF and the stream URL are kept as before, and since parser pin v0.15.2-iptvnator.2 #KODIPROP lines placed before the #EXTINF are buffered and attached to the next entry's raw in file order (Kodi semantics, case-insensitive prefix). Other stray # lines outside an open item are still dropped, matching upstream.
2. extractDrmFromRaw() (libs/shared/m3u-utils/src/lib/kodiprop.utils.ts) post-processes raw inside createPlaylistObject() — the single funnel for all four import paths (Electron URL/file import, refresh worker, web-backend /parse, client-side upload). It reads inputstream.adaptive.license_type, license_key, and the combined drm_legacy property. ClearKey key formats: kid:key hex (single or comma-separated), the W3C ClearKey license JSON, and a plain {kid: key} JSON map. Unsupported license types (Widevine, PlayReady, license-server URLs, malformed values) are preserved as supported: false — never a throw.
3. The typed result lands on Channel.drm (ChannelDrm in @iptvnator/shared/interfaces), travels through ResolvedPortalPlayback.drm into WebPlayerViewComponent's synthetic channel, and reaches the engine. Persistence is free for newly imported or refreshed playlists (playlist JSON blob / IndexedDB object). Playlists imported before the DRM feature carry no drm field yet, but the raw #KODIPROP block survived in the stored items — the M3U player page falls back to extractDrmFromRaw(channel.raw) at playback time, so encrypted channels of pre-upgrade playlists work without a re-import.

Engine selection and routing:

• ShakaVideoSession (libs/ui/playback/src/lib/shaka-engine/) owns the engine: lazy import('shaka-player') on first use (the module is a separate lazy chunk, ~217 KB transfer), drm.clearKeys configuration, an operation queue + generation guard against channel-switch races. The DOM-free Shaka 5.2.2 public-error boundary lives in libs/playback/util; it version-locks its allowlisted severity/category/code values, emits only structured sanitized PlaybackDiagnosticSource.Shaka evidence, ignores recoverable error events, and treats a rejected load as terminal even if its final retry error retains recoverable severity. Raw messages and error.data never cross the boundary; only the documented direct/nested BAD_HTTP_STATUS slot may contribute a validated HTTP status. Exact category/code pairs classify failures, while an ambiguous Manifest category or unknown pair remains an unknown diagnostic. The public streaming-startup code 5006 is retained exactly but keeps unknown stage/failure. Public DASH text-parser codes likewise retain their exact TEXT category/code but keep stage/failure unknown. A failed Player.isBrowserSupported() preflight also stays unknown rather than claiming container incompatibility. It carries only the enumerated, app-owned PlaybackRuntimeSupport.ShakaBrowserUnsupported marker — never a producer recommendation hint or engine payload. Clear DASH still offers configured external-player actions, while KODIPROP DRM keeps them disabled because those players never receive its keys. Channels with drm.supported === false emit a DrmOrEncryption diagnostic with a fixed safe detail string and without starting an engine.
• HTML5 player: extension === 'mpd' branch in playChannel(). ArtPlayer: customType.mpd in ArtPlayerSourceSession. Shared-controls bridge: WebVideoControlsSource kind 'shaka' + WebVideoShakaControls (audio/text tracks via the Shaka 5 API — selecting a text track shows it, selectTextTrack(null) hides).
• DASH channels always play inline (radio precedent): isDashChannel() gates shouldShowInlinePlayer(), the MPV/VLC auto-launch in m3u-state effects (shouldAutoLaunchExternalPlayer()), and the playerOverride passed to app-web-player-view — ArtPlayer stays ArtPlayer, every other configured player (Video.js without a DASH bridge, embedded/external MPV, VLC) falls back to the HTML5 player. External players cannot receive KODIPROP ClearKey configuration (VLC upstream feature request #29465).
• ClearKey EME works in stock Electron (org.w3.clearkey; no Widevine CDM required) — EME needs a secure context, which file:// (packaged) and http://localhost (dev/PWA) both satisfy. Widevine/FairPlay are out of scope (castLabs fork + VMP signing).

Testing: offline VP9+Opus CENC fixtures in apps/web-e2e/src/fixtures/dash/ (generated with ffmpeg + Shaka Packager — see the README there for why), e2e suites web-e2e:src/dash-clearkey.e2e.ts (Chromium; the Angular service worker is blocked because SW-routed requests bypass Playwright interception) and electron-backend-e2e:src/dash-clearkey.e2e.ts (real ClearKey EME in Electron).

Interfaces

Channel Interface

interface Channel {
    id: string;
    url: string;
    name: string;
    group: { title: string };
    tvg: {
        id: string; // For EPG matching
        name: string;
        url: string;
        logo: string;
        rec: string;
    };
    epgParams?: string;
    timeshift?: string;
    catchup?: { type?: string; source?: string; days?: string };
    radio: string;
    http: {
        referrer: string;
        'user-agent': string;
        origin: string;
    };
    /** ClearKey DRM extracted from #KODIPROP lines (DASH channels). */
    drm?: ChannelDrm;
}

Playlist State Additions

interface PlaylistState {
    active: Channel | undefined;
    activePlaybackUrl: string | null;
    currentEpgProgram: EpgProgram | undefined;
    epgAvailable: boolean;
    channels: Channel[];
}

EpgProgram Interface

interface EpgProgram {
    start: string; // ISO string
    stop: string; // ISO string
    channel: string; // TVG ID
    title: string;
    desc: string | null;
    category: string | null;
    episodeNum?: string | null;
    iconUrl?: string | null;
    rating?: string | null;
}

Routes

Routes live in libs/playlist/m3u/feature-player/src/lib/m3u-workspace.routes.ts (createM3uWorkspaceRoutes()), nested under the workspace shell:

/workspace/playlists/:id            # M3U player (redirects to .../all)
/workspace/playlists/:id/favorites  # Favorites collection view
/workspace/playlists/:id/recent     # Recently viewed collection view
/workspace/playlists/:id/:view      # Video player with channel list view

Adding New Features

To add a new view to channel list:

1. Create component in channel-list-container/new-view/
2. Accept inputs: channels, channelEpgMap, progressTick, shouldShowEpg, activeChannelUrl
3. Emit channelSelected output
4. Add to parent template and imports

To add EPG-related features:

1. Use EpgService for data fetching
2. Subscribe to channelEpgMap signal for current programs
3. Dispatch EpgActions for state updates

To modify favorites behavior:

1. Dispatch FavoritesActions.updateFavorites for toggle
2. Dispatch FavoritesActions.setFavorites for reordering
3. Dispatch FavoritesActions.hydrateFavorites only when copying values that were already read from persistence into NgRx
4. Effects persist the two user-mutation actions; hydration is reducer-only