Below I will be writing how to install and configure Channels DVR with Pluto using Pluto4Channels and Philo using TV Everywhere on Debian 10

First install ChannelsDVR, I will be doing this on Linux. This does work on RaspberryPi which is awesome⌗

useradd channels-dvr

cd /opt

This will install the ChannelsDVR in the current folder and install the systemd service⌗

curl -f -s https://getchannels.com/dvr/setup.sh | sh

chown channels-dvr: -R /opt/channels-dvr

nano /etc/systemd/system/channels-dvr.service

Change User/Group to channels-dvr⌗ 

User=channels-dvr
Group=channels-dvr

systemctl daemon-reload

systemctl restart channels-dvr

Your DVR should be up and running⌗

Now type ip a to get the IP address of the device

Now go to the IP of your DVR and set up where you want it to record. This can be an NFS share if you’d like. This is how mine is running since my DVR is ran in a Proxmox VM and the storage is on a different 12 HDD server.⌗

http://IPADDRESS:8089/admin/settings

Now it’s time to get Pluto2Channels Installed.⌗

This requires Docker. I could have installed Channels-DVR via docker, but I didn’t want to.⌗

If you already have Docker installed you can skip this step

As root run the following

apt-get install \
    apt-transport-https \
    ca-certificates \
    curl \
    gnupg-agent \
    software-properties-common

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg | apt-key add -

add-apt-repository \
   "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
   $(lsb_release -cs) \
   stable"

apt-get update && apt-get install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

Now it’s time to install the container

docker run -d --restart unless-stopped --name pluto-for-channels -p 5886:80 jonmaddox/pluto-for-channels

Now to go the IP of your server and on port 8080 http://IPADDRESS:8080 and you should see a white screen with a couple links. That means Pluto2Channels is ready to go

Now it’s time to add Pluto2Channles into the DVR⌗

  1. Go to http://IPADDRESS:8089/admin/settings

  2. Go to “Add Source”

  3. Choose “M3U Playlist”

  4. Nickname “Pluto”, Stream Format “HLS”, Source http://127.0.0.1:5886/playlist.m3u, Options: Refresh URL Daily, Prefer Channel Number From M3U, No Stream Limit

  5. Click on gear icon next to Pluto

  6. Click “Set Provider”

  7. Click on where it says USA and choose “Custom URL”

  8. Input http://127.0.0.1:5886/epg.xml

  9. Hit setting icon next to the URL and choose “Refresh Every 3 Hours”

  10. You’re all done and good to watch and record Pluto on Channels-DVR, you do have to have the Channels-DVR Plus to do this. I 100% recommend it since the ability to record this stuff locally is amazing and worth every penny

Now it’s time to get Philo Added (This is the easy part)⌗

  1. Go to http://IPADDRESS:8089/admin/settings

  2. Since we’re going to be using TV Everywhere we have to install some items apt install -y chromium-browser xvfb

  3. Go to “Add Source”

  4. Choose “TV Everywhere”

  5. Search for Philo where is says “Choose a provider”

  6. You will have to click on a link in your email to verify your login. This does require chromium which was installed previously and it might take a few minutes. I haven’t had a confirmation, I ended up just closing the window and was logged in.

  7. You should be good to go and you can now record and watch most of the channels from Philo.

You should be good. If you have any issues let me know, but as with everything on this blog it’s more of a kickstart to get you going.⌗