v1.0.0-alpha.4 — Streaming Engine, EPG, and HDHomeRun Compatibility

M3Undle v1.0.0-alpha.4 (Alpha)

M3Undle is a self-hosted lineup manager for large streaming provider catalogs,
focused on explicit control, stable output, and DVR-friendly publishing.

This alpha milestone delivers the core streaming engine, EPG source management,
Xtream-Codes compatibility, and hardened HDHomeRun emulation — tested against
NextPVR, Jellyfin, and native LibHDHomeRun clients.

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What's in this release

Stream relay engine

• New stream proxy with ring-buffer architecture for live channel relay
• Shared live sessions: multiple clients watching the same channel share a single upstream connection
• Configurable session limits, idle grace periods, buffer sizes, and reconnect behavior
• Upstream reconnect with stall detection, outage window, and failure strike tracking
• Subscriber queue model with per-client backpressure and disconnect reason tracking
• HLS detection and manifest rewriting for browser-based clients (IPTVnator, Electron)
• HLS proxy endpoint for segment-level relay with provider header forwarding
• Stream administration page with live session and viewer monitoring
• Streaming settings UI with validation and restart-required tracking
• Fixed HttpResponseMessage disposal leak in upstream connector
• Fixed response disposal on non-success HTTP status codes

HDHomeRun emulation (hardened)

• Native tuner protocol support: /tuner{N}/v{ch}, /tuner{N}/ch{ch}, and /tuner{N}/auto/... routes used by LibHDHomeRun clients (NextPVR, Channels DVR, Plex)
• Auto-tune endpoints: /hdhr/auto/v{ch}, /hdhr/auto/ch{ch}, /hdhr/auto/{ch} — resolve guide numbers and redirect to tune URL
• HDHomeRun tuner manager with tuner slot reservation and concurrency control
• Native tuner routes force raw MPEG-TS delivery, matching real HDHomeRun device behavior
• Default tuner count changed to 4 (matching advertised HDHR3-US model)
• Virtual tuner ID includes tuner index for per-tuner session isolation
• Structured event logging (EventType = "HDHR") across all HDHR endpoints and discovery services
• Client endpoint status codes preserved — HDHR, stream, playlist, and guide 404/503 responses no longer rewritten to Blazor HTML

EPG source management

• EPG source CRUD with fetch scheduling and manual refresh
• XMLTV parser for external guide data ingestion
• EPG channel mapper with auto-matching and manual mapping UI
• EPG compiler that merges multiple sources with configurable priority ordering
• EPG catalogue model linking sources to lineup channels
• Fixed O(m*n) FindIndex in EpgCompiler OrderBy with pre-built priority dictionary

Xtream-Codes compatibility

• Full Xtream-Codes API endpoint set for player compatibility
• Xtream path credential filter for URL-embedded authentication
• Xtream stream ID cache for stable ID mapping across refreshes
• Live stream URL generation

Live proxy URLs

• Now include a .ts extension tail (e.g., /live/{key}/20312.ts) when the upstream URL is a bare numeric ID, so clients that content-sniff by file extension recognize the stream as MPEG-TS
• HLS streams (.m3u8 extension or ?output=m3u8 / ?type=hls query params) are preserved without .ts rewriting

Provider and data model

• Provider stream limit support (per-provider concurrent stream caps)
• EPG schema: epg_sources, epg_source_channels, epg_channel_mappings, epg_fetch_runs
• Streaming settings columns added to site_settings
• Consolidated alpha.4 migration gate (single Alpha4_Schema migration)
• Migration repair for databases upgraded from early alpha.4 builds with split migrations
• Default stream limit set when adding a provider

Security and access control

• Forwarded headers security fix: removed unrestricted proxy trust, added configurable trusted proxies
• Client endpoint access denial logging (path, method, reason, client IP)
• SQLite connection pool cleanup to prevent stale file locks

Build and observability

• Version bumped to 1.0.0-alpha.4
• Build date (UTC) and optional build number stamped as assembly metadata at compile time
• Version, build date, and build number logged at startup for binary traceability
• CLI --version displays full build info

UI and dashboard

• Streams page for monitoring active sessions and connected viewers
• Settings page expanded with streaming configuration controls
• EPG Sources page with source management and mapping workflows
• Dashboard updates for streaming status visibility
• Log scroll initialization fix (proper cleanup on component dispose)
• Navigation menu updated for new pages

Testing

• Ring buffer unit tests: eviction, lease ref-counting, snapshot retention, complete behavior
• Channel session integration tests (shared sessions, subscriber lifecycle, idle shutdown)
• Stream request resolver tests including native HDHR tuner routes
• HLS proxy endpoint security tests
• HDHomeRun endpoint and lineup service tests (auto-tune, guide number resolution, native tuner routes)
• Streaming settings service and options validator tests
• EPG compiler, mapper, source fetcher, and XMLTV parser tests
• M3U serializer tests for .ts tail logic
• AppBuildInfo tests
• Application restart service tests
• Centralized SQLite test cleanup infrastructure (connection pool handling, retry-on-lock)

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Container Images

ghcr.io/sydney-elvis/m3undle:v1.0.0-alpha.4
ghcr.io/sydney-elvis/m3undle:alpha

alpha is a rolling tag — it always points to the latest alpha release.

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Known alpha limitations

Still alpha: HLS proxy is functional but not fully hardened for all edge cases,
EPG merging covers common XMLTV formats but exotic sources may need parser
extensions, and Xtream-Codes compatibility covers standard player flows but
not the full API surface. Broader client interoperability testing is ongoing.

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Contributor

@jake1164

Full Changelog: v1.0.0-alpha.3...v1.0.0-alpha.4