Recording Events

Recording Events alerts track the full lifecycle of a DVR recording. You can enable or disable notifications for each stage independently, so you only hear about the transitions that matter to you.

Lifecycle stages

ChannelWatch monitors five recording states. Each notification includes a status emoji so you can identify the stage at a glance.

State	Emoji	When it fires
Scheduled	📅	A new recording job is created and its start time is more than 30 seconds away
Started	🔴	The DVR begins actively recording (manual or scheduled)
Completed	✅	The recording finishes and the file is processed
Cancelled	🚫	A scheduled recording job is deleted before it starts
Stopped	⏹️	An in-progress recording is stopped before its scheduled end time

Options

Configure Recording Events in the web UI under Settings > Alerts > Recording Events.

Option	Config key	Description
Scheduled Events	`rd_alert_scheduled`	Send an alert when a recording is scheduled
Started Events	`rd_alert_started`	Send an alert when a recording begins
Completed Events	`rd_alert_completed`	Send an alert when a recording finishes
Cancelled Events	`rd_alert_cancelled`	Send an alert when a scheduled recording is cancelled
Show Program Name	`rd_program_name`	Include the program title in the notification
Show Description	`rd_program_desc`	Include the program summary
Show Duration	`rd_duration`	Include the recording duration
Show Channel Name	`rd_channel_name`	Include the channel name
Show Channel Number	`rd_channel_number`	Include the channel number
Show Recording Type	`rd_type`	Indicate whether the recording is scheduled or manual

Each event type can be toggled on or off independently. Disabling Scheduled Events, for example, still lets you receive Started and Completed alerts. There is no separate Stopped Events toggle in source; stopped notifications are produced from the completed-recording path and therefore follow rd_alert_completed.

Notification format

Notifications follow a consistent layout across all lifecycle stages. The channel name appears as the title, followed by the status line, program details, and a time table.

Scheduled recording:

📺 ACTION NETWORK
Channel: 137
Status: 📅 Scheduled
Program: Batman (1989)
-----------------------
Scheduled: Today at 8:54 AM EDT
Duration:  2 hours 16 minutes

Caped Crusader (Michael Keaton) saves Gotham City from the Joker (Jack Nicholson).

Recording in progress (manual):

📺 MOVIE CHANNEL
Channel: 129
Status: 🔴 Recording (Manual)
Program: Crank: High Voltage (2009)
-----------------------
Recording: 8:49 AM EDT
Program:   8:48 AM EDT
Duration:  1 hour 42 minutes
Total Streams: 1

Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) seeks revenge after someone steals his nearly indestructible heart.

Completed recording:

📺 MOVIE CHANNEL
Channel: 129
Status: ✅ Completed
Program: Pet Sematary (1989)
-----------------------
Duration: 1 hour 54 minutes
Total Streams: 1

A doctor (Dale Midkiff) and his family move to a town near an ancient Indian burial ground.

Cancelled recording:

📺 ACTION NETWORK
Channel: 137
Status: 🚫 Cancelled
Program: Batman (1989)
-----------------------
Scheduled: Today at 8:54 AM EDT
Duration:  2 hours 16 minutes

Caped Crusader (Michael Keaton) saves Gotham City from the Joker (Jack Nicholson).

Stopped recording:

📺 SCI-FI CHANNEL
Channel: 152
Status: ⏹️ Stopped
Program: Pandorum (2009)
-----------------------
Duration: 20 minutes
Total Streams: 1

Astronauts awake to a terrifying reality aboard a seemingly abandoned spaceship.

The “Recording Type” field in the Started notification shows (Scheduled) when the recording came from the scheduled-recordings cache and (Manual) when it started on demand. The Program: time line only appears when the program start time differs from the recording start time by more than 60 seconds.

Testing

You can send a test Recording Events notification from the Diagnostics tab in the web UI without waiting for a real recording to occur. The test uses the --test-alert ALERT_RECORDING_EVENTS flag internally and sends a sample notification through your configured providers.

From the command line:

docker exec -it channelwatch python -m channelwatch.main --test-alert ALERT_RECORDING_EVENTS

Troubleshooting

If you stop receiving Recording Events notifications, check the following:

Confirm the relevant event types (Scheduled, Started, Completed, Cancelled) are enabled in Settings.
Verify your notification provider credentials are valid using the Diagnostics tab.
Check container logs for any API fetch errors: docker logs channelwatch.
Use --monitor-events 60 to watch the raw event stream and confirm ChannelWatch is receiving recording events from the DVR.

Notification Examples — sample payloads for every alert type
Disk Space — another alert page with status-based behavior
Notification Providers — configure where alerts are delivered