Core Settings

Use Settings > General > DVR & App for timezone and logs, and Settings > Alerts for alert policy. These values are stored in /config/settings.json. On mobile, use the Settings section selector to move between General and Alerts.

General settingsUse the General tab to review DVR entries alongside timezone and logging settings after setup. Captured from ChannelWatch v1.6.0 with safe demo data.View full-size screenshot

Settings reference

ChannelWatch saves these values in /config/settings.json inside the container’s config directory.

Setting	Default	Description
Timezone	America/Los_Angeles	IANA timezone used for all timestamps in notifications and logs
Log Level	Standard	Controls log verbosity: Standard (level 1) or Verbose (level 2)
Log Retention	7 days	How long log files are kept before automatic cleanup
Channel Watching	Disabled	Live TV viewing notifications
VOD Watching	Disabled	Recorded content and library playback alerts
Recording Events	Enabled	Lifecycle and outcome alerts for scheduled, started, completed, cancelled, stopped, failed, skipped, missed, and interrupted recordings
Disk Space	Enabled	Storage threshold alerts at warning and critical levels
DVR Health	Enabled	Unreachable and recovered alerts for DVR connections
Stream Counting	Enabled	Adds total active stream count to Channel Watching notifications

These are fresh-install defaults from the Important Only preset. Existing installs keep their saved alert choices during an upgrade.

Timezone

ChannelWatch uses the timezone you set here for all notification timestamps and log entries. The value must be a valid IANA timezone name - for example America/New_York, Europe/London, or Asia/Tokyo.

You can also set the timezone via the TZ environment variable in your compose file, which overrides the web UI value:

environment:
  TZ: "America/New_York"

Note

At container startup, a valid TZ value is also written into saved settings. Keep the compose value and the UI setting in sync; otherwise the next startup can replace a timezone changed only in the UI. Remove the explicit TZ override if you want saved UI settings to own the timezone.

For environment-variable-driven setup patterns, see DVR Connection and Environment Bootstrap Config. On this page, TZ is the only env var that directly changes a core setting.

Log level

Two levels are available:

• Standard (default) - logs connection events, alert dispatches, and errors. Suitable for normal operation.
• Verbose - adds detailed event processing, API call traces, and session lifecycle messages. Use this when troubleshooting unexpected behavior.

Verbose mode generates significantly more log output. Switch back to Standard once you’ve diagnosed the issue.

Log retention

ChannelWatch automatically deletes log files older than the configured retention period. The default is 7 days. Increase this if you want a longer audit trail; decrease it on low-storage systems.

Log files are stored at /config/logs/ inside the container (the directory you mounted as /config).

Alert toggles

Each alert type can be enabled or disabled independently. Disabling an alert type stops ChannelWatch from sending notifications for that category - it does not affect monitoring or logging.

Alert type	What it covers
Channel Watching	Live TV streams on any tuner or client
VOD Watching	Playback of recorded content or DVR library items
Recording Events	Scheduled, started, completed, cancelled, stopped, failed, skipped, missed, and interrupted recordings
Disk Space	Free space on the DVR storage path falling below configured thresholds
DVR Health	Connection outages and recoveries after the configured delay

For per-alert configuration options (which fields appear in notifications, cooldown timers, image sources), see the individual alert pages:

• Channel Watching
• VOD Watching
• Recording Events
• Disk Space
• DVR Health

Stream counting

When enabled, ChannelWatch includes the total number of active streams across all connected DVR servers in Channel Watching notifications. This is a Channel Watching sub-feature, not a standalone alert type. It gives you a quick sense of household activity at a glance.

API key

ChannelWatch v1.6.5 exposes a REST API at /api/v1/. A fresh install requires you to choose Secure login or trusted-network no-auth before setup continues. Secure login uses local session authentication. Existing installations may still use the legacy shared X-API-Key path for compatibility.

See Security Modes for app access and DVR API Keys for Channels DVR credential storage.

Next steps

Choose Save Settings after making changes. ChannelWatch saves the configuration, requests a monitoring-core restart, and refreshes the browser. Check the dashboard after it reconnects. This keeps the same container and image; see Hot Reload for the distinction between a reload and restart.

• DVR Connection - add and manage your Channels DVR servers
• Hot Reload - apply configuration changes without restarting the container