Glossary
Apprise
Section titled “Apprise”The library ChannelWatch uses for most named notification providers and Custom service URLs. Standard Discord webhooks also have a direct HTTP path. Signed custom webhooks use their own delivery path.
Alert module
Section titled “Alert module”One of the categories ChannelWatch monitors: Channel Watching, VOD Watching, Recording Events, Disk Space, and DVR Health. Each has its own settings and can use per-DVR notification routing.
App version and image version
Section titled “App version and image version”The app version identifies the running ChannelWatch release. The image version identifies the Docker image used to create the container. An in-app update can change the app while retaining the image, so these versions can differ. See Updating ChannelWatch.
Canonical DVR ID
Section titled “Canonical DVR ID”The saved identifier used to join a DVR’s settings, routes, history, and session state. New IDs use dvr_ plus the first eight MD5 characters of the normalized host and port. IPv6 brackets are removed and IPv6 letters lowercased; hostname case is preserved. Normal General-settings edits retain an existing ID. It is an identity key, not a security hash.
Channels DVR
Section titled “Channels DVR”The DVR software ChannelWatch monitors. ChannelWatch is an independent community tool and is not affiliated with Fancy Bits LLC.
Channel Watching
Section titled “Channel Watching”An alert module that notifies when someone starts watching live TV on a Channels DVR server.
Debug bundle
Section titled “Debug bundle”A local zip archive used for troubleshooting. The debug bundles page describes it as a sanitized support artifact that gathers diagnostic details while excluding sensitive files such as the raw database and encryption.key.
Disk Space alert
Section titled “Disk Space alert”An alert module that monitors free storage on a Channels DVR server and can send warning or critical notifications when configured thresholds are crossed.
Short for digital video recorder. In these docs, it usually refers to a Channels DVR server that ChannelWatch connects to and monitors.
Encryption key
Section titled “Encryption key”The local key file at /config/encryption.key used by ChannelWatch to encrypt and decrypt DVR API keys and protected custom webhook URL and secret fields in settings.json using Fernet (fernet: prefix). The key should be protected with restrictive file permissions for effective at-rest protection.
Health probe
Section titled “Health probe”An HTTP endpoint used to check whether ChannelWatch is up and ready. The docs cover the general /api/health endpoint and the Kubernetes style /healthz/live, /healthz/ready, and /healthz/startup probes.
Short for multicast DNS. ChannelWatch uses it for local network DVR discovery, and the docs note that host networking is required for discovery to work while bridge mode returns an empty result.
Maintenance window
Section titled “Maintenance window”On the Dashboard, potential free time is calculated from a DVR’s known recording schedule. It does not predict playback or authorize downtime. The Update Center’s maintenance window is a separate time policy for eligible automatic app installation. See Maintenance Windows.
Notification provider
Section titled “Notification provider”A delivery destination ChannelWatch can send alerts to, such as Pushover, Discord, Telegram, Slack, email, Gotify, Matrix, or a Custom Apprise URL.
Notification routing
Section titled “Notification routing”The per-DVR rules that control which configured notification channels receive which alert types from each DVR.
Prometheus metrics
Section titled “Prometheus metrics”The labeled time series ChannelWatch exposes at /metrics for scraping by Prometheus and related observability tools.
Short for role-based access control. The app calls this Secure login or Users and permissions. API and configuration fields retain the technical term. See Users and permissions for the shipped roles and administration limits.
Recording Events alert
Section titled “Recording Events alert”An alert module that tracks recording lifecycle and outcomes on a DVR, including scheduled, started, completed, cancelled, stopped, failed, skipped, missed, and interrupted states.
Session state
Section titled “Session state”The per-DVR tracking state ChannelWatch uses for active viewing sessions and related alert continuity. Legacy session state can be adopted during migration and archived afterward.
Short for Server-Sent Events. ChannelWatch follows the Channels DVR event stream through /dvr/events/subscribe.
Stream Counting
Section titled “Stream Counting”A sub feature of Channel Watching, not a standalone alert module. When enabled, it adds the current stream count to internal log output for Channel Watching events.
VOD Watching
Section titled “VOD Watching”An alert module that notifies when someone starts playing recorded content or another DVR library item.