Hi, I'm new and currently testing out ErsatzTV. I love the concept and it's pretty straightforward to configure. However, I wanted to ask if there are any options to control content? For example, I normally use Plex tags on videos that kids are allowed to see. In the past, I used to restrict this based on library permissions but found the tags easier to work with. With that said, is there any way to hide certain channels or is it just all or nothing? While testing, I noticed that under the kid profile I created, I'm able to bypass the restrictions and view whatever is playing on any channel. I'm also open to other ideas or workarounds if anyone has them.

jason No. I understand the parental controls in Plex and have them in place. My question was related to the ErsatzTV channels not recognizing those restrictions. For example, in my test, the child profile I set up can't normally watch John Wick due to the rating tag. However, if I configure a channel to play John Wick, that profile can watch the movie because they have access to everything listed on the channel guide. That's why I was asking about ErsatzTV controls/restrictions or any other ideas people may have.

    ErsatzTV is not involved with Plex's Parental Controls at all, and according to that page, Plex's Parental Controls do not apply to Live TV (which is what ErsatzTV is).

    Plex parents can create managed user accounts for their children and apply a preset profile to it. These profiles are designed to restrict access to content based on content ratings. These affect media accessed from “movie” and “TV” libraries on a Plex Media Server as well as Video on Demand content. (It does not apply to Live TV content or channels)

    Generally speaking, ErsatzTV channels are "all or nothing" - there is one list of all channels. You could perhaps investigate different clients that respect the rating metadata that ErsatzTV includes in the XMLTV: if you see ratings when browsing your content in ETV, those ratings will be included in the generated XMLTV.

      jason Thank you for the follow up. I asked in a Plex forum as well and received a similar answer. Unfortunately, Plex also does not have any internal controls to restrict a live channel to a specific user. I tested Jellyfin out of curiosity and it appears to be the same. Honestly, I'm very surprised especially when so many Plex users have families. Maybe in time, something will change but I guess we'll have to stick to the standard Plex library permissions and ratings for now.

        4 months later

        I'm solving this with fixed time schedules - So grown up content only plays between 21:00 and 02:00 - This is similar to the way broadcast TV channels handle age restricted content.

        I then have an additional content schedule that fills the remaining 19 hours with only family-friendly content.