Web¶
mw.app.web
The Catena web application is designed primarily for LG and Samsung TVs controlled with a remote. It also works in a regular web browser on a computer or mobile device.
Screens and the remote¶
The storefront starts straight in the player: the channel fills the screen, and a hint with the number, the title and the current programme appears briefly over it.
The controls are the same on a remote and on a keyboard:
- Up and down — previous and next channel.
- Left and right — previous and next programme of the current channel: this is how catch-up from the archive is opened.
- OK or space — apply the choice standing in the hint.
- Back — cancel a channel change that has not been applied, and close the guide when it is open.
- The yellow button — open and close the programme guide. On a keyboard it is F7 or ~.
Channel switching leaves room to think: the arrows walk the list, the hint shows where the viewer will land, and the channel changes on OK or by itself after a couple of seconds. Ten channels can be walked through without making the player open every one of them.
Programme guide¶
The yellow button opens the guide. Channels are on the left, their programmes on the right; arrows walk the grid and OK opens the selected programme.
What the guide shows depends entirely on the schedule that has been loaded: with no guide source the programme column is empty, and that is missing data rather than a broken storefront — see Programme guide.
Programmes that are not in the archive are not offered. The rule is simple: a programme is available when its interval overlaps the channel's archive window. The reason for a refusal is spelled out:
- This channel is not recorded, so only live is available — the stream has no archive.
- This programme is no longer in the archive — the programme has fallen out of the recording depth.
- This channel has no broadcast configured — the channel has no stream assigned.
The archive bounds arrive together with the channel list, so the decision is made before the button is pressed — the viewer never lands on a black screen.
The account page and devices¶
The account page is the same storefront opened on a phone or a computer: the Your account section. It holds three things.
- Sign in a TV — the field for the six-digit code shown on the TV.
- Your devices — the devices signed in with this account; the current one is marked (this device). The Revoke button next to a row cuts one device off: it stops playing immediately.
- Sign out everywhere — revokes every device at once. The link appears once there is more than one device, and it is what helps when the viewer cannot tell which row is the one they lost.
The ordinary Sign out kills the token on the server first and only then forgets it locally: otherwise the subscriber's list would keep a live token they can no longer name.
Changing the password does not cut devices off: the password guards the way in, not the tokens already issued. To cut off someone else's device, revoke it — from the account page or from the operator console.
The operator sees the same devices on the subscriber's card, block Devices, and can revoke them there — see Subscribers.
How many screens at once¶
The number of simultaneous views is a property of the package, field Simultaneous screens. A subscriber gets the largest limit among their packages, not the sum of them; an empty field means one screen.
A viewer who hits the limit sees All your screens are busy: someone is watching on another device. A screen is freed by closing the playback on another device — or the operator raises the limit in the package, which takes effect immediately, with no second sign-in and without interrupting the views in progress.
The player names its other refusals too:
- This device is no longer signed in — sign in again — the device has been revoked.
- Nothing to play here: the archive does not reach this moment — the requested interval is not in the archive.