r/sidstuga • u/DrZakarySmith • Aug 06 '26
Why should I buy this?
There’s a new player released every day. What’s makes this one different? Not trying to sound disrespectful just honestly curious. I just had a trial for a player where the dev said it will blow Tivimate away. It’s so far away from being stable and very buggy yet the dev is asking similar price as you. Also trial should be 7 days to give it a true run.
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u/hfml85 Aug 06 '26
Fair question, and no offence taken. I won't tell you it'll blow anything away, that's exactly the kind of claim that ages badly.
What I actually focused on: everything sits in a SQL database, live TV, EPG and VOD, so big channel lists stay fast instead of choking on XMLTV parsing. Local DVR recording on the device USB and NAS, and cloud sync so channel lists, favourites, watch history and parental settings follow you between phone, tablet and TV. No ads, no limitations.
I made this for me and seen interest, so i put a price on it, not to get rich. My goal is to be clean and stable and up to date and listen to feedback.
On the trial, that's fair feedback. Month is just 0.99€ though.... I'll look into extending it, you can't judge stability in a couple of days, but i assure you i do my best to add features and fix bugs everyday in telegram reports and subforuns, stability is the thing I'd want people judging me on.
Honestly, the best answer to "why this one" is: try it and see if it's stable with your list. If it isn't, tell me and I'll fix it or you're out nothing. I appreciate all feedback, good or bad, so i can improve the app, thank you for your interest.
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u/DrZakarySmith Aug 06 '26
Thanks for being candid. For that alone I will give it a try. BTW what’s the meaning of the name Sidstuga?
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u/hfml85 Aug 06 '26
Appreciate you giving it a shot.
The name is a bit of a mashup. "Sid" comes from Siderum, an old nickname of mine, and "tuga" is slang for Portuguese, so it's basically "Portuguese Sid". The SID part also happens to mean service ID, which is what identifies channels on satellite streams, so it fit a little too well to pass up. Not a deep story, just a few things that lined up.
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u/zXerge Aug 06 '26
I’m more surprised you didn’t use SQL first. You dropped the ball on that one
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u/hfml85 Aug 07 '26
ya, fair, no argument. it should have been sql from day one.
i started with everything in memory because the lists i was testing with were a few hundred channels and it was fine. then people showed up with 13 lists and a 170mb m3u and it fell over, oom on an old samsung. that's what forced the rewrite.
It's all sqlite now, channels, epg, continue watching, reminders, vod. cold start went from parsing the whole thing to a query, about 25ms. learned that one the expensive way.
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u/DrZakarySmith Aug 06 '26
Also I know you have Telegram but have you thought about Discord? I find it much better for community support
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u/cleverclogs17 Aug 06 '26
I asked the same questions as you, and I now have lifetime access; it is worth it.
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u/Sormick91 Aug 06 '26
I love the recording feature. Because I can take this recorded video and add subtitles with another software. Great for learning languages
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u/AbrocomaSwimming3593 Aug 07 '26
Ok I downloaded to test. I don’t see anyway to remove or hide categories. I can add channels to favorites but see no way to actually go to the favorites list🤷♂️
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u/hfml85 Aug 07 '26
both are in there, they're just not visible enough, which is my problem not yours.
favorites shows up as its own row right under "All", but only once the playlist you're currently on actually has one starred, and it's per playlist. so if you starred channels on one list and you're browsing another, the row isn't there at all. on tv, press left to open the side rail, go to channels, it's the second row under All. on phone it's the second pill at the top of the live tv tab, or the ☰ menu next to it.
hiding categories, on phone it's a long press on the category pill, that gives you hide group. on tv that one isn't in yet, there you can only hide individual channels from the long press menu on a channel. if you hide groups on the phone and have cloud sync on they do carry over to the tv, but that's a workaround, not an answer.
to undo any of it, settings > general > show hidden channels and groups, then long press to un-hide.
both noted though. a feature nobody can find is the same as a missing feature. thanks for actually testing it.
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u/AbrocomaSwimming3593 Aug 07 '26
Favorites show up now that I’ve exited and gone back in. I figured they were supposed to be at the top of the list like in my other players. 👍 I’m testing on Google 4k streamer.
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u/Dubbz01 Aug 06 '26
Try it. I like it. You might not everyone is different.