Help · Channels
Channels that feel programmed.
Everything here runs on the device from your library’s metadata. No server component, no configuration files.
Made from your library
SurfRewind builds channels by itself from what your library can keep on the air, on first launch and whenever your library is scanned: up to twenty of your biggest shows (each in episode order, numbered from 100), your collections (from 200), and mixes, audiences, lengths, PILOT SEASON and a few decades (from 60). It never duplicates a channel you already have and never touches your own channels’ numbers or favorites. Channels → Made from your library has a box for each kind — untick one to take those channels off the guide and stop making more; tick it to bring them back. Any single channel can be taken off with its On guide box, and it stays off. The guide holds up to 100 channels; automatic ones stop at 90 so there is always room for yours.
Getting around
Press Back anywhere in the guide to jump to the top menu — Guide · Channels · Settings — then Left and Right to choose. Back from full screen returns to the guide; Back on the top menu asks before closing the app.
Discover
Channels → Discover lists more stations your library can actually sustain: a channel for every show with 24+ episodes, every collection with a day of material, genre and decade mixes (80s HORROR, Y2K COMEDY), audiences (KIDS, TEEN, AFTER DARK), lengths (SHORTS, QUICK HITS, EPICS), pairs like ROM-COM and SCI-FI HORROR, PILOT SEASON, and seasonal stations. Preview the titles, then add it. Suggestions need at least eight hours of material so a channel never runs dry.
Add a channel yourself
Channels → Add a channel offers pickers over what your library really has, with counts: a whole show, a collection, or a mix of programs, genre, decade and audience. The station names itself (“90s HORROR MOVIES”) and shows how many titles it would have before you add it.
Play order
Each channel can shuffle, play a series in season and episode order, or run by release year. A channel built from one show plays in order by default. Sitcom-length shows air two episodes back to back; a film is followed by its sequel when the collection has one.
Dayparts
PRIME TIME runs a movie block from 8 to 11 pm. AFTER HOURS turns to horror, thrillers and crime from 11 pm to 3 am. SATURDAY MORNING runs family-rated cartoons on weekend mornings. The guide labels the block under the channel name. A program that straddles the end of a block plays out; nothing is cut.
Marathons
Select any program from a series or a film collection and press Marathon · 3 h. From the next program boundary that channel runs the series in order for three hours, then goes back to normal. It survives Shuffle lineup and expires by itself.
Flip like it’s 1995
- Channel keys and number keys change channels; a burst of static covers the switch and an info banner tells you what you landed on.
- Surprise me (R on a keyboard) picks a random channel that is on right now.
- An up-next card appears in the last ten seconds of every program.
- Shuffle lineup re-rolls what is on idle channels without interrupting what you are watching.
Holiday weeks
From October 24 to 31 and December 18 to 26, PRIME TIME leans into the season at 8 pm, and a HALLOWEEN NIGHT or CHRISTMAS station appears when your library has enough for one. Turn it off on the Channels page.
Parental PIN
Channels → Parental controls. Set a 4–6 digit PIN and choose: hide mature channels from the guide, or show them and ask for the PIN. A channel counts as mature when its rule asks for R / TV-MA only, or when most of its rated titles are R, NC-17 or TV-MA. Only a salted hash of the PIN is stored.
Nightly scan
New titles join tomorrow’s schedule after a quiet scan at 2 am (or 4, 6, or off). On a Windows laptop the scan waits while you are on battery. The guide tells you how many titles arrived.