Channels DVR added TVEverywhere ...

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

did somebody say that Channels DVR DOESN'T record 5.1 audio?

False inaccurate reporting.

It Records whatever is given to it .... Most TVE Streams are Stereo from the provider.

[samgreco]

It does 5.1 for OTA. It doesn't for TV Everywhere "recordings". It uses web browsing to record TVE and that's limited to 2 channel. I'm OK with that for most of what I record. Especially since I have no other way to record that content.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by samgreco

It does 5.1 for OTA. It doesn't for TV Everywhere "recordings". It uses web browsing to record TVE and that's limited to 2 channel. I'm OK with that for most of what I record. Especially since I have no other way to record that content.

You don't have Comcast cable TV available to you? I had the idea that with a HDHR Prime and a Comcast cable card that you could get pretty much everything but the premium channels, even more than what you can get with TVE. Maybe not.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

You don't have Comcast cable TV available to you? I had the idea that with a HDHR Prime and a Comcast cable card that you could get pretty much everything but the premium channels, even more than what you can get with TVE. Maybe not.

If you have a Prime (only used are available) but none is needed if TVE is enough.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

If you have a Prime (only used are available) but none is needed if TVE is enough.

Right, but I don't want to give people the false impression that everything they receive through copy-freely on their cable TV is going to be available via TVE.

[samgreco]

I don't do Cable anymore. Yes, Comcast is available to me. I use them as my ISP. But all my TV comes from online sources now. There's not a ton that I need, so it's saving me a small fortune.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

I was wondering if Channels DVR supported the video import feature. That is the one thing about SageTV that I would totally miss.

Yes, I miss it, badly. I was thinking when I started using Channels DVR that it might be months before they got a working import for Movies and TV shows, but after watching the forum for a while now, I believe it could really be years, if at all.

They are still struggling to get a common sense interface working on just the Apple platform. I appreciate what the developers are working to achieve, but apparently it's a very complex thing that will take a very long time. It's quite amazing what the Sage developers put together in just the span of 5 years or so.

The TVE inclusion is really fantastic, but must be a daily maintenance headache for those guys. I have to give them credit for chasing their tails trying to fix it every time it breaks.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Yes, I miss it, badly. I was thinking when I started using Channels DVR that it might be months before they got a working import for Movies and TV shows, but after watching the forum for a while now, I believe it could really be years, if at all.

They are still struggling to get a common sense interface working on just the Apple platform. I appreciate what the developers are working to achieve, but apparently it's a very complex thing that will take a very long time. It's quite amazing what the Sage developers put together in just the span of 5 years or so.

The TVE inclusion is really fantastic, but must be a daily maintenance headache for those guys. I have to give them credit for chasing their tails trying to fix it every time it breaks.

I have imported all my Movies to Channels DVR ... TVShows cannot be imported at the moment.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I have imported all my Movies to Channels DVR ... TVShows cannot be imported at the moment.

I have also imported most of my movies, and of course, they are all sorted in right along with any movie that is recorded on television, with no way to separate them.

[samgreco]

I've started using the Kodi add-on for Channels. Overall it works fairly well. And that seems to sort the interface issue for me. Although I think I've gotten used to the Channels interface enough that it doesn't really bother me anymore.

But I think ultimately, the Kodi/Channels combo seems to be a reasonable replacement for Sage. At least for me. So much so, that after a few months of running both, I just shutdown my Sage server this week since my Schedules Direct subscription was running out. Why keep paying for both?

[KryptoNyte]

I hear ya, Sam. You and Ed got me thinking ... maybe I'm just going about this wrong waiting for Channels to come around. Maybe it would be best to run Channels DVR natively for live and recently recorded TV, and some secondary software to handle my own media libray.

What is the best stand-a-lone, one time purchase (with maybe some upgrade purchases later), media server software out there, that can transcode and provide a great image on a reasonably priced Android device remotely? I run a fairly powerful PC 24/7 already with Channels and Sage on it, I suppose I could just add a new media server.

Kodi? Emby? Plex?

Sam, what exactly does the Kodi add-on for Channels look like?

[samgreco]

I don't use transcoding of my media library, so I just don't need backend media server. I just use Kodi pointing to my media folders on my server. I do however occasionally use the built in transcoding in Channels.

The add-on looks like whatever Kodi skin makes it look like. Beware though, not all skins are working with the Channels add-on. Or at least not all of the features show through. And the Channels DVR is still in Beta and not available from the Kodi add-on repositories. And I'm not sure that the Channels developers are very interested in doing a lot with it.

So for instance, not all of skins support season and episode numbers on the info screens. That's important to me, so I had to wade through a bunch of skins to get that. I use Titan, which itself takes some fiddling with to get it to do what I want. But it has a LOT of settings. So I basically got what I want.

Can't get to my Android box to grab any screencaps, but I'll try and grab some and post.

[KryptoNyte]

Sam, I got Plex server up and running in about 20 minutes, and the remote streaming seems like it will work well, once I purchase a lifetime pass.

Still a little curious to see how the Kodi add-on can improve the way Channels looks.

[KryptoNyte]

A new problem has surfaced that the developers can't seem to help with. At my 2nd place (a different Internet connection), I was able to connect my Firestick to my primary Channels DVR server without issue. Then a week ago, the ISP made some change to my cable modem that makes it impossible to connect any devices (even another PC) to the 1st location Channels DVR Server. After logging into the modem, when I hit 'advanced' there is some form of rotating password that the end user does not have access to - and there is no password on the modem itself.

If I pull a firestick off this 2nd location wifi and connect it to my phone hotspot, it works fine, so we've been able to verify numerous other ways that the server is working properly when connecting remotely. Does anyone have any idea how I would troubleshoot this issue, or find some workaround?

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

A new problem has surfaced that the developers can't seem to help with. At my 2nd place (a different Internet connection), I was able to connect my Firestick to my primary Channels DVR server without issue. Then a week ago, the ISP made some change to my cable modem that makes it impossible to connect any devices (even another PC) to the 1st location Channels DVR Server. After logging into the modem, when I hit 'advanced' there is some form of rotating password that the end user does not have access to - and there is no password on the modem itself.

If I pull a firestick off this 2nd location wifi and connect it to my phone hotspot, it works fine, so we've been able to verify numerous other ways that the server is working properly when connecting remotely. Does anyone have any idea how I would troubleshoot this issue, or find some workaround?

That is one of the reasons why I put my ISP modem/router in Bridge Mode .... every-time they did an upgrade it caused me nothing but headaches. I use my own router where I have full control of ports and access.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

and there is no password on the modem itself.

You know how Xfinity advertises millions of "hot spots". Every single one of their cable modem/routers that you pay for each month also acts as a public hot spot. (Think of it as a public "guest network") The problem is that it is using your bandwidth and can slow down your connection.

Just another reason why I have my own cable modem and router.

[KryptoNyte]

It turns out the device I was logging into was in fact the cable modem, which I confirmed today with the ISP is a direct pass-thru device with no filtering capabilities, and they are not blocking anything otherwise. So I tested a new router here at my house (connecting it to my phone's hotspot) and successfully connected a firestick to Channels DVR with it.

I took it over to the other place, connected it, and the firestick authenticates just fine, but never makes a successful connection. So, best I can tell, it's not the ISP, it's not the hardware. What's left?