I bought the paid app from them. In fact, I bought it twice. Once on AppleTV and once on iOS. And I did it years ago.
I bought it on iOS, too. And I'm still happy to pay $8/mo for their service.
If cost is an issue, then you can roll your own DVR for less. You can use Tvheadend, MythTV, NextPVR or myriad DVR software that are open source and freely available. All of those DVRs offer PVR clients for use with Kodi, all of which is additionally free, both as in speech and beer. To access guide information, I recommend Schedules Direct, which is a measly $25/yr. (Schedules Direct sources their data from Gracenote, same as Channels.)
There are other options you are free to pursue if you feel $8/mo is too costly and not worth the product and service you receive from Channels. But if you do wish to continue to complain about the cost of their software/service, perhaps a different forum would be the more appropriate place for that.
1 Like
I think they innovate too much to do that. They need a steady revenue stream.
The others offer lifetime because its really limited to life of the current hardware. It's really not lifetime. What I love about Channels is that they love to innovate and are hands-down very helpful and have excellent customer service.
Not trying to be a turd, go and enjoy a Plex lifetime pass while I'm watching TVE or messing with new features. Try out a Tablo subscription for a year and see how long it takes them for an update or feature request.
There aren't many bills I don't mind paying...Channels DVR is the exception. It's money well spent.
2 Likes
Listen, all I’m saying is that I’m not going to be paying $80 in perpetuity. Period. I am a lost customer in that respect. If there were an option to pay a one-time lifetime subscription, I would look at the price and consider buying it. Obviously, it would be much more than $80. Many times more. But, I don’t pay recurring software subscription fees. I pay a one-time fee. I can live without a DVR for the OTA broadcasts. My SlingTV plan gives me 50 hours of DVR for no additional charge, and that’s plenty for me.
I pay Apple $10/month for 2TB of iCloud storage, but I’m using their cloud service, so I’m paying for the use of their servers, their bandwidth, electricity, data center workers, etc. However, when I back up my Macs to my own NAS using TimeMachine, Apple is not charging me monthly or annually to use their software to run backups onto my own hardware inside of my network. I paid for their OS development a one-time fee when I purchased their Mac, and I’m using the software embedded in macOS to back up onto my own hardware without a recurring monthly charge.
The analogy between TimeMachine and the Channels DVR is as close as one may get. I purchase the Channels app (twice), and I would consider it fair for this company to sell me the Channels DVR server license to pay extra for the efforts they expanded to develop the DVR server software, which happened after I purchased the Channels app. Every development effort deserves to be rewarded. I’m not against paying for extra features, but I’m not going to pay a recurring software subscription fee. My expectation is that once I pay the one-time lifetime fee, I should be able to record the content steamed from the box I own (Silicondust TV tuner) to another box I own (QNAP NAS) without a recurring monthly or annual fee.
I’m not telling the Channels app developers what they should do. All I’m saying is that I’m not the only one who refuses to pay perpetual recurring fees for the software.
1 Like
OK bye. Enough already they should really close this thread.
This thread is as boring as the Super Bowl 
Part of the subscription price is to cover the expanded (2 weeks) guide data. By your description, this is more akin to a recurring service fee similar to your iCloud storage, not for the use of the software.
3 Likes
Your "I don't pay recurring software subscription fees" dogmatic position is your business, but a lot of software is moving to that model, particularly when the software has significant ongoing support or development. Its all about cost/benefit. If its not worth the cost to you, then don't buy it.
You call yourself a "lost customer", but you are really a lost "liability" to the developers. The DVR space, Guide data, and support of changing service providers, is not a static environment. Plus they are actively developing new features. It would be foolish for them to sell "lifetime" licenses. I would certainly like to pay less, but I understand that the model would result in this great product eventually going the way TIvo is going.
They have said numerous times they aren't offering a lifetime price, so continuing to complain about it isn't going to accomplish anything. Time to look for something you are willing to pay for, which apparently is Sling TV's 50 hour DVR. Problem solved.
4 Likes
But don't you pay $5 per month or something like that for a 50hr DVR on Sling? That's $60 per year into perpetuity, so only $20 more for a much more flexible, expandable DVR.
1 Like
Would you really be happy to buy a copy of Channels, knowing that you would never get a software update, bug fix, or any support after the first year? If so, you are an unusual person, and not the market they are after.
Yes, you are a lost customer, in the same way as people who think that $3 a month would be too much. Every business has "lost customers", but every business needs to decide which ones are okay to loose.
1 Like
No, I am not paying anything extra for 50 hours of DVR storage on SlingTV. They upped their DVR storage from 15 hours to 50 hours about 10 days ago. Apparently they also raised the price of their Orange and Blue packages from $30 to $35 but only for new users. Existing users were upgraded to 50 hours of DVR storage without their monthly price being raised.
1 Like
There are enough places in our society where discussions are being shut down. This doesn't need to be another one. This has been an open and respectful discussion by people of differing (but valid) views. You are not required to keep reading discussions that no longer interest you.
1 Like
Just the Gracenote guide data is worth the monthly price to me. All the functionality, features, innovations and customer support make the value we get out of the monthly fee easy to pay and justify.
Brings up a good question? I wonder how much they have to pay Gracenote each month for each user?
https://www.gracenote.com/video/global-video-data/ Yes, this stuff isn't free... but I guess there are people that think it should be since you can find guide data for free on the internet. TIvo originally said their monthly subscription was to cover guide data. Then they ended up merging with a company that made guide data and switched to that. That was a total train wreck.
Plex DVR is a disaster. Not usable. Emby is usable but don't do any serious time-shifting of sports while it's still recording (thereby defeating the purpose).
Channels is the only one that works as a complete DVR. Pluto integration sweetens the pot.
You can get this data form Schedules Direct for $25 per year.
That is the cost of Gracenotes EPG data or Schedules Direct EPG data?
It is my understanding that they are one in the same.
Schedules Direct gets their data from Gracenote.
No, Schedules Direct is a separate service that provides access to Gracenote data.
Isn't this a distinction without a difference?
3 Likes
Yes and no. If you care about legalities and proper use of licensed data, then it matters. If the end result is all that matters to you, then you'll probably see it as no different.