Bad Vacation Using Channels

Channels DVR Server Feature Requests
#1

Last week was my first extended vacation since switching from a Sling Box to Channels. It did not go well.

I was in an area with marginal Internet service via cell signal. There just wasn't enough bandwidth for Channels to consistently play my recordings.

The Sling Box could maintain (with poor but watchable quality) a playback with as little as 0.8 mbs. As far as I can tell, it looks like Channels needs at least 4.0 mbs. Am I right?

With the Sling Box, when things were really bad, I could select "Audio Only" on the Sling Box, which always worked for me.

Is it possible to add "Audio Only" to Channels, as well as slower transmission speeds?

#2

I used Channels extensively when I had months-long hospital stays. (Actually, Channels' excellent remote access was why I switched from Tvheadend/Kodi.) Because the hospital WiFi was subpar, I would keep the remote streaming set to 2Mbps, and never had an issue. At times, I even dropped the bitrate lower and still had a quite watchable stream.

You can do this from a web browser—there are several threads here explaining the process—but not within the app. (I agree with the developers on this point: a audio only setting for a TV viewing app doesn't make sense.)

#3

What was the remote streaming quality setting set to in the app? Which app and platform were you using?

#4

I have my app set to 300Kbps on cellular so I don't burn through my data plan too fast. This works great for me. Audio only would be nice though.

#5

Give this a try: https://XXXX.channelsdvr.net/devices/ANY/channels/###/hls/master.m3u8?vcodec=none replacing XXXX with the subdomain assigned to your account and ### with the desired channel number. It ought to give you an audio only stream. It defaults to AAC, but if you want MP3 instead, append &acodec=mp3 to the URL.

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#6

OOPS, my bad!!! I thought "Cellular Streaming" was set to the lowest possible setting. I just checked and it was set to 4Mbps, but I now see that there are other options going down as low as 300kbps. This will likely solve my problem, but I still think an easy way to do audio only from within the app would be a big benefit. Can be used for poor video as well as keeping under the monthly cell plan data cap.

My data cap is quite high, but I have exceeded it while living on a boat for more than a month. I would much rather listen to the news without video, than use up my quota and be unable to watch real video later in the month.

I'll try 2Mbps next time I am out.

Windows 10 Server with a recent beta release. Android Cell app beta version 105.21.2033.
Video Decoder=Hybred

Thanks for the help.

1 Like
#7

It is not a channel related issue. It is on playback of a recording after the fact.

#8

In that case, the URL to use is https://XXXX.channelsdvr.net:8089/dvr/files/####/hls/master.m3u8?vcodec=none where XXXX is the subdomain that Channels has assigned your account, and #### is the fileID of the recording.

When accessing your channels/recordings in this manner, the transcoding settings specified in the DVR web UI will be used, since the stream is basically as if you were using a web browser for all intents and purposes.

(I was incorrect in my previous post ... you can't use the my.channelsdvr.net host when specifying endpoints, you have to use the generated subdomain that Channels assigns your subscription).

#9

I will take your word that this works, and I appreciate the information, but it is way too complex to do on the fly, for one program, from a cell phone on a boat. I have to believe that an "Audio Only" option, like on the Sling Box, would be easy to add to the Android app.