Edit: There is a caveat with the above-linked list: not every channel that is viewable in an app with TVE credentials is compatible with Channels. ONLY channels that make a live stream available with your cable/OTT SSO credentials on their website are compatible with Channels. (Yes, being available in the app and on the website are two distinct and different things.)
1 Like
Cheapest way. Find family member who has cable and "borrow their login"
Next cheapest xteve and iptv. I liked area 51 tv. Not quiet legit. Also unreliable. Iptv station are shady, frequently get shut down, info changes etc. If you like to tinker its ok. But its not grandma aproved. Everytime I used iptv (usually through kodi) I found the need to occasionally fix it.
My favorite philo
My setup 3x nvidia shields (tube style one)
Antenna - Hdhome run Quatro $0 monthly
Online - Philo $20 monthly
Online - locast (various ways to spoof location) $5 monthly
If you use locast u can get away with no antenna. Between locast and philo you got 95% of everything. For a price of $25 and no hidden monthly fees. I like using the antenna for local station before locast. That much less load on my network. I only get $15mbps for $135/month. Gota love living in rural america.
I did find the need to do a vpn. My ISP (I use a wisp) throttles streaming. However it all went away when I installed a vpn.
3 Likes
For the WAF we needed HGTV, TLC, E! and Bravo. I also wanted to have FX, Discovery and History as well. The cheapest option for us was a combination of Philo and Sling Blue. Prices have gone up a little, so now it's only a $5 difference between Hulu/Fubo and the combination of Philo and Sling, but having everything pull into one interface through channels has been great.
My setup is 2x Quadro's, attached to antenna's pointed in 2 separate directions. For all my major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX), that is $0. I was using DVR Channels coupled with TVHeadEnd/TVHeadEndProxy to bring the TVE stuff into my plex server, so that it would be a single interface. I have a combination of Roku Ultra's and a Nvidia Shield 2019.
1 Like
wait? I can use channels tv head in to import my unified tv list into plex? HOW!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
It is possible, not for the faint of heart to be honest.
The first step is to locate the stream URL's, check out this article: Streams URL
If that is something you want to do, I can grab some screenshots and scripts that are running.
2 Likes
Once it is setup does it just work. IE. is it wife aproved? Or am I going to ve tinkering with it 3veru month to "fix" it.
This thread seems to be getting off-track, but it's up to the OP to decide if he wants this in his thread.
May want to break it off to other topics as Providers for TVE isn't being discussed now.
+1 to Philo. I saw that YTTV is raising their prices to $65/month because they are going to start carrying CBS/Viacom content.
Philo + PlutoTV (owned by Viacom) is still $20/month.
Personally, i cant stand PlutoTv.....so gimicky to me.
Its a VOD, but in a "LIVE TV" format....weird.
With no way to hide all the channels i do not want to see, can't stand to use it.
Also, it seems to come bundled on many brands Smart TV, I know that VIZO tv use a re-branded PlutoTV app as their Native "Free TV" feature and button on the remote.
Also, i don't think Pluto has an TVE use to unlock "normal" tv networks streams.
But anyways, i love Philo. There app has its own quirks, with some random eps even for DVR eps, and not VOD eps, locking u into watching the commercials, i have many shows "Saved" on there that is just easier to just go there to see new eps, or watch recent re-runs, vs having to set a Series pass in Channels, and have those clutter up Channels Library, (since one does not have separate user profiles and library).
But, i do fear of a price hike at some point with Philo. No idea how they have been able to keep the low price, but i hope it remains for long time.
I thought i read that Sling recently had a mass cut in what channels u can get via their TVE login info. Sling is a big name service, and many streamboxes come with a decent trial of it, but they are missing many of the channels i want, that Philo and other services have. Sling's cloud dvr is a joke and is very unreliable, and have to pay extra to expand it, last i and several i know used it.
YTTV is awesome! I really liked it the month or 2 i had it, but no matter what i tried, would not connect to Channels DVR. Also, yea, too expensive even then imo. But, i noticed that the channel and vod stream were higher bitrate than most other services. I also really liked the YTTV app iself.
EDIT: I see just now that FuboTV is now raising prices to $65 a month, gaining some channles, like Disney, but loosing many more i want, like TNT, CN,TBS and several more.
yea...i said it years ago when there was the big "cord cutter" fad. Streaming will eventually become just as expensive as classic cable tv. Only makes sense as it popularity gets much bigger and more common.
1 Like
Oof. Definitely going to be a race to the top now. I wonder who will follow Fubo and YTTV. Hulu + Live is already there.
Honestly I don’t think I would pay for PlutoTV if they started charging. There’s enough content available between OTA, Philo, Netflix, and at least for us Amazon Prime content.
Honestly after throwing up an antenna and getting a shocking 65 channels there’s enough to watch with that alone.
PS. Love my Channels DVR. It smokes TiVo so hard.
1 Like
When it's all said and done, Hulu and Sling will be the only ones standing. Others like me will just go back to cable. Maybe use one of those services for a month when the bundle deal ends.
1 Like
I never left Cable TVE is too unreliable ... with cable even if I lose the Internet Connection it still records. I see how TVE keeps the developers hopping from problem to problem. I have TVE as a last resort in case all Prime tuners are in use.
2 Likes
Impaiently waiting for the prime 6 here
2 Likes
so now ATT is higher price.
1 Like
I gave up on chasing streaming services ... was at one point going to give up cable ... I am so glad I never went that route.
Maybe for some, who chase promo pricing and such with cable companies, which my household used to do.
We have had Comcast CATV for 30yrs at hour home.
But have seen the price go up and up ...despite never changing our pacakge.
Used to be about $50 a month, then 70, 80, 90.....at least $10 per year.
Comcast's package that has the channels i want, Digital Preferred it is currently called, after BS fees, taxes, is about $180 a month, $220 not on promo, for cable only.
(I refuse to get their crap internet, as it can not touch my 500megs up and down fiber i get from local isp for half the cost)
Fr my household, on a low fixed income, cable tv became impossible to afford, even calling every few months to get on some promo. Buy food and pay rent, or have tv?? what to do.
Now we pay $20 a month for Philo, and $80 a year for Channels DVR, and use a secondary account from my grandpartents Comcast account since they still and can only have cabletv, and get 97% of the channels we want, and find far more convenient, i really enjoy "saving" shows in a cloud dvr on philo, and have vod and dvr acces to past aired eps, and the ability to start at beginning live show.
TVE abilty makes things very unified for Channels, as all save a couple channels that are not TVE, show up in one app. I was the only one that even had a DVR abilty thanks to Emby and a Prime tuner i had for my use, but rest of household had only Comcast cable and DTA box with no dvr. Now, have streamboxes on all tvs, and with Channels DVR, its great.
Very glad i made the switch over to steaming and got the Shields and CHannels dvr sub when i had the money to do so, and dropped cable. Did that a few months before the pandemic hit and that greatly eased the financial burden that people all over the world now find them selves in, unemployed etc. Would have been forced to drop cable anyways come April this year thanks to that.
TVE is reliable, imo. HAd a few hickups, but over the many years, we have had PLENTY of cable outages and long term issues with certain channels, that no matter how often i complained to comcast to look into and fix, they took months, even over a year for one issue, to fix.
1 Like
Initially it was for Slimmer packages. When Vue Slim Core came out it brought me back to live tv. $35 a month, no locals unlimited Dvr. It was better a perfect compliment to my Hdhomerun. Unfortunately streaming services are trying to be like cable and carry every channel. They can’t compete with cable that way.
I did try to go streaming 2yrs ago..tried out a few of the big name ones...
I even made a huge doc and spreadsheet that was my re-search and compare of each service, what channels were on what, vs my cable tv pacakge...took me liek 2 weeks to do.
PS VUE was my top pick. Really liked the app and had near all the channels i wanted.
Also seemed to be a "cord cutter" top pick and everyone i chatted with praised VUE
But....later found out PS VUE was to be shut down...so...yea. RIP. Killed my interest in moving to streaming for a year or so.
Philo for me since all of the Viacom channels are on TV Everywhere
1 Like