Downloads and offline playback are now in beta.
We've all been waiting a long time for this! We've spent an even longer time laying down Channels' internals so that it works well and is HIGHLY reliable.
We've released the first beta for iPhone and iPad. Download any recording onto your mobile device at full quality and watch it on the road, on a plane or anywhere at all. To join the beta, go here: Channels — Beta Program
We've added a new download button next to each recording (and in context menus). You can access your downloads via the button in the navigation bar in the Library Tab. When you are truly offline, you'll see a Downloads button on the welcome screen to get to your downloads.
What about Android
As usual, this work is happening on our primary platform first. Once we're happy with the user experience, it will be ported to Android. UX is a huge part of our beta process.
Much of the work that powers Downloads is already in both of our platforms. Additionally, the extra work for Downloads is part of our cross platform internals that are already shared with our platforms. This means it ports over to Android well, and without a lot of additional code. UI work WILL need to be done for Android though. And it will come soon.
Notable items
- Watch state is synced between your device and server when available. If you're offline, it will sync the next time your app is online.
- Downloads all happen at Original quality so they can be quite large (some Cable TV recordings could be as much as 7GB/hour)
- Downloads will not happen on Cellular, so make sure you're on WiFi if you want to download
- Downloads are not automatically deleted, it'll be up to you to delete them when you're done watching
This will be evolving, like all of our betas. Please try this out and report all issues to this thread.
Open Issues
- None
Resolved Issues
-
Fixed in build 11.04.2301:
Right now the check to prevent downloads on Cellular appears to be broken. Cellular downloads are currently working and we are trying to find a fix to not chew through data plans.