Beta: Downloads and Offline Playback

Couple of screenshots to explain


There shouldn’t be. There’s nothing different about how this all works compared to regularly indexed shows. But we’ll check it out.

OK. Please let me know if you need anything further to narrow what im seeing down.

In the meantime Ill download a full episode of something recorded directly into channels vs an imported local item and see if that shows up in downloads

I was able to reproduce this. I’ll check it out!

The program recorded through channels did load in but home video didnt


This was resolved in the latest beta.

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Verified fixed here. !
Thank you

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Any plans to change the server activity to say downloading instead of watching? My first time trying this feature today, and was a bit confused for a while. Bonus for also saying the speed it's going at... I queued up a bunch on the client (iPad) and then had to search around for the specific episode that was downloading to see the speed it was transferring at. Sorry if this has been discussed already.

Downloads essentially use the same technology as streaming, so, yeah, thats what it says. We'll see if we can make this look less weird and confusing.

As for searching around for the episode to see the speed, if you just go to the actual Downloads list (The Downloads button on the top right of the Library tab), it will show you all of this information as it's downloading.

I know you guy said that currently this downloads in original quality. Are there any plans to allow the download quality to be changed?

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Once the Downloads feature has landed and is settled and stable, then we'll begin looking at expanding it.

But honestly, transcoding while downloading would actually slow down the whole process, so you'd really want to save space to use it. Hardware transcoding happens at 2x realtime, max, which means that's the limiting factor. So a 2 hour movie would take 1 hour to transcode + transfer.

Totally understand going one step at at time.

I agree speed is definitely a factor. I guess it kind of depends on each individuals library if it makes sense. If each movie is only a few GB then maybe it doesn't make sense to transcode but if the server stores blu-ray remuxes for example, then it probably becomes more beneficial.

Perhaps then we could earmark specific recordings/passes ahead of time that we'd like Channels DVR to transcode overnight, to prepare for smaller mobile downloads later on?

Regardless of where it all lands, this feature is great. Kudos to the Channels developers. It works really, really well.

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This is all on the table.

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Is there any way to download offline while not on the beta? I ask because I'm not on the beta, but somehow I've got a downloads section on both my kids' iPads and somehow there's an episode downloaded offline in one of them.

We're traveling this weekend and I'd love to download some episodes offline for them to watch

No, you'll need the beta to expose all the downloading, this feature has not been released.

Interesting. It sounds like some of the things that block the feature from being used aren't working, lol.

Could you provide some screenshots to show what you see? I'm curious how it showed up. The download feature is part of the main app, it's just hidden for non beta releases, we must have missed something.

As far as wanting to use the feature. Just sign up for the beta here: Channels — Beta Program.

The app installs separately and is as stable as the released app. It just has unreleased features.

Yep, here ya go.

Please submit diagnostics from the app. You'll need to turn Kids Only Mode off to get Settings back to do it.

How do I turn Kids Only Mode off?

Try doing it via server side settings on your server. Find the device, and make a specific setting just for that device.