Channel flipping functionality

Channels DVR Server
#1

Been playing around with ChannelsDVR now for a little while and have been super impressed - enough to officially retire my 6 tuner Tivo. The custom channel import and internal guide mapping capability especially - extremely simple and works great.

One thing I can't seem to figure out however is what exactly is the expected functionality of "channel flipping" - listed as a feature on the main Channelsdvr website with the description: "See what's on your other channels while watching."

As an addicted tivo channel/tuner flipper, one that is used to pausing what I'm watching on one tuner, flipping to another, pausing that one, flipping back, etc. - transitioning to this only watch one channel at a time experience of Channels has been a shock to the system.

Posting to see if perhaps maybe I'm just not setup correctly and this is something Channels can do through this channel flipping feature?

I have android (Stream4k) / firetv clients. I can't pause live tv and go to another channel and come back. In fact if I pause live tv and try to do anything else, bring up the guide, etc.. it will always go back to live tv with no buffer when I return to the channel I paused. I even read somewhere I can hit down arrow and see the guide as an overlay over what I'm watching but I can't seem to do even do that.

Am I just doing it wrong?, or should I head over to feature requests? :slight_smile:

Thanks for building such a great dvr and looking forward to being a part of the community.

#2

Unless I'm mistaken, that would be the Quick Guide:

#3

Channels has only a single buffer. If you exit the playback or change channels, you’ll reset the buffer.

So no, you can’t do what you described.

#4

Don’t mean to hijack the thread, but how about Channel Up or Down functionality? For us long time TiVo users it’s tough to forget the old habits :man_shrugging:

#5

As a TiVo user I know what you're saying.
TiVo is a closed box system with exclusive control over its tuners.
It is always buffering about 30 minutes per tuner to its disk, so can do that kind of stuff.
Channels DVR does not have exclusive control over its source tuners and if it did buffer them all to disk, it would be using all your tuners.
Hence you need to adjust to Channels DVR and quit thinking of it like a TiVo.

#6

If your remote has Channel +/- buttons they will work in Channels. If you are using a remote that you program (such as a bluetooth remote that can emulate a keyboard), the Page Up/Down buttons will change channels. And if you have an Apple TV with the new aluminum Siri remote, you use a press (not tap/swipe) of Up/Down to change channels.

Also, the Channel +/- and Page Up/Down buttons will page through the guide.

1 Like
#7

Thank you! I was not aware of this. Slower than channel up or down on TiVo, but it does the job

#8

I suppose I'm maybe thinking of it a bit differently .. with Channels and say TVE - I think of each simultaneous stream coming in as a rough equivalent to a tuner in tivo world. For example, with Channels now I can record a TVE channel and watch another one at the same time. To me that is sort of like two tuners being used in a tivo - I am pulling in two streams at once. I guess I thought that with the way we are bringing content into Channels, the number of "tuners" would be either the number of simultaneous streams allowed from the provider, or a hard limit based on compute resources.

Sounds like there is probably a larger technical limitation at issue preventing Channels from having similar functionality besides just a provider stream limit, etc.

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

#9

True for TVE or M3U streams, but not for HDHR tuners with limited number of tuners depending on model. Just like a TiVo has a limited number of tuners depending on model.