Channels DVR now Publicly Available

It’s with great excitement that we announce we are taking the beta tag off of Channels DVR. It is stable, it has been proven to work really well, and it is ready.

If you were waiting for Channels DVR to leave its Public Beta period, now is your chance to finally go check it out. People are really loving it. Even we’re impressed with how well it works and turned out!

Check out the details and new site at: https://getchannels.com/dvr

$8/month - First Month is on Us

The subscription price for Channels DVR’s is $8 per month.

We’re super excited to announce that all new subscribers will get their first month free!

We want everyone to have a chance to use Channels DVR and make sure it fits well into their households. If you find that it doesn’t, just cancel during the first month and you will not be charged.

Thank You Beta Users

We also want to thank all of you that took a chance on Channels DVR to help us through this beta process. You didn’t just help us find bugs, you also helped guide the product and how it works. We couldn’t have done it without all of your different scenarios, workflows, and expectations in how a DVR should work. Thank you so much. It’s been a joy to interact with you all on the community site.

As a thank you, all active subscribers will be receiving a free month of service.

Wrap up

Building Channels DVR has been really hard and fulfilling. We think what we have today is a really great base for what will end up being even better in the future. Thanks to everyone that has provided feedback or gave compliments on the effort. It makes everything worthwhile.

If you love Channels and Channels DVR, the best thing you can do is tell everyone you know. Show them they don’t need their expensive cable boxes. Show them they don’t need to input switch to their Antenna. Show them that they don’t need to give up their DVR if they cancel cable.

It’s hard not to feel that a new piece of fun DVR software is a bit secondary to what’s important on a day like today. The tragedy in Las Vegas is heartbreaking. We wish everyone involved well. The easiest way to help during a time like this is to help fill up the blood banks. You can find a local blood drive near you a the Red Cross. Please consider giving blood.

We hope you enjoy Channels DVR and find it useful.

Thanks.

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Great work! I’ve been using it for…almost a year now?

The other day I found, dusty in the corner of a room, my Verizon DVRs! I had forgot to return them. Will be doing so this week.

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Thanks for the well wishes for us here in Las Vegas, my hometown. So many people hurting here. And it was an honor to be a beta tester for Channels DVR. It continues to be the best and most developed DVR on the market. Thank you for your investment in this. You should be very proud of your work and I will gladly recommend it to everyone I know.

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Whaaaaa? Hey thanks!

It’s devastating. I can’t even imagine what they’re going through right now, or how painful it is right now for thousands of people. Giving blood is just a small token, but definitely important. It was nice to see lines out at the blood banks before the sun even came up.

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Congrats to the devs :confetti_ball: :clap:

Can’t say enough how much my household appreciates all your hard work on all the Channels family of apps!

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Congrats on hitting public availability :beers:!

Not only has the DVR turned out great (and the most functional solution I’ve tried), but the support response from both of you for every little problem I’ve managed to hit has been outstanding!

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I signed up for the DVR service the day the beta was launched. Coming from a DVR solution running Windows Media Center, Channels even as a fresh beta, was leagues better than what Windows Media Center could do. It only continues to get better.

Keep up the good work. Thank you for making such an outstanding DVR app!

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Congratulations on getting out of beta! I’ve tried many, and Channels DVR was the best even months ago.

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Nice, congrats! Do I need to update the package running on my sinology NAS since it is beta or just continue using it as is?

No need to change anything.

Not happy Australia has been left out whats the go with that?

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Just wanted to congratulations on the move out of Beta! Great work!

It’s a great service for sure, but the elephant in the room is the service cost / pricing structure. I’ve been using the beta the last few months. Now it’s out of beta, I have to weigh how much I’ve used it against how much it costs, which after all at $8/month is Netflix/Prime territory (and those guys are providing the app, the infrastructure and all the content). For me, you have the best DVR on the market which deserves to be everywhere. However, as you know, your market is already limited - Apple TV users / with a HomeRun / with the Channels app / with the supplemental hardware to run the DVR. Surely you want to make sure that those who can run it are running it? The cost should not be a further barrier to entry - I wonder how you arrived at that figure? I suspect it’s the answer to the question “how much will people pay for this?” as opposed to “how much does it cost us to run?”. For me at least, it’s a great shame, but you’ve probably got that answer wrong.

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I agree Jonny. I love Channels and use Plex for DVR. I would be interested but closer to $2-$4 a month.

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I think the cost has to be considered moving forward.

If you are truly “cutting the cord”, paying $96 a year is quite an outlay. I’m very, very borderline on this.

More-so when you consider that SiliconDust charge $35 and Plex $75 pa. And I get a whole lot of bang out of my Plex (lifetime) Pass. And Plex DVR is reportedly getting a grid programme guide “by the end of the year.”

Would love a lifetime subscription option but I assume they have monthly costs for access to data, etc from a 3rd party so not sure how realistic that would be.

Despite the cost comparison, one major flaw for Plex DVR is transcoding during recording. I hate to see my NAS or PC’s CPU constantly spikes up for long duration, and Plex has to transcode for both Live TV and DVR. I personally thought Plex got this implementation wrong. It’s just a bad software approach. If you look at Channels DVR approach, it’s simple and clean, it doesn’t impact your system’s CPU at all (below 4% CPU utilization) during recording because it’s just simply taking raw feed from HDHomeRun. Also, Plex doesn’t allow you to watch your current recording “live”. Again, Plex’s transcoding approach is just not smart at all. But I’d also hope Channels DVR’s pricing can come down to $5. I think $5 is in the sweet spot where it can statsify majority of the customers. Of course, $2-$4 range is favorable, but we should be realistic. This software is not sold in any App Store or Play store. It’s hard to reach wider audience. Plus, the developers still have to support their families. They cannot loose money by constantly giving us new features and fixing problems in light speed time. To be honest with you, I was a skeptical user in the beginning, but I’ve seen these developers working very hard and fixing and tweaking the software very quickly. Their turnaround time is just astonishingly amazing. One day, I complained about high CPU problem, the developers found the problem and fixed it and gave us the bug fix within 2 hours. You will never see this in Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, or any major software companies. After that incident, I was convinced that $8/mo is worth the money. I just hope that they can sustain and keep on improving the software and features. That’s the best cut the cord solution I’ve found.

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All laudible points, but I contend that potential customers don’t consider whether developers need to put food on the table, they are interested in the value / cost ratio of a product to them.

By the way, I can watch Plex live while recording. Doubting myself, I’ve just tried it.

We can agree on is the support and effort put into Channels by the devs.

Incidentally I have a 3rd gen Apple TV, so no Channels for me. I tried the 4th gen and didn’t like it. That said I have multiple Macs and iDevices, supported by HDHomeRun, Plex and Channels. My typical evening consumpion of multimedia is actually on an Amazon Fire TV, which Is running a promising beta copy of Channels.

As I see it, Channels has the potential to be the ultimate multi-platform TV media player. But the DRV cost — in my opinion — is a barrier to take up.

Would be nice if it was baked into the price of the app.