How does this project relate to the DVR being developed by Silicon Dust maker of the HD Home Run.
Are these different products?
If I buy their solution will it likely not work with Channels App?
they are completely separate
I see. Well I guess it is good that there is competition.
Do we know what the hardware host will be here?
They are still using the Silicon Dust tuners for this projects. Just different software.
Right I see that now. Just has been confusing because I thought Channels was going to use Silicon Dust’s DVR. Did not know about this forum. I see now that these are competing projects. Channels does so well with fit and finish so I am sure they will come up with something good.
Channels was originally going to use SD DVR and they actually started building it into their alpha releases. However, they were upset by the slow pace and overall buggy software that they were receiving from SD to they then decided to just build their own from scratch!
Unfortunately now the SD DVR backend works great and has a lot of features including things that are not built in the SD client yet and Channels still has gotten very far with the DVR. If channels stuck with SD I would have considered buying an Apple TV and getting Channels. Buying an Apple TV for every room I want TV in can add up pretty quick especially when you can use SDs solution on a $70 Android TV box.
Being an early adopter of original Channels DVR solution, which also at the time required a subscription to SD DVR, I was able to test both solutions. After Channels made the break from SD engine, I continued to use SD DVR until September when I finally gave up on the SD implementation.
My observations:
Channels aimed to be a full provider of an elegant, feature rich, user friendly solution, whereas SD has decided to be a base engine provider and expects third party solutions to offer the frills, ease of use and full feature support (without providing support for those third party developers on a timely basis).
Although fantastic on their tuner hardware support, SD has the absolute worst customer software support that I’ve ever experienced. Simple questions left answered, i.e. What is file status 3?, non complex U.S. guide issues taking 3-4 weeks to resolve (with 3-4 written requests), customer requests/features ignored, irratic/non existant status updates, and currently an 18 month development cycle (and counting) for the basic features which are still eclipsed by multiple other solutions.
Channels devs are exceedingly professional and have provided exactly the opposite. Almost immediate response on questions, guide, features, etc. on their current apps. And timely updates on progress…positive or negative. Yes, they have not issued a DVR Beta yet (their timeline is still Fall 2016) but I have the utmost faith that they will reach that goal, maybe late Fall, but not 13 months late). Further, I expect that their Beta will be significantly better than any other full release.
SD’s hook was DRM and many joined what turned out to be a very DIY DVR project based on that promise. DRM is still not included and no known current status of that capability.
Based on past experience with the Channels’ devs the DVR solution will not be a DIY, with a need for third party extras (many requiring command line) or some still TBD, hidden menus (hit menu 13X to view some settings), etc., etc.
Finally, playback via an ATV is miles ahead of Android. And until very, very recently (for decent playback) one had to utilize a Shield which is costlier than an ATV. Channels playback of live, live buffer, recordings, even last Spring, was the best of any app that I’ve used since (iOS, tvOS or Android on NP, Shield).
Well worth the wait for a professional, well executed solution and at least on release, try an ATV with Channels Beta DVR (to see what you’ve been missing).
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Thanks so much for the thorough answer. Really like the fit and finish of the channels stuff so far. Big catch for me is DRM support. I can’t kill my cable company DVR without that.
I know that this is wishful thinking and that it probably would not happen… A real “coup” would be for channels (once the ChannelsDVR is at a 1.0 or 2.x stage) to add secondary support for the SDDVR engine (but requiring a channels DVR sub to enable the feature)
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What would the point of supporting the SDDVR be?