I just seen this added as a Server Side option in the latest beta, thanks guys. Can you please explain the difference specifically between them? I only use "Original Quality".
TIA
Direct is what it normally does. Stream always uses HLS, which is what is always used when away from home or transcoding. Check it out in the app as it explains it there.
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Stream ... HLS will use the Server for LIVETV buffer I believe.
Does this effect all devices or just Apple devices? By reading the screenshot above it sounds like "Stream" is a no-brainer? What would be some advantages of choosing "Direct"?
I want the best end-user experience with least amount of hiccups/dropped frames, etc.
Thanks
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The no brainer choice when using an atv or any device that has plenty of storage for pause buffer would be “Direct”. Using stream would cause unnecessary tuning delays for no real gain.
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Then leave it as it is and you’ll just be using what you’ve used in the past.
You’re making this new feature out to be bigger than it is. It’s not a very big change.
Please follow the release notes in the other beta apps to see what effects what.
Stream will have the biggest benefit for Android/FireTV users, so hopefully it won't be too long before you can deploy it in the released client on those devices. Fortunately you have it implemented in the Android/FireTV beta client, so we can take advantage of that feature.
Sounds like Stream is already the default delivery method for Android/FireTV devices? Or is it only when they are "Away from Home"?
Direct
Direct uses MPEG-TS over a single TCP connection. This has the benefit of having the lowest latency for tuning and lowest overhead for your DVR and network. The downside is that it is susceptible to experiencing issues if there is high latency (which is why we do not use this for Away From Home streaming). When watching live from a HDHomeRun, a connection is made directly from the app to the HDHomeRun, bypassing the DVR entirely. If two apps are watching the same channel at the same time, it will use two tuner slots on the HDHomeRun. When watching live from TVE, a connection is made to the DVR because all TVE streams are served by the DVR. The client stores the entire Live TV buffer locally.
Tuner Sharing
Tuner Sharing is a feature that modifies the behavior of Direct to cause live TV streams going to the HDHomeRun to go through the DVR, allowing for multiple apps watching the same channel to only use a single tuner on the HDHomeRun. This setting does not change the behavior of watching TVE streams. The DVR buffer holds a small number of seconds of data so it is still the responsibility of the client to store the entire Live TV buffer locally. This doubles the amount of network traffic and can lead to flaky problems if the DVR is overloaded or the network is at its limit (from being over WiFi or other such issues).
Stream
Stream uses HLS which uses many HTTP requests. This has the benefit of being able to handle high latency and variable network conditions much better than a single TCP connection and can recover from intermittent network issues. When watching Live TV from any source, it will be processed and served from the DVR (but it will not be transcoded). Because each HLS segment is 1 second and the additional processing that must happen, tuning into Live TV can take 1-3 seconds to load (which is generally higher and less consistent than Direct). This is also putting small additional CPU and disk IO load on the DVR, which generally is not a problem, but can cause issues if the DVR or disk is overloaded. The server stores the entire Live TV buffer and the client will store as much of it as it can handle with the available disk space.
What should you do?
If you're not having any problems, don't change settings. Direct streaming without Tuner Sharing will give you the most reliable experience in the most situations.
If you have particular reasons to change the settings, please use these settings to make your experience better.
Us developers of the product use Direct and have Tuner Sharing enabled because we have a reliable network and reliable DVR with lots of resources, but it all depends on your specific situation what makes the most sense for you.
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Great writeup!
Should find a home here
I am leaning towards forcing everything to Stream. I assume this will only effect LAN devices compared to how it is handled now without making any changes?
Currently I have Tuner Sharing enabled.
Question: Without making any changes, if a LAN device is watching ch3 from the HDHR and a remote device requests ch3, will it use up 2 tuner slots since the LAN is using Direct and the remote device is HLS/Stream?
If I force all devices to Stream would the 2 devices only use 1 tuner slot instead?
I run a remote server so all of my clients are internet streaming / away from home.
It looks like I have my clients set to 'Original Quality'. Once this is in the general release, from what I am reading above, we don't have to worry about clients accidentally setting this wrong, because it will default to the 'Stream' option when remote no matter what, right?
Then this does not affect you. Remote streaming is always HLS. This only applies for local streaming.
Seriously, why is everyone making a thing of this?!
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Getting clarification. Is that what the forums are kinda for?
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Please don't do that if you don't have a good reason. Is something not working with your current setup?
Yes, it only impacts LAN devices.
This is what Tuner Sharing controls. If you enable Tuner Sharing, all of the local clients will share a single tuner with the remote devices.
This is not necessary if you enable Tuner Sharing.
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Not making a big deal out of it, just want to make 100% sure I am aware of how it will work once it rolls out in the general release.
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Maddox said 'Stream always uses HLS, which is what is always used when away from home or transcoding'.
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Further down, I saw the screenshot of the setting applying to original quality.
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Eric provided full details of each option, and indicated that Direct, if possible for remote streaming (which I now know is not) would be a bad idea for internet streaming.
So since all of my clients use original quality, I wanted to be certain that that the behavior for 'away from home' described above wasn't a situation of 'this is how it has always worked' but that a client could somehow attempt to use direct due to a bad combo of settings once the new options are there.
I love Channels, but sometimes the descriptions of what settings do in the interface, tooltips, or in the support documentation on the website is lacking. I can't tell you the number of things I have searched on the forum, and then used threads like this one to get WAY more info on. So hopefully, anyone with questions about this in the future will find this thread, and see all of the info up through Eric's detailed post... Which the Channels devs have always been good about answering in this forum.
It's football season, and if this were to roll into the general release before the Eagles - God forbid - make it to the superbowl, I just want to make sure all my settings were appropriate so I don't have to live with a VERY angry wife.
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