I agree, with OTA a monthly fee is what I’m trying to avoid. I’d happily pay a reasonable lifetime subscription though.
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I was thinking the same thing, $8 is a great price, if I was using it with cable TV. but I just have OTA TV stations(not even all of them, a hill is blocking Fox and PBS) and would only want to record occasionally or more likely if I’m in the middle of a show on channels app and get interrupted it’d be nice to be able to record the rest of it so I can come back to it later. Might there be a software only version that could be purchased that does not need guide data(IIRC this is the reason for needing a monthly fee?) and would allow me to manually set recordings?
Edit: seems I’m not the only one with an '09 mini and EyeTV thinking the same thing…
2012 Mac Mini user here with EyeTV
I haven’t purchased the guide data since they sold out to a Chinese company, lol.
I hate monthly bills and should prefer a yearly/lifetime/5 year subscription model. I have a regular TiVO with lifetime that I use for OTA (had cable at the time). I couldn’t see myself paying $400 for OTA guide data only. Plus, if decide to get cable again all my channels will record (built in cable card bracket).
$8 per month for OTA is steep in my opinion, because I don’t have an option to record cable tv with the Channels DVR setup. My cable company scrambles ALL my channels except locals.
Reasons why I want to switch from my TiVO & TiVO mini setup
- No need to switch TV inputs (AppleTV only in each room)
- Quicker access to recordings in mp4 format (I have a HDHomerun Extend)
(I currently use cTiVO to download and transfer shows) - Ability to run DVR off my NAS (it’s on all the time anyway, why keep the Mac Mini on, too)
(PLEX has the option, but no live TV negates #1)
doesn’t OTA already provide the show info in the carrier signal (what is already displayed in Channels now)? I dont subscribe to cable at all and use streaming services instead–and they would be scrambled as well anyway so I dont care about guide data for that.
basically I would pay for a DVR “app” without licensed guide data but wont pay monthly in perpetuity for guide data I dont need. Does Channels currently use any paid sources for guide info?
Extremely excited! Thanks for the update. QQ:
Will I be able to use a PowerPC cpu NAS (DS213+)?
I’ve been contemplating an upgrade for a while, so if it’s not supported this might be the perfect push for me. Sticking with Synology, is the DS216+II your top recommendation?
I just want to say that I think $8/month is a bargain.
You have to look at what you’re getting with the entire Channels ecosystem.
My old setup:
*Cable boxes on 5 TVs and a FiOS DVR. Price: $55/month.
*Limited ability to watch live or recorded TV on iOS devices.
*Clunky FiOS interface.
*Separate box for CATV/DVR and ‘everything else’ (ATV).
My new setup:
*Apple TVs on all five TVs.
*Single (slick!) interface for everything - Live TV, DVR, apps, games, etc. etc.
*Live TV (and soon recorded TV) on all iOS devices.
*One time costs: $25 for Channels app, $260 for two HDHR Primes.
*Recurring costs: $10/month for CableCards, $8/month for Channels DVR
So $300 down and $18 per month, versus $0 down and $55 per month for an inferior experience. It’s a no-brainer!
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PowerPC is not currently supported. If there is a lot of demand we might port to that platform.
There are so many models available, we haven’t really explored all of them. Our only advice is to look for something with an Intel Pentium/Celeron processor, like the J19xx or N31xx series.
Maybe some of the existing Alpha users with Synology units can comment on their model and experiences.
Yes, all the guide data you see in the Channels app is paid/licensed. The guide data that comes in over the OTA signal does not contain any metadata, like images, season/episode numbers, etc.
Maybe time to jump on this deal 
Dell T20 Server for $249
Specs•Xeon E3-1225 v3 CPU (Intel® Quick Sync Video support)
- 4GB DDR3
- 1TB HDD
- DVDRW
- No OS
I’ve been using a DS1815+ for the Alpha, but the Atom CPU in that is about twice as powerful as the Celeron in DS216+II. It should work perfectly fine, though, unless you try to transcode a video, which will probably fail given the really low PassMark score.
The nice thing about the new Celeron is that it supports Intel QuickSync, which means we can do hardware video transcoding.
Thanks, Tim! After looking a little closer, seems like the DS916+ might be the better option? I’d like a 4-bay, and it has a quad core.
The 4-bay is nice because you can have more space, and you can use RAID5 for redundancy instead of just RAID0 or 1 with the 2-bay models. Both are Intel processors and support QuickSync (thanks @tmm1 - I forgot about QuickSync support) so either way you go should be great for Channels.
I think this pricing works if replacing cable but not so much if using it to record OTA. I was hoping to replace my EyeTV setup to continue to record OTA channels. Channels looks great and would be wonderful to use on the Appletv.
Currently I am paying $20 per year for TV guide data with EyeTv. I would have loved a discounted yearly cost or paying a lifetime fee up front.
I second that. I have been using windows 7 for free OTA guide data, and would be hard pressed to pay almost $100 a year for this DVR.
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I recently dropped my DirecTV subscription and moved to Charter with a HDHR Prime and Channels. I must say I enjoy it quite a bit. My biggest complaint is the remote, but you have no control over that.
I plan on dropping my DVR with Charter and switching to this, but I was wondering if this supports watching a recording before it has completed. I know the Plex DVR does not offer this option, but was hoping that you do.
I have an older Core 2 Duo Computer that I hope to be running this on, will this work, and what kind of storage are we talking about per hour of TV?
Thank You for your awesome work!
It does. When you pick a channel to watch, and it’s already recording that channel, it will prompt you and ask if you want to watch it from it’s start or tune in live.
This should work fine. You should expect around 8gb per hour for HD video.
With the ability to watch before a recording completes, could we just stream live outside the home, or would we have to start a recording, and then play it back?
When out of home support is working, it will work just like it does at home.
Definitely agree with this.
I am all OTA and looking to replace SageTV with Channels ( so far the Channels app gives me the live TV, SageTV just records to a volume accessible by Infuse - very workable, albeit clunky)
adding back a monthly fee isn’t something i want to do, but with the auto-updates, i see how you programmed yourself into that pricing structure.
i have a synology rs815+ …does anyone know how good it works?