Family Accounts for Viewing Only?

Greetings,

Is there a way to setup a view only account so that the kids can have access but not mess anything up?

Thanks!

That's actually a pretty good idea. At first I thought you were asking for individual family member profiles, which has been asked before. But I think a way to lock down settings would be very useful. Now that my son is old enough to use Channels and find the "Kids" tab, it is only a matter of time before he starts changing settings!

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I agree. A restricted type of account can be useful.

I also agree some sort of parental controls/accounts/profiles would be great.

I know this isn't a good solution, but as a temporary stop-gap, you could install plex and setup user accounts there if you absolutely need it. Just point the plex library to the Channels DVR folder and your kids could access the content that way.

I am not dismissing your request, I know this would not be ideal. I do something similar just so I can watch recordings from Channels DVR on the TV's that still use Roku's.

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Not a bad temporary workaround, but Plex has been a dumpster fire for ages now. Their implementation of TV is horrible, takes an eternity to change a channel. Unrelated, but I had gotten so frustrated with Plex in the car (Android Auto) that I switched to Spotify, decided to give Plex another shot. Now when I get back in the car it doesn't remember that I had already been playing an album and I have to now manually select an album/playlist to play. And this wasn't even the reason why I switched to Spotify (which picks right back up where I left off).

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Well said!!!

This is needed big time ... no way right now to keep track of what you have watched.

I have read a post or two here where one setups up 2 or more server installs, one for each user i presume. not sure how that works for licencing though.

I just setup an EMBY server prefer it over Plex(Skipping was too slow) and use Channels just for recording in our household ... Emby for viewing ... I do not watch shows right away so using Channels Clients while others watch shows right away is just not working out.

I've used Emby for many years as my LiveTV/DVR and home media server....back then when i was moving away from WMC, Plex was not an option as did not support HDHR Prime tuner at that time, also, no free trial. i would not pay to try something i may not like.

Emby is much full features and a Plex alternative for sure. But it had issues with Live TV playback for me on both a Roku and my 2 2019 Nvidia Shields. Audio goes way out of sync on many stations, and short pauses/buffering every few minutes. Spent weeks going back and forth with the devs, who are very very responsive, and are constantly working on the software. Emby has come a long way. It would have been ideal for me to use, if the video playback issue could be resolved, as it does support multi users and is a bit more "cable box" UI type, vs the more modern streaming media app design of Channels.

But, after discovering Channels DVR, it finally gave me the ability to drop cable and my prime tuner, and go to OTA tuner and TVE. Channels does need some work, and refinement, it is not as mature as Emby is, and it is not meant to be like Plex or Emby as a Home Media Server, its purpose is Live TV and DVR...which so far, it does quite well. TVE is a amazing thing! I am not certain if there is any other DVR software that supports it.

I still have Emby server on the same box as Channels DVR, only use it for local media playback on occasion. But i can only see the OTA tuner and 15 some local channels, so, it is not used for tv anymore.

Do hope that multi profiles/ user account will be added to Channels DVR sometime in the future.

I have two DVR's (on two Synology NAS) because I need multiple user profiles and it does not cost extra. Same cost as 1 DVR.

I would need 6 DVRs ... Emby for Viewing is working just fine for now ... use Channels DVR for recording. Channels is a great DVR but media organization is weak. We record all New Shows during PrimeTime .. I use passes by titles rarely.

Count me in the group that would love user profiles and parental controls. Channels is working great for me now, but long term I am going to need more user level control.

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