Features You didn't Know existed

Channels DVR Server
#1

I found a new feature on Channels DVR (CDVR) I didn't know existed.

Please share stories of happy/accidental discoveries you found on CDVR

Watch Recording option for Live shows not currently recording.

  • I was scrolling TV guide and seen "Seinfeld - The Big Salad playing". This was on Live TV and not currently recording. NOTE: I have all Seinfeld episodes on imports. The TV guide gave me option of watching recording or live. So I clicked watch recording. CDVR started playing my imported show from begining. I was so tickled and awestruck by feature.

  • I thought this only option only came up for in-progress recordings. I did not know it will compare Live TV to my recordings. Seriously, this is just a extra feature I would NEVER of thought to ask for. It's this level of attention from the devs that make CDVR the best linear tv program.

Anyone else have experience of accidentally discovering a feature in CDVR that you didn't know existed?

Im not sure which Dev created this feature. There are to many devs to thank each of you personally. Doing 3 individual thank yous seems like to much work. So I am just going to pick @eric. So thank you eric. If it wasn't eric. Then oh well.

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#2

Hahaha, I believe it was @maddox that gets the thanks for that one. I’m glad these treats are bringing you delight!

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#3

I think this is a great idea. Even if you think it may be an "obvious" feature, it is possible someone doesn't know about it and could use it.

I recently learned from a thread one of the Devs responded to that you could create a collection with a smart rule labeled watched=false and have a whole collection created with unwatched movies listed. This solved a big annoyance I had regarding being able to view only unwatched movies to choose something. Prior to reading about this I had been creating an unwatched label on every movie I had that I hadn't watched yet. Then I would have to remember to remove that label after watching it. It is possible that was known in the explanation of smart rules when that feature was first released but I could have missed it. There is no telling what possible ways I could use that feature that I haven't figured out.

#4

I agree with this sentiment. Just because you know about something and use it, that does not mean everyone else has discovered or used the same feature in quite the same way. Sharing such examples could lead to several "Ah ha!" moments for other users.

I feel this is an example of a double-edged sword. There are many great features, and they also evolve and improve quickly. However, that exposes the negative aspect of such accelerated development: documentation has trouble keeping pace.

As a user, I would like to see thorough documentation for all features. However, as someone who has done development, I know that keeping the documentation in sync with the code is quite another undertaking; making it accessible and readable is another order of magnitude greater. (Perhaps a compromise of refreshing documentation upon each stable release could be reached?)

In any situation, the UX and continued improvement of Channels makes this truly best-in-class.

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#5

Funny, I almost added into my post that I understand how hard it is for Devs to keep up with good documentation along with development, especially when they are just a few guys and they so quickly respond to and fix anything that comes up on the forum as issues. Plus, it would be also difficult to put in every little thing that could be done. I think if you have any coding experience at all you could think with possibilities to play with and explore, but that isn't everyone for sure.

Anyway, totally agree with your last sentence - I love the direction they have taken the software and how fast it's going. I can't wait to see what is next. I actually uninstalled Plex and Emby yesterday because the TV experience with Channels is first class and while there are some features I'd like to see added for the movies side of things, I can deal with it just fine as it exists.

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#6

I let my Plex Pass lapse last month because the only feature it offered was remote access. But since Plex can't even properly stream across subnets without transcoding, it has become useless in my home; by contrast Channels has never had issues, and has always been more responsive.

While Channels' UX for large libraries still has much work ahead of it, I will happily forego the superior interface in exchange for superior performance.

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#7

The other dayI discovered that if you double click "play" on the remote, you go to previous channel you were watching. It's a documented feature, but that seems to be how I find most things anyway. I found double-click right to skip commercials the same way.

#8

3 posts were split to a new topic: Dual buffers would be nice