Just curious… If we have the Extend and set the transcoding on, will the Channels DVR store and use the transcoded file or will you ignore the transcoding and just store the native stream?
Yes it will use the transcoded stream.
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Hmm. I can see always wanting to store the native stream to the DVR. When watching from the AppleTV Cannels app, I’d always want the highest quality stream. When watching from an iPhone, I’d like to see a transcoded (i.e., reduced bandwidth) stream. That would mean the DVR would have to transcode. Is this planned?
My guess is once the DVR is out they can work on additional features. Right now it is probably using the “default transcode profile” selected on the device. Later on they may if needed (if possible?) add the ability to select which transcode profile to use from the client/DVR… but I, like many, I would say “concentrate on DVR first, get 1.0 out the door”… This would be a 2.x feature… 
SD Prime with Channels DVR - does the transcoder work on the file that is saved and used by the Apple TV or is it only used when viewing from a web-browser? I suspect the latter as it is setting sections is titled Web Player.
Transcoder is only for for web playback. The ATV plays the raw file directly, with no transcoding or CPU required.
Has anyone tried the HDHR Extends transcoding for the DVR yet? I tried it at first and I was not happy with the quality of the video. I am not sure what is causing the issue but I was having pixelation in the video. I was using the heavy setting so I was hoping for better.
I am trying it without transcoding now so I can compare the quality of the two recordings.
I use Extend transcoding set to ‘heavy’ for DVR a no transcoding for live TV on my wired AppleTVs. I see very little difference in picture quality, there is some but you really have to look for it. DVR recordings with transcoding are about 1/2 the size of non-transcoded recordings so it does reduce DVR space usage.
FYI - I use ‘heavy’ or ‘mobile’ for watching LiveTV using Channels on wireless devices.
I am setup the same as snow66, and rarely see issues (during a bad storm-yes). Extends set to transcode with “heavy”
Thanks for the replies. I’ll give it another try. The half file size was why I spent the extra money for the extend.
If you continue to see issues with the picture, you might want to check your antenna alignment. (unless it is perfect when transcoding is turned off). I started with a small flat (35 mile) OTA antenna, and ended up buying an attic HD antenna from amazon (think it was like $50.00). Afterwards I more than doubled the number of stations and what pixelation I saw prior disappeared. My broadcast towers are only 28 miles always, but the attic antenna made a HUGE difference for me.
Yes, antenna is a big part of a successful OTA install. Like OurFamilySpot, I went with the attic mounted antenna. A majority of the stations in my location come from some distance from two different directions (South and North West). For my install I went with a long range antenna with two panels that is be aimed in the two directions. I paid over $100 for the antenna but it took the stations I can reliably get from low teens to high 40s (20 of which are HD).
For info in stations from your location and recommendations on how much antenna you need go to www.tvfool.com. A good source for antennas is www.antennasdirect.com.
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Yes, I just upgrade to an attic antenna before I added the HDHR. I my area all the major networks have their towers in to same area to I can point it directly at every tower. I get almost 50 channels. I think one of the channels, ABC, was actually over powering the HDHR. I had to put it on the splitter with my tvs before it would show anything but green.
It is strangle and seems to mainly affect he NBC channel. The NBC logo has a pulsing/flickering affect. It also just degrades at random times and it will only affect one face on the screen.
I only got started with this a couple of days ago so I don’t have much video to compare yet.
If some of the signals are too strong you can add an attenuator which will reduce the strength of the strong signals. This would also help with multipath interference which is common when you have strong signals bouncing off large objects like buildings or mountains causing your tuner to get echos of the original signal. Attentuators are fairly cheap (<>$10) so not too expensive to experiment.
I can also affirm that I record all of my DVR stuff with a ‘heavy’ transcode. It looks perfect to me. If having issues, it is probably related to the antenna or your network connections.