I would change Bitrate Control to VBR. I used 6000 bitrate but up to 8000 is pretty reasonable I think.
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Copy that. Appreciate that advice.
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What should the bitrate for the audio be?
The idea of using a cheap Android TV device (or Android phone that supports HDMI out) to serve up app content using intents and/or virtual keyboard is really interesting. There is soooo much app-restricted content that could be fed thru Channels that could be useful to do so..... Nest/Wyze cams, Xfinity Stream app, TiVo app, IPTV streams from those "free cable" apps....
What about HDCP? Do these devices enable streaming of HDCP-requiring sources?
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I havenāt tried anything with HDCP device like a cable box. But my Apple TV just thinks itās a TV output and its showing all content doesnāt matter from where. I would think it would just work but if not a hdmi splitter would strip HDCP from the signal. There are a few out there on Amazon that does it.
I bought a SwitchBot Hub Mini and controlling my Apple TV remotely, super flawlessly. Pretty sick!
SwitchBot Hub Mini Smart Remote - IR Blaster, Link SwitchBot to Wi-Fi (Support 2.4GHz), Control TV, Air Conditioner, Compatible with Alexa, Google Home, IFTTT https://a.co/d/1UN5wQH
Iāve got some āChromecast with Google TVā devices I havenāt been using, would those work for this too? Pretty sure the answer is yes, just making sure.
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Yes. I checked with mine just to check video into the encoder then switched to my Apple TV. But yes it does work.
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I understand that Channels DVR can use a dedicated Android Box (Onn,Nvidia Shield,FireTV?) connected to an IPTV tuner to stream content, basically by using voice commands like "Play USA on Youtube TV" - SageTV has been doing something like this for a few years - but is there a comprehensive write-up somewhere for the entire process? Does the full capability exist right now? Do I have to piece it together by combing through the forums? Could this be added natively to Channels so we don't have to do this ourselves?
Also, on a related note, could this capability be used with YoutubeTV's cloud DVR to effectively import recorded shows into Channels (non real time) so that they could be comskipped? With this capability, you could get by with a single TV Box/IPTV encoder if these imports were limited to occur when no one is watching TV (12AM - 6AM) then the same single encoder could be used to also stream liveTV for those DRMed channels into Channels DVR - just a thought...
Also is there a comprehensive list of IPTV encoders that are known to work? and a 4K/HEVC version?
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Cool, good to know. I was thinking about the ADB functionality though, for sending remote commands. I'm assuming it'd work identically to the Onn 4K, but I guess I'll find out soon enough 
Yeah I would definitely assume so. I just wanted simple up, down, left, right, etc commands. And didnāt feel like figuring out the scripting and such. Way over my head at the moment. Keeping it simple.
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I hear ya, just planning ahead and tackling the steps mentally before the new hardware arrives. I know this an experimental work-in-progress. My intent (heh) is to use Android intents to tune into specific channels on YTTV and maybe launch other apps too that are not available on AppleTV... there are a few pieces to the puzzle I'd be learning too. Advanced remote control beyond that will have to wait.
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What's the latency on these devices? I found a variant with a HDMI out. My dad has a hearing aid that pairs with his iPhone, and I was wondering if I could use it to stream to his iPhone (either via the Channels app, or VLC, or whatever) at the same time the rest of us are watching the TV. The hearing aid company does make a TV box, which we have, but it only works with one of our TV setups.
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I don't know for a fact but I'm sure the devs are working on this or at least considering it. Maybe we will get a nice - maybe early - Christmas present. 
(Wishful thinking 
)
Assuming that HDCP doesn't get in the way, it should be possible.
I'm not sure whether the devs will be willing to discuss this though.
This HDMI encoder method is for live TV but, technically, all the pieces are available to be able to do what you mentioned, I think. What you do in your own space and time is your business. It may be best to leave it at that. 
The way I understand it, any HDMI encoder that provides a stream that is compatible with Channels (HLS, TS) should work fine.
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Thank you for this. It works well and if the channel IDs don't often change I think it provides a better experience versus waiting for the voice search to complete.
I did find that I had to specify the application with the following full command to get this to work on the onn 4k Google TV device.
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d https://tv.youtube.com/watch/8xN3o2PSL5s?onboard=1 -n com.google.android.youtube.tvunplugged/com.google.android.apps.youtube.tvunplugged.activity.MainActivity
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I wonder if this could be baked into the tuning script. Tune, delay, and then enable subtitles. I realize they'd be burned in, but it would better than nothing when people really need them.
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Yeah, Iād personally have no problem with them being burned in for most programs. I turn them off for sports and news because they are delayed and that distracts me more than it helps (I have some hearing but itās hard for me to make out dialog in part due to processing disorder and in part exposure to very loud noise over an extended period of time without ear protection).
Does anyone know if caption tracks can be toggled with ADB?
If it is a series of button presses it could be automated.
This works for me with YTT on a Nvidia shield. While the video is playing do:
adb shell "input keyevent 19; input keyevent 20; sleep 1; input keyevent 21 21 21 21 21 21; sleep 1; input keyevent 22 22; sleep 1; input keyevent 23"
It is about timing.
I run it a second time and it turns off the captions. The thing would be how to set a button or something to trigger it.
It only has a problem when you try to run it during one of those customized youtubetv commercials that sits like a layer over your video screen.
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