My setup:
HP Core 2 Duo, 4 GB ram, 320 GB HD; HD Homerun
System works very well. I'm really happy with it.
While watching a live stream, I can rewind the currently playing stream around 40 minutes. Does that sound right? Does the Channels DVR app not record the entire stream while I'm watching it and keep it until I change streams (like my Tivo did)?
What device are you watching on?
Firestick 4K.
No. The playback buffer is local to the device and has nothing to do with the server. The length of the buffer is determined by free space on your device and the size/quality of the stream. The larger/higher quality of the stream (like OTA), the less your buffer will be.
Also, because the buffer is local to the client device, you cannot use it should you wish to record a program in progress.
"local to the device" meaning the Firestick?
Yes, free space dependant - time available depending on channel quality.
My FireTV Cube has around 10GB free, with the option for external storage.
Correct.
OK, this discussion has helped me understand. I thought the purpose of a server drive was more than just to hold recordings.
So, If I were to add a USB drive to the Firestick would that increase the availability to buffer? Would I need to move the Channels app to it, or, what's the best way?
I haven't personally tried that yet, although I bought the Cubes thinking it might give me the option to do so should I wish to.
I stumbled across the below some time ago, which provided some hacky options:
I suspect you'd need to move, or at least reinstall, Channels.
I find the local buffer to be the weakest part of channels DVR ... I am used to having the buffer at the server ... to start as soon as I start watching a show if I hit record I am used to the show being recorded from when I started watching until it's completion.
Very nice. Thanks.
I am interested in expanding the buffer available on my Firestick 4k, basically to help speed up the time it takes to skip a commercial. I like my Skip Forward duration to be 15 seconds, (it's great for in-between pitches in a baseball game! but as a result, I need to click about 8 times to skip a commercial). But when I click Skip Forward, after about the fourth click, the system seems to pause for a couple of seconds. Is there a way around this?
Are you saying that if I'm watching a 2.5 hour movie and right near the end of the movie I decide to save it, that I'll only get what's in the buffer and not the entire movie? Or if I'm watching a sports event live and want to see a play back in the first quarter that it may not be possible?
Yes this is not Sage when you hit record ... it will be recorded from there to the end. I know you are used to SageTV when you hit record it records from when you started viewing to the end. I wish Channels would do this.
Many times I am viewing something and want keep it to show somebody else but you cannot do that in Channels.
No, the way Channels works is that recording only begins from when you press record. This is because the buffer is on the client, and recording happens on the server.
If you were watching that 2.5 hour movie and pressed Record with only 30 minutes left, only the final 30 minutes would record, regardless of how much content you have in your buffer.
Hence why I still use SageTV for LiveTV.
Yikes. That's not good.
I suppose this would also explain why live Comskip is such an extraordinary challenge with this software.
I'm glad I found this thread - answered a couple of questions I had.
This is a departure from what I'm used to on BeyondTV, but everything else I've experienced has been on par or better than BeyondTV. 