No, the tailscale connection is only used to access devices that are on your tailscale network through the special tailscale IPs or MagicDNS device names.
All other network traffic is unaffected.
It is not a VPN like Nord that all your traffic routes through one of their servers.
As I type this message, members of my family are watching a TV show from a remote location and it's going through Tailscale. First time using it.
The remote client is a TiVo Stream 4K. I installed the Tailscale app on it yesterday and I logged in to the tailnet.
I also configured Channels DVR to use Tailscale, obviously.
On first try today, got a call from my wife because she got the "connection failed" screen at first.
I double checked and I could see all devices on the tailnet.
To get it working, she had to choose connect at home but auto discovery did not work. The IP address of the server on the tailnet had to be entered manually. Well, technically, thanks to MagicDNS, I told her to enter "dvr-server" instead of the actual IP address and it worked! 
I then proceeded to delete the port forwarding rule in my router. Now my router is not exposed.
What's cool now is that I can see on the server that they are watching and it shows up as if it was local. It shows the name of the device instead of the remote IP address.
Nice! 
This is the proper way for a VPN as it is a local connection.
Autodiscovery will only work on a local network.
Hum...I use open port 8089 and my iMac IP address so now you have me worried, should I not do that? Is Tailscale hard to setup?
It is fine to do it that way. Some people think that opening a port is like leaving your car running with the keys in it at the gas station while you run inside. It’s not like that, just keep your iMac up to date and you’ll be fine. A better comparison would be opening a port is like leaving your car locked and going inside with the keys in your pocket. Ports closed is like locking your car and putting one of those club steering wheel lock things on and going inside with the keys in your pocket. Both are pretty safe but if someone really really wants to steal your car and they have the right skills, they will find a way to steal your car. Do you put a club on your steering wheel every time you leave your car? Ironically it’s the people that don’t have a car and ride the subway that are the first to tell you to use a club at all times.
The channels team has developed remote access via opening a port to be safe. They have also developed using Tailscale with channels to be safe. Tailscale was a way for customers with services like T-Mobile internet to use remotely because using the open port way can’t work with cgnat.
Tailscale is super simple to set up and no port forwarding required. In fact, the channels team has it built right into the server options.
Tailscale has a free client for most mobile OS' as well.
Thanks for the explanation, remote view has worked great for me with the open port method so I'll just leave as is
Tailscale in itself is great.
However, the client app is not very reliable on the TiVo Stream 4K. Sometimes we find that we can't connect to the remote server because the Tailscale app is disconnected, for no apparent reason. This is easily fixed by opening the Tailscale app and it reconnects but that quickly gets old.
Another thing I noticed too is that there is a noticeable lag when rewinding or fast forwarding in a video.
That's not the case with port forwarding, it's near instant as if the server was local (the remote server is connected to fiber Internet.)
For these reasons, I will go back to port forwarding.
Make sure you are not using a relay server. They are dog slow.
Is this an option in Tailscale? All I did was connect to my account and that's it.
Other than that, there nothing else on my network, straight connection to the provided router and fiber modem.
What are you running your Channels server on?
You can tell if a client is connecting directly or via a DERP server by doing a tailscale ping.
The docs state tailscale status will show that, but not for me. Have to use tailscale ping
I can't speak to specific behavior on a TiVo Stream 4K, but on Android clients in general Tailscale needs to be reconnected after a power off. The simple solution to this is to leave the client device powered on.
I'd suggest that for many, where port forwarding is doing the job in providing remote CDVR access, there's little reason to change.
But for many others, like me for example, Tailscale has quickly become indispensable. Having the entire Internet become a sort-of virtual managed switch for my local network is absolute magic. It no longer matters where I am in the world in terms of being able to engage with services and equipment on my LAN.
CDVR client/server access is a wonderful part of a much, much larger whole.
I use tailscale ping at a Windows command prompt.
Their docs are outdated and say tailscale status will show if clients are connected direct or through a DERP relay. That hasn't been the case for quite a while. tailscale ping works from my WIN laptop and Synology NAS's.
They have a lot of good documentation and FAQ's on their website.
Thanks.
I have uninstalled Tailscale on the client devices for now.
I don't exclude the possibility of trying Tailscale again in the future, especially if I ever change devices. 
What I like about using Tailscale is that installing it on your device at home (not the Channels server tailscale) and your client devices is that you have a Private VPN from each client to your home network.
Either to the device at home you installed it on, or your whole home network.
Are there settings in Channels I can use to improve the streaming performance through Tailscale? I'm trying to watch a recording, and am having issues. It will play for a few seconds and then freeze.
It sounds like your home internet upload speeds aren’t fast enough. Change your quality settings on your client.
You should do a little research and test how fast your internet bandwidth can upload from home.
Match your quality settings to it.
Unfortunately I'm just seeing this now that I'm already away from home and won't be back for two weeks. I see that I can adjust settings remotely. Any suggestions on what I should try? My speeds are generally no lower than 150/30.
