I am on a journey to find an an alternative to my current FiosTV (sometimes Cox)/TiVo setup. Prices may be rising for me and we don't use cable TV nearly as much as I used to. Was looking to alternatives that would allow me to keep my costs down and at the same time simplify my TV setup. Currently, I use my TiVo Roamio/Mini only to access FiosTV. That device is now 7.5 years old, so I do worry about its longevity. I looked into Channels DVR initially as I have always loved that my TiVo allowed me the freedom to change providers without losing recordings or changing the UI. Channels DVR seemed like an obvious replacement. However, after I realized moving to Channels would require me to purchase hardware for a server, ATSC tuners, an antenna, and replacement streaming dongles (RokuTV, Samsung TV, and standalone Roku) totaling over $500; I settled on YTTV instead. Basically, the costs were going to be a wash over time and YTTV was going to be much simpler setup to implement. (I generally don't go for the simple option, but I am trying to make life easier.) I trialed YTTV for 5 days and generally liked it. The UI overall was reasonable (annoying for anyone coming from a regular DVR that has buttons to help navigate). I liked that it integrated VOD (something I have never had) and the channel selection. I didn't love the 9 month recording retention (I have 6 year old recordings of movies on my TiVo), the inability to adjust the channel package, or the lack of ability to change providers. However, there was one deal breaker for my wife. YTTV only allows you to record all episodes and then gives you zero indication of what episodes are new when you go to review your library. That means for shows in syndication, it is very annoying to find out if you have something new to watch. Currently, we can go to a single screen and see all our recent recordings that are new. I was spurred to look into options other than YTTV due to this issue.
I settled back on testing Channels DVR yesterday. My test setup includes: my desktop as the server, a TiVo Stream 4k purchased for this, my Android phone, and TVe through FiosTV. I am very technical, so I was amazed on how seamless it was to get it up and running. Honestly, I thought I would have quite a few more hoops to deal with. Overall, the Channels DVR setup is very complex since they don't control the majority of what they are connected to and run from. I love that when at home, you connect to the server without doing anything. This is a huge plus over the TiVo app, which always logs out on me. I will say that simply disabling some of the TiVo apps on the streamer didn't go well (TiVo Stream app kept re-enabling and taking over the mapped buttons), but that isn't really an issue for this group. I chose that device knowing I was trying to repurpose it. Overall, the experience has been positive. I did not some guide errors. Is there a place to submit guide issues to? The main one I noticed looked like a channel mapping issue.
Along the way, I thought of some functions that would make using the software more enjoyable for me. I would like to pass them along. Is there a formal place for Bug Reports and Feature Requests? I am currently posting them below. Please forgive me if some of things things are not issues or there are already alternatives, I only installed it about 18 hours ago. Just point me to the right place.
Thanks,
Josh
Subject: Unexpected behavior of Live button on TiVo Stream 4k
Description: On a TiVo Stream 4k, if the user has only tuned one stream since the Channels DVR app was last restart (not opened, but restarted), then everything behaves as you would expect. If no video playback is happening and the Live button is pressed, the tuned stream begins to play in full screen. If the tuned stream was playing in PiP, similarly the tuned stream begins to play in full screen. If two or more streams had been tuned, the behavior changes dramatically. If no video playback is ongoing and the Live button is pressed, then full screen video begins playing, but it is not the most recent stream tuned but the one prior. That doesn't make sense as a functionality. Worse is that if video was playing in PiP, it toggles to the previous stream rather than making the current stream full screen. All other presses of the Live button result in a full screen video playing. That makes this super inconsistent. The only way I have found to restore the video is to find it again in the guide and re-select it from there. Things get more complicated when you throw a recording into the mix. In some instances, it returns to the recording and others it swaps to a live stream.
How to Reproduce: On a TiVo Stream 4k configured to remap the Live button using the built in mapping option (without PiP enabled), start streaming on channel A from the guide. Then start streaming on channel B from the guide. Hit the Guide button, home button, or back button. No channels should currently be streaming. Now hit the Live button. Channel A loads instead of the last watched channel B. If using PiP, then the switch happens within PiP and there is not restoration to full screen.
Recommended Change/Feature: Change the behavior to always return to full screen the live stream of the "current" channel except when viewing the "current" channel in full screen. When viewing the "current" channel in full screen the Live button should take you to the "previous" channel. The intention of differentiating full screen is purposeful here. When in PiP, I believe it makes sense to return to the full screen version of the "current" channel rather than switch to the "previous" channel inside the PiP. For recordings that are being watched full screen, then I think hitting Live should go to the last live stream tuned. When recordings are being watched in PiP, then I think pressing Live should result in the recording playing full screen (consistent with the move to full screen, inconsistent with the move to live stream, hitting Live again would bring up the last live stream so simple to recover from inconsistency).
Additional Notes: Overall, I have been struggling with the PiP. I haven't found a way to invoke it or exit it consistently. I really need a programmable button to control it. What I put here goes a long way, but it would leave some open issues. It is so bad right now that I just won't use it until the consistency of the Live button is remedied.
Subject: Video stream buffer is too easily discarded
Description: The stream buffer is discarded anytime the video playback is not shown. Doing things like bringing up the guide or changing a setting within causes the buffer to be lost. A myriad of accidental button presses can lose the buffer as well. For example, hitting the Live button toggles to the previous channel.
How to Reproduce: Start a stream by choosing a current show from the guide with PiP option turned off. After the show has started, let it run for a minute so there is a clear buffer. Hit the back button. Re-select the show from the guide. The previous buffer minute is gone.
Recommended Change/Feature: Continue to retain the buffer for an amount of time after the playback has stopped. When returning to the same channel, the buffer should be present. If when the user left the playback, they were not caught up at the live position, then they should return to the last location. If the last location is no longer in the buffer, then oldest location in the buffer should be used. If the user was caught up to live, then returning should have them enter at the live location.
Additional Notes: There are a lot of ways that you can decide to chose how long to retain the buffer for. The simplest is to just have a fixed value. This doesn't work great in the case where someone maybe browsing around the guide for a while, so you could extend the buffer based on usage. That may get complicated. Make sure that the amount of time covers something like your cat stepping on the power button on the remote.
Other Related Features: This feature would work well with my comments about the Live button the TiVo Stream 4k remote. The user could pop out, review their library and hit Live TV to return to the channel.
Subject: Starting a currently recording show from the guide should reattach to buffer
Description: Currently starting a stream from the guide for a show that is already recording causes a new buffer from the current time to be created.
How to Reproduce: While a recording is currently in progress, but not being viewed, find it in the guide. Select it. View that there is no buffer associated with the current show being watched.
Recommended Change/Feature: The buffer from the recording should be available to the user when starting a show from the guide that is recording. Ideally, it is just appended an works like live streams do. If that is not possible, then pop-up an option to start the recording instead.
Subject: Add buffering for previous stream
Description: There are several use cases where keeping the previous channel buffer would be useful. Especially, because there are button presses to go back and forth between the current and previous channel, it will help make a better user experience.
Recommended Change/Feature: Keep buffers for previous streams going for an amount of time. The buffer length and maximum number of streams could be configuration parameters.
Additional Notes: Streaming devices lack dedicated buttons for lots of functions, so it makes starting, managing, and deleting recordings more cumbersome. I think this is an argument for keeping around streams that you can flip between. This architecture could be a part of how the video stream discard comment is fixed.
Other Related Features: This feature could be extended to share buffers among clients. I don't know if that is super valuable, but it might make some sense.
Subject: Add additional NEW show indicators
Description: When a show is within so many days of its first air date, it should have a NEW indicator on it and its series. The only place I have found this within the UI is on the episode information screen. That location basically means that you have to have a hunch that there might be a new episode of a particular series and go looking for it. With erratic broadcast seasons, this can be very annoying. This has little impact on users who only record new episodes of a series and delete/mark watched the old ones. However, if a user decides to record all episodes of a show currently airing, but also in syndication, then it gets painful to find out when there are new episodes available.
Recommended Change/Feature: The indicator should be on the Guide for ease of browsing. The series thumbnail (when viewed from the Library and other menus) should have the indicator when there is a recorded episode that meets the new criteria. Also, the episode thumbnail should have the indicator when it meets the criteria.
Additional Comments: Another option that could help this is adding a place in the UI where you can get a list of all recordings that are marked new. Something like "Up Next" but more along the lines of "Newly Aired." I purposefully chose terrible wording for it so you can come up with better.
Personal Discussion: My wife spurred me to look into options other than YTTV due to this issue. Channels has the same issue, but it isn't as bad due to the option to only record new episodes. Basically, it means that many fewer of our shows are impacted. The unwatched recording count badge isn't enough since it includes shows that are not new.
Subject: Android client app always stretches to width causing the user the choice between either distorted or cropped viewing
Description: The Android app has a "Stretch Video To Fit" setting. If the option is on, the video is stretched, which distorts the aspect ratio. It is particularly egregious with widescreen content in portrait mode, making it completely unwatchable. Many phones these days do not have a 16x9 aspect ratio, so the also see distortion in landscape mode. The alternative to turn the fit option off, results in cropped videos. The setting now fits the width and scales the vertical. That means on a phone with a 20x9 or 21x9 aspect ratio, the top and bottom of the video are cut off.
How to Reproduce: Use an Android Phone with a wider than 16x9 aspect ratio (ex. S21). With "Stretch Video To Fit" turned on in the the Channels DVR Android App, start playback of a recording. Rotate the phone and see how the video is very distorted in Portrait mode and mildly distorted in Landscape mode. Next turn off the fit setting. Start playback of a recording. Rotate the phone and see that all is fine in Portrait mode, but the top and bottom of the video is cut off in Landscape mode.
Recommended Change/Feature: Ensure that the scaling option chosen takes into both the height and width of the phone screen with the fit option turned off.
Additional Notes: For fit turned on, there could be a maximum stretch amount to help with the Portrait mode distortion. For fit turned off, an additional setting could be added to chose between cropped and not cropped. This could also be achieved with a scale button on the video playback controls.
