Live TV buffer questions

Thank you for the help and the replies.

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There is a x96 mini on Amazon for about $24. It has 16 gig of storage and instructions to upgrade it to androidtv 9 are available on YouTube. It doesn't have bluetooth but works great with a wireless air mouse or flirc remotes. Just a suggestion for an inexpensive client that will provide about a 3hr buffer for live tv.

Seems to me you could...

  1. Start watching the show live from the Guide
  2. Press the down button on your remote and hit the Record button that comes up
  3. Exit the show
  4. Re-select the show from the Guide and select to view recording rather than live. Now you have unlimited buffering., yes?

Seems to me it would be great if, when you do step 2, the software effectively does steps 3 and 4 for you.

Yes, that is a viable workaround.

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I've somewhat successfully used a fast flash drive plugged into an OTG cable that has a USB power input. If you move the Channels DVR app to the flash drive (search google for how to move apps to a flash drive), it will use the free space on the flash drive for the buffer. Every once in a while I get a stutter in playback, but I'm willing to trade that for a huge buffer in this TV's case.

I tried this with a Fire TV Stick 4K (original, not the new one), but it the performance was horrible; perhaps it was the flash drive. I may try with a TiVo Stream 4K, and see if that works better.

In any case, this definitely is an option for some users, too.

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That's a good suggestion thanks.

I decided to give it a try on my TS4K, so I could judge the difference between the OTG and USB Host ports.

When using a USB flash drive over the OTG port, performance was poor, and caused Channels to crash frequently.

When plugged into the USB Host port (via a USB-C adapter, performance wasn't an issue.

So my takeaway is that moving the Channels app to adopted USB storage works, but performance and stability are an issue if you're using via an OTG port rather than a proper host port.

(I'm going to give it a try with the new Chromecast with Google TV, but I'm waiting for a USB-C hub supporting PD to try that out.)

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I added 64GB to my Google TV ....

Here is a great Video n optimizing it when you get your hub ....

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Works well on the ts4k with a 32 gig usb 3 stick no decrease in performance. Increased live buffer to 5hrs watching from hdhr prime cc. I to am now waiting on a hub for the Google Chromecast. Wish I would have thought of this long ago it would have saved me from trying so many different devices looking for that balance between performance and storage. Thanks for pointing me in this direction.

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After a brief review, I've found a USB3 flash drive works well for extra storage, even over USB2 buses. However, USB2 flash drives seem to cause issues on the same devices.

Of course, this was over a host interface rather than OTG, so I'm going to try that next to see if USB3 flash drives over USB2 OTG are sufficient for expanding the buffer. (Or, maybe the 5 cables I bought to do this over USB OTG were all in vain and can only be used for Flirc devices.)

I was disappointed with running channels on an OTG cabled flash drive because it didn’t increase the buffer for watching recordings. It’s only around 150 mb. An iPad in the same situation had over 400 mb buffer before I stopped testing. I have a slow network connection to the server so I was hoping there was a way to increase my buffer without buying an Apple TV. This is with the latest fire stick 4K. I’m going to try with a TS4K next but it seems it is developer imposed limitation because of the limited storage. I would hope for an option to change it on the client depending on your usage scenario.

I'm confused with some of the terminology here. I know what a OTG cable is but when several posters mentioned "USB Host port (via a USB-C adapter)" or "a host interface" are they talking about a USB hub? Can any provide an Amazon link for a "USB Host port (via a USB-C adapter)" or "a host interface" they recommend? Thanks!

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Seems to me your best return on investment would be improving the LAN speed rather than trying to get a bigger buffer.

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Looking for clarification on this as well.

Since the option exists to, "format to internal storage," for a connected flash drive over an OTG cable, I'm wondering if the Channels DVR app can stay installed on the Fire TV Stick's storage, and the added USB flash drive will simply add to the overall storage available to the Channels DVR app.

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If you update to the latest Beta for FireTV or Android you can enable HLS under settings debug the buffer will be on the server which you can set to 1-4 hrs.

HLS option - Channels Android TV - Channels Community (getchannels.com)

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I have a Google Chromecast with Google TV and I sometimes get serious buffering issues on live TV. adding an OTG cable seems a viable option would like to have Channels DVR stay installed on the device and add the storage for buffering. But I would assume I would have to move everything to flash drive.

more here ....

Looking for cost-effective replacements for our 3 Roku's that work well with Channels DVR - Playground / Hardware - Channels Community (getchannels.com)

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We've moved the HLS setting out of Debug and to the Playback menu and made it controllable via the DVR to match iOS and tvOS.

For more details, see Direct Play, Direct Stream, Transcoding - #16 by walkerx

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