If you set your Channels DVR up for remote access, yes.
Be aware that some stations roll out nextgen better than others. Some work out the kinks in a week and some have issues still after months. Just realize that if you utilize nextgen this early. Think of it as joining a beta. Not trying to scare you off, mine has been pretty solid except commercial detection is almost non existent on atsc 3,0. If you have any problems. You won’t find better dev support than channels devs
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I also have a Plex lifetime pass. And for the most part, my movie watching still comes out of Plex. But keep this in mind, which you might not already be aware of: Plex and Channels can both be pointed at the same directories. So your Plex content can also be accessed by Channels. And anything you record using Channels DVR can also be accessed by Plex. You get the best of both worlds.
Yeah, it's nice to have paid for Plex once and then you're done. Unfortunately, Channels does not have a lifetime pass. But I happily pay the $80/year for Channels because it is such a great product with great support.
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Actually they just launched today. Looking at AVS forum it is on a low power station that has a sharing agreement with WHTM our abc station. So far only the the main ABC feed is live at this point. Seems like is still in testing as of now. Someone near me has a flex 4k that has been posing his outcomes. It's good that the support here is good. No one is honestly this responsive on the Plex forums.
Well that's great. Being able to use them together makes it seem like a much better deal. As it's seems both have some strengths.
I think I am going to watch what is going on with the discussion on AVs about the launch here of 3.0 for a week or so before I jump in. This is looking like the future. And man if it works out well I can sell or give my TiVo Romaio and mini to someone else. I don't have much to loose.
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One thing to keep in mind is that Channels has a very particular directory and naming structure. When I converted from almost the exact same setup as @Michael_Parks, I had to make a lot of changes to make it Channels friendly. Check this out for details:
That said, I have a Lifetime Plex Pass and do have the setup @_Mike described, but only use Plex now for 2 things:
(1) Personal content, especially fitness video (other people concerts and home movies). You can get Channels to look at these and play them, but it will try to make them match them to real movie/TV content and you cannot control the Metadata like Plex. This is on the roadmap, but not something I would count on over the next year.
(2) Offline downloads. This is in Beta on Apple iPhone/iPad right now. Whenever this goes live with Apple (let's say 3-6 months), it will be another amount of that time before it comes to Android. New features always go to Apple first, but they are working hard to close the gap on the time it takes to port things over to Android.
Honestly, though, just make the jump; you will have zero regrets. Channels is a much better solution overall than the TiVO/Plex combo pack in almost every way. The areas it lacks they either are working on or are so minor as to not matter. Fancy Bits is a 3-person shop that are active here every day (I wanted to yell at them when I started getting Beta notes on Thanksgiving to please just take some time off!).
Here's my standard reception for former TiVO users:
Here's my standard response to questions on hardware:
And has others have noted, there is is a free month preview. You have nothing to lose!
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I too am a former TiVo Roamio/Plex user. I'm now a Channels/Plex user.
The monthly fee is definitely worth it. This development team is super responsive and will fix a bug within hours of it being reported. They are constantly working hard on bringing new features.
I run both Plex and Channels on my Synology 1019+. They never miss a beat.
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all this is pretty cool. So I was looking at the stream link feature. I have Netflix, Amazon prime, I use a few channels off StiRR like Circle and Comet mostly and a few things from Pluto tv also.
I am very interested in seeing how I could incorporate those in to the channels app and the guide grid. It seems even recording them is possible.
There are also a channels from Philadelphia I can only tune at night like WCAU and I like the CoZi channel. It would be awesome to have it as a streaming channel. If all that is possible it sounds great and totally worth it. I like that I can stream out of the house too. I can currently only do that with shows I've imported to Plex.
So really $8 a month means really packing lunch a few more days in a month vs going out. Not much overall of a sacrifice.
I'm becoming more convinced that the support it's there, that's worth something.
And how you all kept adding helpful comments is amazing. Most fourms I don't get this warm of a response.
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I definitely decided to take the first step. I ordered the HDHOMERUN flex4k. Today. I'll have it before the holiday break when I will have some time off work. That means time to experiment with it.
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This is exactly my use case, while having a Tivo Roamio still hooked up that has sat unused for a few years.
Plex and Channels Plus both installed on my Synology DS1019+
Channel Plus handles my recording needs for anything I simply want to time shift, while Plex houses my permanent commercial free content that I acquire through other means.
Plex shines brightly in it's ability to house and display my permanent collection, while Channels Plus is both phenomenal and heads and shoulders above Plex in the DVR department.
While I don't point Channels Plus to my Plex library, I do have an extra Plex TV Show library pointed at my TV Show recordings in Channels, so that my friends and family can also enjoy that temporary collection too.
From a functionality & reliability point of view, Plex can't compete in the DVR & Live TV areas with Channels Plus.
TV Everywhere and playlist source integration in Channels Plus are two extra cherries sitting right on top of an excellent DVR engine.
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I use both Channels DVR for daily recording and Plex DVR using XTEVE with M3U from channels DVR to record old series that I want to keep including those from TVE Pluto etc.... I like the actor information etc ... that Plex downloads.plus use of Profiles is a must when you have a large household.
Channels DVR is my goto also to record movies ..
@Michael_Parks I too have a couple Tivo Bolts one 3TB and one 1TB that sit and collect dust. I also had two Mini's but sold them this year. Once I found Channels DVR, I did a little further research to see how I could use Channels with my Plex system. As another person stated, you can point both apps to the same directories or do as I do and set up a DVR folder in Plex one for movies and one for TV shows. Have the Channels folder you create when setting it up scanned by MCEBuddy, the same program that Plex uses to strip commercials, but you'll have to make a contribution in order to get the stand-alone version. I think it was $30 bucks if I remember. I have mine set to convert the files to 720p HVEC h.265 for ultimate compression for movies, and 576p for TV shows. The settings in MCEBuddy are to create folders by Show with subfolders for seasons. I use the following string for renaming the shows so it works for Plex. %showname%\Season %season%##%showname% - S%season%##E%episode%## - %episodename%. This gives you as an example, Yellowstone - S04E07 - Keep the Wolves Close. MCEBuddy has lots of examples on how to rename your files if you don't like that setting. Once a season ends, I move them over to a permanent folder on Plex if I want to keep them. Before that, I have Plex look at my DVR folder if I want to watch something as soon as it records I just prefer to move them once the season ends and shows I don't want to keep, I simply delete using the delete function within Plex. I do that with shows like the evening news or The Tonight Show, something I don't want to keep. Best of both worlds and yes, I too bought a lifetime pass but was unhappy with the DVR capabilities of Plex.
Is the Roamio OTA for sale? Best box Tivo ever made
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Dude you have some good ideas there. I actually already have MCE buddy. I think I paid for it way back when I used WMC in Win7. I never really used it for much other than breaking the mpeg files down to h.264 and now I pull stuff off the TiVo and use it to stamp out the commercials and convert to h.265.
I like your file naming trick. I've not taken time to mess with that kind of stuff. I will now.
I am still messing with the HDhomerun flex4k. I just got it yesterday. So far I connected it to Plex. It's working ok but I can see how it needs a bit more polished. I was watching live tv at the gym doing my cardio thing. I know channels can do that too.
I'm surprised it worked with the experimental ATSC 3.0 broadcast we have here. But they were using AAC audio.
I'm going to get channels on the PC soon and give it a try over my time off for the holidays.
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The TiVo might be for sale soon. Agreed it is the best model the edge for antenna sucks. Only two tuners.
I have an a9200 mini also. Both with slide pro remotes. I'd sell it all together if I sell.
I still run plex for users outside my network but I’ve switched to channels internally, I grew tired of plex attention being given to them adding sources and stuff I didn’t want. I love how channels lets me program my own content with virtual channels. The only thing I would like to see added is allow setup for users outside the network
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Got it installed yesterday. So far so good. Live tv runs a bit smoother that plex did. Got StiRR channels added in. it's very nice. I keep learning more that it can do. Pretty happy so far.
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Did you move away from Plex or have you integrated Plex and ChannelsDVR?
I have been messing with MCEBuddy in an attempt to integrate, to ultimately have the best of both worlds. Daily shows like the news, gets ignored by MCEBuddy and I watch that stuff in Channels. TV Show series and movies gets sent to my Plex libraries via MCEBuddy. The setup is simple although I'm always looking for some tweaks here an there without making it overly complicated.
Personally I haven’t found a reason to continue using Plex for anything other than music. I know Plex has a broad set of features but Channels easily takes care of my family’s TV viewing habits. And it’s one less platform to support. There’s a bit of polish I’d like to see going forward from Channels but I can wait.
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Plex is far better for managing Movies, TV and Music. I also like the ability to browse Plex and fling any file (movie, tv, music) to another device. Kodi with the Channels add-on + Plex Kodi Connect is working very well. I have a feeling you could be waiting a long time. We all have different needs, but life is too short to wait.