I'm not seeing much of anything describing multi-user access. Is there such a thing? My struggle is that I have a number of users in the home, kids parents, parents in-law and so on and having a single DVR for everyone is a real PITA. Would love to see separate accounts per user to isolate this.
Alternatively, with a 'plus' account, can I install channels multiple times? I could host a separate install for each 'group' and solve my troubles that way.
You can I have a test system ... but only 1 server can be accessed remotely.
So it’s just the remote access that is limited to 1? Let’s say I install 3 systems, can I point android apps to each system via their IP address?
yes ...of course you lose tuner sharing when watching or recording same channel.
how are you accomplishing this? I can't see anywhere to add users
There is no way to add users you have to Install another Instance of Channels DVR on another machine and point their clients to it.
So yes you can have multiple DVR instances, which you could then dedicate to each user and have their clients connect via IP. It’s not a particularly graceful solution, but it would work. However, as others have mentioned, you would have to choose one of them (and only one) for remote access.
I was able to do a workaround to Share the streams (tuners) with 2 servers ... On The second DVR server the only tuner I installed was an M3U pointing to my main server. That way even if both servers are Scheduled to record the same show they will only use 1 tuner. Still only 1 can have remote access.
Thanks to the developers .... they keep improving channels.
@Edwin_Perez - on the second system, when you point the tuner to the primary channels server, what did you choose as the guide? I'm thinking of creating containers for each household member.
The regular guides. I also made sure that the m3u tuner had the same favorites. It has been working pretty good. I have the main server down in the basement with no passes ... as it actually does not do the recordings just serves the tuners. Also serves EMBY.
this is a tremendous PITA in our house. both sling and channels (unlike MOST other streaming apps) only have one, single user login. sadly MY favorite channels, are very much NOT the same as some older (or much younger) folks in my household.
makes for a very inconvenient navigation, and is just another in the growing list of reasons I wish we'd just stayed with cable. : (
Sounds like you should look at Channel Collections, which allow for you to create separate groups of channels, and sync them across all clients:
Agreed! Channel Collections might be my favorite of all the newest features.
OH! that's interesting. maybe i whined too soon!
I’m curious what cable system offered more in this context — that was even more customizable and controllable?
We can create custom categories, virtual channels as well as collections combining them with our own content, and record stuff and actually watch it anywhere anytime on any device without any restriction is something no cable company or cable box has ever allowed. With ad-skipping. What cable box did you have before that came close? Just curious.
This is a great article: Cord-Cutting Isn't About Saving Money. It's About Control | WIRED
Indirectly, cable systems often have separate DVR boxes on each DVR which kind of gives you a 'multi-user' setup. Channels doesn't offer a direct TV-A=DVR-B/favorite channels A, TV-B DVR-B/favorite channels B solution.
Thus, separate instances...
This does add an annoying 'extra' in that I have to bring channels up on a device and then select 'home' and type the IP of the docker instance... but that's rare so not a huge deal.
Be so nice to have multi-user and maybe even pin codes or something to get in so people don't just pick the first one that pups up and mess with other people's stuff.
man, i REALLY spoke too soon, AND made some assumptions that simply weren't accurate.
i assumed (based on experience with a similar service) that "favorites" were subscription-wide. but i found out after doing some un/re-installation of the app, that favorites APPEAR to be local to each streaming device. meaning that the channels app ON each of our different streaming sticks has its own "favorites" selections. that's exactly how our old DirecTV worked.
collections: i'd set these up originally, it seemed straight-forward enough. but was frustrated that they didn't show up on any of my channels apps. thanks to the link provided above by racameron, i discovered that they have to be sort of "published" to the devices. and i LOVE that you have options to publish them to either / both individual devices or system-wide.
thanks to you guys–in just one morning–i went from hating to loving this software.
This is the way.
Can I have one user on the local network and one remotely watching the same stream? My sources are Spectrum, SlingTV, and HDHomerun with Quad tuners