Need setup info

Congratulations @captain_video! And yes, Channels can record from Hulu Live TV among others. See this thread: Provider - Hulu Live TV

Can you give more details on this?

Primarily, no YouTube TV as a TVE source. There are also some limitations because of Android's sandboxing, so accessing some files on the server may be difficult.

In general it's probably not an issue for most users.

I thought no YouTube TV was only if you were using the Shield for both Server and Client.

After resetting my Shield things have been ok for me on that front using my NAS as mounted storage. I am anxious for SMB 3.0 support though.

I haven't seen any other issues using it yet. If I didn't use TVE then I wouldn't need to use is at all. I am thinking about getting an HDHR Prime-3 and cable so I may go back to using my QNAP itself as the server.

No, the YTTV limitation is only when the Shield is the server. Also, remember that the network bandwidth required when using a network share for DVR storage is 2–3x what you may think, because of streams transversing the network to first be cached to the DVR, then back to the DVR, then again back out to clients. As long as you're aware of all of this increased bandwidth and you're willing to deal with the increased fragility, then by all means continue. But, it is a known bottleneck, and will play a role in future troubleshooting.

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The Network has faster I/O speeds than my USB 3.0 HDD. My NAS trasfers at 100+MBps and the USB HDD was 80ishMBps. I tested using the USB HDD as well and had the same issues I was having. So far performing a Full Factory reset on my Shield has done the trick. I dunno it's working great right now.

While streaming TVE my NAS NIC is transferring 0.25 - 0.75 MBps and the Latency between the NAS and the Shield is <1ms.

I just watched my first recording made with Channels DVR. I did notice some motion artifacts in some scenes, but I'm not sure if it's the recording or my Samsung TV. I'll have to try some more recordings and see how they look. I had it set for automatic commercial skipping but it only did that one time and it just hung up. I noticed that my remote can do a 30-second skip so I was just using that all through the show anytime a commercial came on.

I set up Channels DVR on a 2nd Shield upstairs and it worked great for live TV. I was also able to access the recording made on my Windows 10 HTPC just like the other Shield. So far, so good, but the WAF may still be a stumbling block for me. I'm all about technology and trying new things. My wife just wants to be able to turn things on and off and not have to think about anything just to watch TV. I like what I see with Channels DVR so far but I will need to evaluate it further before deciding to take the complete plunge. Being able to record from Hulu Live may just be the one thing that will convince me to drop FIOS TV.

Be aware that Commercial skipping runs after the program finishes the recording and it takes probably maybe 10 minutes or so for a 1hr show I believe. While it is a great feature it does miss and there are time you have to skip yourself or go into the skip because it skipped over some content.

I understand. I started watching the recording while it was still in progress and it didn't try to auto-skip until near the end of the recording. Commercial skipping apps tend to be hit or miss. The one I've been using with WMC has a tendency to skip over content and miss some of the commercial breaks, which is why I prefer to use it manually in conjunction with a 30-second skip function. I have since turned that feature off in Channels DVR.

For some shows commercial skip works perfectly, but it sounds like you're better turning that off. Just for the record, I think that processing takes 20 minutes for a one-hour show.

Note that you can adjust each client app's FF/Rew times separately for sports and all other programs. The default is 7 seconds Rew and 30 seconds FF. You'll find that in the app under settings for Player.

For that TV you may need to adjust the resolution and bandwidth in the client app's settings under DVR, Streaming Quality.

Can't help you there! Here the WAF pivoted on automatic commercial skip, because it gets the indexing right on her favorite show, and also because TiVo doesn't try to index all commercials, plus we're still on TE3 which is manual even when indexed. At this point her use is about 50/50, because when it's live TV she prefers fast-forwarding through the TiVo buffer (which is for me the only point left in TiVo's favor).

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Make sure you're reading the units properly. 100Mbps is megabits—1,000,000 bits, or 125,000 bytes—per second; 100MBps is megabytes—1,000,000 bytes, or 8,000,000 megabits—per second.

Units matter. And, remember that the posted bandwidth is the maximum; rarely are regular sustained speeds at that upper maximum.

1B (byte) = 8b (bits)
1MB (megabyte) = 1,000,000B (bytes) = 8,000,000b (bits)
1MiB (mebibyte) = 1,048,576B (bytes) = 8,388,608b (bits)

I know what I'm reading which is why I used the large "B" and not the small "b".
0.5MBps is approximately 4mbps.

My NAS resource manager show current and maximum. I averaged that which is why I gave the range I did.

How can I set up the DVR to record from Hulu Live or any of the other streaming services? Can I record more than one show simultaneously or just one at a time? I don't have a problem recording shows the next day if they're available on demand. Does commercial skipping still work with shows recorded from Hulu Live? What about audio? Does it record from Hulu Live in 5.1 or just stereo?

We're shooting past each other I think. See my reply to most of that in the Hulu thread. Re your additional questions, comskip works (don't know how well), and TVE audio is always 2-channel only (sorry).

You log into the WebUI of the DVR and add a TVE Source. It's self explanatory from there.

You can record multiple shows simultaneously.

The other questions were anwered.

I posted a reply in the Hulu Live thread. There's no cost benefit for me to drop Verizon in favor of Hulu Live and only being able to record in stereo is a deal breaker for me so I'll be sticking with FIOS.

I may try to see if I can get Channels DVR and WMC to play together nice on Windows 10. I had a problem trying to use JRiver Media Center on a Windows 7 HTPC running WMC, which is why I installed JRMC on a separate HTPC. They did not seem to play well together in Windows 7 so I'm hoping maybe they will in Windows 10. The fly in the ointment here is with Verizon flagging the Fox network channels. I'd switch over to Channels DVR in a heartbeat if I could access those channels. That would finally give me the one box solution I have been seeking for years. Here's how it stacks up for me:

Pros -
Channels DVR can be installed on my Nvidia Shields
Latest Shields can do HDR
Channels DVR server can record shows from FIOS and OTA and share them with any other device running Channels DVR; DVR server can share same PC running JRMC
Shields can stream from all services I subscribe to (Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, and Hulu basic)
Shields can stream media from my unRAID server using Plex

Cons -
Channels DVR can't view or record DRM content on Fox network channels
Shields can't run madVR
Hulu Live not cost effective vs my current Verizon FIOS lineup
Channels DVR can only record from Hulu Live via TVE and only in stereo; can record up to 50 hours in the cloud with Hulu Live, but I'm not sure if it's in stereo or 5.1; can't skip or FF thru commercials unless I pay even more for Hulu Live
WMC gets me everything, including all DRM channels

I'm disappointed because Channels DVR has a lot of things going for it. It is sooo much better than the SD HDHR DVR app. I will probably continue to use it, especially after the new SD HDHR Quatro tuners are released since that's the whole reason behind trying out Channels DVR.

All their Live TV, no matter how you access it, will probably be in stereo for a very long time. See: Hulu | Help Center | Audio quality on Hulu

Glad to hear you'll probably continue to use it. I'm sure you'll find more reasons to like it as time goes on.

I had been wondering about the audio on Hulu for quite some time. I had been watching The Handmaid's Tale that I acquired from "magical" sources and the soundtracks were always in stereo. I just assumed that they had been ripped from the internet while streaming to a PC. You can only get stereo audio when doing that regardless of the source. I would never pay for a streaming service that didn't offer 5.1 audio on all of it's content. I only got Hulu Basic because they were offering a special deal on it for only $1.99 per month for the first year and they have a vast library of old TV shows that my wife likes to watch and none of them had anything other than monaural soundtracks anyway, with maybe a few exceptions that were broadcast in stereo. I plan on canceling it anyway because we never use it. In fact, we hardly ever watch anything on the streaming services I get.

Oddly enough, I've had the Channels app on my iPhone for probably a year now, but I hardly ever use it. I can't stand watching anything on a screen that small, especially since I can only use it when I'm within range of my wi-fi at home and I have several big screen TVs that I'd rather be watching.

Old TV shows is one thing, but that's really sad if even one of their top original shows does not have surround sound. Wow. I hope it's available in 5.1 from at least one source. But as they admit on that support page, most of their content is in stereo only.

Channels actually does offer remote access. I have never tried it, because — call me paranoid if you want — I don't open ports on my router, but there's a lot of discussion about that feature on this forum.

I've the Channels app installed on both my iPhone and my iPad. I use it on my iPad sometimes to look stuff up, add/delete/modify passes, etc. while we're watching TV. I've used the app on both my iPhone and iPad when I'm in a waiting room or whatever away from home. With either my Air Pods or my Plantronics over-the-ear Bluetooth headphones I actually get a pretty satisfying viewing experience.

I bought an Amazon Fire TV Stick to be able to plug into hotel room TVs in case we ever want to watch home TV, live or recorded, when we're away. (Haven't tried that, yet.)

Among its many other advantages, remote access, to me, is one of the strong points of the Channels product suite.

The DRM stuff we don't care about. Don't have, never have had, subscription TV (cable/satellite). We've tried Hulu before. For us, anyway, Hulu provides little we care about we can't get OTA. And the OTA stuff is in 5.1 digital :slight_smile:

If you do it right, the access will be only to your Channels server on the port Channels' DVR uses. Should be relatively safe. (The key word there being "relatively.")