New User Experience After a Couple Weeks

[loucille48]

I hated the remote that came with my Apple TV box. Spectrum offered a remote for the Apple TV Box. It was named Spectrum Apple TV Remote - Model R39000.

It is so much more user friendly, has backlite buttons, a channel up & down button (you can change channels the old fashioned way) and more.

I am not sure if Spectrum will sell the remote if you don't use their TV service, but it might be available on Amazon or Ebay. Spectrum is selling for $12.00.

Spectrum is selling this remote because their streaming TV service is only available using an Apple TV. Their app is not available on the Amazon Fire Stick.

I mainly use the remote while using Channels DVR since my Spectrum channels are pulled into Channels - I rarely watch TV thru the Spectrum app.

This remote is an upgrade from the Apple TV remote in my opinion.

[sjj]

I used my existing Tivo remote and had Apple TV learn the commands which really eased my migration to Channels. Not all Tivo buttons work but the majority of them do.

[slampman]

@parsonssc

I ran wire and hard wired my apple tv and and the skip issue has went away. My takeaway on this is that the wifi adapter or antenna on the appletv is very weak

Its not that it is weak, its just that Wi-Fi has issues in general for streaming. Its only half-duplex and so may other external factors come into play. Hard wired is the best option hands down.

@parsonssc

I wish I could find a replacement remote that worked wirelessly with the appletv,

I have 3 harmony hub remotes. Pick one up on ebay, it works AWESOME with Channels. It makes my AppleTV's actually usable. I have the number keys programmed and other hotkeys to make Channels navigation work better. For instance, when I single press the guide button it launches the guide, when I long press the guide button it launches the guide with PIP. Dont let the Harmony haters on this forum get to you. They are still supported and work great.

@parsonssc

Channels is flakey on detecting commercials, skipping commercials and 30 second skip. I would say commercial detection is 60% accurate. TIVO was nearly 100% accurate but it wasn't an option with all programming and that is where the fast forward function really shined.

Here's what I do: Once a day I open up the Channels webpage on my phone, I re-edit the commercials with their awesome gui that they have for commercial detection. I correct any mistakes and save it. It takes me like 20 seconds. I only do this for shows that my wife cares about or ones we watch together. If I forget and we sit down to watch something I edit it after we start it and it applies to the show playing in progress.

@parsonssc

The channels interface and menu's are OK, I think they could be a little better but I am still getting used to them

Customize Customize Customize...
I found the default UI kind of cluttered and annoying honestly. Some tips that worked for me:
(Server UI -> Clients -> Global Client Settings)
General -
I hide Kids, and On Now, and Schedule
I set Startup Section to Library

Library - Enable enhanced Library

Channel Collections: This is probably one of the best features. Set the channels you want and create as many collections as you want and have them show in the order you want.,

[AeroR1]

If any of you old boomers who refuse to adapt and keep comparing everything to TiVo and VCRs don’t want the Siri Remotes, I’ll take them off your hands for free

[Fofer]

@loucille48

It is so much more user friendly, has backlite buttons, a channel up & down button (you can change channels the old fashioned way) and more.

The channel up and down buttons on the newest AppleTV remote allow for the same, FWIW. I "channel surf" with that remote all the time, since Channels DVR includes support for it. I agree that Spectrum remote is a great alternative because unlike many other options, it includes Siri voice support, as well as backlit buttons. But there are so few buttons on the Siri remote and I know them pretty well by touch, so I don't really need backlighting. I disagree that Spectrum remote is more user friendly, though. Primarily because it doesn't have any touch surface for precise live scrubbing in a video's timeline. I use that exclusive feature multiple times a day, every day, with the Siri remote and wouldn't want to rely on a different remote that lacks it.

[hancox]

@slampman

I have 3 harmony hub remotes. Pick one up on ebay, it works AWESOME with Channels. It makes my AppleTV's actually usable. I have the number keys programmed and other hotkeys to make Channels navigation work better. For instance, when I single press the guide button it launches the guide, when I long press the guide button it launches the guide with PIP. Dont let the Harmony haters on this forum get to you. They are still supported and work great.

Agreed on Harmony. I have one, and it's great.

Word of warning to the OP, though - it will be increasingly expensive, as Harmony hardware isn't being manufactured anymore. The software end still works/is supported, to some degree though.

The SofaBaton U1 is a reasonable bluetooth candidate, and cost is reasonable.

The SofaBaton X1 is meant to be a competitor to the Harmony Hub remotes, but the experience has fallen short, based on reviews by users here. I'm trying to pick one up cheap, to see if it's at least a newer/still produced alternative.

[parsonssc]

The touch surface is what I hate the most. To each his own.

[Fofer]

@parsonssc

The touch surface is what I hate the most. To each his own.

Yeah, totally. Thankfully that Clickpad can be customized in the Settings > Remote & Devices, to be click-only, instead of click+touch. At least on the 2nd & 3rd gen Siri remote: Identify your Apple TV remote - Apple Support

I always encourage everyone to choose whatever works best for them, of course. Different strokes for different folks, I hear ya!

[dwbutts]

@slampman

Once a day I open up the Channels webpage on my phone, I re-edit the commercials with their awesome gui that they have for commercial detection. I correct any mistakes and save it. It takes me like 20 seconds.

Yes, this is the way. You can also verify commercials from the Channels app on you iPhone or iPad, but I prefer doing it from the web browser on my computer. I correct the mistakes in all my recordings--only takes a few seconds--then set commercial skipping to automatic.

@parsonssc

The channels interface and menu's are OK, I think they could be a little better but I am still getting used to them.

If you go into the Clients setting on the server, there are a ton of adjustments and tweaks. You can totally revamp the menus, add remote shortcuts, change the seek times, and much, much more. Just play around with things to figure out what works best for you. Then set some Global Client Settings so that all your devices behave the same way.

[Goober96]

How did you add the number keys to the remote? I haven’t found a way to do that on the Apple TV activity. I had them on the TiVo activity when I was using that.

[maddox]

Add a PC to your activity and the Harmony magically just SENDS those keys over Bluetooth. You need to have your harmony hub connected to your Apple TV as Bluetooth first.

It’s a weird hack but works. It really opens up the remote.

[slampman]

works great

Advanced Remote Tricks

[Goober96]

I tried that and I also added the TiVo to the activity but still no numbers. Oh well I don’t watch live TV often anyway so it’s not really necessary. I was just wondering when he said that. Thanks.

[slampman]

you have to program the buttons individually in harmony under the activity, it works great.,

[Goober96]

You may have a different model Harmony than I do. Mine doesn’t have physical number buttons but they come up on the screen for my TiVo activity but not my ATV one. Even adding a PC or the TiVo to the activity didn’t make them appear.

[GTFan]

Just FYI to anybody comparing channels comskip to TiVo, I'm a recently moved from TiVo user and their comskip hasn't been curated by humans for at least a year now IIRC. They put in something to do automatic skipping and it is terrible now, worse than comskip on channels. I don't really care for channels comskip and don't want to fool with editing commercial marks so I just skip around and that works fine. I'm used to doing that with the TiVo anyway.

I still think the TiVo playback experience is better overall given the better remote and ease of doing quick play versus channels extra menu taps, but the ability to manage passes and create wishlists is just about as good in channels.

The worst part about channels so far is the guide on Apple TV. Have put in a feature request to have jump forward and back a day buttons added because without that feature it makes it very hard to find things useful to record using the guide. Assuming you like using the grid guide as I do, that is. Endlessly scrolling through the guide with fast forward and rewind is very painful.

[Fofer]

@GTFan

very hard to find things useful to record using the guide

Agreed, but just wanted to say, I've discovered so many great shows, movies and specials via "On Later." It's pretty great.

[mjitkop]

@GTFan

the ability to manage passes and create wishlists is just about as good in channels

In my opinion, Channels is more powerful than TiVo.
I'm not the only one to think the same way.

Better than TiVo's Wishlist

If you have used a TiVo DVR, you are probably familiar with their Wishlist feature. If you don't know, it enables you to set up automatic recordings based on matching criteria. https://tivoidp.tivo.com/tivoCommunitySupport/s/article/How-to-Use-WishList-Searches To me, this was a killer feature for a DVR and I thought that was the best thing ever. That is until I discovered Channels Advanced Passes a few days ago. Wow, so much more customizable, I am very impressed with what you can do with it…

Unfortunately, they have to be created from the server web UI for now. Hopefully, it will be possible to do it from clients at some point.

You can get inspiration in Advanced Passes - Channels Community

[GTFan]

Yeah I have set up a few advanced passes and they are very customizable (even with the somewhat rough interface), but I still think that TiVo is equivalent in that category. There's no feature that I use regularly that's superior in channels vs. wishlists and manual repeating recordings but I certainly could have missed something. The huge exception being the absolute crap Rovi guide data on TiVo as you said. So glad that channels is using Gracenote.

I had a lot of auto record wishlists for sports and manual repeating recordings for news on TiVo and was able to replicate all of them on channels without an issue, once I figured out where advanced passes were.