On SD DVR Support

Channels Apple TV
#1

tl;dr: SD DVR support will be completely gone in the next Beta of Channels for Apple TV. The next beta will be on Monday August 1, 2016.

Months and months ago, we ventured out to see what it would look like to natively support SiliconDust’s DVR system.

It started out well. We shipped the initial support into the Beta of Channels for Apple TV. A lot of you used it, liked it, and are still using it today.

But in the end, it wasn’t the DVR system we wanted in Channels. We have a bit of history of building things like this, so we decided that we’d just go ahead and build the DVR that Channels deserved.

Because we have no plans to support SD DVR, the code that powered it was removed. There is no more SD DVR support inside Channels for Apple TV. There actually hasn’t been for months. To help those of you that were still using SD DVR, we renewed the beta every so often so that it didn’t expire. We’ve been doing that for over 4 months.

We were able to do that because we were not working on or updating Channels for Apple TV as we worked on DVR and Channels for iOS. So the Beta could sit around hosting a version with the old codebase. But now we’re back to working on Channels for Apple TV and need to send out Betas for those that are willing to help us find bugs before we ship it.

Because of that, SD DVR support will be completely gone in the next Beta.

If you’re extremely dependent on this, do not update to the new Beta. But we hope you join us in helping get the next version of Channels for Apple TV out there void of bugs.

For news about Channels DVR, we just posted a new State of the Union. You can read more about the general timeline of availability there.

Feel free to discuss alternatives for playing back SD DVR recordings on the Apple TV. I know a lot of you have some creative and cool setups.

1 Like
TestFlight (ATV) no longer shows Channels Beta
Test Flight says Channels ATV Beta unavailable
How long will the old Channels DVR Beta Function
#2

I’m okay with it going. Progressing > stagnation

#3

Thanks for the update and timelines. i would be more than happy to be an alpha tester. fully understand the scope, and willing to put in the leg work.

#4

@maddox - “Feel free to discuss alternatives for playing back SD DVR recordings on the Apple TV”

Until I can fully replace my SD DVR (now running on a Synology NAS) I will switch back to using my Mac to schedule SD DVR Recordings. I was using the Kodi Plugin before but now I will use the New Mac View App that natively supports the SD DVR. I will also go back to using the ATV MrMC and Infuse Apps to play the SD DVR Recordings. Infuse has a nicer UI but MrMC is much faster. Hope this will be short lived. But will keep duplicate recordings for a bit.

The Channels SD DVR Integration was much nicer then above so really expecting the New Channels DVR to be great!

#5

My Interim DVR BackUp Plan

I, too, will continue using the SD DVR engine running on a WD MyCloud (single bay) for recordings, until new Channels DVR is stable. In addition, we still have WMC available on a dual boot (ancient PC with Win 10/7), if required.

As we only have 2 ATVs, I found that we needed additional devices to quickly schedule recordings when the ATVs were busy with other tasks. Initially, we sideloaded Kodi on iOS devices and used HDHR addon, then when Apple (in it’s infinite wisdom) decided to limit non developers to 7 day duration on xcode, we switched to several old non iOS tablets to load Kodi and/or “grey” SD View, as released.

Also, of course, we could use PC’s, Android STB devices (and now Macs), but it is easier for us to use an at-hand quick load mobile device. Can hardly wait for Channels similar capability on iOS.

For playback, I’ve tested Infuse, MrMC and Plex (and various lower quality ATV apps). I liked Plex the best for ease of ff/rew/pause coupled with almost instantaneous playback start (or restart) on both iOS and tvOS.

Also, I now use mcebuddy (on Windows) to strip out commercials from movies that we want to archive. Currently, the “new” commercial free recordings are sent back to the HDHR folder (and the original sent to an archive as a backup) so they are available to Channels DVR Beta, SD’s “New” View(s), Kodi and Plex, etc. Usually, we use Plex to play movies (see below).

Currently, on the ATVs we use Channels for playback of all non movie recordings; the series recordings, ff through commercials and then delete (outside of Channels). Also, sometimes we watch recently recorded movies (which haven’t been processed yet by mcebuddy) via Channels and ff through commercials.

Older recordings of movies are currently easier to find on Plex rather than Channels anyway, as old Channels DVR Beta development was ceased with recording “sort by date” only.

We have continued using Channels DVR Beta (even with the arrested development quirks) because it has the best playback capabilities of all.
Also, having the ability to use Siri to search for new shows is awesome. Too bad it won’t be available until after fall season starts.

So, for the interim, we can use Plex to view all regular recordings on both iOS and tvOS. I’ve also used nPlayer in the past to view recordings on iOS, however it is fairly raw.

The latest addition of Channels iOS has moved the Channels “vision” closer to my ideal setup envisioned even before the advent of tvOS. Being able to use iOS, tvOS and MacOS in a seamless package of apps will ultimately be possible because of Channels.

This two man team has already accomplished more than any other developmental effort in far less time. They are professional, visionary, responsive and communicate far more than others. They will readily incorporate user requests based on logic rather than adamantly sticking to their own preconceived, fixed plan.

Very impressive and well worth waiting for the next phase(s).

#6

Sounds like you’ve been using what I’ve been using, @DebbieFL. Currently I’m sitting with HDHomeRun DVR recording on a NAS, and then watching that with MrMC. MrMC also has Plex integration now, so basically I’m going with Channels for Live TV, HDHomeRun DVR for recording shows, and MrMC for playing those shows and watching my Plex videos. Infuse is nice, but it does no deinterlacing, so it can’t really play recorded shows well.

I tried using MCEBuddy on my iMac with a Windows VM, but it was too much of a hassle and the ends would get cut, or stuff wouldn’t get cut, and grrrrr… So I just quit with that and use MrMC. Basically I just jump 3 minutes when the commercials, then go in little steps after that.

#7

Just for clarification - if we don’t manually update the Beta app via TestFlight, it will continue to support the HDHR DVR correct? What happens when the beta expires in a few days? Will it continue to function?

#8

The Beta Version with the SD DVR support expires on 8/14/2016 and will stop working. My understanding is that will be the end of the SD DVR Supported Version. Around that time is when the Channels DVR Alpha will begin which will be limited and by invitation only.

#9

Well, I have officially moved off the old DVR beta, and now back on the current Beta stream. I ended up simply adding the HDHR DVR path for my recordings to Plex and created a “TV Shows (DVR)” Library for them. It seems to work well until the real official Channels DVR Beta kicks off.

Parting is such sweet sorrow… :)_ Here is hoping for a short time until the Beta and can’t wait to see what you guys are pulling together. I have not doubt it will leave the vision SD had well behind…

#10

Quick question for you, because I’m in the same boat.

I installed Plex on my My Cloud EX2Ultra (and the app on my Apple TV).

The Plex server was able to discover the content no problem. However when I try to play it on my Apple TV I just get the pinwheel. Interestingly, when I try to play a recording through my Web browser, Plex says ‘This server is not powerful enough to convert video’.

I tried setting the Plex app to 1080p full (so no conversion would be needed), but no dice. Everything is wired 100MB Ethernet.

So - are you running Plex on a NAS? I guess my other option is to run it on my iMac and index the shared folder on the NAS.

#11

The native ATV player can’t play mpeg2, so plex needs to convert it regardless of the quality setting.

#12

No. I am running Plex on an i7 MacMini, with the library drive mapped to my MyCloud NAS.

i doubt the MyCloud NAS had the power to transcode.

#13

You might try MrMC (tvOS) app for playback on ATV. It does a good job with mpeg2 streams. I didn’t care for the remote control features, however others do not seem to have any problems with it.

1 Like
#14

I agree with @DebbieFL. MrMC works very well and much faster then Infuse. Of course once the New Channels DVR is out I will be dropping MrMC in favor of an integrated Channels DVR Solution.

#15

Thanks everyone for your help. I ended up installing Plex on my iMac (reading the recordings from my NAS). It’s clunky but it works for now. Can’t wait for the Channels DVR!

#16

Plex just made this easy. They are now natively supporting HDHR DVR. Requires PlexPass… I’ll be using this until Channels DVR Beta emerges…

Can’t tell if it is supporting the SD DVR beta or if it is something Plex has done directly…

#17

It’s its own thing. Not using SD DVR Beta… Looks good though…