This still incredible that cable operators cannot hire UI designers for their boxes interface
I imagine they could hire anyone they want. It's clearly not a priority for them. Fortunately we have a choice.
I am afraid less and less choice. UI does not to be beautifull however, just clean and informative 
Things would be pretty bleak if it were not for Channels. I wouldn't look for the cable companies to invest in their boxes going forward. The entire sector is in the middle of huge change. Many will likely fail outright. A better DVR isn't going to change that reality for them. Fortunately, Channels is content provider agnostic so it should be a good (and probably cheaper) solution for the foreseeable future.
I am waiting as Poland finally start rollout into DVB-T2 in the middle of this year. Then OTA will finally start be worth something unless of course our glorious government do not destroy any media company that oppose ruling party.
As for America, most of the problems with media market there is they get what they wish for, but it's too long topic to discuss it here.
Channels DVR has a "hidden" feature that is better than TiVo's Wishlist: Advanced Passes.
1 Like
Well my old TV subscriber has not turned off my TVE access. I cancelled just over 2 years ago and I get all my channels plus access to HBO max still. Channels DVR lets me record network TV and I use an antenna to get the locals.
Ha! It funny, i just used my old Comcast account login (my own, and not my folks) to loginto Discovery livestream on thier website...it still works?? I dumped Comcast cable at my home 2yrs or so ago. I can't even use that info to login to the actual Comcast account portal anymore.
It does take some initial investment, but worth it as it gives you the option of control and you quickly get a ROI.
My setup is a NAS running the server, Google Chromecast TV with the Channels app. HD Homerun.
Pulls in all my own personal media, plus organises recordings well with a good interface. Good features too.
Compared to what I was paying Sky for a similar service, this puts it all in my control and costs me much much less overall.
Dude you just made my whole freakin' YEAR!
Thanks!!
1 Like
You're very welcome!
Have fun with advanced passes. They are incredibly powerful.
I'm afraid to try my old logon on the portal just in case. But yea, use those old creds to try and save some cash if you can.
Yep! I have Verizon Fios (internet and TV) with no Verizon cable boxes or Verizon router. $80 a year for channels is a hell of a lot cheaper than paying V for all their stuff. I already had a windows media center setup before I moved to channels... So the start up cost for me to use channels was practically nothing. All I pay Verizon for is 2 cable cards ($10 a month).
I'm at the stage of life where I am the "parents" with the username and password. lol.
Anyway, adding TV to my FIOS internet wasn't that much more than just internet because of all the discounts. Cost about the same as adding Netflix and Disney+. I have a HD Homerun Prime so I don't have any cable box rental fees. Ease of watching live sports is the main driver for me and all the Food Network and house remodeling shows for my wife. She wanted Discovery+ for her birthday so my days of Verizon TV service may now be numbered. It would be nice if I could watch the networks and ESPN with my FIOS internet login. OTA is not reliable enough here to watch without being aggravating.
I have two antennas, and three HDHomeRuns. I also subscribe to Philo, but I only use it once in awhile. The majority of what I watch is live sports, news, and shows that air on NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, or CW... all of which come in perfectly through my antennas and are higher quality than TVE, plus they tune faster.
I don't pay much for Philo, but if I was trying to save more money, TVE would be one of the first things I would drop from my budget.
I have never paid for a full TV package. I live in a city, with an abundance of free OTA. Channels is a great way to get my roof antenna signals to all of the TVs in my house. And with great guide data. This is the primary purpose for the software. The DVR subscription is a fantastic way to have a full featured recording setup of free OTA that can be used anywhere in the home and even anywhere outside the home with a good internet connection.
If you are paying for the full TV service from your cable co, this significantly reduces the benefit of using a software like Channels.... but there are still some benefits.
Because
- Cable provider DVR user interfaces are crap, and your recordings is (usually) stuck inside it, so it dies with the box and have limited capacity.
- Streaming has the same problem; proprietary interfaces and no control over content deletion. The provider loses the rights, or you change provider, and bye-bye content.
Channels DVR fixes that by
- Allowing to add multiple difference sources - OTA and TVEverywhere with a Hulu login in my case - with an up-to-date (if not a detailed as I'd like) EPG.
- Unlimited storage and easy backup to a storage drive that I own and control 100%, in a standard video format that is sure to work in players many years from now.
- Interface to KODI media center for a superior user experience (I am old-fashioned and like to control everything through a simple, IR remote control with physical buttons I can operate literally with my eyes closed), and that gives me easy integration with my backed-up recordings, digitized DVDs, MP3 music, and pictures.
- Com Skip is very nice as well. As another poster said, I could live without it. But I don't have to.
- Excellent support. Where else do you get direct access to the actual product owners/managers and developers?
EDIT: Forgot one additional benefit: NONE of this is cloud connected in any way (other than the initial TVE streaming). Everything is local on media I own and control access to, and no-one is logging or monitoring anything of what I'm doing (aside again from the TVE part). And OTA and all my stored content it still works if the Internet is down.
I've been subscribed to FIOS for over a decade. I was using Windows Media Center on Windows 7 HTPCs on every TV in the house. I also use Nvidia Shields for streaming. I have an unRAID server with thousands of movies and TV episodes that I can stream to any device in the house. I tried Channels DVR and I love that I can control it using the Shields as well as my cell phone. I still use WMC on my primary Windows 7 HTPC as well as several Intel NUCs connected to my other TVs along with a HDHR Prime for watching live TV. I have a Ceton InfiniTV 6 installed on my main HTPC for recording the DRM channels. I have the Channels DVR Engine installed on a Windows 10 HTPC that also serves as a platform for JRiver Media Center for watching 4k content and listening to music. I have two HDHR Quatro tuners (one is the newer ATSC 3.0 model) for watching and recording OTA channels. My wife likes to watch the old movie channels like Turner Classic Movies so I need my FIOS subscription for that. I probably record from FIOS and OTA about 50/50 which is why I still have a paid TV subscription. I also get Netflix and Amazon Prime, but don't really watch them all that much.
My original plan with Channels was to cancel the streaming TV service until I realized I could leverage TV Everywhere to get around sports blackouts that were preventing me from watching games. As long as that loophole exists, I will pay for my streaming service. Whenever that loophole is closed, bye bye subscription.
Never had a Tivo, etc., dedicated box for DVR. Have run a Synology NAS product as media server and currently run the Channels on that and utilize Locast. I can get antenna reception where I'm at, but the reception isn't always good. Been loving this set-up thus far...have to make more time to watch TV!
I currently pay $40 for FIOS (100 Mbs), Channels + Locast so I'm about $53 a month.
Ditto.
Furthermore, in addition to my HDHR OTA receiver, I bought the HDHR CableCard receiver to record CATV content. I find the streams from the HDHR-CC look MUCH better than the same thing from TVE. Also, in my area Comcast gives me the first CableCard for free and, with ChannelsDVR, I don't need to rent any boxes from them, so the HDHR-CC paid for itself in about 10 months.