I use my mother-in laws login to give her an all in one place where she can also get locals (I supply the antenna, she supplies her login) since these service providers seem to always argue over contracts with various networks and hold the customer hostage.
Since switching from DirecTV, I have subscribed to DTVNOW, then PSVUE, then Hulu, and currently I am with Fubo. I have an HDHomerun for OTA stations. By using Channels, the user interface is the same regardless of which "backend" I am using for service so going back and forth between services isnât a concern.
Tech support is top notch and very fast. For example, Iâve had issues with NFL Redzone or certain TVE channels not working and they issued fixes over the weekend (sometimes within 30 minutes of when I reported an issue).
The DVR itself is the best I've ever used. Even compared to the last gen DirecTV boxes, Channels is so much better and nearly instantaneous when skipping back/forth. Itâs just so much faster you really have to try it. This applies to other computer-based DVRâs such as NextPVR.
I watch a lot of NFL football and always record and watch at least a little delayed (usually an hour or two). Channels allows you to set different back/forward skip times for sports vs other content which is great from something like football where there are frequent stoppages. Iâve found that online DVRâs (from Hulu or others) to be fine for watching something like a recorded movie where you start it, maybe pause once or twice and then watch the remainder. There are also some weird situations where certain programs wonât let you fast forward (or skip commercials) after youâve started watching something.
Using an online DVR can also be infuriating for sports fans (or any content where you skip a lot). Skipping is slow and sometimes freezes the content. PSVUEâs DVR had a bug where once a sporting event went past the scheduled end time (say 3 hours on a football game), it would completely disappear from the recordings list (even while you were still watching it). If you accidentally stopped watching, you then had to wait until about 30 minutes after the event ended, in order to start watching it again. Very weird.
Even the DirecTV Genie DVR had a well-known bug where once in about every 50-100 â30-second skipsâ it would jump to the end of whatever program you were watching (often showing you the final score of a game you were just starting to watch). This has never happened to me with Channels.
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I concur with this assessment. The ability to handle one's own recordings is a huge plus for me too. It frees me up from other companies' whims and makes me in charge of it.
The UI is also improving a lot and is much more responsive than the boxes one can get from cable providers.
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.
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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!!
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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.