Plex is stepping up their game

Tivo is already pretty good at that. They could use the $50 million and be a lot further ahead of Plex. That’s just my opinion.

The problem with TiVo is they they pretty much abandoned any type of R&D to actually improve their product. I used TiVo for about 15 years and as developers began to stop making apps for their OS the platform began to be neglected. One of the reasons we switched to Channels in my house is because we were constantly changing inputs on the tv to other devices to use various apps. Now we have everything running on the fire stick with very few issues.

TiVo's notion of "apps" has always been pathetic. Terrible selection and even worse performance, zero support. That "TiVo+" business is just an abomination. All it would do is crash my boxes when I tried to launch it, and I heard the content was awful, too. Don't even get me started on the non-specific banners for it cluttering the guide, as well as the intermittent pre-roll ads that would crash people's TiVos, requiring persistent calls to "opt out" to "fix" it. Over and over and over again.

TiVo never even brought CEC to their TiVo Minis.

Once they reneged on their promise to release tvOS and Android clients, after over a year of hot air, I was done. This past year with Channels DVR and the freedom/control is allows me, has been exhilarating. It's the single best upgrade I've done to my home AV, and that's saying something. I'm constantly buying gadgets and tech components.

This small developer team has put TiVo's (if they even have one anymore?) to shame. My only regret is not switching over to Channels five years sooner.

3 Likes

Hell hath no fury... :slightly_smiling_face:

100% agree from another former Tivo user.

2 Likes

I agree with you. I’ve been a user for about 20 years. It’s sad they had such a good product but they never had the money or took it as a priority to invest in a new OS or continue development. They spent most of their time fighting patent infringements. And now they are trying to play catch-up with a streaming device. Which I will note I really like. It aggregates my streaming apps and searches and does have an integrated guide for Locast, sling and Pluto.

I bought a lifetime Plex Pass many, many years ago. They have always been more interested in adding new features than fixing stuff that doesn't work, and I see that hasn't changed. I think the last time I used Plex was before the pandemic.

Well one new thing for Plex....they got their 'free' channels added to the Live TV guide on FireTV...

I hate to say it....but in my opinion some of this attitude also hits the Channels clients (at least for Android and what I view as some basic requirements/requests).

1 Like

Apple TV's are the flagship devices they develop for. I run Android with that understanding. Things will eventually be brought over.

1 Like

Care to name a couple specific examples?

I get 50 Plex channels available in Fire Live TV guide....
Examples
AMC Presents
IFC Films Picks
Slightly Off by IFC
Fail Army
Crackle
Game Show Central
Movie Sphere
Nashville
Fubo Sports Network
Popcorn Flix
Crime 360

Are we able to add these to Channels?

I noticed that too .. I finally got all my tuners (connects/Primes) working great in PLEX using XTEVE.

I'd guess no (but could be proven wrong)....they are only available to the Fire TV if the Plex Server is running...and I think they are only available on the Plex server if you have a Plex Pass.

I don't have a plex pass and at least two channels played fine.
I am getting Plex and IMDB channels but I used to only get Pluto but it seems to have disappeared?
edit...I must have deleted Pluto once I got it up and running on ChannelsDVR. Haha.

If only Amazon didn't cripple Pluto down to about 50 out of the 270+ available channels they'd have a great cord cutting solution. For all ithe platforms' faults, the Fire TV Live TV guide is really quite good. IMHO the Channels developers would do well to give it a look to try and emulate a lot of it's features.

1 Like

The live TV is pretty nice visually, but like Channels, no clock!
Better timeline however for the guide.

I actually like the new Fire TV layout although I believe I am in the minority.

I have a clock....upper left corner with the channel group selection. It's not big, but it's there.

1 Like

I see Plex is going to add the ability for multiple lineups.... only took them a few years.