Plex Vs. Channels Dvr & Live TV

#1

Hello Channels!

I am a plex user and have my dvr on my Plex server. I love having it all together. That's pretty much where the love ends. Live tv is slow.... so slow on my Apple TV and the Dvr (HDHomeRun Flex 4K ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV: 2/4 Tuners HDFX-) I'm tired of babysitting the dvr. It works most of the time.... but not flawless.

I want to hear from those that have used plex dvr/live tv and then went to channels. Is it way better? I read some posts but they are from 2018. Looking for something more current.

Also, I read that you can watch a tv recording while it's recording. Does that use 2 turners when doing that?

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#2

Night and Day. For DVR, Channels puts Plex to shame. Try it for month and see if you like it. It's only $8

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#3

I know... It's just I got the lifetime plex for this reason.... $8 more is killing me! :smiley:

#4

If 8 dollars a month is killing you ... you can try the trial then decide if the 8 dollars will kill you.

#5

Ha! I maybe being dramatic....

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#6

If you have separate PLEX profiles for family ... be aware Channels DVR is meant for 1 user no profiles.

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#7

I have both. If you are techy and willing to play around, I promise once you see what you can do with CDVR it will be worth the cost. And i believe there's a 7 day free trail.

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#8

I do. Is there favorites? So Mom's favorites, Grandmas, kids.. etc.

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#9

Yes. Actually you can achieve this with channel collections. :slightly_smiling_face:

There are other ways you can customize Channels even though there are no user profiles.

You mentioned kids. There are customizations for kids:

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#10

They do have collections ... but there is no watched status for individual family members.

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#11

I use both CHDVR and Plex. I believe you'll find that CHDVR is far superior for recording. I link Plex to my recorded CHDVR video folder so I can play back in Plex.

Also, I have a large library of TV shows storied on a NAS and the Virtual Channel feature is very handy for creating custom grouping of shows.

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#12

I use Plex & Channels DVR

Plex: Better at managing large libraries of content. Sucks donky balls DVR. PlexShare is a very cool and abused feature.

Channels: The most powerful DVR for linear television EVER created. Period. Full stop. The developers also personally active in community.

Its 100% worth having both.

Edit: Virtual channels is awesome.

#13

That is the best comment I’ve seen/heard yet to describe Plex DVR. :grinning:

I think I’ll probably switch the DVR over to channels come fall. I won’t be using it much until the fall lineup comes back.

I agree. They really nailed the library and share options.

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#14

Thanks. I will for sure look into this.

Thanks so much.

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#15

That is so interesting that you pull it into Plex for playback. Do you not like the app? I’m just curious as to why.

#16

I do use both. I use CHDVR for viewing Live TV from Spectrum TVE and locals via HD HomeRun. If I'm just going to playback from my library I prefer the Plex/Infuse interface on my ATV4k. CHDVR is the much better option for the TVE/HDHR DVR heavy lifting.

#17

I too use both ChannelsDVR is great for recording Movies by Actor Genre etc ... Plex/Emby organize the movies into collections (automatically) and also keeps watched Status for family members.

Channels DVR does have an UPNEXT Section that works great if you are the only one watching.... if multiple users of UPNEXT in your household it becomes useless.... as shows that you might have in Progress will drop off if others watch them. In our household we use ChannelsDVR to do recordings Plex/Emby for viewing.

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#18

I have a Plex Lifetime subscription... and don't even have Plex server installed on any machine anymore. Whatever few limitations there are in Channels compared to Plex, there is usually a fairly painless way to work around it.

This is my use case and Plex (and everything else I've ever tried) doesn't even come close to what Channels is capable of in this regard. Check out the documentation, especially on things like Stream Links, Stream Files, PlayOn Cloud, and Custom Channels:

For everything video related, Channels is my one-and-only central hub. As others have said, there is a free trial, so give it a whirl for a month. If you like it, it's $80/year ($6.66/month).

#19

Channels DVR for "Cable Box Replacement" setup. (Goodbye COMCRAP cable tv...)

Channels DVR i use for Live TV and for recording/watching OTA and TVE, M3U sources.

Local media, I use Plex as the media server backend, but Infuse Pro app on my Apple TV to play back content stored in Plex. Never used or cared about Plex DVR aspect or their own app.

I used to use, Emby Premium. For many many years, after Windows Media Center became no longer useable. For Android and PC use, Emby is top dog. But, they did not care to develop more than basic app for the Apple ecosystem, which i ended up moving to for streaming box and phone few years back. So i moved my media server backend setup to Plex.

#20

I may be the outlier on this topic - I have both and each has their pluses and minus -

For Plex - to get the best experience with loading more than just video and HD Home Run and managing your portfolio of data you will want to use xteve software which will permit you to do all the same things that you can do in Channels DVR with a lot less hassel, and a one time membership fee to be a lifetime member which means you will have a price increase.

Channels DVR is a great service, I love the fact that you can use the "skip commercial" feature which Plex does not have perfected. It does a much better job of using third party streaming providers albeit I will never understand why someone who has YouTube TV would ever want to be add an additional fee every month or an annual fee if you pay for 12 months of Channels DVR when YouTube TV has all the features you could possiblly want right it their own application. Unlimited DVR, pause, rewind and record. That said you are an IPTV user this is without question one of the best platforms for IPTV - but keep in mind, with xsteve you also have the exact same features with Plex -

Conclusion - I prefer Channels DVR overall, after using it for the last 10 months, but I am concerned a pricing increase may be around the corner, and if it does I will drop it and stick with Plex because I already have the lifetime membership and both servers on line, for me it would be a quick pull the plug ordeal. I am ok with $60 year but will not pay more.

Good luck hope this helps and you have been enjoying the services if you have already joined.

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