How do you share it out? Don’t their watch shows effect your watched shows?
Or do you have two channel dvr server installs?
My partner has one of my Amazon Fire TV boxes at her house. I spend a mixed amount of time at her house & at mine (depending when / where im working) so she connects to my Channels DVR server. I only have 1 channels DVR server installed.
Watched shows isnt really affected. We generally watch recorded TV shows together, so the ability to "resume playback from..." is a bonus. We can part watch a TV show at mine, and then finish watching the episode at hers... or vice versa. She also records TV shows that im not really interested in watching & vice versa, so the watched indicators dont really matter. I guess the only drawback is that if she was to part watch a recorded movie & i wanted to watch the same, the "watched indicator" would overwrite. Again though, thats yet to cause me any issues. She generally records and watches whatever she wants, i do the same. Usually we both see a movie we like, set it up to record & watch it together.
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Oh man, if a US subscription satellite provider ever got on board with this, they'd literally destroy our shitty cable companies.
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I don't think it's very likely unfortunately. The US model has been to shove almost everything behind a subscription and then to lock it behind proprietary equipment. Only now with TVE are their options to use your own equipment (CableCard never really caught on and never worked with satellite), albeit still with very high subscription costs and somewhat reduced quality.
Much of Europe has a different model: most channels are subscription only (though generally much cheaper than the US), but there are generally more options to use your own equipment to access it. SAT>IP is most popular/useful in Europe because you can combine a SAT>IP server (or your own standalone sat STB or a sat receiver built into your TV) with a card and reader you get from your satellite provider to access subscription channels in addition to free-to-air channels.
Here in the UK we have yet a different model that is a bit of halfway house (like many things with the UK when comparing US and European models, haha): most of what you call 'basic cable' is free-to-air here both OTA and on satellite, so easily accessible with your own equipment, but subscription channels can still only be accessed with proprietary equipment/apps. We don't even have a TVE equivalent here.
Sky (the main UK satellite broadcaster) and Virgin (the main UK cable provider) are extremely paranoid and aren't likely to ever allow access to their subscriptions through anything but their own equipment/apps. Sky are also planning to offer full internet-based delivery of their subscriptions in the near future but again locked to their own equipment/apps, so that probably makes it even less likely they will ever adopt the European model.
And with everything moving toward an internet-/app-based, non-linear, non-broadcast model, who knows how much longer traditional broadcasting and cable/sat subscriptions will be with us anyway? Maybe 10 years?
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What a fantastic detailed response. Thank you.
Such a missed opportunity from the Satellite companies.
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Would you mind sharing which wideband LNB you're using? I recently purchased a Kathrein EXIP 418 satip server and a Channels subscription after reading this post, however I haven't managed to get my satip server working. Kathrein's support say my LNB may be incompatible. I'm using a Sky-Q supplied 'EL021' wideband LNB currently. Many thanks!
Its in the EXIP418 manual which can be downloaded here -
EXIP 418
SAT>IP server - Converts sat IF into IP signals - 8x DVB-S/DVB-S2(HDTV) tuner, power consumption typical 9 Watt - Unicable compatible - Includes wall…
Looks like you need to connect V & H onto RF1 & RF2. Make sure the lnb polarity is correct. Make sure the settings are correct in the EXIP418 config for wideband.
How are you trying to tune DVBS/S2 channels / trying to generate an m3u list?
Many thanks for responding neild7744. I was really looking for the vendor and product of your wideband LNB. I've been using a Sky-Q supplied 'EL021' wideband LNB and I'm finding it doesn't work. Kathrein support have advised me that my LNB doesn't appear to be compatible, and so far they haven't recomended an alternative. I'd figured that since you have a working system it may be sensible to copy yours.
I have been following the instructions. I'm unclear which are the H and V outputs running from my Sky-Q LNB, so every test I run gets repeated with the two cables swapped between RF1 and RF2. I have my LNB Settings configured for Wideband LNB and I'm typically using a 'Central Frequency' of 10410Mhz, although I've repeated all tests with 10400Mhz also.
To test, I've mainly been using DVBViewer. However the scan always returns no channels when configured for 'Astra/Eurobird 28.2E'. For m3u files, I either use the builtin 'Astra/Eurobird 28.2E' or the '28.2E' file from KingOfSat. Neither of these work, and the Kathrein web portal always reports an 'RF Selection' of either RF3 or RF4 (which is clearly wrong, and I don't have anything plugged into RF3 or RF4). It's for this reason that Kathrein support believe my LNB is incompatible. I've also tried using the VLC media player app, although I get the same problems.
Any info about which vendor / model of LNB you are using would be much appreciated.
Strange that. I thought most wideband lnbs would be compatible.
Mind you, I did have some issues getting DVBViewer successfully channel scanning.
I think my lnbs are made by DUDsat. I can't be 100% as the sticky labels detailing the make, model etc have long gone... British weather and all that.
Also be careful with using a round lnb on an oval sky dish. I ran into issues trying to fit an aftermarket lnb onto an oval dish. I read somewhere that sky oval dishes work best with their own sky branded oval lnbs. When I tried to fit an aftermarket round lnb onto my sky dish, I had issues with channel scans and also the signal strength / quality (despite the dish being well aligned). Also the sky dish lnb clip will need to be changed.
Thanks neild774. I'll see what I can find, and appreciate the advice on the round/oval dishes.
No worries. Let me know how it goes. If you need anything else just let me know
Thanks for all that info. Very useful.
May I ask how you got the SAT>IP to work with channels? Did you use telly or just the recent m3u direct integration? How long does it take to tune a channel? Have you got closed captions/subtitles working?
Sorry for the questions just trying to learn more about this. I have a SAT>IP box working through telly and it’s working great. I’m just tweaking it at this stage.
So this is why I was so interested in getting SATIP support with Channels DVR...
That's a rackmounted setup with 1 x wideband SATIP server (24 tuners) and a second SATIP server (4 tuners) connected via unicable.
24 tuners available from astra 28.2 via wideband, 4 additional tuners available which switches between astra 28.2 and astra 19.2. Totalling 28 tuners onto a gigabit LAN.
Looks beautiful 
Hi @neild7744, I've got a Kathrein 418. How did you create the M3U playlist - did you basically use the sat.ip one and replace the address with the Kathrein server IP ? There is very little documentation on how to setup these boxes!
Also, any ideas on how you would deal with a single cable ? I cannot get it to work with the "one cable" options but seems to work (for some channels) if I select Quattro option. Very frustrating!
Thanks
It is mate. Just got the dish to sort out after the 3 lnbs sagged out of alignment due to a failed plastic triax lnb clip. That won't be happening again, now I have fabricated and bolted on a metal bracket & also using metal lnb clips!! All I need now is the ability to play locally stored movie trailers... Hint hint hint.... 
I don't seem to be able to get this working. I can get the channels through VLC with the same M3U list I've created. In Channels whether I select TS or HLS I get this error:
> 2020/12/14 15:00:13.629459 [TNR] Opened connection to M3U-Freesat for ch300 FilmFour
> 2020/12/14 15:00:13.631989 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 300 from 192.168.118.151 (encoder=remux, resolution=, deinterlacer=, bitrate=0)
> 2020/12/14 15:00:13.661048 [DVR] Fetching guide data for 62 stations in DEU-1000099-DEFAULT @ 2020-12-20 2:30PM
> 2020/12/14 15:00:13.711358 [HLS] ffmpeg: rtsp-300: [rtsp @ 0x31daf40] method DESCRIBE failed: 404 Not Found
> 2020/12/14 15:00:13.711416 [HLS] ffmpeg: rtsp-300: rtsp://192.168.118.50/?src=2&freq=10714&pol=h&ro=0.35&msys=dvbs&mtype=qpsk&plts=off&sr=22000&fec=56&pids=0,17,18,266,2353,2354,2355: Server returned 404 Not Found
> 2020/12/14 15:00:13.711804 [ERR] Error during stream M3U-Freesat ch300 FilmFour: exit status 1
This URL works directly from VLC but not Channels ?
rtsp://192.168.118.50/?src=2&freq=10714&pol=h&ro=0.35&msys=dvbs&mtype=qpsk&plts=off&sr=22000&fec=56&pids=0,17,18,266,2353,2354,2355
There seems to be no activity on the Kathrein Sat IP Box (where as normally you'd see the connection).
Not sure why it's not working, so any guidance would be much appreciated!
It was the same for me trying to use rtsp. You will probably find like me that even if you manage to get a successful connection, you won't be able to tune / open a second connection to the SATIP server via channels dvr either ... Yet it all works fine in VLC. I guess its with the developers to advise. I did have a brief chat with a dev over email about the same issue, but no further forward. You are probably better off using other software (as mentioned in earlier replies) to generate the m3u file.
I would like to figure this out but will need temporary access to the satip server (via ssh or vpn) to investigate
What exactly do you need? To remotely access my SATIP equipment for testing? I can probably open up some ports etc and give you direct access for testing if that helps?