I’ve been a very happy user of Channels since the beginning.
Since I had a few items (Dual tuner HD HomeRun, a couple of indoor antennas, two Apple TV’s, EyeTV DVR software). I decided to go the budget route.
I must start off by saying that I am envious of djcastaldo’s setup. It’s well thought out and beautiful.
The Channels software allows me to have live broadcast TV to all of my TV’s, which because of their placement in my house it would have been difficult to 1. Bring an antenna wire from a single roof antenna 2. Using an indoor antenna at each TV was not an option as the OTA performance was poor at each TV. 3. two of three TV’s are placed in a way I could only use a WIFi connection.
But the combination of Apple TV and Channels solved this problem.
Here is my setup. Be warned, it’s not pretty, but it works for me.
I have a two level house with three TV’s and a 2017 iMac that I use for recording shows using the EyeTV software. The EyeTV software, Dual tuner HD HomeRun along with the TitanTV web site guide, allows me to select shows and queue them for recording and encoding with the EyeTV software that is on my iMac. I also use a script to move the encoded TV show into my iTunes library and thus these recordings show up in the Computers app/TV shows on the Apple TV.
WiFi performance has not been an issue. I use an Apple Airport Extreme which supports 802.11ac and this has proved fast enough.
My Apple TV’s are all the fourth generation version 32 GB which has 802.11ac. Two of the Apple TV’s use WiFi and one is using wired ethernet.
So by adding to what I already had back in 2016, I now have six indoor antennas mounted to a cork board I had in my 2nd floor office. Really by luck, I have a wall to mount these antennas on that points directly to the broadcast antennas about 17 miles away. I have three Dual tuner HD HomeRuns so that gives me a total of six tuners, one tuner for each antenna. One Dual tuner HD HomeRun is devoted to the EyeTV software so I can record two shows simultaneously. The other two Dual tuner HD HomeRuns are used with the Channels software on my three Apple TV’s. So with four tuners for three TV’s, one is never without a tuner for Channels to use. I used the Signal GH iOS application to fine tune antenna placement.
Yes, it’s a lot of cables with six antennas, an amplifier for each antenna, three Dual tuner HD HomeRuns and an ethernet cable for each HomeRun, but it’s mostly hidden behind a rolling file cabinet.
I could have gotten by with fewer antennas but for the weak signal strength of FOX in my area. I could not maintain the signal strength needed for FOX when splitting a single antenna connection to the Dual tuner HD HomeRun.
I purchased the extra antennas, Apple TV’s and Dual tuner HD HomeRuns that I needed on eBay. I was able to cut my cable bill by about $90 a month.
Overall the set up has been trouble free. Only severe weather will degrade my reception and that mainly just applies to FOX.
I also did a trial of the Channels DVR and found it very easy to use and the performance was excellent. If I didn’t already have the EyeTV software, I would be using the Channels DVR service, too.
