Most available channels for TVE: DirecTV Premiere

Channels DVR Server TV Everywhere
#1

Find a friend or friendly neighbor with a DirecTV Premier (the actual 'DirecTV' 'Premier' package and NOT packages from 'AT&T TV', 'AT&T WatchTV', 'AT&T TV NOW', or 'Uverse TV'; yes the brand alphabet soup is confusing as hell) package and offer to split the bill if they let you use their login for TVE or create a secondary login on their account for you to use yourself. It has the most channels in my experience after trying a few different streaming service TVE logins. Including the East/West coast duplicate feeds, I typically see between 140 and 180 TVE channels through a DirecTV Premier TVE 'tuner'. I use an HDHomeRun QUATRO for locals and have the antenna positioned such that I get both Detroit and Toledo locals.

The fly in the ointment with TVE is A&E. They are stingy/overprotective of their content and refuse to integrate a live feed even in their app (sucks not having LivePD through Channels). As a workaround we use a shared Hulu Live tv subscription and cast from the app on our iPhones to the NVIDIA Shield or Chromecast device hooked up to our TVs (Hulu only allows one FireTV/AppleTV/SmartTV device to work through the TV-native apps which the main account holder pays for so they get the privilege while we peasants 'cast'). Philo would be the other cheapest way to get A&E channels natively on your TV.

Hope this info helps someone :slight_smile:
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Best Provider with most channels?
#2

So steal tv

#3

LOL. You are crabby, ain't ya? (saw your less than charitable responses to others including pabpetina108e). Y u mad bro? Life's too short to worry about my friends and I splitting the cost of cable.

shrug

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#4

And Cable companies will start cracking down on shared passwords. If you can't afford something. Go without.

#5

By your logic, sharing a family cellular plan (something carriers openly encourage between friends to boost activations even though you're not blood relatives) or using Channels DVR/PlayOn/etc. to record TVE streams without renting the cable/satellite 'approved DVR' would be 'stealing' too. Legalists like yourself love your high horses and soapboxes (and apparently paying full MSRP for everything). Whether it be legalism for the sake of being 'pure' and aligning with the desires of the industry at large or just plain jealousy that you didn't think of the idea with your friends first, it still looks bad on you. I'm not here advocating someone go off and sign up for a pirate IPTV service so please check yourself and find someone else to harass.

As an aside, executives from popular platforms such as Netflix and HBO GO (the latter before they were purchased by the awful AT&T) have come out and said they don't really care about ID sharing at this stage in the game. Once the streaming wars and content exclusivity agreements die down and they look for increased revenue streams they may decide to crack down and implement 2FA or some other validation which staves off sharing which is fine and good and in their purview to do so. Until then people will most certainly share accounts to defray the cost of what is an overpriced and bloated industry.

As of this moment it is perfectly legal to share your logins with family and friends (i.e. why there are simultaneous stream limits for login tokens; so yes, they already know people do this). At most for some services it would be a ToS violation of which they would present a document of warning for you to comply with or be removed from their service (which they do not do because they know competition right now is strong and they try to keep customer retention high).

edited to add sources below for my claims to use with other legalists wherever they might be encountered

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#7

Perfectly legal and no, their CSRs aren't going to ever tell you that (I would LOL if one ever did for any company). Please show me the case law which shows legal action being taken against a private account holder sharing their account; I'll wait. Don't confuse legality with a private ToS violation which some companies have and some do not. I'm done arguing the point, if it's something that you don't prefer to do and don't like sharing with others then fine, you pay the bill, that's your prerogative but you don't get to call others thieves or law-breakers just because they don't align with your sensibilities. Good day to you, sir.

P.S. You must have missed my screenshot which included an HDHomeRun tuner aerial antenna with 107 local channels I more frequently use with Channels DVR than even the DirecTV TVE 'tuner'. Might have also missed the tag next to my name which says 'DVR User' indicating I pay Channels for their excellent work with both OTA and TVE feeds. You go ahead and do you; define 'legit' in whatever way makes you happy.

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#9

Netflix/HBO GO/etc. have the same from their legal department. It's boilerplate for any company due to their contractual agreements with content providers and yes, as I already mentioned, would amount to a ToS violation which they may or may not choose to enforce. Again, do not conflate this with 'legality'. Let me guess, you always go 50MPH in a 50MPH zone don't you? Even when passing? Stream using your account over at grandma's house and forget to log out while she watches TV for a few months? Should we take grandma to court for her infraction?

All I'm saying is to think logically and constructively about these things. If DirecTV chooses to enforce their boilerplate ToS violation against my friends and I then fine, we will go elsewhere to more sharing-friendly competitors. They cancel your account for these things if it becomes an issue, not sue you. The exception being someone who is unfairly profiting from their service by buying tens/hundreds of subs and reselling them for profit (a.k.a. more along the lines of pirate IPTV streams).

You're great at baiting me on this subject because it's one I'm passionate about; unfortunately I have to get back to my day now. I think I've said all that can be said on the subject at this point.

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#10

I'll add just one thing that surely will be mis-understood by most:
the surest way to destroy something like TV Everywhere is to
abuse,pirate or otherwise mis-use copyrighted content; then
everyone loses; I've been at the mercy of big cable for more years
than most in here as I'm 72..so thru the lens of the decades I can tell
you that sharing aka rationing aka socialism does not work long term;
it just destroys incentives to create things;sadly, required reading for
HS graduation should be Atlas Shrugged but not too many can read
well enough to get through that tome anymore..I'm not saying runaway and
un-regulated capitalism where wealth is concentrated in the top 5% is
any better..study history..you'll get your clues..

#11

I appreciate the spirit in which your post was made and can respect you for the way in which you said it :slight_smile: Though I will strongly disagree with the socialism statements. Neither sharing my cellular family plan lines nor my Netflix login with my friends/family (or the inverse) is any form of socialism, my friend. If my government was compelling me to do so then that would make it the case. Kind of like how a lot of my taxes go to further programs I would be aghast to personally support....oh wait, we are still capitalists in the US, right? It's hard to keep track now, isn't it?

Honestly, I love the sentiment of not ruining something special for everyone but I am all for sharing knowledge to those who seek it and sharing lifehacks to people who could use them which is why I posted here as a fellow Channels DVR user (we are all evil in the eyes of the Cable Co's since we aren't paying them to use their equipment after all). I am definitely not shouting it from the rooftops but ID sharing has been going on for ages which is why stream limits exist anyways.

(On a side note, it is amusing to be called a thief and supporter of socialism ideals all in one day. The Internet never ceases to amaze and confound me simultaneously!)

2 Likes
#12

I am not advocating anything...put on your big boy pants and decide things for yourself..., but I can tell you, first hand, I had DirecTV right about 20 years (was one of the early adopters back in 94). As there prices climbed, I looked for ways to save money and I even called and discussed this issue with CSRs. They knew, and either were fine with it or just turned the other way, that I starting sharing service with 2 other people. That went on for about 4 years, until one of the other people started working for Dish and got service for free and the other decided it was too much to split 2 ways. That is when I left DirecTV, because I got a great cable deal...that lasted a couple of years and in the end I started working around the streaming services. That being said, I was completely upfront with DirecTV and did not have an issue. YMMV.

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#13

Youu had dishes in two addresses with on bill?

#14

Mine never varies. Curious why yours does, unless you're talking about multiple people you're sharing providers with.

I have one provider and see 130 (subscribed), which includes the free 45 channels everyone gets with a Channels Plus (DVR) TVE device, so really 85 provider specific channels.

186 is max CDVR-TVE including 45 free that everyone gets, so really 141 provider max, no matter the provider.

Perhaps you could list the specific 140 -180 TVE channels you get and explain why sometimes 140 and sometimes 180 channels?

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#15

Apologies for the confusion. Specifically it started with 180 when I tested in beta but it looks like a lot of duplicates or ones that didn’t work were cleaned up. It’s been pretty consistent at 149 now for me through the last few DVR software updates. Again, some probably still have an East and West feed which would be why it’s over 141 most likely.

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#16

Add up to 3 more TVE channels (Network locals) to the mix

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#17

Ah. yep; good point. Forgot about those since I typically use the HDHomeRun to tune the rest of the locals.

#18

Three addresses, one bill, to me. We were all in close proximity, they each already had an actual dish from previous service. I would just get the number of receivers we all needed. It was quite the bill with all the receivers, so that might be why they didn't have much of an issue.

#19

@wagman67, not that you ever, EVER have to explain yourself to any one else here, ever. Not me or anyone.
Kudos for not plonk right away