Channels Live TV and DVR is far superior to PLEX. So many reasons why it is much better. The only advantage that PLEX has over Channels is the user profiles and remote access. However, user profiles is not yet supported for live tv in PLEX. Channels is planning to add remote access so that really only leaves user profiles. When I say remote access I am talking about all of the apps talking to the PLEX server from local and remote. It would be nice for Channels to not only support this kind of access but improve on what PLEX is doing. PLEX mainly has a serious performance problems by not supporting direct play of MPEG 2 and also not supporting hardware transcoding (at least that I can see).
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With channels now having remote live and recorded playback in beta testing on iOS, Iām sure tvOS is just around the corner too.
They obviously want to fully compete with plex because they have put alot of effort into the other clients like Roku, fire and android (what, no Windows 10 app?)
I donāt think lifetime subscription is in the best interest of anyone, but I could see an annual option. I will always take the cheapest option available, but With all the recent re-issues to my credit/debit cards because of exposures, annual, even at $96, would reduce my labor overhead on these changes.
In addition to user profiles though, which turns out is not the problem I thought it would be in my house, I think the ability to move from one DVR to Channels for recording hoarders is a deal breaker for some, because they would always need plex, because there is no import feature. Channels is not a media center, itās just the coolest DVR. Since Iām 100%in the iOS/tvOS playback environment and I no longer keep recordings after viewing, I get the best DVR, and donāt feel the disadvantages.
A yearly subscription option is now available: https://getchannels.com/2018/07/11/yearly-billing/
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Great optionā¦thanks for adding.
iām all about the yearly subscription! just switched. thanks.
Lifetime subscription would be amazing. This would make many new users jump on this ship. One month free trial with a lifetime subscription option would make a huge difference to many. Make it worth to you and give us an offer.
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Yes please, consider adding a lifetime subscription. One more vote for it.
TiVo now has a $70 a year plan $249 for lifetime. Something to consider.
If Iām not mistaken, these prices are only available for the new OTA only TiVo Bolt. Any other TiVo model that provides a full cable guide solution still costs $15/month, $149/year, or $549 lifetime.
While some of us use Channels for OTA only, the full cable guide subscription that Channels provides only costs us about half of what TiVo would.
If they introduce a lifetime option, Iād expect it to be around $289.
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Other ways to pay would be a plus. Paypal, Amazon payments, Apple Pay etc.
I donāt see lifetime happening but maybe a multi Year plan?
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The price is too expensive if you ask me. HDhomerun and Plex are a lot cheaper so I cannot justify paying this much. WMC is also free. If it was closer to the price of HDHomerun ($35) I would consider.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. For me, for the quality of product, level of developer support, and continued innovation, $6.67/month when paying annually is quite a fair price.
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Every DVR service costs money to operate, per-user per-year. Even if the Channels team worked for free (to be clear, I'm not advocating for this), they would still have to pay a vendor like Gracenote or Tribune for guide data on an ongoing basis.
If Channels was funded primarily by lifetime subscriptions, they would have to sustain ongoing growth, or charge high enough lifetime fees to build up a massive amount of investable capital, to remain solvent.
Subscription business models help small companies provide great service without having to pursue growth at any cost and at any risk. Channels is a better product because the developers can count on having that recurring revenue from their current users, so they can focus more time on the product instead of on the business.
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Honestly, I would be willing to pay more. I don't think they should be giving a discount for a year. Their time and product is so good. I'm using a 2 primes for streaming remotely. It is saving me around $1000/year by using this product. It gives me more functionality than the cable company's do also. Just my opinion though. People need to realize the quality of what this product can actually do.
You get what you pay for. The HDHomeRun software is an unmitigated disaster at this point. So is Plex.
If you don't want to pay for Channels, then you can certainly pay for lesser products.
How are they a disaster? They record just fine. I think they are severely limiting the user base with such a high cost but thatās just me. Most people these days barely record anything. I basically just record the Sunday morning news shows and delete after viewing. I can even just view them from the company website since they provide a replay.
I guess it really depends on your use scenario. I feel a lot of the responses in this thread are from those that don't mind commercials and such.
In our household, we don't watch anything "live". We record everything and with Channels we can skip the commercials and now even auto skip them. Now that we can record the TVE feeds it's even better pulling everything into one interface. Now I don't have to do the season pass via Amazon Prime or Vudu for the few cable only shows we watch.
So, for me, the cost is totally worth it. I wouldn't sign up for a lifetime membership but would prefer to support the devs on a regular basis. They are the fastest to respond of any software I have used and fix issues very quickly. So, I will support a company like that.
If you're the type that doesn't mind commercials there are tons of free options out there but you won't find them all in one interface and as easily setup as Channels.
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Their interface is very poor and is missing many features essential to any consumer DVR. In addition, they don't seem to have the slightest notion of how people view TV and how to innovate to give them features that will improve the experience. Nor do they seem to care. Their attitude is "you'll take what we give you and you'll like it."
This is not accurate. There are plenty of people recording large amounts of content. Any time spent on the forums and that's clearly evident. This is apparent just by how many people are running multiple Primes and have wanted the 6-tuner model.
Okay?
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