TiVo Stream vs Apple TV for Channels DVR

Channels Android TV
#62

I got the double click to work using the Siri remote but it doesn't work on my IR remote. Probably the button for Play/Pause is just mapped to select or something. I may be able to fix that by reprogramming it through Apple TV.

I have no confidence that Tivo will maintain the TS4K. The software is a hot mess, and they don't appear to have any real recurring revenue stream with this device so not sure what their strategy is. I guess they are hoping to sell ads on their Tivo live streaming channels, which is what everyone else is trying to do in similar fashion to Pluto. I'm guessing they are going to quickly realize the support costs outweigh the profit they hoped to get and it will become an orphan. But by then, hopefully someone else steps up.

There are so many things they could have done to get a big part of the current space, and probably still could, but not seeing it. Channels DVR + Reelgood pretty much cover what they are trying to do, but doing it poorly.

I'm going to play with this a little more now that its all setup, but probably need to see if there is a remote that will replicate most of this on a Shield. If not, Apple may be where I end up. Unfortunately, the Siri remote doesn't seem to be able to turn my Sony TVs off... another common problem that there is no solution for. The cheap IR remote I have does, so can just keep using those. No last channel there.

#63

I use ReelGood on AppleTV as well (great app!) My Siri remote is turning my Samsung TV on and off, thanks to CEC. Same with my Sony in the other room. This was important to me.

With regards to the Sony, make sure you're on the latest firmware. I had a myriad of issues that were fixed by updating. Issues with HDR, and ARC, and CEC, all got improved over time. And I had to manually install at least one update, as the TV was reporting it had the latest version but I knew that wasn't true. Following Sony's instructions for manual installation by USB stick, allowed me to move forward. Then as I recall, a later firmware update broke WiFi, I had to connect the TV via Ethernet, in order to fix it. Now that it's working 100% I've disabled the updates and don't intend to mess with it further. The AppleTV is my "home screen" and I bypass AndroidTV entirely.

And last channel (at least with live TV) does work for me on the IR remote I am using, so hopefully you get that sorted. I have it set to work with both the play button or the pause button on my TiVo remote. Double-clicking either achieves the same effect.

Best of luck with your exploration, I'm enjoying reading your discoveries. The Shield is a great streaming box with lots of flexibility.

#64

Thanks for pointing out the manual load of firmware... that may be my problem. We have X900Fs which are I think pretty popular and not cheap, so surprised it has that issue.

LOL, my discoveries are gonna drive me crazy. My wife doesn't deal with technology change well at all and I just moved her to YoutTubeTV from cable... so I need to do this once so I'm going a bit crazy making sure I get the best experience chance here.

#65

Last night I went back in to do the update on the Sony and discovered that the auto update wasn't working because it needed me to acknowledge some update in the terms and conditions. And it wasn't nagging me about it, it just stopped doing updates. Once I cleared that, it updated, and now the Siri remote is correctly turning off the TV as its supposed to. Thanks because this was bugging me for a long time!

#66

Today the TS4K lost its ability to control the TV volume again. No idea why because I've got CEC disabled and put in the code for my TV. It works for a while and then apparently forgets the code. We canceled YouTubeTV as of today and so need to move fully to Channels DVR for watching live TV and DVR (OTA + Philo) in the house, meaning time to move my wife to something. For now given the list of issues with the TS4K (volume control, video glitches, etc.), the safest thing is to go with the ATV4Ks. She's already been using one with the OneForAll Streamer remote in our main room and switching around between apps, so no worse than that from a remote experience. ATV4K performs reliably and has V4 of Channels. I may have her try with the Siri remote now that I got it to turn the TV on and off properly and she might like it (Its not my cup of tea, but you can do last channel and scrub with it).

I am probably going to keep the TS4K to see how it progresses. The guy on Reddit called tivopm dm'd me and asked if I'd like to be a tester on their big fix, so will see if that leads anywhere soon. He may not be interested when he finds out I'm stripping all their software off and just trying to use the hardware. I hope they get their act together because the remote experience on it is sweet with Channels.

#67

Funny. You would think with the streaming TV services, channel up/down and number pads would become a thing again on streaming devices.

1 Like
#68

My wife’s first few days with Channels is going ok. She said today the commercial skip is cool. :grin: I’m trying to force myself to use the Siri remote and get past my issues.

#69

I'm currently using an ancient Harmony 650 for the main TV, as it's easier to deal with than the ATV remote. :expressionless: I've found it to be relatively decent in so far as it goes. I'd prefer a BT capable remote, however, and just haven't gotten around to replacing it or the better Harmony One that's starting to show its age upstairs.

The reversion to ATV remote here isn't the outcome I wanted to see.

#70

I'm giving Channels DVR a test drive after 15 or so years being embedded in Tivo. It's been almost a week and I've actually been fairly happy. Commercial skip has worked well on shows Tivo would never touch which is a big plus. I'm using a TS4k on 3 different displays and don't have any major complaints yet. The live TV button gets temporary hijacked by the stream app even though it's disabled, but does eventually find the last channel I watched. And had one instance of no sound until bouncing between a channel or two.

My bedroom setup has a 3 channel DD amp with a Atlantic Tech passive soundbar, and now everything is controlled from that tiny TS4k peanut remote. If it was backlit it'd be perfect.

Not an Apple person so I'd never be able to offer a comparison there. I'd entertain a Shield, but don't see the point if a $50 device does the job. Already sold my one tivo DVR and a Mini. If this continues well, I'll start selling the rest.

#71

Well the Caavo is the best alternative I've tried with the Apple TV... better experience than Harmony Elite, but they are both crazy expensive for a remote, and if you are down to just a streaming box its crazy to use something like that. And none of them solve the underlying problem that the Apple TV just doesn't let you address enough things via a remote to get the experience you can get with other streaming devices. So I'm now actually trying to teach myself to like the Siri Remote.

#72

Not sure what your TVs are, but I had a good experience with the TS4K on an older LG TV out of the box. To remote problems. And no HDR problems since it doesn't do HDR. On my Sonys, its a different story. If they every fix the problems, I'd try again because performance wise it was acceptable. And the remote experience, when working correctly, is much better. So I'm in holding to see if that happens.

The hijacking of the Tivo button I think is solved if you uninstall instead of disable. A little more involved, but still pretty simple and completely reversable. The instruction are in a link up a ways on how to do that. You basically have to install a piece of software on your computer that lets you connect to the TS4K so you can enter command line commands that you'd copy and paste from the instructions.

#73

On the Apple TV side of this equation, I'm trying to teach myself to like the Siri remote. One major breakthrough I had is the click to go forward or back seems to work better if you do it before you hit select to pause first. For other remotes its seems to be just the opposite. Having finally figured that out, I'm getting on better with it.

That said, Aman is doing some interesting things with CEC remote commands on the Apple TV beta app. It now picks up channel up/down, last channel, and a few other things like the colored buttons on the Sony Bravia remote.

#74

I have 1080 Panasonic LCD in the bedroom, a JVC 1080 projector in the theater room, and my 720 work projector in the living room for working out on a 100" screen. Funny thing is I rarely watch my living room TV, which is a 4k android TV, since I put the projector up when everything shut down. I sit at the corner of the sofa at 7 o'clock to the screen, and the immersiveness kinda trumps resolution. Besides, any critical watching is done in the theater room anyway.

So no hdr or cec issues here. I know I can do the adb thing. Pretty adept at rooting and using adb, I just don't care to dive down that rabbit hole. I stopped rooting my gear when I sold my Note 4 and went to the Note 8 and realized most of the things I accomplished via rooting were now incorporated into Android or an app. Much more free time now... Haha.

If it truly presents as a long term issue, I'll be happy to go that route. It's still very early for the TS4k. I don't get the people that pan it because it's issues haven't been addressed yet. It's a new product. You can't beta test everything. All brand new first time devices have issues. No mfg is immune to it. And not all issues are fixed yesterday. Us Tivo DVR people might be bitter things haven't gone our way, but I don't think Tivo is going to let these issues continue on a newly launched product. Just my 2 cents.

And yes, I only hit select if I want to do something other than basic rewind.

Would love to see someone make a basic BT/IR universal we could customize to fit the needs of these streaming devices since no mfg's included remote is perfect. If the peanut was back-lit and learning it could be near perfect. But Tivo has a long long history of half assed remotes with conflicting technologies across model generations. It's sad because that peanut style and their layout is pretty intuitive. And funny Harmony's older remotes were similarly styled.

#75

The adb commands to de-bloat the Tivio stream 4k does not need root.
It is simple user level access commands.
Does the same thing as going in to the app list and removing/disabling things your self.
There is zero risk.
I had removed most i noticed myself, later i found that page of instructions for adb and the list, i had missed a few tivo things, like the package that locks the home page tivo "channel" bar thing.
I did notice a performance increase after using removing everything.

#76

Not saying it does. Just saying I'm no stranger to using adb since I've done a ton of rooting in the past. I just don't care to put the effort in of going the adb route if I don't have to in the grand scheme. If an app is disabled, it shouldn't be active. So you shouldn't have to go the adb route to uninstall something that's been disabled. At least by the nature of it being disabled.

#77

You impied it by saying u dont want to go down that rabit hole of root etc.....root has nothing to due with this.

Its less effort, and far faster to use the adb code, than manually going through the list on the system menus and disable/uninstall. many clicks, scrolling...

adb thing, just run the program on computer on same network, turn on usb debug on tivo, connect to it, copy paste the lines of commands, takes 5secs. its done, reboot.
This also removes a couple things that are not shown on the Apps menu in settings.

uninstalling frees up space on the internal storage, about 500MB at least.
some apps, can only be disabled, not uninstalled.
I dont like having apps installed that i never intend to load.
The first setup thing also force download and installs apps i dont want.

#78

All good. Wasn't trying to argue about it. If I get around to opening up the Surface, maybe I'll give it a go. Can't do it from the laptop I'm using as the server since only a fraction of the keys work, and doing anything with the onscreen keyboard is laborious.

#79

The Apple TV Beta now solves a lot of the gap between Apple TV remote and TS4K, with the new CEC remote integration. On my Sony It’s very nice and no lag.