Watching TV when DVR needs tuner? What happens?

Channels DVR Server
#1

Hi

Hope this hasn’t been asked already…
I’m new to Channels just bought the IOS app and I’m testing it out, it looks great.
Thinking of subscribing to the DVR.

What happens is all tuners are busy and the DVR needs to record a show?
I know my old Tivo would pop up a message and say if you don’t hit cancel it will automatically switch to the channel it needs.

Right now I only have one connect with the two tuners, I’d like to be able to watch Live TV and not have to worry about the schedule DVR missing a recording.

Thanks!
Maverick214

#2

At the moment, if the tuners are busy the recording will fail. I know this isn’t the ideal behavior, and that’s something we hope to address as the beta progresses.

2 Likes
#3

Thanks for the quick reply, this is an important feature for me since I only have one dual tuner hdhomerun and about 5-6 times a week. I have 2 shows I want to record at the same time and need to know if I’m going to miss a show. Sometimes I just have live TV running in the background.
I realize it would not work if I was watching TV using a different program, but if I’m using channels I would love it to switch automatically and start recording.

Please keep up the great work, loving Channels app!

1 Like
#4

13 posts were split to a new topic: Bug: multiple hdhomerun support not working

Bug: multiple hdhomerun support not working
#5

I know it’s not the answer you want to hear, but investing in a second HDHomeRun is a great solution to this problem. While other tv boxes don’t allow you this freedom, Channels, Channels DVR, and HDHomeRuns do.

When we start handling this scenario better, the best we can possibly do for you is to warn you that your recording will not be recorded. You will have to stop watching, so that DVR can start recording your scheduled show. Now you’re stuck without being able to watch TV.

But by purchasing a second HDHomeRun, you’ll then have 2 more tuners and a lot more freedom. You’ll find that conflicts rarely happen, and you won’t have to work around scheduling conflicts. And all you’ll have to do is just set it up on your network like you did with your original HDHomeRun. You don’t even need another antenna, you can just use a splitter.

This is a big advantage of Channels and Channels DVR.

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#6

… and to add to what @Maddox was saying… A little known feature/benefit is that you can mix/match HDHRs as needed.

  • Want more OTA (ATSC) tuners, add another Connect.
  • Want mpeg4 on the OTA (ATSC) tuner, and an Extend
  • Subscribed to Cable? Add a Prime
  • Need more than 3 tuners on Cable? add a second Prime.
  • Have both FIOS and Cable in your area and have both? Use 2 Primes from different Sources

The Channels from all will be merged and tuner sharing will allow the available device to serve the channel to the DVR/Channels software.

I have 4 primes and an extend (and 2 older HDHRs) and all work well together…

2 Likes
#7

[quote=TeddyR]I have 4 primes and an extend (and 2 older HDHRs) and all work well together…
[/quote]
Thats a ton of tuners! You must have a large amount of channels. Thats a ton of network bandwidth too (if using all of the 18 tuners)… at some point there is certainly a limit to how many simultaneous devices can be streaming.

For OTA, I find that with 2 extends (4 tuners), I can schedule recordings or watch live without thinking much about resources. It works great.

#8

I also use 2 extends for OTA and have found that 4 tuners go a long way. I have a family of four and rarely see more then 2 recordings at once and even with two recordings we can have two live shows in progress at the same time. With the new tuner sharing I don’t think we will ever worry about tuner availability.

#9

I Southern California area. with 250+ on cable only counting HD English channels. Close to 600 if counting SD and non-DRMed “premium” and 6 OTA HD English channels that are NOT available on cable (over 60 OTAs; though most are religious or other language). Gigabit switch and now using a MacMini 2014 for the Channels DVR.

Added all these tuners since I was using Channels, WMC, and SDDVR as well as “direct access” to the tuners from DLNA and DTCP-IP devices. Before the implementation of the tuner sharing for back to back recordings on channels (and that I like to have -30/+60 for the default padding) there were several cases with the full setup where two or three tuners were busy during a short period and recordings failed during sweeps months (especially when the TV providers were messing with the schedules: example 8:02 pm start times or premier shows that were 1:04 length scheduled back to back…

My provider charges .2.00 / cablecard; and their official DVR is sill only 2 tuners. So its either what I have or Tivos for the flexibility I need.

I frequently (esp during sweeps) used 8 tuners from 3 primes. The 4th prime was only “emergency”" overflow for the rare sweeps timing cases for back to back recordings. This way don’t need to worry about it or count active recordings and schedules… It just works… :slight_smile:

#10

Without adding extra tuners, my preferred behavior would be to either notified that the tuner is needed and give you the option to allow the recording to take over the tuner -OR- at a minimum I’d rather have it just go ahead and boot me from viewing live TV automatically. More often than not, anything I have set to record is easily more important than anything that is not set to record.

1 Like