My situation:
Yearly CDVR $80 = $6.67/mo. Plus my TOTAL Cox internet+TV = $178. (Just increased $10/mo).
I jumped on CDVR to:
. Save $40/mo,$480/yr. Cox charges $8/mo for mini boxes(no streaming App). I would need 5 x $8 = $40/mo.
. The fantastic m3u export for Multi-screen using TiviMate.
. Commercial skip
. Limited Custom Channels use.
. Multiple TVE "family" sources.
. A way to avoid the 3-stream limit on some streaming providers using TVE, GREAT.
And more.
.
But as TVE fades away I will likely do this:
. AT&T Fiber 300 $55, plus Youtube TV $73 = $128/mo vs Cox $178. Save $50/mo, $600/yr.
. YTTV has a DVR
. YTTV now has a limited Multi-screen built in, and looks to be just right by Football season, fingers crossed.
. YTTV Problems: Some channels wife likes (PBS Create) not in YTTV would have to be in a separate apps,
App jumping NOT acceptable for my lovely wife, SO...
I would likely keep CDVR, HDHR for TVE, Locals... As long as our Favs still have TVE streams and no DRM.
Plus I prefer the CDVR interface vs YTTV, and the Auto Commercials skip, and Custom Channels
But as TVE fades I fear CDVR will lose its great appeal,
Too bad, and I do not see any other way to aggregate the separate apps... so Cox looks good again!!!
Back in 2019ish,. Only was able to finally drop Comcast cable tv service after 30yrs+ thanks to discovering Channels DVR.
While, i myself had been using a HDHR Prime Cable Card and Windows Media Center then later Emby, for all my TV needs for many years, the others in the household, not tech savy enough to do that. Also, no easy way/ interface to just connect to the old tvs we have and use.
Channels DVR, is the perfect "Cable Box Replacement" and worked out very very well for my household. Even setup 2 separate servers, one for my own use, one for others (since CDVR does not support user profiles). Lucky enough to find a good location in my apartment unit to put a good antenna to get OTA.
Was able to rip out the Comcast p.o.s ancient cable box, drive to a Comcast store, and cancel service... that was at that time, for cable tv only, was over $200 a month. Now, pay $80yr + $25 a month for Philo that gives me all the channels i mainly wanted, added my Grandparents Xfinity account (sub-account) via tve to get a few more channels that Philo does not have, and it been great ever since.
Most of the TV shows that aired only on primetime networks.... are gone now. Canceled, ended, or other wise, moved over to streaming release on that networks app or site first. The pandemic, then the actor/writer strikes also killed off many shows.
Basically there only 2 shows that is on linear tv that i use CDVR to record now, On Patrol Live on Reelz, and Dr. Pol on Nat GeoWILD. The first i can also watch via Philo app its cloud dvr. The 2nd, via Xfinity Stream/DVR site, if i really needed to.
Otherwise, i most often find myself tunning "Live tv" to one of the Pluto or Samsung tv channels, more so than the remaining TVE networks....
I do hope TVE will remain for as long as possible though. I have no intention of using CDVR as a local media center, imo, it clearly is not designed for that task, its UI (cable box repalcement) is not at all what i would want for that, Plex/Emby etc is much more suited for that purpose.
This is exactly what I feel like @racameron typically whiffs on with his responses in this forum. They seem to have such a visceral response to criticism when the reality is that people engaging in that sort of discussion are doing so in an effort to find a solution in order to try to stay and support this platform. If a customer came for a feature and that feature goes away it seems pretty petty to find it "amusing" that the customers are looking for alternative turnkey solutions.
VLC Bridge PBS is back up and running if you don't need Closed Captions.
VLC Bridge Fubo combined with TVE/Fubo should fill most all of your wife's needs for the foreseeable future.
I would have never started using Channels if it was not for TVE. However, now that I have VLC PBS, VLC Fubo, Pluto for Channels, AnyStream, and PlayOn all integrated into Channels, TVE losses have not effected me much at all.
I'm curious. 
You mean by importing the files in personal media after downloading?
Just create a custom rename profile in Anystream to point to Channels DVR import directory. That is what I did.
Ah yes, that's right! Thanks for the clarification.
It is indeed via imports. Good solution.
Another tool I added to my arsenal since My Channels DVR is on windows is EPG123 ... I use it to host my own Pluto /Stirr server ... It downloads the m3u and xmltv directly from Pluto/stirr ... no need to run docker,.. and serves up the M3U and XMLTV.
I'm on Windows too and you got me very intrigued. I need to educate myself on EPG123.
If you configure AnyStream with the correct download folder information, and the correct file naming format, anything you tell AnyStream to download will automatically show up in Channels ready to be watched. Just pick a show and hit DOWNLOAD. No manual intervention is ever needed after the initial setup.
I can provide exact setup information if anyone needs help.
Cable is hemorrhaging subscribers at an accelerating pace, cablecard is approaching death.
OTA is a niche product, driven by geography, and this is coming from someone with a robust OTA setup.
If TVE shut down fully tomorrow, I would probably be ok, given ADBTuner and other avenues, but many would be down to a hard choice
The problem is that those are all major hacks chasing moving targets and especially with cc4c could go away just like TVE.
I'm glad they exist but are not as reliable as something like Tivo.
The guide is fundamentally broken on Android but all we get are crickets with bugs pointed out.
And they can be quite expensive because 1 HDMI Capture device is not enough.... once you start relying on hacks is like playing Wack a mole.
Except, TVE support in Channels was essentially a "hack" in the same sense as all of those other projects. Other than having a first-party frontend, Channels' support for TVE is (almost) on the same level as those other projects. It is a beta feature that will never see general release. (I will state I am surprised it was mentioned top-level on the website, considering its constant state of flux; the beta tag in the web UI is almost like a Band-Aid on an amputation.)
The ending of TVE across networks is just another step in media owners pulling their content back into their own streaming services. Streaming and cord cutting was supposed to move us toward a better media/content landscape; instead, it had only reintroduced the proprietary cable model, but additionally made it worse by not only requiring massive payments for each media company, but now they're spread across different "apps".
Channels is now, as it always has been, the best viewerâand later, DVRâfor non-DRM content from HDHomeRun devices. (TVE, Custom Channels (and all of the goodâand badâit brought), local media imports, and other additional features ⌠those are all window dressings; the core of Channels has not changed.)
Well stated
This is where it really starts to fall apart - a limited amount of tuners and no tuner conflict resolution. Does anyone have an HDMI solution that allows the user some kind of accessibility tools, like the ability to turn closed captions on and off live?
Probably have to figure that out with adb....but not many people bother with CC too much honestly nowadays...and even so they would set up the apps to always turn it on...
I'm not a programmer. What if we paid the software developers to ... program?