What Will Channels Become After TVE?

Channels DVR Server TV Everywhere
#61

I'll start by saying I agree, it was pretty obvious from the start that TVE was fickle and it's just so happened that it's worked great for us for years now.

So here I am, years later, having saved untold hundreds of dollars compared to having traditional cable or other services. Channels DVR provided an all-in-one solution that we wanted. Then, the handful of channels we care about from Philo go away and we either go back to the two app system (Channels non-DVR and Philo) or just find another solution.

I think you're making a bad faith argument about the "turnkey" part though. You realize there's a massive difference between installing a program on a computer and hooking up an HDHomeRun in comparison to these alternatives involving docker and android tv devices, etc. Obviously in the context of being on a forum for a DVR server the term "turnkey" means something different than you would use it elsewhere.

There ya go, no ill will and there's nothing for me to take personally, I'll just have to use another service. We've liked this product and I'll definitely follow along to see if any solutions come along that are as fast/easy as TVE was for us and happily come back. Just don't take this stuff so personally, we're customers here trying to make this product work for us so complaints happen. There's no need to get so defensive.

2 Likes
#62

You have no way of knowing the number of people who use CC. For some unknown reason, old people don't like to admit that they have hearing problems.

Yes, if available, I would leave it on all the time, and then go through some procedure in the rare case where I needed it off.

2 Likes
#63

With all these foreign accents in Movies/Shows I tend to always turn Captions on.

#64

There are only three times I turn them off:

  1. I don't watch much sports, but if I do, CC gets in the way.
  2. Live CC like news broadcasts. The CC are mostly useless. Too delayed, and always incomplete.
  3. When open captions are being used. The CC covers the OC.
1 Like
#65

one solution:

#66

Just scanning this thread and AnyStream is new to me. Can you provide more specific info? I found RedFox AnyStream - is that it? I have successfully used PlayOn, somewhat sporadically, and found the configuration easy so already have imports working with that.

#67

Same. It's not because of hearing problems; it's that so many actors mumble their lines. And it's not just us--there was a Vox story about the widespread issue last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJtb2YXae8

1 Like
#68

Serious question. I know it sucks losing all these TVE channels, but how many of them even bother to produce original content anymore?

I think about 90% of Comedy Central's schedule is The Office reruns. Besides The Daily Show which you can also watch on YouTube they only have South Park, Awkwafina's show, and Digman, as far as I know.

#69

yea, a lot of people here are still clinging to their vcr's, rotary phones and the old way to consume content and stubbornly refuse to adapt.

People loudly complain that the new technology doesn't do their analog tasks and will do their best to complain where in reality they should dump all of this and just go the traditional route so their old selves and aging family members that always seem to live with them can just enjoy tv without the complaining and the need for "computer programming" skills that a lot of people here seem to lack.

Entertainment, like anything in this capitalistic world, moves to a model for 18-34 year olds. thats where the money is, just like how cable tv enticed you 18-34 years while your parents complained that they have to pay for tv.

For me, Channels is great because its simple (reminds me of the old SA3000 cable boxes) and minimalistic. Sure, there a few things that need to be fixed like certain audio situations and proper PIP but it does its job great.

even though i have TVE, i don't use it, except for Sports and news, that's all i DVR. The killer feature for me are the Virtual Channels.

Adapt or die or just pay for cable like you did in 1997, you will be happy.

lots of you are waging a losing battle if you think you can replicate the glory days of cable tv.

4 Likes
#70

Currently the ONLY reason I'm still subbed is because of ONE last TVE channel I can record. Once that goes, I will mostly likely close the door on Channels. It's a great software/service with some of the most active developers out there. :beers:

PS: TVE Recording was the only reason I started using Channels.

#71

Yep. It's better than PlayOn as it downloads the streams instead of screencapturing it so it's adfree already. Of course unlike PlayOn, it has a few streaming providers supported but still

#72

Billyjoe is 100% correct here. I just renewed my Channels sub for another year. I originally chose CDVR when i cancelled Directv to bring in multiple sources (HDHR, cable streaming) on a single DVR that was fairly simple to use. I am not using Docker, custom channels, etc. Making the alternatives to TVE (Chrome Capture, ADBTuner, AndroidHDMI, etc) more turnkey will allow me to continue using and paying for CDVR. I just don't have the interest to spend the time required to make these options work unless they are readily available in the GUI. With the elimination of TVE, my wife must now bounce around different apps for content from NBC, etc. making the decision to renew CDVR even more difficult.

#73

Just one more thing to add, many of the apps really suck (Hulu, Bravo, NBC, etc). If Channels could easily pull in content from multiple apps and record it or at least present it from a consolidated GUI, that would be amazing. It's what Tivo should have become if they had enough vision to stay relevant.

#74

I kind of mirror the reasons you have stuck with Channels. I love it - in it's basic sense, it's a very convenient way to get everything in one place without having to hop to different apps to consume content.

I, too, was into Channels before the TVE integration; that integration, as someone said up above, was the factor that made it "wife-approved" and allowed me to ditch what we had before (Dish).

A few years ago, we were heavily making use of a lot of the TVE channels as well as OTA; now, we, basically, use it for one OTA show that my wife wants to record each weekday, a few other OTA channels that our family watches, and some of the Pluto channels we access via Channels. We lean more towards streaming services now, but that is probably more so because of content for our 5 year old.

Limited use for live TV, I know; but still worth the yearly subscription vs doing a streaming TV service. Completely losing TVE will be unfortunate; but I don't think I will give up Channels until there is a more justifiable reason to do so. Right now, there isn't one for us, and I am not sure, given our watching habits, if there will be a compelling reason for dropping it in the foreseeable future.

1 Like
#75

Very good explanation.

#76

For the most part, I have replicated the glory days of cable tv, and I'm not going to let some snot nosed 18-34 year old take it away from me without a fight.

1 Like
#77

I like my Cable TV /Cable Cards and my Primes much better than fighting with TVE every other week.

#78

Yes, RedFox AnyStream. The "Pro" version specifically. The main differences with PlayOn are:

  1. A movie downloads in 3-4 minutes rather than 2 hours.
  2. You can download an entire series season with one command.
  3. It is much easier to locate and download stuff.
  4. It is mostly 1080p, where PlayOn Cloud charges you triple the price to get 1080p.
  5. It supports Amazon Prime Dialog Enhancement.
  6. It runs on Windows.
  7. Subtitles always work, where PlayOn's only sometimes work.
  8. Support seems to happen in hours rather than in days with PlayOn.

The only disadvantage I found with AnyStream is there are a few less sources supported.

2 Likes
#79

Is it working?

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1 Like
#80

AnyStream

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