How (and why) to use Channels DVR for cord-cutting

If you ever wished your streaming Television setup could come to feel more like working with a TiVo DVR in its heyday, Channels DVR might be what you are wanting for.

This DVR support for wire cutters can record from both of those an antenna and live streaming channels. It also involves some crafty ways to carry in movie from other sources, from ripped DVDs to streaming solutions these kinds of as Netflix, and it can even mechanically skip through ads.

Channels DVR is not for everybody, as the setup needs pulling alongside one another a good deal of disparate items on each the components and software program sides. Those people who are mostly happy employing applications like Netflix, Hulu, and Sling Tv set on a streaming participant or good Tv set should not hassle.

But for individuals who crave far more handle over their Tv knowledge and don’t head a little bit of tinkering, the payoff can be important. Go through on for more aspects on how to set it all collectively.

This is the initial of a two-aspect collection on Channels DVR, covering the primary set up demands and procedure. In the second installment, I’ll focus on the state-of-the-art functions you can use to make your DVR even additional impressive.

What is Channels DVR, precisely?

Channels is a DVR company that you run on your personal hardware, these kinds of as a desktop laptop or computer, NAS box, Raspberry Pi, or Nvidia Protect Tv set Professional. Channels’ server application handles the recording, then streams the movie to its companion apps, out there on Apple Television, Amazon Fireplace Tv, Android Tv, iOS, and Android cell equipment.

Channels is not a resource of content in itself, however to feed the DVR, you have to offer your personal sources of online video. Here’s a listing of resources Channels DVR presently supports:

• Above-the-air or cable channels from an HDHomeRun tuner.
• Streaming cable channels from any assistance that supports Tv set Just about everywhere authentication. These involve YouTube Tv, Hulu + Dwell Television set, Xfinity, Verizon Fios, and numerous other folks. (Note that not all channels do the job with Tv set In all places, and not all resources perform with Channels DVR. See the assistance listing 1st.)
• Personalized video clip collections, this sort of as ripped DVDs or YouTube downloads.
• Recordings from PlayOn, a individual support that lets you document from expert services like Netflix.
• On the internet are living streams from any source that presents M3U playlist files. (More on this later on.)

Jared Newman / Foundry

Channels DVR can take all of these disparate sources and provides them into 1 app, with a unified channel information for dwell Tv set, granular recording controls, and a single library for all your movies and exhibits. For much more specifics on all those features, look at out my Channels DVR critique.

The Channels DVR provider expenditures $8 for each month or $80 for every 12 months, but again, that subscription does not consist of information. If you want to carry cable channels into Channels, for instance, you will continue to need to have to pay out for them independently.

Why use Channels DVR?

Inspite of the supplemental expenditures and the setup associated, Channels is worthy of looking at due to the fact of the handle that it gives.

For example, it gives automatic industrial skipping, so you really don’t even want to contact the distant to bounce by way of advertisements. You won’t get that by making use of YouTube Tv set or Hulu + Live Television in their very own applications.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Channels DVR also bypasses aggravating limitations that you normally run into with streaming solutions. You can enjoy outdoors the home from anywhere—even out of the country—and the films you down load in Channels’ cellular applications will hardly ever expire.

The company is deeply customizable as perfectly, permitting you develop your very own channel collections, established up tailor made Television set guide filters, and even produce your possess “virtual channels” out of the videos and reveals in your library. At any time desired a channel that only displays your preferred comedies? You can make it.

FancyBits

Finest of all, Channels lets you maintain your information. If you document some cable exhibits via a YouTube Television set membership, for occasion, you can cancel that subscription and nevertheless accessibility all your recordings. That usually means you can add, fall, or change amongst Television providers with no shedding your DVR library each individual time.

Picking your Channels DVR server

The server acts as your DVR’s central mind, pulling in different sources of content material, recording them to neighborhood storage, and streaming the movie again out to your clever Television set or streaming participant. The extra impressive your server is, the far more it can manage in terms of streaming and recording, so you are going to want to pick out this unit properly.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Right here are your solutions:

• Desktop Personal computer functioning Home windows, Mac, or Linux: This is the most effective solution for most end users, as it gives you a great deal of electrical power and a primarily problem-cost-free setup. I individually run Channels DVR on an M1 Mac Mini, and it is been rock reliable. If you really do not presently have a desktop laptop or computer to spare, think about finding a applied or refurbished 1 for inexpensive on a internet site like Backmarket or eBay.
• NAS gadget: Channels supports a variety of units with application support, like Synology, QNAP, and WD MyCloud. I admittedly really do not have knowledge with this possibility so I cannot communicate to its reliability.
• Raspberry Pi: These mini-computers are extremely tricky to come across in 2022, but they can operate Channels if you individual one and have the technological chops to comprehensive the set up. Just take note that the light-weight processor can acquire extended to tag commercials, and it will battle to transcode—that is, lessen bandwidth for streaming and recording—for extra than one stream at a time.
• Nvidia Shield Television set Professional: This is by considerably the most basic selection to set up, but I have observed performance to be flaky, with video clips once in a while freezing or crashing.

In all conditions, you will also want a hard generate significant enough to retailer your recordings. I advocate a 500GB travel at bare minimum, but you are going to probable want a large amount much more storage than that. For desktop PCs, either an exterior or inside drive ought to be fantastic.

Be aware that if you want to use PlayOn House to report movies from Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming providers, you’ll require a Home windows Laptop. This is a separate, $5-for every-month provider and is only out there on Windows 10 and greater. As an alternate, PlayOn presents a cloud-primarily based assistance that integrates with Channels, whilst this employs a “credits” program in which you need to pay back for each individual recording. (Part two of this collection discusses these solutions in greater depth.)

Connecting an antenna or CableCARD

Martyn Williams / Foundry

The past matter to think about is a SiliconDust HDHomeRun tuner, which you’ll require to file more than-the-air broadcasts from an antenna. Search for these a few designs in certain:

• HDHomeRun Flex Duo: Perform or record up to two OTA channels at a time ($110)
• HDHomeRun Flex Quatro: Perform or document up to four OTA channels at a time ($155)
• HDHomeRun Flex 4K: Perform or document up to four OTA channels at a time, such as two with ATSC 3. guidance ($199)

Channels does assistance multiple tuners, so you can incorporate far more HDHomeRun devices as you go and feed them all into a solitary DVR, but be aware that every single will need its possess antenna (the tuners earlier mentioned will all use just a person antenna).

In all scenarios, the tuner pulls in area broadcasts from an antenna, then plugs into your property Wi-Fi router to produce the online video the server. That implies you are going to want to established up the tuner and antenna near your router unless your house has wired ethernet operating by way of it, or you have run coaxial cable to yet another element of the household.

For cable subscribers, Channels DVR also supports the HDHomeRun Key, which expenses $150 and can participate in or report up to three channels at a time making use of a CableCARD.

Putting it all alongside one another

Jared Newman / Foundry

At the time you have picked out and assembled all the personal items, the genuine setup by itself is pretty simple:

• Put in the Channels DVR software package to your server product.
• For desktop computer installations, choose “Open DVR Settings” or pay a visit to http://localhost:8089 in your website browser.
• For a NAS box or Raspberry Pi, you are going to want to substitute “localhost” with your device’s IP deal with. (Here’s a useful guideline for seeking that up.)
• In the set up wizard, choose the listing where by you want to retail outlet recordings. (If you’re employing an external hard generate, make guaranteed to established your storage locale there.)
• Channels will detect any HDHomeRun tuners quickly and start a channel scan.
• For other sources, these types of as Tv set In all places channels or PlayOn Cloud recordings, choose “Add Supply Manually,” then pick out your supply from the checklist.
• Obtain the “Channels: Total Property DVR” app for Apple Television set, Hearth Tv set, Android Tv, iOS, or Android cell. If your streaming machine is on the very same Wi-Fi community, it should find your DVR quickly.

Now that you’ve set almost everything up, it’s time for the pleasurable part. Use the Guideline or Look for menus to uncover upcoming packages and include them to your DVR checklist.

One particular past issue: In the Channels application on your Tv, head to Options > Playback > Commercial Skipping, and make certain Industrial Skipping is established to “Automatically.” Just after heading through this setup course of action, you ought to have to sit again and relax.

Remain tuned!

The real enjoyable with Channels DVR comes from customizing your setup and obtaining new resources to record. I’ll cover all of that in part two of this sequence, coming before long.

In the meantime, subscribe to my Cord Cutter Weekly publication for much more guidance on ditching cable, or send me an e-mail with any issues you could have.