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Apps Channels (watch live TV on the AppleTV)

P

protobiont

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 6, 2010
650
141
If you are a cord cutter and want to have all of your content on one box, check out the apple TV app channels. It will let you watch OTA or clear QAM content on your appleTV

You do need to have an HD homerun for it to work, but it's really nice having live TV on the AppleTV. The developer is very responsive and helpful, which is a plus (I had an issue where clear QAM content wasn't getting guide data. Even though it was an HD Homerun issue, he found a work around and sent me a beta version with the fix).

Just thought I'd share.
 
Mac... nificent said:
Too pricey of a app...
Click to expand...
It is only high if you have little or no need for it. I am using it heavily. Already disconnected 2 STB's. I am going to see how things go over the next few weeks and I expect to eventually drop 2 DVR's. This does not help for the recordings but the use of Hulu (no commercials) and CBS All Access (with commercials) and this for Live TV is simply GREAT. Too me well worth the $15. Of course it helped that I already owned the HDHomeRun Prime. It also passed the Wife Test which was a requirement. She watches a LOT of Live TV with commercials which I do not understand but that is her viewing activity.
 
I had some problems with the Channels app, up to unplugging the antenna and connecting it directly to the TV to watch football this past Sunday. I was getting cut outs of sound and "skipping" of the video feed. Decided to figure it out tonight. Found a post from the author of Channels about wanting the raw feed, and I had my HD Homerun Extend set to transcode. When I turned off the transcode, boom, great tv through Channels. Since right now I do not need to see the HD Homerun feed anywhere else, I am fine with this. I do hope this gets fixed at some point though because eventually I would like to be able to use the built in transcode from the HD Homerun Extend to other devices. Is Channels necessary? No, I could have kept the antenna connected to the TV. Does it help with the girlfriend? Yes! The more I can make it easy for her to navigate with just the Apple TV remote the better. A week into no cable and she is not mad yet :)
 
ChefJayPeek said:
I do hope this gets fixed at some point though because eventually I would like to be able to use the built in transcode from the HD Homerun Extend to other devices.
Click to expand...

Yup! This is fixed in the 1.2 version that should be released soon. We manually set transcoding to none so Channels get's the raw mpeg2 stream.
 
protobiont said:
If you are a cord cutter and want to have all of your content on one box, check out the apple TV app channels. It will let you watch OTA or clear QAM content on your appleTV
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing this. Just purchased and downloaded Channels to my 3x ATV4s. Works like a charm. Especially handy, since I have my old HDHomeRun, which has been laying around mostly unused.

I was going to eBay HDHR and buy Tablo, but they have been taking time with their ATV4 app, so they missed out. Channels doesn't have DVR capabilities, but I don't care - I just want to be able to watch live TV via Apple TV interface and Siri remote, and without having to switch inputs. Can do DVRing via my Mac, no biggie.

This Channels app is perfect for my needs - best $15 bucks I have spent on an app in a long time.
 
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