Apps How to watch live TV on the Apple TV

[Che Castro]

the things you need

hdhomerun - www.silicondust.com
you get the prime if you still have cable,you can get rid of your cable boxes and get a cablecard from the cable company . you put the cablecard in the hdhomerun prime ,call comcast to activate and your done
you can have one hdhomerun prime box and get cable all over your house using media players that run plex and even chromecast

if you don't have cable get the hdhomerun connect or another old hdhomerun from ebay, you can hookup an indoor-antenna to your tv and get free live channels, but depends on your location
check here to see if you live close to a tower
http://antennaweb.org
you can get a cheap 25 miles indoor antenna on amazon for $6, they go from $6 to $40 25 to 50 mile range
this will give you free hd basic channels



For the apple tv 4 once you get the hdhomerun you have 2 options, you can get the "channels" app for $14 in the ATV App Store http://getchannels.com

if you have a family you should get this^ it has a nice interface and is easy to use like using a cable box
the next update coming up has pause live tv and subtitle support,I'm using the beta now
the app is worth the money if you have the hdhomerun prime with cablecard and lots of channels
channels app works with any hdhomerun old or new
in the coming months hdhomerun will be releasing a DVR service to record live tv, the channels people say they will support that too when it comes out
https://twitter.com/getchannels/with_replies
https://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=28426



The second option is using plex on the apple tv

all you do is move a hdhomerun bundle folder into the plex plugin folder on the mac,the video tells you where to get the folder
simple

it doesn't have a tv guide like "channels" app or a nice interface but the cool thing about this is you can have live tv anywhere, any device that uses plex iPhone/ipad/android phone/media player fire tv/chromecast under my channels
and you can share your live tv with friends and family ,just add them as a friend in plex after they create a free plex account and share your channel with them

 

[z06gal]

I have a tablo and the plex tablo channel works beautifully. Tablo is currently working on their own app so hopefully it won't be too much longer

 

[Tdadlani]

Might be cheaper and better to wait for them to provide skinny bundles.

 

[protobiont]

The developer of Channels is very responsive and helpful. 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.

 

[PhyrePhox]

The developer of Channels is very responsive and helpful. 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.

I would love to be able to assign guide source/channel to detected channels manually, for channels that Channels cannot assign automatically. Is this a similar issue to yours?

 

[Shoesy]

Check out this forum thread over at the Silicondust website for more information about Channels:

https://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=28426

 

[tgwaste]

$15 and they don't even offer an iOS version? LOL. no.

 

[d21mike]

$15 and they don't even offer an iOS version? LOL. no.

Not that much when you consider a limited market for the App. Customers must have HDHoneRun Hardware. For me the cost is easily justified with STB Savings. Also, my TV Experience of only using my ATV's is "priceless". Your point about an iOS Version. That might be helpful to some by on my iPad I use FIOS Mobile for all of my channels. However, for those that are only using OTA Channels then I would expect an iPad (iOS) Version would be helpful.

 

[PhyrePhox]

Not that much when you consider a limited market for the App. Customers must have HDHoneRun Hardware. For me the cost is easily justified with STB Savings. Also, my TV Experience of only using my ATV's is "priceless". Your point about an iOS Version. That might be helpful to some by on my iPad I use FIOS Mobile for all of my channels. However, for those that are only using OTA Channels then I would expect an iPad (iOS) Version would be helpful.

I would add that I was little sticker shocked at the price at first, but the *luxury* (that's right, I said it) of putting away all the remotes except the Siri Remote, and being able to consume all the content we care about, in all of its various forms, from the aTV is far more valuable.

 

[Che Castro]

$15 the price of a large pizza with pepperoni
That's nothing

 

[ctyrider]

I have a tablo and the plex tablo channel works beautifully.

Can you elaborate a bit how Plex apps works with Tablo? Does it require PC-based Plex backend, or does Apple TV Plex app communicate directly with Tablo? Do you get EPG Guide and DVR capabilities?

 

[Che Castro]

What's needed now is DVR recording
And that's coming soon
https://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun/hd-homerun-dvr/

 

[z06gal]

Can you elaborate a bit how Plex apps works with Tablo? Does it require PC-based Plex backend, or does Apple TV Plex app communicate directly with Tablo? Do you get EPG Guide and DVR capabilities?

I have the Plex Media server running on a Mac Pro. Plex has a number of channels you can install and Tablo is one of them. On my Apple TV, I open the Plex app and go to the channels section where Tablo is located. It has worked beautifully for me so far. I can access all my recordings, etc within the channel.

 

[Che Castro]

 

[Cordorb]

"$15 and they don't even offer an iOS version? LOL. no."

and the Time Warner one is Free on the pad/phone so no need for a ios version

Channels is working well on my apple TV - thanks -

I have been following the Silicon dust website data for the past month and just got round to installing.

 

[Che Castro]

i was using the plex plugin yesterday for live tv on my iPhone, watching the news about the shooting
runs smooth and is free

 

[Che Castro]

One thing I don't understand what does the hdhomerun extend do different over the connect ?

 

[DesertDog]

The extend has a built in h264 encoder. So if you're using anything that records video it'll give better performance since the app won't have to encode the video stream. Channels doesn't use it yet. It deactivates the encoder.

 

[Che Castro]

With news about Apple putting the live tv service on hold I'm glad I went this route

 

[digduggler]

I totally love channels. Kind of what I've been waiting for. Cancelling cable (on hold) as I am replying...

 

[mikeb3408]

Not that much when you consider a limited market for the App. Customers must have HDHoneRun Hardware. For me the cost is easily justified with STB Savings. Also, my TV Experience of only using my ATV's is "priceless". Your point about an iOS Version. That might be helpful to some by on my iPad I use FIOS Mobile for all of my channels. However, for those that are only using OTA Channels then I would expect an iPad (iOS) Version would be helpful.

Hi, I just ordered an HDHomeRun Connect and plan to use it with the Channels app on AppleTV with an OTA antenna.

My question is I have 3 TVs that I will end up having an Apple TV on, I assume only 2 of these TVs can watch the live tv with the channels app since it only has 2 tuners?

 

[d21mike]

Hi, I just ordered an HDHomeRun Connect and plan to use it with the Channels app on AppleTV with an OTA antenna.

My question is I have 3 TVs that I will end up having an Apple TV on, I assume only 2 of these TVs can watch the live tv with the channels app since it only has 2 tuners?

Exactly.

 

[mikeb3408]

Just wanted to chime back in.

I received my HDHomeRun Connect and the Channels App performs amazingly.

Really nice experience using the app to view OTA TV, changed the experience to have such a streamlined solution within the Apple TV with a nice looking interface

 

[myrtledog]

Will the HDHomeRun Connect work with a DirecTV feed to Channels on and AppleTV 4?

 

[ActionableMango]

I'm having horrific lip sync issues with Get Channels. Audio is massively delayed, like maybe 0.5 to 1 second.

The lip sync issue does not occur with other applications: Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, HBO.