Channels: Whole Home DVR

Fancy Bits, LLC

About this app

Cut the cord without missing your shows. You don't have to lose your DVR just because you canceled your cable.

Channels is easy for the whole family to love.

Watch your favorite programs on every TV and device, from the living room, hotel room, or even on your commute. Channels delivers a unified experience across all your TVs, devices, and streaming platforms.

Learn more about Channels and how it works at http://getchannels.com/features/

-- Record Your Shows --

• Record in one place, watch on every TV & mobile device.
• Pause in one room and resume in another, or on your mobile device.
• Pick your favorite shows or teams, and choose to record all or just their new airings.
• Browse or search through 14 days worth of guide data that updates daily.
• Schedule a recording from your phone while you're away from home.
• Watch your favorite shows or teams while you're away from home. Live or recorded.
• Watch your shows while they're currently recording. Don't wait for them to finish.
• Your recordings get their commercials indexed, and can be automatically skipped.

-- Watch Live TV --

• Pause, rewind, and fast forward live TV.
• Support for full 5.1 surround sound.
• Full support for closed captioning and alternate audio tracks.
• Mark channels as favorites. Browse them for quicker access to your favorite networks.
• Full support for VoiceOver. Browse and watch TV with ease.


NOTE: DVR features require Channels DVR Server installed and running on your home computer or NAS to stream to your devices. Learn more at https://getchannels.com/dvr-server/


-- People Love Channels --

"One of the most capable cord-cutting replacements for a cable DVR" - TechHive

"I can tell you it’s buttery smooth" — Zatz Not Funny!


For questions, concerns, bug reports, and feature requests, contact us on twitter @getchannels or via email [e-mail]

Ratings and reviews

Most streaming in one place. It's what I've been looking for. Just needs some tweaks. Scaling of pictures are way off on my device no matter what i do. Guide resets to the top every time I go back to it from a stream. No individual profiles for different users within the app. If quickly switching between apps and then returning the guide fails to load causing you to force close and reopen the app load it.

I like having the Picture in Picture update for Android TV, although I would like to see an improvement in accessing it. Most apps have a UI button to provide the functionality. As many Android TV users do not use a keyboard, it might be beneficial to provide a button on screen to enable PiP (this could also help if/when supporting PiP on phones/tablets). For the remaining features, this app works as I expect, and hopefully I will have a chance to try the ATSC 3 functions at some point.

Works well. I like having my antenna TV and Philo TV in the same location. The App on Android TV needs the current time on the guide. I have to hunt down a clock (usually my phone) to get the current time. The software is a lot more smooth and faster than Tablo. Running on my Galaxy S20, I had to switch video to Hybrid mode. Some channels were audio only with no video. It also helped with it stretching the video when stretching was turned off. The price is a little high compared to Tablo and others. Paying yearly helps cut that down. Others remarked on their really fast support response time. I emailed them 3 weeks ago and still no response, but I found how to fix my issue.

What's new

• NEW: Picture in Picture Availability setting can be used to dismiss PIP automatically when leaving the Guide or leaving the app
• NEW: Sidebar navigation supports updated Server Side Setting allowing custom ordering of items
• NEW: TV Shows now have their own Commercial Skipping setting
• NEW: TV Shows and Video Groups now have their own Auto Play setting
• NEW: TV Shows and Video Groups can be set to automatically show Closed Captions
• NEW: Video Groups are now eligible for Up Ne