In the modern age, there are many people who don’t want to rely on the usual systems that provide their cable networks and entertainment at home. Instead, they want to be able to choose to watch TV how they want and when they want, and from who they want.
There are so many people who are displeased by how much it costs to have cable in their homes and they don’t want to be forced to buy all the bells and whistles that come with it. For example, some cable companies will strong-arm you into buying the internet with them as well as your TV services. Or they will try to package your phone bill in with your television services too.
It can all be too much.
And with the advent of the internet and the growth of so many different services, it has now become possible for people to watch TV in totally new and radical ways. No longer do people have to turn to Time Warner or Spectrum or any number of television companies.
Instead, they can set up their very own home entertainment system that is free from the big companies that have quite literally run the show for so long.
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About Channels DVR
Channels DVR is yet another service that you can invest in when you are looking to cut the cord and start watching television in only the ways you want to.
As you would imagine, it is a service that allows you to break free of the age-old system and start to assemble a television package of your choosing. It is said that there are few other cord-cutting DVR products that do as good a job of creating easy-to-use, sleek software along with strong features that let you record your shows, stream, explore, and enjoy everything you want over the web.
When you match Channels DVR it the right hardware, you can create an in-home experience that is entertaining, easy to control, and will make you so grateful that you are no longer indebted to the cable companies that used to charge you hundreds of dollars a month.
While Channels DVR is a great way to improve your home television and the ways you enjoy it, setting it up isn’t as easy as you might imagine. It can pose a few challenges and problems for those who don’t know what they are doing.
Luckily, if you follow some easy instructions, you will have your Channels DVR setup complete in no time, and you will soon be enjoying TV your way.
How To Use Channels DVR
Before you get started with Channels DVR, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind and consider.
Firstly, you need to know that Channels DVR is actually a service that contains two main pieces. Both of them have to work in tandem in order for the operation to function.
Set Up DVR Server Software
You will first need to set up the DVR server software that is necessary for Channels DVR. This can run on a desktop computer that is operating with Windows, Mac, or Linux, as well as a compatible NAS box, Nvidia Shield TV Pro, or Raspberry Pi.
And what does the server do exactly? It captures live TV from an antenna or a streaming service and it then stores that content on a hard drive.
Get The Channels Streaming App
The other thing that you will need to set up to use Channels DVR is the Channels’ streaming app. The good news is that Channels’ app is available on practically all of the big names in the streaming industry, including Apple TV, Android TV, iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire TV.
As you can see, there is going to be some setup necessary before you can enjoy Channels DVR in your home. If you don’t have a PC or NAS box (and most people don’t have one of those), you can use something like an Nvidia Shield TV Pro. Products like this can both run the Channels DVR server that is needed and can also get the Channels’ app too.
You Will Need
You will need to make sure that you have some other items ready to go before you use Channels DVR.
You will need:
- A networked TV runner – This is needed to capture over-the-air broadcasts from your antenna. The HDHomeRun TV tuner is a get item to purchase, and it starts at about $100. Once purchased, you will have to hardwire it directly to your router. You might not know how to do that, but there are plenty of tutorials online that can show you how to tackle the task, which is actually quite easy with some instruction.
- An antenna – This is necessary to pick up over-the-air networks. Without the antenna, your Channels DVR can still record live streams, but only from cable providers and your streaming services too.
- A hard drive – You will need one with a good amount of space. The hard drive is a must-have because that is the place that will store all of your recordings and modern HD recordings take up a lot of valuable space on a hard drive. That is why it is recommended that before you even use Channels DVR, you get a hard drive that has at least 500 GB of storage. This should be enough to hold everything you want. Of course, if you ever run out of space, you can always delete some of the data stored on your hard drive.
Subscribe To Channels DVR
Now, there is one more step you need to follow before you can start firing up Channels DVR. The program isn’t for free! That means that you will need to purchase a subscription to Channels DVR. You can try it for free for a single month, which will give you a good idea of how much you love it. After that, you just need to spend $8 a month or $80 a year to keep your Channels DVR account.
Why Use Channels DVR?
You might be asking yourself why you should go through so many steps and buy so many accessories in order to use Channels DVR. What exactly does it bring that makes buying all that other stuff necessary and worth your time? How is it not just smarter to turn back to your cable company to enjoy your content on TV?
It’s Easy To Use
The thing about Channels DVR is that it’s an incredibly slick, sleek, easy-to-use program that makes television watching easier than ever before.
When you are exploring Channels DVR and looking for shows to enjoy, it is completely easy to find new things you have never heard of or old favorites that you had forgotten about. And browsing the section is simple, fast, and easy to do.
You Can Watch, Rewind, And Record
In many ways, Channels DVR is a lot like the DVR that you use now. However, it condenses all of your streaming apps and channels into one location, which means it’s like using several different streaming applications all in one. But you will be given the opportunity to record just about anything you want.
In fact, if you are watching live television, Channels DVR will automatically record that live show, so if you want to rewind or start the show from the beginning or just watch it again later, you totally can. Of course, if you lose interest in the live TV that you’re watching, it simply won’t save to your DVR.
Live TV
Speaking of live television, the fact that you can enjoy it via Channels DVR while also watching your streaming apps is a huge benefit. This is a feature that simply isn’t possible with most other streaming services or devices. And if it is possible with competitors, it costs a lot more.
The fact that you can be watching your local networks live and then hop over to a streaming show is just one of the many amazing benefits that allow Channels DVR to beat the competitors, even the biggest streaming ones.
Avoid And Skip Ads
Additionally, Channels DVR differs from the standard cable DVR in a number of ways. No one likes commercials, but they have become harder and harder to skip. Anyone who has Roku or any other streaming device knows that hopping through commercials isn’t easy.
But it is with Channels DVR. In fact, you may either set the service to avoid advertisements automatically or use a wireless remote button to skip commercials manually. Ad detection is included in the service at no additional cost.
Channels DVR has the best commercial-skipping technology on the market, and it really will make annoying ads a thing of the past. The fact that it’s so expertly made is impressive, but the fact that it’s also free is really amazing.
More Viewing Options
And Channels DVR gives you viewing options that you simply don’t get with its competitors. You can enjoy TV away from home on smartphones, tablets, desktops, and compatible streaming players, and you can operate the DVR and view recordings via a web browser.
This obviously gives you huge versatility when it comes to how and when you enjoy your content. There are other streaming services that say they will let you enjoy your content on your phone, but that is usually filled with ads, lagging streaming services, and so many other annoying things. But that isn’t the case with Channels DVR.
Channels DVR has perfected this technology so that watching on your tablet or laptop or phone is just as good as watching on your TV at small – the screen just happens to be a lot smaller.
What Is Cord-Cutting?
The absolute requirement for enjoyment used to be cable TV. With packages that included internet and phone service, cable operators understood they had you on the line for pouring dozens of channels into your household, many of which you never looked at.
However, not everyone wants to shell out more than $250 every month for the services they only use occasionally. As a result, more people are “cord-cutting,” giving up traditional pay TV in favor of streaming services, including films, television series, and live sports.
Many TV consumers are “cutting the cord” because they are dissatisfied with the customer service and costs of cable and satellite. Cutting the cord is when a person stops using their regular cable or satellite provider in favor of a different method for watching TV. Making the switch is simple.
It is so simple, in fact, that it is estimated that millions of people will cut the old this year, joining the countless others who no longer rely on major corporations to handle their entertainment needs.
Conclusion
Are there a few things that you might not like about Channels DVR? Sure, that’s likely. You might not like that it’s not available on Roku players or gaming consoles or even most smart TVs. In fact, that is the largest complaint against Channels DVR.
But there is just so much that it brings to the table. The way that it lets you enjoy television – all types of television – how you want is just revolutionary. You can now watch your local networks or your streaming services, or your live TV all in one place.
Channels DVR makes watching TV fun again. The interface is brilliantly made, the ease of the program is astounding, and the variety of ways you can enjoy your television programs is also wonderful too. What Channels DVR has done is take the basic concept of a DVR and made it work in all the ways it always should have.
You should definitely be thinking of cutting the cord because the cable companies are still charging an arm and leg for what they provide.
But you should be smart about cutting the cord and only rely on new, cutting-edge companies that are thinking differently, trying new things, and shaking everything up. That is what Channels DVR does. It is a great way to cut the cord and a great way to take your television watching to the next level.
