Live Channels app - Explained

by Andrroid

I know we have a lot of new people here with the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales and I know the Live Channels app is somewhat misleading/not clear. I made a post recently that explains it so I thought I'd copy/paste here for you all:

Live Channels is a system level app that "listens" for apps that have video streams (not necessarily live tv, just ongoing streams) and have made themselves available as "sources." If an app like this is installed, when you open Live Channels, you will be able to add said app as a source and whatever channels that app has made available will be integrated into the Live Channels tv guide. A good app to test this with is Pluto TV. Install the app, then open Live Channels and you'll see what I mean.

Now obviously with only one source this is pointless; why not just open the source's app? The idea is to aggregate sources into one app. I think right now, most people only use 2 apps: Pluto TV and HdHomerun extend. HdHomerun extend is a tv tuner that you connect to an OTA antenna and then your router. The tuner takes the signals, processes them and then broadcasts them over your network. If you have the HDHomerun app installed, you can then view your broadcast channels via the shield instead of changing inputs. You could then choose HDHomerun as a source for Live Channels and have your broadcasts channels aggregated in the same location as all your Pluto TV channels. See what I'm getting at here?

There are a few other great candidates that would be great for Live Channels. Imagine if Sling TV implemented it. You could have your 20+ Sling channels in the same location as your 20+ broadcast channels and as your 100+ PlutoTV channels. Crackle recently implemented a channel like interface; imagine if they got on board. There is a lot of potential with the Live Channels app to aggregate from multiple content providers and give us the traditional "channel surfing" experience.

Short guide:

  • Install PlutoTV to force the Live Channels app to appear on the home screen and then you can play around a bit.

  • If you want to get free OTA channels in the Live Channels app, you can buy an HD Antenna and an HDHomerun Extend. You'll connect antenna -> homerun -> router, install the HDHomerun View app and Live Channels will identify said app as a source.

  • Alternatively, you can get an HDHomerun Prime if you still have cable and want to integrate your paid cable channels in the Live Channels app.

At present there is not a lot of support for Live Channels. Google has stated they want to grow this feature (it is a hugely unique feature - no other platform is doing it). Contact other potential sources! SlingTV is a prime candidate. Contact them if you want integration.

Post if you have any questions and I'll help as best I can.

Also, plug for /r/cordcutters as this feature is quite conducive to cordcutting

l3rian

Great post!

Live Channels has scary potential. I have had almost the exact same thoughts as you and have even written a little guide for getting OTA channels on your AndroidTV here where I touch on the potential of Live Channels at the end. We also have another article in the works further exploring the idea of Live Channels.

It is crazy how little Google has promoted it because you are right, it could easily be the difference maker in this platform war...

jnorbut

This is a nice summary. I am one of those that picked up the SATV on Black Friday.

I have an HDHomerun Prime with a cable card as cable tv is included in my buildings HOA fees every month, so there's no way out of it. Aside from the aggregation feature of Live Channels that you mentioned, the killer feature for me is the Guide; the Live Channels guide interface is so much nicer than what is offered in the HDHomerun source app.

My only nitpick right now with Live Channels is that it appears to only output in stereo. From what I understand, there were earlier problems when a show was broadcast in 5.1 and then the commercials switched to stereo, so now it only outputs in stereo.

Please correct me if I'm mistaken.

h4gH

Thnx for this! Had no idea that something like this even exist .. :-)

defence5

Thanks for this. I've had my NP months and never even bothered to look at this.

Mr_You

I believe TabloTV (OTA DVR) is also working on Live Channels integration.

stak640

The HDHomreun Connect is for OTA TV too, it just doesn't do the on-device trascoding the Extend does - which is not needed anymore since the MPEG2 codec came to the Nexus Player with the Marshmallow update (and the SHIELD since its first update, and the ADT-1 and Forge from the start).

vezx

I have no HDHomerun but I tried with PlutoTV and it works pretty damn good. Would be amazing if you could use Dreambox as source on the Live Channels app to view all your channels.

joeysdad

Great write-up OP. However I would like to point out that the HDHomerun Connect is a cheaper option. Silicondust is being cautious by only stating SD over WiFi, however I can assure you it will do HD just fine with a proper connection. I use 5ghz N on a N300 router and it works perfectly with a strong signal. I will be upgrading shortly to AC - just because my Nexus Player will support it.

*Edit to add: I have not tried it using 2.4ghz, I would expect that it may not work quite as well.

*Edit2: if your devices are using ethernet there really is not much reason to get the Extend either. I have one NP wired via MoCA to ethernet.

bigduffeye

sat>Ip support is working too. see here

http://www.tara-systems.de/inaris-sat-ip-app-for-google-nexus-player.html

Dvblink devs have said they are working on it too. This is going to be the killer app for me - no more changing inputs!

ohgodwhyo

Okay, so I installed PlutoTV and now I understand this app at least :D But is there no other way to view live TV? I'm from Germany and still have cable. Is there no adapter or something (I think the Xbox One has an adapter to put the TV cable in) to make live TV channels work on this app?

Sheikboy_

I'd love the IGN app to include their new IGN1 live channel to the live channels app. Simple enough I would think.

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