Channels for HDHomeRun

4.1
37 reviews
1K+
Downloads
Content rating
Everyone
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image

About this app

Watch live TV, right next to your apps. Channels lets you play, pause, and rewind local or cable TV directly on your Android device with your HDHomeRun TV tuner.

If you are a Channels Plus subscriber with DVR Service, search for the free app: Channels: Whole Home DVR

Channels requires an HDHomeRun networked TV tuner to watch live TV on your Android device. Learn more about how this works below.

• Pause, rewind, and fast forward live TV
• Guide Data
• Full grid guide
• Full HD streaming (bandwidth permitting)
• 5.1 Surround Sound
• Closed captioning
• Full support for VoiceOver
• Channel favoriting
• Jump back to last channel
• Auto Discovery
• Browse what's on other channels while watching TV
• Manage your HDHomeRun devices from Channels


-- Why Use Channels? --

Channels is the missing piece of your puzzle. If you already watch everything through streaming apps, Channels lets you finally watch sports, award shows, local news, and other live events.

• Watch live primetime tv, local news, and sports on your Android device.
• Netflix, Hulu, Movies, Games, AirPlay, and now live TV without switching inputs – the holy grail!
• Using antenna for live TV? Channels lets you use one antenna for all the TVs in the house.
• Want sports on your porch? News in the kitchen? Channels adds live TV to any TV in your house.
• Save money by ditching cable boxes and watch your cable subscription with Channels on your Android device instead.

-- How Does It Work? --

An HDHomeRun is a simple TV tuner that can broadcast television over your home network to any room in your house. Channels uses it to let you watch live TV on your Android device.

1. Plug an HD antenna or your cable into your HDHomeRun.
2. Plug your HDHomeRun into your router.
3. Watch live TV via the Channels Android app.

-- How Do You Use It? --

Here's some protips on how to get the most out of Channels.

• Pick your favorite channels by clicking on them in the Settings tab.
• Switch to the Favorites tab and browse what’s on.
• Click on a channel to start playing it.
• Live TV buffer works for ~90 mins or less depending on how much storage is available on your device.
• Skip ahead 30s by clicking the right side of the Touch surface. Skip back 7s by doing the inverse.
• Double-click the Play/Pause button to switch back to the previous channel.
• Tap to reveal the timeline, then scrub through the buffer with the Touch surface.
• Swipe down to bring the Quick Guide to see what else is on your favorite channels.
• Change tabs while in the Quick Guide to toggle closed captioning or adjust audio languages.


-- Device Support --

All HDHomeRun devices are supported by Channels.

• HDHomeRun PRIME
• HDHomeRun EXTEND
• HDHomeRun EXPAND
• HDHomeRun CONNECT
• HDHomeRun CONNECT DUO
• HDHomeRun CONNECT QUATRO
• HDHomeRun DUAL
• HDHomeRun ORIGINAL (blue and white tuners)

Learn more about HDHomeRun tuners on silicondust.com. Simply plug a compatible tuner into your home network router and start watching Live TV with Channels today!

• DRM protected streams are *not* currently supported.
• Channels does *not* work outside of your home. It only works when connected to the same network as your HDHomeRun Device

For questions, concerns, bug reports, and feature requests, contact us on twitter @getchannels or via email support@getchannels.com. You can talk about everything Channels on our community site at: https://community.getchannels.com.

Note that this app optionally uses Accessibility APIs offered by the OS to detect key presses on certain types of remotes. This feature has to be enabled explicitly by the user under the Android Accessibility settings, and is labelled Channels Button Detector.
Updated on
Jan 29, 2024

Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
No data shared with third parties
Learn more about how developers declare sharing
No data collected
Learn more about how developers declare collection
Data is encrypted in transit
You can request that data be deleted

Ratings and reviews

4.1
32 reviews
Rachid Abid
October 10, 2022
after several years on Live Channels on my Shield TV, I stumbled upon this app which I find better than Live Channels and even more than the HDHomerun app, it is way more user friendly and stable. The only problem I found using this app is the fact that when I use my bluetooth headset, it is the only app I have that still outputs the sound to the TV speakers. Do you have any solution for that?
3 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?
John Kildea
February 19, 2023
A great app that lets me watch streamed TV when home or away from my Hdhomerun devices, something that the Hdhomerun software doesn't allow. I should say that I can already do this using my Emby server but wanted to give this a try. I do have a couple of small issues. If I VPN into my home network the app says it can't find any devices. However if I type in the IP address of my devices or do a scan,they are found. It's a pain having to do this each time. Also the channels are slightly incorrect
5 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?
A Google user
March 31, 2020
Great app. Way better UI than HDHomerun and Android native Live Channels app. The option to change between software/hardware acceleration is great since some channels naturally produce artifacts on my Nvidia Shield; changing to software acceleration fixes this issue. However, I do wish I could choose which channels I can apply this to. I only need 2 channels to use software acceleration while I prefer the others to use hardware acceleration. Is this a possible feature that can be implemented?
42 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?

What's new

• NEW: Provide a list of up to 3 of the most recently connected servers when selecting At Home to connect to a DVR
• NEW: Add the timeout parameter for /api/notify to match iOS/tvOS
• IMPROVED: ATSC3 tuning speed
• IMPROVED: Error messages when connecting to older HDHomeRun units
• IMPROVED: Error messages when streaming remotely now have more detail beyond “Transcoder Reset”, now including HDHR errors like “Tuner Unreachable”, “All Tuners In Use” and M3U errors like “Str