Channels is different than other streaming apps in that it needs to communicate with Channels DVR Server and your HDHomeRun on your local network.

Channels uses automatic discovery to find your Channels DVR Server and HDHomeRun. In most cases this will always work. If it doesn’t, this is a sign that your home network might not be configured in an optimized way.

Internal Networks

It’s important to ensure that your Channels DVR Server, HDHomeRun, and your Channels apps are always on the same internal home network.

You can check this by looking up the IP address of your streaming device, HDHomeRun, and the computer you have installed Channels DVR Server on. Their IP address subnets should match.

Make sure that the first 3 parts of the IP addresses match correctly:

192.168.1.10
192.168.1.8
192.168.1.5

If these first 3 parts do not match, your Channels app will not be able to connect to your Channels DVR Server or HDHomeRun.

The most common issue for this would be multiple wifi routers in your home. You can read more about that below.

Wi-Fi

There are a few factors that can keep your Channels app from seeing your server while using wifi.

Guest Networks

Ensure that your streaming device is on the same wifi network that your HDHomeRun or Channels DVR Server is using. Unlike other streaming apps, Channels needs to see your HDHomeRun or server on your local network. Being on the wrong WiFi network will prevent this.

Extra WiFi Routers

If you have purchased your own wifi router and plugged it right into your provider’s router, you may have created a second internal network. This means anything on your wifi is on one subnet of your network, and anything plugged into your provider’s router will be on another.

This is a very common cause for Channels not being able to discover your Channels DVR Server or HDHomeRun. Since they are on different networks, they can not communicate.

You can read more on why this doesn’t work and how to diagnose it above.

This is easily remedied by placing your secondary wifi router into Bridge mode. When in Bridge mode, your wifi router will adopt the network that it is plugged in to. This will put all your devices on the same network and Channels should be able to discover your Channels DVR Server or HDHomeRun.