Pause & Rewind Live TV

Starting in TIVRA 2.0, every live channel you tune in to is recorded into a rolling buffer on your device. The buffer lets you pause whatever you're watching, walk away, and pick up exactly where you left off when you come back — and rewind or fast-forward inside the buffered window.

How it works

When you tune in to a channel, TIVRA starts capturing the stream to a rolling buffer in the background. By default it keeps the last 60 minutes; older buffer is rotated off automatically. Switch channels and the buffer for the previous channel is dropped (we don't try to maintain multiple buffers at once).

The buffer happens silently while you watch. There's no "start recording" button to press — it's always running on whatever you're tuned to.

Controls

While watching live TV with your TV remote:

• OK brings up the player overlay (program info, controls, the seek bar).
• D-pad left rewinds 10 seconds.
• D-pad right fast-forwards 10 seconds (within the buffer — you can't go past the live edge).
• Hold D-pad left/right to scrub faster — the jump accelerates the longer you hold.
• The dedicated Play/Pause button on most remotes pauses + resumes.
• When you're behind live, a Live button appears next to Play/Pause — press it to snap back to the live edge.

Changing the buffer length

Default buffer length is 60 minutes. To change it:

1. From the home page, go to Settings › Live TV.
2. Find Live buffer length. Pick anything from 15 minutes up to 4 hours.
3. Longer buffer = more disk space used while you watch. A 1080p HEVC stream is around 3-4 MB/min; a 4K source is 8-12 MB/min. Plan accordingly.

Where the buffer is saved

By default, the buffer is written to your TV's internal app storage. If you've set up an SMB share or USB drive for recordings, you can point the buffer there too:

1. Settings › Storage.
2. Set the Live buffer storage target (separate from the Recordings storage target — you can keep them on different drives).

External buffer storage is useful on devices with small internal storage (some Onn 4K boxes, older Fire TV sticks).

Common questions

Does pausing live TV count against my IPTV provider's connection limit?

Yes — the buffer is still an active connection to your provider while it's running. If your provider has a 1-connection limit, pausing on one device and trying to watch on another won't work simultaneously.

Can I save part of the buffer as a permanent recording?

Not yet — the buffer is rolling and rotates out. For permanent recordings, use the scheduled recordings feature (see the scheduled recordings guide).

What if I switch channels mid-pause?

The buffer for the channel you left is dropped. The new channel starts a fresh buffer.

The pause button doesn't seem to do anything.

Make sure the live buffer is enabled in Settings (it can be turned off entirely). If it's enabled and pause still doesn't work, the channel may be having upstream issues — a "Channel unavailable" message should appear briefly.