Alpha: modernizing the UI underpinnings of the Android app

Beta Community Android
#31

Tested on Android phone, Sony Google TV, and Firestick 4k Max. Now it seems to be working exactly the same as the beta version which is probably your goal. I don't mean to be a downer, but there are at least 3 major problems that fail on the released, beta, and alpha versions.

  1. On mobile android, the Play To function doesn't work at all. Hasn't been working for more than a year.
  2. On FireTV or Android TV, the guide locks up with no selection if you move to fast to the right. Must press Back key to release.
  3. On FireTV , Android TV and Android mobile, the guide is mostly missing for one channel only after restarting the app without going through the Preparing Your TV initialization. So far no Developer has been able to duplicate, but it happens on all my devices. Haven't found a setting that fixes it.
    I have work arounds for these problems, so not really a big issue for me. But I like Channels, and want it to work perfect, just like all the developers.
2 Likes
#32

On FireTV or Android TV, the guide locks up with no selection if you move to fast to the right. Must press Back key to release.

------ Same thing if you scroll down too fast. App locks up.

#33

Thanks for the feedback!

A few questions:

  1. On mobile android, the Play To function doesn't work at all. Hasn't been working for more than a year.

What device are you trying to play to? Phone => Android TV?

  1. On FireTV or Android TV, the guide locks up with no selection if you move to fast to the right. Must press Back key to release.

This is a known issue that is difficult to track down a fix, it's definitely On My List

On FireTV , Android TV and Android mobile, the guide is mostly missing for one channel only after restarting the app without going through the Preparing Your TV initialization.

Are you saying that the guide is missing one channel? Or all but one channel?

#34

On a Shield Pro 2019, with the latest firmware, scrolling guide to the right simply crashes to the launcher, which in my case is Projectivy (if that makes any difference). Spelling is correct btw :stuck_out_tongue:

It's a nice, simple replacement for the ad-laden default mess Nvidia pushed on Shield users a year or 18 months ago.

#35

Here is a post discussing the problem, I did find a way for me to always duplicate the failure.

Channels when using a mobile device would show a list of every device in my house that was active on the network, FireTV and Android TV just after pressing Watch when a channel had been selected.

1 Like
#36

I was also under the assumption that the Play To function was just broken. Recently I got a new router and it works all the time now and it all started as soon as I started using the new router.

2 Likes
#37

Not sure what Channels uses for this function, but Plex, Netflicks, Prime Video, Youtube, and all my other apps that have casting capability seem to work fine. I always just suspected my phone did an Android update which broke the Play To function.

#38

Installed Alpha on my latest gen. Fire cube. New tile at end of installed apps. Clicking on it system tries to launch, but crashes almost immediately. Have 4 or 5 Firesticks including Max but opted to try the FC due to larger amount of memory. Might try on Max, but memory is getting tight there.

#39

I just updated the alpha on my Shield Pro 2019, crashes to the launcher immediately. Uninstalled, then re-installed the alpha from the beta app, same deal.

#40

Fixed and running this morning.

1 Like
#41

Can anyone share some screenshots of the Alpha build? Curious where the Android TV UI is heading.

1 Like
#42

no Change

#43

You shouldn't see any visible change from these changes, it's only background changes, though this upgrade sets us up to do UI changes much more quickly in the future

1 Like
#44

This change is now complete! :tada: Thanks to everyone who tried out the alpha and provided feedback.

At the moment, the best branch to be on is the Beta branch - this will be getting most of our new changes, including an upcoming rewrite shipping soon of the Search feature which will bring us more in-line with how iOS / tvOS works. Here's a preview:

image
image1920×1218 195 KB

1 Like
#45

Hi there, that new search looks really nice, looking forward to trying it out,

however

Please try to address the guide issue also seen on my post here. It requires me to force stop the channels app every time it occurs

I understand it may be a hard bug to track the root cause, but as a stop-gap fix, could you please implement an option that every time the channelsDVR app opens, you do the initialization that says "preparing your TV" - the issue never occurs when that initialization completes before going into the app, and im sure my parents would much prefer the ~3 second wait when they open the app rather than having to video call me and me show them how to force stop the app

Many thanks
Drew

2 Likes
#46

This bug is very much on my list; one thing that would really help is, if you have a consistent way to cause it to happen, that would be a huge help. Right now, I cannot cause it to happen at-will, so I can't verify if any change I make fixes it.

#47

Steps to recreate channelsDVR blank guide bug

Tested on - CCwGTV4k on AndroidTV 12 API/31, Channels App version v4.6.6

  1. To ensure constant environment, force stop the channels app.
  2. Open channels app, go to the guide
  3. find a channel that is not currently recording, verify that at least 10 hours of guide data for the channel is there
  4. Go back to the current time on the channel, and watch the current program.
  5. Turn off the CCwGTV4k with CC remote, wait 5 seconds
  6. Turn on the CCwGTV4k with CC remote, the previously playing program should resume
  7. Click back on the remote, the guide should come on
  8. Attempt to navigate at least 10 hours of guide data, issue should show at 8 hours

for video, please see https://youtu.be/8Z7bp8g3yps - May take a while to go live due to YT processing, quality is poor for quick upload but should get the point across.

1 Like
#48

The alpha seemed like it was operating fine for me, except the age-old guide deal where if I want to search into the future if I don't step right very carefully (meaning slowly) it will fail.

In my admittedly unscientific testing it will succeed about 20% of the time and the other 80% of the times I FFWD at medium or high speed it will either crash to the launcher or just stop in its tracks long before the guide data ends.

Shield Pro 2019/Win10 Server/Both always with a few days of latest updates.

#49

Thanks so much for such detailed steps, I'll try to see if this happens for me as well

1 Like
#50

hows about modifying the colors and stop having google remove my carbon theme from my drive @tmm1 @maddox