Anyone else testing Channels on tvOS 17 beta?

[Ahwman]

I’m testing tvOS 17 beta and noticed an issue with Channels anytime I open it for the first time and try to play any kind of video, it plays without sound for approximately 5 seconds then stops. I then need to tap play several times to get the video to play again and eventually the sound starts to play. I have 7 Apple TV’s and this issue seems to be relegated to the one using a HomePod stereo pair. Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

[krazijoe]

Annual iOS & tvOS Beta Warning (2023)

Hey everyone! This is just a reminder that, if Channels is critical for you, don’t install any iOS or tvOS betas right now. We don’t get to working with betas till later in the summer close to release time. Otherwise, as a developer, you end up chasing bugs in your software that end up being system bugs. So if Channels is important to you, and something is broken on iOS or tvOS 17, you should hold off. Nothing will be fixed any time soon. Also, the betas right out of the gate are rough and no…

[cyoungers]

I've been using tvOS 17 and have not noticed any issues so far. But I'm not using HomePods.

[Fofer]

I've got tvOS 17 public beta on the AppleTV in my kitchen, whose audio defaults to a HomePod Mini, and I'm not experienced that issue. Audio is playing with normal playback, no stops or having to tap play, it just works normally. I am using the latest TestFlight client, with Experimental audio driver selected.

I do experience PIP issues (the audio mutes) but I also know, this comes with the beta territory. This software is a moving target that Apple may break and fix, and break and fix again, all before the final public release.

[Ahwman]

Thanks for the info. By the way, are you also running the latest HomePod beta as I’m wondering if this may be part of the issue?

[Fofer]

No, my HomePod Mini is on 16.6

[ryanchild]

I started hitting this exact issue after installing tvOS 17. Stereo pair HomePod mini. Experimental audio driver.

[Fofer]

For what it’s worth I am on tvOS 17 on the AppleTV in my kitchen and I have a single HomePod mini connected there, and I am not experiencing this issue.

[Ahwman]

I’m pretty certain this issue is not related to Apple TV’s running tvOS 17 but rather HomePods running tvOS 17. I have 7 Apple TV’s and all of them exhibit this issue when paired to either a single HomePod or a stereo pair. I’ve reverted to the default audio driver which is a bit more reliable but still has major issues.

I’m disappointed that the devs have seemingly gone silent as I cannot get a response from them after having emailed them directly multiple times as well as posting on the forum…

[slampman]

@Ahwman

I’m disappointed that the devs have seemingly gone silent as I cannot get a response from them

New tvOS drops audio from live HDHomeRun channels on paired HomePods

This is an issue specifically with paired HomePods. Each tvOS update brings changes in how Apple privately works with HomePods. This happens every year. They make changes, and we have to chase the changes to get them working as well as we can. The reason other apps work just fine is because they're using the system player, so it all just works for free. Channels does not use the system player. We have to work with making the HomePods happy ourselves, without Apple's help. It's all a big secre…

[Ahwman]

Is there a specific reason why Channels uses a proprietary player versus the system player? I’ve noticed that this causes other issues with iOS/iPadOS. Often times, when playing video, the OS doesn’t know video is playing and thus the onscreen controls are out of sync. This creates a major issue for Apple Watch wearers like myself especially when trying to pause, skip, etc. while playing video in the Channels app on my iPhone since watchOS doesn’t put the video controls in the foreground since it thinks nothing is playing…

[Fofer]

@Ahwman

I’m pretty certain this issue is not related to Apple TV’s running tvOS 17 but rather HomePods running tvOS 17.

Ah, thanks for that clarification, that makes sense. My sole Homepod mini is still on 16.6. I updated my AppleTV's beyond that, even via the 17 beta, because that's the only way I could ensure my wired 4K AppleTV's would be prioritized as a HomeKit hub above the HomePod mini. Because I noticed whenever that happened, which was often, Siri wouldn't handle my smarthome voice commands as quickly or reliably. Automations weren't consistent either. But with the AppleTV 4K as the prioritized hub, everything worked fine.

So it looks like now I have another reason not to install 17 on this Homepod mini. What a mess.

[Fofer]

@Ahwman

Is there a specific reason why Channels uses a proprietary player versus the system player?

I've read this explanation before:

@racameron

IIRC, the reason was that Apple's system player doesn't support MPEG-2 video, which is what most OTA broadcasts use. As long as Channels supports OTA tuners without transcoding, they have to use their own custom player.

[Ahwman]

Thanks for the explanation, I figured there had to be a very good reason.

[ryanchild]

Thanks for the explanations, makes sense. Well, the devs have had a few months to look at this, hopefully they will have an update soon…

[AeroR1]

I’m skeptical. Hdhomerun app, ota and HomePods work fine. Channels does not.

[Ahwman]

Has any progress been made on these issues? It’s become tiresome having to work around these audio issues related to Channels and HomePods as the main audio source. Can we please get an update?

[maddox]

Apple TV + Channels + HomePods

HomePod audio output when paired with tvOS is unreliable when watching in Channels. Background Channels uses its own custom video player. This allows it to play back codecs and video containers directly that would otherwise have to be transcoded/remuxed to play in the tvOS/iOS system video player, which only supports h.264 and h.265 with very limited container support. The custom player also allows for many of the features you see in Channels and is not something that will change any time soo…

[Ahwman]

With all due respect, this is the same answer I got the last time I asked this question and does not address the original question as to whether this will ever get fixed? Channels offers AirPlay support as a feature and it’s simply unreasonable to expect people to replace their HomePods with a different audio solution which will play nice with Channels. I’m a big fan of Channels, however this is more than a slight annoyance and deeply impacts the user experience. Is there ongoing work to find a solution or are we on our own?

[maddox]

It feels like you did not read that post. It's in the Known Issues category and persists as a holding place for a Known Issue that has not been solved yet. Everything you just asked in this comment is addressed in that post.

We had it mostly solved and, with tvOS 17, Apple pulled the rug out from under us. As is mentioned in the topic I linked to, this is not anything third party developers have direct access to nor documentation for from Apple. Like many Apple technologies, it's just a black box that either works, or doesn't. I'd prefer to not repeat everything else listed in that post.

I understand that it's disappointing to you, and I can assure you that it's disappointing to us. At this point all we can do is be as transparent as we can about it. Most developers would just be radio silent about a deficiency like this and ignore every single inquiry about it.

If this is a deal breaker for you, then I would completely understand if you reconsidered the use of Channels completely. Every product has pros and cons and it's up to ourselves to make buying decisions based on how those pros and cons effect ourselves and our use of the product.