BETA: Craft your own experience with Personal Sections on tvOS and iOS

lol, please ensure both your server is on the latest pre-release and your client is on the latest TestFlight beta before submitting feedback like this.

1 Like

No, we love it!

This is a feature we've been wanting to deliver for a LONGGGGGGG TIME.

2 Likes

There are 0 Personal Sections applied now because any attempt to add even just one back results in an immediate crash of the client app. I was thinking maybe I shouldn't have removed them in the first place :grimacing: but this is what beta testing is all about, and hopefully these experiments will help improve and stabilize this excellent new feature for everyone to enjoy in the days ahead.

I've submitted logs from the CDVR web UI too just now. Let me know if there's anything else I should submit or try. Thanks again.

Yeah, it was as of this morning but for some reason the latest beta TestFlight hadn't been pushed to me just yet. It was an issue I was having for a few days so glad to see that bug was fixed.

I figured out your crash, but it's irrelevant now thanks to the next up coming feature, which I think everyone is going to love.

As of the latest pre-release server and TestFlight beta, you can now customize your sidebar in a much better way.

You can now manually add items to the list of sections showing in your sidebar, as well as reorder them.

This is now the default way to manage Personal Sections. The old way has been removed. If you added Personal Sections to your navigation sidebar in the past, they will no longer appear. You will need to use this new mechanism to customize your sidebar.

:tada: :tada: :tada:

That's awesome! Yes, folks will very much appreciate this.

I updated to the latest pre-release of the CDVR server and the latest TestFlight of the Channels client. Then I started fresh with my sidebar navigation items, and added 14 of them (10 default sections and 4 Personal Sections) but, unfortunately only the 10 default sections appear. I can rearrange these sections now, and see the clients' sidebars update on tvOS in real-time, but the 4 Personal Sections that I designed and chose, just aren't appearing on either of the two AppleTV's that I tested this on.

Anything else I can try? I sent logs again from the CDVR web UI...

Also, I know the sidebar is limited to 15 (anything more gets truncated) but it might make more sense to folks if an alert could pop up in CDVR, when a user tries to exceed that limit, so they understand what's going on.

Yeah I got too excited and shipped it off before doing that :joy:

Speaking of the 15 item limit, I'm brainstorming ways to consolidate our sections in a way that makes the most sense.

Can "Schedule" be added as a Channels Section in the available list, so we can put it inside one of our Personal Sections and not have it take up its own slot in the sidebar?

1 Like

Yep. I must have left it off. Good catch.

1 Like

Again, I checked and see no items in the setting for your sidebar navigation. I'm very confused by this.

Please wait for the next pre-release, as it has improved diagnostics for personal sections, and submit from that.

OK thanks. Very strange that these were working fine for me just yesterday afternoon. Happy to wait though and resubmit logs with the next pre-release.

1 Like

These were resolved in the latest pre-release.

1 Like

Update: I've fixed the issue over here, but I'm not entirely sure what made the difference. I figured it might have something to do with whatever Personal Channel edits or additions I made since yesterday. First I went into my "Apps" Personal Section, which is a big grid of shortcuts to many A/V apps we use. I removed some of them, moved others around a bit. Then I tested and saw that the Personal Channel sidebar items were appearing again, on both AppleTV's!

Then to test, I added back the same buttons I'd just removed, and confirmed that the Personal Channels are still appearing in the sidebar... so it feels like I'm back in business :+1:t3:

What's odd is that the crash happened earlier, even if I hadn't chosen the "Apps" Personal Collection to appear in my sidebar.

Ah well. Glad it's fixed now. Maybe this experience will help if someone else finds themselves in the same boat. Maybe someone will be able to recreate the issue, by copying this grid of app shortcuts, or something like it...

Yes, we'll be paring these down and removing 3-4 buttons. Just sharing these as inspiration for others for now...

1 Like

Two discoveries I wanted to share with the rest of the class:

  • A URL button can launch the YouTube app, or any app you have the proper URL for. But you can also set one up to stream a specific YouTube video. Or even a livestream. There are thousands of webcams and great music streams all over YouTube to choose from...

Just append the video's URL after the youtube:// prefix.

Here's one of Lofi Girls' 24/7 ambient music streams:

youtube://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uLi1I3G2N4

  • Once in any external app (after using one of these URL buttons inside Channels,) when you do want to exit that app, just tap "back" on your remote, sometimes a few back steps are required, but that will land you right back into the Channels app. It feels really seamless. Out of all of my URL buttons, the only app that didn't cooperate this nicely is Amazon Prime Video. That's the only app that exited out to the tvOS Home Screen instead. Not a big deal, but notable to mention.
3 Likes

This doesn't appear to be working for me on FireStick4k with ChannelsDVR for Synology. Is there a reference to a online HELP page to walk me through proper setup?

1 Like

Please read the original post and/or title.

This is only for tvOS at the moment. There is no Android TV or Fire TV support for this feature.

Thanks!

Not sure how feasible it is but what do you think about allowing the use of spacers or divider lines in the sidebar? They could still count against the 15 line limit to ensure no runoff. Mockup incoming...

6 Likes

Interesting suggestion. We'll keep it in mind.

This is why we want you guys using this stuff while we work on it.

3 Likes