BETA: Experimental Guide view for Android

Beta Community Android
#12

sure did. Thanks!
are the channel icons and #'s gonna stay stacked or go back to side by side?
I don't mind either way really, but stacked could allow a narrower column. maybe even see a peek of the 4th hour to the right.

#13

Three observations:

  1. Numeral keys don't work to move to a specific channel.

  2. Original guide kept the active cursor line near mid-screen when scrolling up or down a row at a time, while the Experimental version keeps the active cursor at the bottom or top of the display when scrolling beyond displayed extent of view. We prefer the previous behavior: others may not.

  3. Many, if not all, of the channel graphics on the gray filled channel header in the leftmost column are very small now, or not displayed at all. Channel numbers for OTA channels from HDHomerun sources also seem significantly smaller.

1 Like
#14

Here is another problem that has been around for at least 4 years that is still happening with the new guide.

If I freshly launch the app (goes through complete startup routine) then all the guide data is present for all my channels. But if I play any channel, then back out of the app, then resume the app (doesn't go through the full startup routine), now I am missing the guide data beyond 4 hours for the recently played channel. The guide data doesn't return unless the app is forced closed and relaunched. Picture attached showing missing data for NBC.

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#15

I've also seen them unload as you scroll up and down. Further, just like in every beta release since the last stable, some logos refuse to load. They are working in the stable, so the problem definitely got introduced in the beta track.

#16

I cant type in channel numbers in the expermental guide using my sofabaton u2. this works fine in the normal guide.

1 Like
#17

Latest fixes for some of the issues reported:

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#18

Problems that are still occurring for me:

  1. If I highlight the SuperBowl guide entry, then I can't advance to the next program. I can go back, up, or down in the guide just not forward.

  2. After playing a live channel then backing out and resuming the app, I am still having intermittent guide blanking failures. It is not consistent anymore, sometimes the guide will go blank just about anywhere along the guide for the channel that was recently played. It wouldn't be so bad, but the blank area creates a wall that if your bump it then the app will crash to the OS. Picture attached. Diagnostics sent from the app after crash occurred.

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    20260204_1316441828×1042 474 KB

  3. I also believe the app will crash to OS if your go to the end of the guides 14 days and accidently try to go past the end.

I have seen these problems on a Chromecast Google TV and my FireTV Max devices.

#19

Observed on a Shield TV Pro 2019:

Flaky cursor behavior when paging down. If the newly displayed channel row on which the focus would normally land has a show ending shortly after the beginning time of the display, the cell focus (show block highlighted white) remains on the now undisplayed previous focus show, one page above the updated display. Pressing the right D pad button pops the display back up a page to the previous display and moves the focus to the next show to the right.

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#20

Much improved over the default guide, now it it's not off by 3 or 4 hours when you quickly scroll right or left. And it doesn't crash when you do that.

Still really need to have date and time buttons at top so that we can quickly navigate to a given time slot instead of having to swipe left a zillion times. Pretty much like y'all do it in the dvr web guide.

Or at minimum just add left and right buttons so you can quickly go from day to day. The ATV guide badly needs this too.

#21

Edit: My device is the onn 4K Plus box

Couple things...

  1. When at the top of the guide, should be able to arrow up or page up to take you to the bottom of the guide to scroll backwards. Otherwise you need to Page down a thousand times to get to the bottom of a large guide.

  2. If you are navigating around in the guide you should be able to press back and it will take you to the beginning of that current line, back again and it will take you to the top of the guide. As it is now it doesn't back up to the top, it exits the app!

Thanks

#22

On my Firestick Max it works exactly how you described it should work. It takes 4 back presses to exit the app for me.

Yes, I would like it to use the fast forward and rewind buttons on my FireTV Max remote to move one day at a time.

#23

for my streamer4k if I'm still on the 'left-most' page but have the cursor in the middle somewhere; 1 back goes to the very top-left, skipping the 'current time' in the row.
if I have scrolled the page to the right at all, then 1 back goes to the 'current time' of the row, and a 2nd goes back to the top of guide.

#24

What I described is exactly how it is acting (experimental) on the onn 4K Plus box.

#25

Latest updates:

#26

Thanks Eric, any thoughts on being able to move back and forth from day to day with a one button press? This has been sorely needed for all platforms and every other DVR has this. A simple left and right arrow pair of buttons at the top of the guide would do it.

1 Like
#27

@GTFan The goal of this work right now is to improve the performance and stability of the guide, not introduce new features.

#28

Forget this post, my mistake. Clearing the data did not fix anything.

I fixed this problem by clearing the app data from both of my devices. Now it has no problems with large programs. Apparently old app data can have some effect on the new guide. Everyone may want to clear the Channels app data before testing the new guide.

1 Like
#29

Agree, but this is such a simple improvement to make that would make the guide so much better across all platforms.

It's really a head scratcher that y'all have resisted doing this, but the only explanation I've ever been able to come up with is that the guide is an afterthought.

You don't seem to care about people using it because you don't think that's how people should use it to set up recordings in channels.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

But fyi, search is broken if you want to use that as a counter example. Lots of stuff goes missing when you do search. Same with clicking on a channel in the guide (on the left, clicking on the actual channel number), lots of stuff goes missing in upcoming.

The guide is all we have for reliable data from channels in the client.

#30

That is weird. I do not expect that to be needed.

#32

You are right again. It did not fix the problem that I am having with the new guide. Even though your little pop up makes it clear which guide I am using, I was using the old guide. The problem doesn't exist with the old guide. I blame my age for my poor observation skills.