Which device do you have the Harmony using to send the keypad numbers? The TV, or the profile/device you're using as the AppleTV?
One of the nice things about the Harmony Hub integration and the 'Harmony Pro / BT Apple TV 4' device is the ability to set an 'input' as part of the startup sequence. The 'inputs' correspond to the top row of apps on the Apple TV. But for me it's dog slow, like 10 seconds or more before it actually opens the app. Is anyone else experiencing this? Is there a way to speed it up? I'd like to customise my startup sequence to open the Channels app and send the Live TV command.
In this case it’s a Sony TV that is receiving the numerical button commands from my Harmony (IR) remote. This new beta feature from Channels is taking advantage of HDMI-CEC in order to translate those commands into channel changing in the app.
Yes, I do need to be watching live TV in Channels first for these buttons to work. I have assigned the red button on the remote to be a shortcut to “Live TV” (which is also a new beta feature) so getting into that mode is always just one button press away.
I haven't been successful getting Channels to switch to a 4 digit channel number, so I assumed it didn't support directly addressing a TVE channel. Maybe the timing update will fix that.
I have a Harmony Elite and a couple of other Harmonys that I'm not using. I may have to pull it out of mothballs and give it a try. I've resisted doing it because I want the same remote on every TV and not looking to buy more remotes that cost more than the ATV4K! I wish Logitech would make a really compact remote... they have one, but it doesn't seem to have good reviews. Something the size of the Tivo Stream 4K remote would be nice to have Harmony abilities.
Ok, thanks. I could have sworn that the Sony was doing it at one point prior to this recent Channels CEC exercise. It may not be an option thing but I would think would just work. If you turn off the TV, when would you ever not want to turn off what is feeding it content? I'll keep fiddling with it and see if I can figure it out.
Speaking of remote control and cool things that are possible with Channels running off an AppleTV, check out its support for Siri Shortcuts. Lots of things are possible and easily invokable not only by voice, but by touching your iPhone to an NFC tag. I have a bunch of these stickers around the house, they're less than $1 each and fun to play around with. Simply touching my iPhone to them performs different actions. This is off-topic for this thread though so please continue discussion about it here:
I guess I was dreaming that the Sony remote was turning on the Apple TV because now I can't get it to do that either. If I go to a different input, it will turn off the Blueray player from the TV remote. There is a setting in Bravia Sync that's purpose is to power off the HDMI attached device when the TV turns off, but Apple TV isn't liking it.
One example I can think of is playing music, like via the Apple Music or Spotify app on the AppleTV. Many home theater setups have external speakers, and some TV's don't have a "display off" command. But people want to be able to listen to that music with the TV off. So in that instance I would NOT want the AppleTV to automatically be put to sleep simply because I turned off the TV.
That's what I thought, can we add endpoints for doing everything that's in the new configuration options? Guide/Library/Search/Live, etc.
They're in there already. Install the TestFlight and go to http://x:57000/api to see the endpoints available
Suspected bug when using Color Key for Guide. Inconsistent initial focus in guide. When using guide key from player (live tv) initial guide focus is on Channel>Program selected when player was launched. When using guide key from Library tab guide focus defaults to Filters>Favorites. I believe default guide focus on Channel>Program would be best in both scenarios.
Hmm, I'm running the latest TestFlight on my iPhone, iPad and AppleTV, and have the latest Channels DVR running on an iMac, whose IP address is 10.0.1.21. When I try going to http://10.0.1.21:57000/api via Safari on any device, I get an error that Safari can't connect. What am I doing wrong? I'm sure it's something dumb, so thanks for your patience 
The app must be running and visible on the screen. The API only works with the TV app. You need to use the IP of your Apple TV, not your DVR.
True, but we either play music via Spotify and leave the TV on so the slideshow runs, or we play it directly via Sonos or Echo if we don't want the TV on. But that is a valid use case, I would say though its a lot less common that just wanting to turn the TV off and have the whole "TV" turn off with it associated input devices.
Looks like tvOS doesn't forward the Mute command to the sound system. It should work in our app though with the latest TestFlight release.
Indeed, thanks, that was the puzzle piece I was missing, I see the API endpoints available now and HOLY WOW this is inspiring. You rock!
Good catch! Fixed for the next build.
Don’t know if it’s mentioned yet, but you can’t go from watching a recording to live tv and hitting play pause doesn’t go back to the last channel
Last channel was fixed this morning with an update.
You can go to live tv by entering a channel number. Did you mean via the hot key?