Blank line showing for random channel on guide grid

Channels Fire TV
#37

No, they are not:

Previous models can work in a limited unsupported manner, but they are not in fact supported.

I have not personally used these devices, so I do not know how they present within Channels. But your statement of:

does not necessarily mean that is the case. Can you provide a screenshot for how the data is assigned? Also, can you provide screenshots of all portions of the settings related to your Tablo tuner and its guide, please?

The more actual details provided, the better support you might receive. You started this thread in August, and this is the first time there has been any indication that you are having issues with an unsupported Tablo tuner.

#38

I purchased and began use of the Tablo over 3 years ago - so much, much earlier than my initial use of Channels in Sept '23. Thus, my desire to use Tablo TV tuners with Channels and avoid the purchase cost of a HDHomeRun device.

Sorry, but I accepted this statement for what it says literally: "The latest DVR prerelease now includes native support for Tablo tuner hardware. Once your Tablo is setup, simply Scan Network in Channels DVR and your Tablo will show up to configure and use." AFAIK, the Tablo TV tuners have worked fine for me. We can view the same live TV channels both on the Tablo app and the Channels app. Thus, I had no reason to think that Tablo was the cause of the guide "blank lines/segments" problem.

Re Gracenote, we canceled our Tablo subscription on 08/16/23. Thus, now only a 1-day free guide is available on the Tablo app since that date. Therefore, it's impossible for Channels to be accessing 2-week guide data from Tablo.

#39

This is under a beta thread and Tablo tuners have never been officially technically supported. They do not have open APIs that we can rely on for the future, so because of that, we can not reliably support them or suggest them for purchase.

We put in effort to make them work for existing owners, because we like to make things work, but we've never technically supported them as an official source in Channels, as they've never been listed on our website as an option.

I've edited the original post you linked to to make this more clear for future visitors.

Add second Tablo 4 Tuner by IP address
#40

Thanks for the clarification. I understand. I plan to eventually purchase a HDHomeRun device. Can you recommend the best one?

#41

They all work the same according to Channels, it'd be up to your own needs to decide between all of them in terms of tuner count and spending extra on ATSC 3.0.

#42

Thanks again. Much appreciate your excellent responsive support!

I'll try the 'Flex Duo 2 x ATSC Tuners' first. In our household there's only one TV with mostly just one viewer so 2 tuners should suffice.

#45

Keep in mind you may still have some guide problems like I have using HDHomerun tuners and Android/FireTV devices.

Also Tablo claims they are going to have an update that will allow you to run their new Tablo app experience on their older tuners. Not sure when or if it will really happen, and it will be optional. I also have a Tablo that I have tested using Channels DVR, but it wasn't totally reliable with Channels. For me Channels DVR has the best user interface design, but it does have a few bugs especially with Android/FireTV apps. They all recommend AppleTV devices for the best Channels DVR experience, but I am not going to stop using my FireTV Max devices.

#46

If you want to dip your toe in water, I have an older one for sale

#47

Thanks again! I'd forgotten your prior post re the HDHomerun. I guess I'll be in no hurry to purchase one. Need to wait and see what happens with Tablo.

Meantime, my wife is not happy and drives me crazy with Channels guide and commercial skip issues. We do a lot of rebooting as a workaround for these and other problems. Like you, I do like the Channels product overall but really tired of these daily problems.

#48

You make this sound like the problem is the HDhomeRun units which it is not ... It is that there really has not been that much improvement to Android UI in Channels Clients. This is not a HDHomeRun tuner problem. Emby SageTV and others have smooth scrolling of the guide data on the same devices.

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#49

Actually I was trying to say that just replacing the Tablo with a HDHomerun tuner may not correct all the Channels DVR guide bugs, even though the HDHomerun is the best tuner for Channels DVR. Users who don't want to use the Apple TV will need to put up with a few bugs. Or using the HDHomerun tuner gives you the ability to use other DVR software that may or may not give you a better experience.

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#50

Yes. That was very clear to me. You did not imply that there was something wrong with the HDHomerun tuner device.

Very much appreciate all your comments and feedback re this topic! Very helpful.

#51

@Michael_Birk has helpfully directed me to this thread - I did look before posting, but not in the fireTV forum.

I am running Channels DVR in a ProxMox LXC. Tuner is a HDHomeRun FLEX QUATRO. Both Clients are CCwGTV 4k.

To possibly help you @eric I've seen this exact issue with other guides (Including the Native HDHomeRun app). Only with server-rendered client solutions like NextPVR with UIclient have i never seen this issue. This leads me to believe its an issue on android.

While im here, ill add that if you just hold down the right d-pad on the guide, you will eventually get stuck and be unable to move until you press back.

For me, force stopping and clearing the cashe resolves the issue.

Unfortunately i'm sort in a corner. The native Sony Android TV has an issue that causes the stream to go blank, so that client isn't useable. I'd love to just grab some apple TV's but at £169/TV there not exactly cheep. I might try picking up a FireStick 4K Max when they go on sale.

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#52

Just to be clear at least for me, if I see the "Prepare Your TV" when Channels starts up then the missing guide information does not occur. Although if I check the On Later for just that channel when the guide information does not display, all the later programs are shown properly so Channels has the guide information. Channels is just not able to display it.

The guide navigation problem is always present. Channels can't keep up with continuous right movement.

#53

Yea, my workaround has always been to clear it out of "recents". That invokes the "Prepare Your TV" on startup. This is on a Shield Pro, perhaps other devices don't let you get to "recents"?

I have no way of knowing.

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#54

Yeah, i said earlier about clearing cashe, that is not needed. Just force stopping the Channels App on the CCwGTV will fix the guide Issue temporality

To the devs: The issue is not immediately apparent when looking at the guide. You normally will find the issue 6ish hours ahead on the guide on a channel. Its normally apparent a couple of hours after the channels app was last used. As others have said, it only is there if there was not a "preparing your tv" loading screen when entering channels. This makes finding the issue a bit harder. Please keep trying to recreate the issue so that it can be solved.

Worst comes to worse, if you cannot reproduce/find a solution, could you make a toggle so that channels fully closes on every exit, so that the "Preparing your TV" prompt appears every time you open channels? It's a bodge, but i'd prefer waiting a bit longer than having to force stop channels every time.

Many thanks for the active development.

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#55

For the record, this bug remains unsolved/unfixed as of now.

My wife is the primary user and does a Fire TV reboot every day on first use as a workaround solution to this problem. With good reason, she's constantly asking why it's not fixed.

It's now been ~8 months (!!!) since I first reported this bug on this forum. Personally, I feel all users reporting this problem should get a discount or free months of service until this is fixed. 8 months is a long time to wait for a bug fix!

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#56

The guide data for Android has always been lacking you hold right arrow to scroll half the guide data disappears. This is a problem that only Channels DVR guide has on Android devices ... the HDHR grid guide scrolls smoothly when you hold right arrow so does EMBY so smooth scrolling is doable.

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#57

Channels has always trailed in its android offering. Still the best for my hardcore timeshifting needs. Rejoice, however, it appears they've added a new dev to tackle Android (it appears, anyhow):

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#58

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