I don't see how you can, there's nothing to click on, not even for it to say RECORD instead of playing.
You mentioned if you channel Up/Down into that channel, or something like that,and it plays if I understood.
That's all I can see if Refreshing the Guide or maybe the m3u does not do it.
I don't use android, but what happens when you click on the channel number?
You get this. Nothing to click on to tune.
Funny thing is Emby is set up to pull all M3U chamnels from CDVR and every one of these plays fine 
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Treat the disease not the symptoms. Fix your guide data by either assigning the channel in manage lineup or if that’s not possible use a text based m3u source with Gracenote ids.
I'll work on that when I get time but shouldn't we still be able to tune a channel if guide ID is funky?!?!?
Does that channel populate with a guide listing on the CDVR web UI grid guide?
Most of the time yes. It's hit or miss on the clients. Some update, some don't. Sucks. Wish they would stay in sync. It's a real problem.
At minimum, there should be a single 'update guide' option somewhere on the client to easily do manually.
2nd this. although it's Up Next that give me the most trouble not showing recent recordings.
this is a glitch with the guide one way or another as even with populated guide data, this happens when a show ends anywhere exept the 30min increments. scrolling the guide gets stuck on the show blocks that have ended but are still showing blank. if the blank blocks could be selected i believe it would solve many 'minor' issues.
Right now...
Web Guide (I can click on and play all of the channels)
onn 4K Plus Android TV (Can't click on or play the blank channels. No option to do so. Can play in Emby)
Pixel 10 Pro XL (Can't play any of the blank channels. No option to do so. Can play in Emby.)
Another thing that sucks is that when/if the top channel is showing blank, not only can you not play it, you can't use the page up option to wrap around and scroll up from the bottom of the guide. Just hits a brick wall so you have to scroll down a thousand times to get to the bottom channels. Lame.
As you've stated there seems to be an issue where you can't play a channel in the client if there's no guide data. I'm sure the developers will look into that.
If I were you, I would fix the underlying issue of why you're not getting guide data.
Call it a workaround if you like, but that's the first thing I would do.
my first channel is a virtual channel so show times end randomly, many times when I pull up the guide the first block is black the ONLY navigation I can do is arrow right, which then jumps an hour (to the show after the one currently 'on')
so say the time is currently 1:15. the first column of blocks is 1-1:30. a show ended at 1:05 and a new one is currently showing. however up/down 'cursor' tries to move to the show @ 1, which is not showing the guide data as it has ended.
I realize my issue is slightly different than @troyhough but result is the same. I just don't want this issue dismissed as 'missing guide data'
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I will get the channels guide figured out, however as @Shaggylive can attest, we need the ability to tune any channel at any time whether Guide data is perfect or not. @eric ?
Just long press on the channel number and click watch. It’s been there for years. On Apple TV anyway.
If you read back you will find that it isn't an option on Adroid or Android TV devices. That's the problem!
Would it be possible for the developers to set up a server setting that the user could control? Something like ... If guide data is not available, setup up generic time slots in increments of XXX minutes. The user could then choose from a pull-down or enter these time slots manually in minutes. This way at least there is a block in the guide the user could select to record.
How do users do this for security cameras and the likes, where there is never guide data?
Channels DVR already has placeholder guide airing listings every hour.
They are only applied to sources that don't use XMLTV guide data though.
If you specify XMLTV guide data for your source and it's stale or empty you get no listings.
Actually it appears you can’t. Your blank channels on the androids 20029 and 20032 don’t even show up in the web ui Troy All collection. If a channel has no guide data the dvr will provide placeholder blocks but since your guide data has some but incomplete guide data channels dvr thinks nothing is playing on those channels. Hopefully the devs will help you out but this is an edge case so who knows. Fix your guide data.
Yep, that's a bug. Whether there's data or not you should still have a placeholder that allows you to scroll through and watch the channel.
This is likely exactly why my guide info has been in and out lately. It's the Local Now channels primarily. Android and Android TV users need a way to tune a channel when guide data isn't perfect, which for a lot of people, is not 100% of the time!