Channels 4.0 Beta

Beta Community Apple Beta
#342

One thing that I'm noticing (or maybe didn't see it before the beta) is that the commercial skip seems aggressive or incorrect. I have turned off the auto skip now because it was cutting off the last few seconds of a show or the first few seconds AFTER the ad, so I was having to rewind a little after the skip.

As well, a few movies recorded off of TVE (TNT, etc.) I've been watching the movie and randomly, for long stretches, the "skip commercial" box appears on the screen for several minutes when there ARE no ads.

#343

Commercial detection runs on the DVR server, and has nothing to do with the clients. It's always been a bit off, though, which is why auto-skipping is not the default in the clients. (Or perhaps it's better to say less than 100% accurate rather than being a bit off. Some programming has better results than others, which is why Channels does not remove commercial segments but just marks them.)

#344

Thumbs up for the suggestion to move the channel filters to the side menu. Not only would it clean up the look, but the usability as well. Having to go through the channel filter to get to the other options results in unintentional filter changes.

I go from HD Channels to SD or All Channels regularly by mistake.

4 Likes
#345

Understood. I just found in a couple of movies seeing the "skip commercials" button on screen so much was distracting and I wasn't able to use it all during one movie. It's a nice feature, just not as reliable as I would "like".

#346

I hear you there. Personally I find the "Skip Commercial" button to be quite annoying/distracting. I'd much rather just press the Skip/Next button on the remote, or double-press Right, depending upon the remote.

#347

A post was split to a new topic: Personal DVRs?

#348

Fired up my non-4K Apple TV and used the latest beta. Watching a TVE-source recording, progressive 60fps. Unfortunately I’m still seeing the frame dropping issue that I’ve observed in the released client. Looked at the client logs and confirmed it’s dropped over 220 frames and I’ve only been watching a couple of minutes:

mpvstats: AV: 1575.660 A-V: 0.000 Dropped: 220 Cache: 95.02s + 0KB

I wanted to make sure I made you aware in case there is anything that can be done to improve this. It is pretty noticeable, I’m afraid.

Here’s a link to the thread where I discussed this issue some months back.

https://community.getchannels.com/t/stuttering-playback-on-apple-tv/21594/61

I think there may have been multiplied issues mixed up in that thread, but this issue is simply the dropping of video frames. It seems to affect 60fps content, both mp4 and Mpeg2. I was hoping the new beta might not have the problem. Pure speculation of course, but I’m wondering if the non-4K hardware is having trouble keeping up. Can provide tons more detail if you want to dig in.

#349

I’d like to see the Time Start control that’s on the Server appear in the clients also. Scrolling the Guide through time is difficult because the Scrolling feature gets stuck frequently when a long program is encountered.

1 Like
#351

Can I ask you to describe the use case of scrolling so far rather than using search? I'm always fascinated when this comes up because I personally never do this, I just use search. So this would be helpful to know WHY you'd do that instead of search. Thanks!

#352

An easy example: Hallmark typically has new movies on Sunday evenings at 9pm (EST). Since the title isn't known, you don't know what to search for. But looking at that particular time will let you know what it is, and if it's new.

Another example: Jeopardy is regularly on at 7pm on my ABC affiliate. However, this often pushed back if there is a sporting event (such as the recent NFL draft). Manually supplying a time will allow you to check when it was pushed to for a future date, instead of relying upon a search. It would also allow for manually selecting the program on either end to record in case the broadcast is further delayed or begins early, both frequent occurrences in this scenario.

#353

Another use case for ‘scrolling the guide’ -vs- search: I sometimes want to see what movies are coming up on TCM (Turner Classic), so I just scroll forward several days through the guide. I’m not searching for a specific movie, just browsing to see what is coming up. If something looks interesting, I’ll schedule it to be recorded from the guide.

4 Likes
#354

I use this too. I do it to discover things I might want to record. Like looking through the Toys R Us catalog as a kid and circling what I want for my birthday. There’s so many good toys I don’t know I want until I see the picture!

For me this discovery is largely channel specific, I am looking for upcoming programs on a specific channel, then record many of them and try them out later. Maybe this use case could be presented differently and improved vs changing the guide?

2 Likes
#355

A manual Day Time recording would be a great option to add on platform clients and web UI. Some networks air movies at a particular time everyday or weekly. Like SyFy use to have a premiere movie every Saturday at 8. Of course you can't do a series time record because its not a feature of Channels. When I had my Tivo, I could do a series record for a particular time and day of the week and never missed the premiere movie. Now CBS has brought back Sunday Night Movies and would like to create a Series Record for Sundays at 8pm. I also agree with the rest of the forum that I like to just scroll a network for the week to see anything interesting to watch. The search feature is not great in the clients to search for new or interesting programs. Other platforms allow you to select the network "channel" and view whats coming up for the day and even for the week. Very helpful and quick to find something to record. I know the developers I guess expect everyone to have a laptop on their lap all the time, but sometimes I just want to be able to search and setup passes or record with just the platform client I'm watching on without having to have a computer or tablet with me all the time.
Also the web UI as far as viewing the guide. Great but really need a way to scroll right on the guide. Especially if you want to view whats on prime time and your are in the middle of the guide and you have to scroll all the way to top to view future "3 Hour time line". This is really annoying. I computer has lots of resources that their should be a way to have a scroll on the Guide. My Spectrum TV app allows scrolling up to 12 Days. Sorry I'm venting here. Just seems that the developers have really concentrated their efforts on crappy Apple TV and iOS, I feel left out on the new features for the other platforms. Sorry I dropped out of the Beta. Can't stand fooling around with the remote . Now that I have the new Tivo Stream "Love It, better than Fire TV", number keys are working out fantastically for me. No more scrolling the guide to tune to a channel. Now need to learn the channels numbers. It took me a year with Spectrum whats another year with Channels DVR. "PLEASE ADD A WAY TO SERIES DAY AND TIME RECORD".

#356

To augment the request:

  • It would also be nice to use the RWD/FF or similar buttons to advance in 12hr segments in the guide.
  • Maybe put the day/time selection option on a menu (accessed with the menu key). The advantage of this would be you could also move the filter selection to this new menu, instead of taking up space on the screen.
  • Please add a visual line across the guide indicating the current time; this will help see how far a program is in progress, and may help make a decision about whether the user wants to tune in if there is only a little time left in the current program.
  • Similar to the above, please add the current time to the guide screen. (Not really necessary on iOS, but definitely a good add for tvOS and eventually Android TV.)
3 Likes
#357

iOS feature request: I have no doubt this is very much not on the priority list, but I'll throw out this request: I'd love a background audio option. My Safari bookmarklet hack still works, but I'd love to get something baked into the app. Thanks.

1 Like
#358

When forcing touching a show on the guide, the record/cancel record button looks oddly shaped.

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#359

That standard the iOS quick look menu button That is used in the OS for all Haptic Touch context menus.

#360

Ah OK. Perhaps because it is a single menu item it looked odd. Thanks.

#361

I’m having trouble enabling Kiosk mode on the Apple TV. I navigated to settings, then About Channels, and clicked on the graphic. Nothing happened.

Next dumb question: if I enable kiosk mode from settings, which hides settings, how to I get back into settings to get to the about section to disable kiosk mode? I know I’m clearly missing something here and someone will point me in the right direction.

#362

Click 6 times. Sorry, I blew it on the release notes.

The About view replaces Settings in the side bar, so you’ll still be able to get to it.

2 Likes