Could we get an option to automatically try to reconnect when the „Connection Lost“ error appears. It is annoying to have to manually reconnect after that error pops up.
3 Likes
i second this. silence in the background sucks
Not exactly the same but I asked about this as well awhile back:
Yeah, we've wanted to do that, but there are some aspects that are difficult. The way we deal with Live TV buffers does not allow for having missing segments in them. The reason why we don't auto-retry is because if you were behind in the buffer, it would be cleared when we reconnected.
I wouldn't mind having a toggle for this setting. Especially for people that would rather have the infinite reconnect and do not mind clearing the buffer.
While I agree with the sentiment, users don't seem to fully grasp the concept that things are just "well, add a switch". This is a much more involved issue, and even considering how to get clients to "skip/ignore" lost segments is non-trivial at best.
What I am not clear on is when there is a “connection lost” error what good is the buffer as I only can fix the issue by exiting and re- entering which clears the buffer anyway.
4 Likes
The idea posited is that even if there were a connection error is that a blank/black screen could be substituted for the missed broadcast in the live buffer, so when you scan across your buffer the places where a "connection lost" message would be there is just black. The reality is that this feature is non-trivial to implement.
What I am not clear on is when there is a “connection lost” error what good is the buffer as I only can fix the issue by exiting and re- entering which clears the buffer anyway.
Well said. It's real annoying having a connection lost error while I'm in the middle of cooking. If this is something that can be automated, I rather have it automated and loose the buffer.
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While that would be nifty, I don't believe it's necessary - and the non-trivial implementation is probably why we haven't seen any movement on this (understandably).
When I lose the connection, I hit 'back/menu' then 'select' on the remote in an attempt to restart the same channel - That's all I'm looking for in automation:
No Signal/Connection > Stop Stream > Start Stream > Repeat Until Stream
If this were added as a switchable behavior in Settings, the "Auto Reconnect" toggle switch text could even say "If enabled will result in loss of live-tv buffer when signal is lost". I believe this would solve most of our use cases.
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As the end User all I really want it to reestablish a connection to the live feed. I really do not care all that much about what is in the buffer (sorry), all I am expecting is that Connection to the live feed restarts so that I do not to manually restart it.
So I am ok with tossing the buffer and starting all over. It seems that is what I have to do anyway at this point when I am manually restarting, is it not?
Yes and no. How about if you are behind now/live, and are watching from the buffer. Then you have a connection issue. According to your statement, you want Channels to drop your session regardless of where you were in the buffer, try to reconnect, and when the feed is reconnected, resume your viewing back to live.
And if you were 60 minutes behind in the buffer, who cares. Never mind that you could have finished the show you were watching, because its entirety was in the buffer, because if Channels used your model, then "future" issues affected your present situation in a manner that is wholly unsatisfactory.
Hopefully that example shows: it's not quite a simple an issue as you believe there are many edge cases that must be considered.
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I understand both views expressed.
If Channels was recording the program, it would automatically try to reconnect every second for 6 minutes according to my log when this last happened.
If you were viewing that recording while it was still recording, don't know what happens when a disconnect occurs.
Since we're talking Live and not recordings, the buffer is on the client and not in a recording file on the DVR.
And even if you have tuner sharing enabled on clients that are watching, each still has their own buffer.
Yah, it's a lot more complicated than it appears on the surface.
We normally think of these things from our perspective and usage patterns, but the devs have to consider all the possibilities.
Still, doesn't hurt to ask. 
Actually, for me it still does not matter. I would rather loose the buffer than have to touch the remote as there are plenty of times that I am not actively watching and it is running in the background. Having to get the remote to restart a stream that should be able to just restart itself is a real annoyance and i really can hardly care less about the buffer in this case.
Buffer is nice, but when the connection is lost I still do not see what good the buffer does me as I always loose it anyway as I have to manually restart. I see no difference.
As someone else mentioned, a toggle setting for this would be nice.
I second this approach, that is really all I want.
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I third this. Much needed
Another perspective. You assume that we are actively watching and care about what is in the buffer. Many times we do not. What is happening is that the live TV is more white noise in the background and we are doing other things. In this scenario (which is about 60% of my viewing), all I want is the steam to be continuous, the show that is actually running is not really all that important. What is important is that the stream does not end to an error screen which requires a manual interaction that disrupts what we are otherwise focusing on.
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We plan to add something like this once the new streaming backend has stabilized.
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Awesome, looking forward to it.
This "Connection Lost" issue happens to me all the time. Hopefully helpful to know that I have never had it happen during a recording or while watching recorded content. It only happens to me while watching live tv. I actually set a show to record that I intend to watch live as work around. When I watch the recording while it is recording, connection is never lost. Makes we wonder if the connection is actually lost or if it is being dropped because of some sort of error.
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Do you have tuner sharing enabled on your clients? If not, this could be the reason.
By default, live TV is handled by the client connecting directly to the tuner. But recordings are handled by the DVR, so by watching a recording-in-progress you are changing how the stream gets to your client by going through the DVR first.
If you enable tuner sharing, then the client will always request the stream via the DVR. If you make this change, and the errors stop, then you may have narrowed the issue down to something about the network path between the tuner and the client.