Fast forward causes player to close

Channels iOS Troubleshooting
#1

Since I haven't used the iOS app in awhile, not sure if this is normal behavior.
When I fast forward by holding down the skip button, it will fast forward up until maybe 80-90% of the program and then the player just closes.
Using Beta 2021.11.05.2345 on an iPad Pro and iPadOS 15.1

So I think what is happening is the current play position in timeline/progress bar is not accurate when fast forwarding. If you start playing a 60 minute recording and fast forward from the beginning I think it hits the end of the recording, but the play position (marker) on the timeline doesn't keep up with where it actually is in the video. Make sense?

Just did this with a downloaded 60 minute Nova recording in Library Downloads while on wifi and submitted diagnostics.

That's it > the current play position in timeline/progress bar is not accurate when fast forwarding
If I stop fast forwarding right before the player would close, the marker on the timeline jumps to the end.

So without a readout of current play position in minutes and seconds or an accurate way to tell percentage on an unmarked timeline, I'm guessing the marker is at about 45 minutes (out of 60 min recording) when the fast fowarding hits the end of the recording and closes the player.

#2

Was wondering if this was just an issues with the Downloads Beta I was testing, but it happens even while connected wifi and playing any recording.
I can scrub in VLC (including adjustable scrub speed) and always see where I am on the timeline.
Here I'm at 36:48 while still scrubbing.

Timeline-VLC
Timeline-VLC2047×1495 330 KB

#3

Please submit diagnostics from the app right after you’ve done this and we’ll check it out.

#4

Did that already

If you need it again let me know and I can repeat tomorrow.
It's 100% repeatable.
Not sure why nobody else noticed or can't duplicate it.

#5

Ah, sorry I missed your comment that you had submitted diagnostics. I've reviewed them and didn't see anything obviously wrong going on.

I assume most people drag tho playhead instead of holding down the skip forward button. I just tried to replicate it on my phone and it acted as expected: holding down the skip forward button caused the playhead to advance all the way to the end and then exit.

We'll have to dig in further to understand why it wouldn't be lining up for you.

#6

Thanks for the reply.
Not an issue with me as I use my iPad infrequently and when I do, I use VLC to playback downloaded recordings while offline.
Just updated Channels on it to test the new downloads beta.

#7

Like I said, I don't normally use the Channels iOS client, so didn't realize that was normal behavior. I would expect it would stop at the end of the recording and not exit the player.

Also, when I did the fast forward, the "what you call playhead" never reached more than 75% through the timeline before the player suddenly closed and I lost control and watched status. To me that's abnormal and unexpected behavior.

If all that is normal with the Channels player, I'll just keep using VLC.

#8

Yes, the way the player works in Channels is that when you've reached the end of a recording, it brings you back to the previous menu you had come from. It's the same behavior on tvOS as well as Android. Apple's TV App on iOS also exits the player when you reach the end of watching a TV show or movie.

When I say something like "it acted as expected" I mean that the playhead on the timeline went all the way to the end of the timeline before the player closed. I was unable to replicate the issue you described when I performed the steps you said you did.

It seems there was some ambiguity, so let me clarify: The playhead not matching the current seek position is unexpected behavior and should not be happening. If it is happening, it's a bug.

Because this is not an issue that happens every time for every situation, it appears it will take more effort to identify the underlying issue.

#9

Just wanted to add some info, since I ruled out commercial skip and codec issues.

I tried again with 2 videos that I just imported into Channels DVR, so they have no ads and haven't been comskipped. One has mpeg2 video, the other has h.264 video. Both of them had been previously recorded by Channels and I had just removed the ads and saved them off outside of Channels DVR.

They both exhibit the same behavior mentioned above when fast forwarding. Doesn't matter if they're watched over wifi or downloaded to my iPad and played offline.

So to summarize, all videos I've played using Channels on my iPad experience the issue.