I played around with the directv now app and if you press up during live tv you get a guide overlay.
Can you please add something like this to channels?
Including screenshot
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So if I understand this request right, it asks for the ability to not interrupt live or recorded playback when you want to go to look at the guide or other Channels App menu items (eg Recordings, etc), correct ? Overlaying the guide or other Channel menus would be great and completely consistent with Directv, DirectV Now, and most every other cable or satellite box, no ?
I really miss the ability to have this - anyone else feel the same way ?
Is there a fundamental issue with either HDHomerun or Apple TV that prevents this ? Seems like you would have incorporated it by now if it was possible.
thanks
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I agree to some extent. However, if you’ve specified favorites, you can swipe down on your remote during live tv and access a version of the guide for what’s on now (favorites only), while your show continues to play.
I would amend this feature request to offer the guide panel in the swipe-down rather than just favorites.
There’s a similar thread related to this that was opened a while back. It is probably #1 on my wish list of features at this point. You might want to click on the “vote button” at the top of this thread as a way to indicate to the developers this is one of the communities top requested new features:
It’s has always been one of the most requested features since 16. You really think they don’t know this, and are ignoring because they didn’t know anyone wants it? Lol
This is really something I hope gets changed as well. Channels does have PIP, but honestly, it's just a mess and creates a lot of other issues that are not WAF-friendly. I would really love to see the guide work the way most others do it, and not use PIP at all.
If you are watching live tv and you go to the guide it should just continue playing what you are watching, with the guide as an overlay. And when you select either the current channel in the guide or a new one it should just go to full screen with the new selection.
Channels does have other quick guides while your watching live tv, but they tend to keep the focus on the show and display the guide in a smaller form. I prefer when I go to the guide for the guide to be the main focus and the live tv to be in the background somewhere.
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I switch to PIP if I want to see the guide. But I find I use my iPad or iPhone more to access the guide, than the actual tv ap.
It’s possible to have the guide laid over the live stream, Spectrum TV does it with the Apple TV app.
I’d love to see this added. I’m not a programmer though so I don’t know how hard this is to implement.
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Not likely to happen:
That’s not what I said. I said it’s not likely that the quick guide would be redesigned to a grid.
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I have to agree. I find myself only using Channels for the DVR. I like that with Spectrum you can have content playing thorough the full interface. I also like you can switch back and forth between recent channels which Channels can't do.
Yes, and Quick Guide helps with this too. But we use these workflows because there is no Guide Overlay on live TV. If that feature were to be added, it's quite likely you'd use that method, a lot more than any of those.
Given how many available content collections we have access to via Channels now (333 from free Pluto TV alone!) I feel the concept of "channel surfing" has changed a lot. Instead of clicking a remote to go up and down surfing channels, we're navigating the elegant Channels interface, to browse around our personalized universes of available entertainment.
As far as I'm concerned, the more we're allowed to multitask on one screen with that UI, while playing video remains largely viewable, the better.
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Live TV + guide has been brought up many times. Im not a coder. But I imagine it's NOT a simple fix. It would require a lot of change and design of UI. I imagine that would be a shit ton of work.
As far as PiP. I hate pip. It works like shit on my shield. Sometimes I can't get the remote to select the pip window once open. I Sometimes had to manually close Channels client app because I couldn't get PiP to close. This was many releases ago. I haven't tried pip since. I had such bad experience with pip. I'm not going back.
I want (and many others) a tv guide that behaves more like our cable/satellite box.
But my biggest misgivings is if I go to guide. And don't change channels. I still loose my buffer. A guide that's open with tv playback at same time wouldn't have that problem.
When I talk about that 1% of things you have to compromise on and give up when switching from TiVO, this is it.
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My expectations are realistic. I don't think the guide will change in short-medium term. Maybe never long term. And the reason I don't think it will change isn't because of Dev unwillingness. But more do to time/work restraints. 3 guys making a platform. It's gota be tough.
Since you are quoting a pretty awesome dude. I'll quote me too.
All things are compromises. Realisticly how much time do I spend in live TV vs DVR. Well the simple answer is less and less every day. If devs listened to me. Nothing would be accomplished. I join EVERY feature request demanding I need that feature or I can't go on...
So ill be back in next feature request demanding instant gratification there too. Lol
or maybe, just maybe you boomers that refuse to let go of the cable box, writing checks at the grocery store and the long telephone cord in your kitchen cant fathom that the much younger team of this software is creating something for the streaming age? on mostly underpowered garbage?
imagine all the headaches from you guys complaining that whatever you want barely works because a lot of you are using $3 android sticks with .06 MB left of storage.
start thinking of what's possible supporting a bunch of garbage streamers and two good ones (apple tv and the shield, well, the shield before the fiasco). im sure its almost impossible creating parity between a bunch of hardware.
imagine a shit fire stick with no memory loading the app, retrieving your 90000 channels showing press your luck from the 70's, rendering gui with a pip window in the gui encoding video via crap hardware or in software all the while trying to manage a buffer and other background processes......and on shit wifi (lots of people have shit wifi) no less. its not going to be a good experience over an apple tv or shield. no one ever thinks of that. they dont want a subset of their customers constantly complaining that netflix works fine instead of channels.
with all that said, i would like live tv in the guide as well.
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Omfg. I love this. Especially
The whole thing is comedy gold. You can't go wrong quoting awesome people.
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Boomer?! I’m offended!! I’m a GenXer tyvm - one who gave up his cable box and long telephone cord ages ago and replaced it with an ugly dish and DirecTivo along with a cordless telephone in every room for no reason and I will clutch hard on to that glorious and clearly superior way of life as long as I can - although maybe not as hard or as long as I’d like to as I think I might be getting some arthritis.
I don’t write checks but I still stare too long at the terminal pondering swipe or insert when I probably should just be tapping.
San Dimas High School football rules!
(Unnecessary clarification aside all your excellent points remain valid and I agree with everything you're saying)
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As someone from San Dimas—but who did not attend SDHS—I can tell you Rufus would be proud you remember him. Perhaps we could all use a bit of consideration from So-crates as we contemplate what we "know" to be right.
Also: be excellent to each other!