Fire Stick: Favorites Set on All Devices

Channels DVR Server
#1

Any Channel I mark as a Favorite on a Fire Stick is being set universally across all devices. I know the Apple TV has never functioned this way, is this a bug related to the Android app?

Trying to create a channels collection for Favorites which sync to all clients
#2

IIRC, the Android app uses the favorite/disabled status from the DVR (or from the HDHomeRun directly if you're not using the DVR client).

I believe it's functioned that way for quite some time.

#3

Oh, I assumed it was mean to behave the same way apple devices do.

#4

I believe the plan is to move towards a unified favorite/disabled list, and clients will sync with the server.

#5

I hope not, most of the tv's we use have different favorites based on who mainly watches them.

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#6

So do mine hope they do not make it universal.

#7

Bad Idea.

#8

The android app both reads lineup fav state from the HDHRs and writes to them when you mark favorites.

The Apple TV and iOS app don’t. This is unfortunate because you guys get completely different behaviors and expectations.

We have channel sync being worked on and will Be released later this year. It will sync all favs and hides through the server and back down to all your apps.

This sync will be optional. You can turn it off and apps can have their own favs and hides. One strategy this will allow for us to turn it on to get an initial sync, and then immediately turn it off to manage things separately.

I know a lot of you have many TVs in your home, as do I, and it’s been sort of a nightmare to get consistent experiences across all the TVs. This is going to do a great job at resolving that. Thanks for hanging in there after all this time.

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TVE Favorites Don't Show up on Apple TV, Are Present Elsewhere
#9

So I understand, when channel sync is released, both Apple and Android apps will have a on/off option. The "on" option will behave the way Android currently does (universal favorites) and the "off" option will be client only? And it will be "on" by default?

#10

I usually set my tuner priority the opposite of the DVR Server.

#11

FWIW, I actually like the behavior with the Fire TV interface that my Channels Favorite Channels list gets synced to all my various Fire devices under my one Channels account.

In my case, it's basically just me using the service, so the syncing saves me having to manually adjust a bedroom TV vs a living room TV vs a Fire tablet install.

#12

@maddox Can you describe how this initial sync will work? Will the favorites set on each Apple TV around the house get applied to the tuners during this sync? When this change comes I want to avoid any havoc that initial sync may cause (each tv has different favorites).

Ideally, I would prefer the feature be added with a default setting of "disabled" and avoid the client favorites EVER being synced to the tuners/server channels.

#13

Perhaps this is just a shot in the dark, but this is how I foresee the sync feature being implemented:

  • If Channels is being installed fresh/anew on a client, upon first run the network is queried for devices:
    1. If there is a DVR server discovered, its list of tuners is pulled and synced, including the tuners' priorities, as well as their favorite/disabled channel lists. The Sync setting is enabled, and unless changed, subsequent changes to priorities, favorite/disabled statuses, and favorite ordering are synced back to the server.
    2. If a DVR server is not found, then the network looks for HDHomeRun tuners. They are added in the order they were discovered (as the tuner priority), and their favorite/disabled lists are pulled. The Sync setting remains enabled, and changes to a channel's status is synced back to the device. Since there is no DVR server, the order of favorite channels remains local to the client, even if the device has Sync enabled.
  • If a Channels client has recently been updated to a Sync–enabled version, nothing changes. The Sync setting is set to a disabled state, and preferences remain local to the client device.
  • If a client device's Sync setting is switched On (from a Disabled/Off state), the user is presented with a dialog offering:
    1. If the client is connected to a DVR server:
      • Pull from DVR – Tuner/channel preferences, including priorities and favorite/disabled states are read from the server. They will overwrite the current state on the client with the server's settings, and subsequent changes will be pushed back to the server.
      • Push to DVR – Tuner/channel preferences are sent from the client to the DVR server, overwriting the existing preferences on the DVR server. (This option is the direct opposite of the previous.)
    2. If the client is not connected to a DVR server:
      • Pull from tuners – The favorite/disabled channels are read from discovered HDHomeRun tuners on the network, and overwrite the local states.
      • Push to tuners – The client's list of favorite/disabled channels are sent to the HDHomeRun tuners on the network, and if they differ they will overwrite the tuner. (Tuner priorities and ordering of favorites are not synced, as those settings would need a central resository to hold the settings.)
    3. In any case, after the initial sync, the network is regularly queried to ensure that the client's preferences are aligned with the other devices on the network—either to the DVR, or to the individual tuners if the client is not connected to a DVR server.

I have no idea if this is how the feature will be implemented, but based upon the current state of the DVR and Android/FireOS clients, I feel it is safe assumption.

(For those confused, there is currently no syncing of these features on iOS/tvOS. However, on Android/FireOS the favorite/disabled state of channels are kept in sync between the DVR and/or tuners. Also, IIRC the Scan network for tuners option in the Settings will pull the tuner priority from the DVR server if the client is locally connected to one.)

#14

I’m not going to go into any details until it’s ready to be used. But sync will certainly be turned off by default.

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#15

Revisiting this topic after about 18 months of no posts. Was this feature ever implemented? I have Channels server running on a Raspberry Pi and multiple clients using a mix of Fire or Apple devices. It would be nice if I could better unify the favorites (especially for TV Everywhere) across those devices and hide the junk we don't watch.

#16

This is available, but in a different manner than you were thinking:

Combine those with Server-side Settings, and you can have forced/synced channel lists:

#17

Thanks, I was able to set this up and it works nicely.

#18

Probably it will be a switch for either or