Fire TV beta bug

Channels Fire TV
#1

I installed the Fire TV beta a week ago, but ran into 2 serious bugs. Steps to reproduce #1:

  1. Navigate to the Library
  2. Select Recently Recorded
  3. Start playback of a recording
  4. Hit the Back button
  5. The currently playing recording switches to a PIP view which will not terminate, even after navigating back to the Fire TV main menu. Force quit is required to stop the playback.

I uninstalled the beta, but now the stable version has a new problem: After watching a recording in the Library, the back navigation fails to display the selected item until navigating all the way back to the main menu. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the stable version, yet this issue remains. Clearly something wasn't removed in the process. Maybe I need to uninstall, then reboot the stick before reinstalling?

#2

Sounds like you enabled the Auto PIP setting and need to turn it off?

So you're clicking on an episode in up next, clicking Watch, then when the episode is done the Watch button is still focused right? Then you click back and nothing is focused?

Does this happen in the latest beta from yesterday?

#3

I believe I did enable the auto PIP. Is that intended to continue playing even when Channels is not the foreground app? If so, what are the controls to pause, stop, maximize, and/or close the PIP?

This is what happened in the beta I had installed (not the most recent, I'll check that later today):

  1. Watch an item selected from Recently Recorded, using the more... button to get to the full Library (not Up Next)
  2. Just prior to the end of the recording, hit the back button
  3. Normally at this point it's necessary to navigate up to select the watch next button, but it does not receive the focus. The back button navigates to the Library view, but again nothing is focused. Navigating back once more return focus to the side menu, and it is properly displayed with the focus. At this point, focus is displayed correctly until after the next item is played.

This is with the current production version. In the beta, the focus would never display correctly until after it was killed.

#4

On regular android TV there is a notification on the Home Screen to stop PIP, and you can also press and hold the home button to bring up the PIP options.

I don't know FireTV has the same controls.

#5

FYI - just before installing today's beta, I redid the navigation test on the production version. I noticed that when using the back button, the dialog for the just-played item is displayed. Hitting back once more takes you to the list of episodes that the item belongs to. At this point, nothing has the focus, but navigating left eventually causes the Watch Next button which receives the focus. Focus is then fixed for that session, at least until another recording is played, and if you skip the navigation to the Warch Next button

#6

Both issues are fixed in the beta I just installed. I noticed that a message is briefly displayed when the PIP is first displayed: "Hold HOME to control PIP". I don't know if it's new in this beta, or if I missed it in the previous beta. In any case it works! Nice feature, BTW!

Android TV PIP Enlarge and Move
#7

I noticed that the production version on this TV (the only one with any beta ever installed), and also on another TV, both have the navigation/focus issue.

#8

Great. I will release latest beta to stable on Monday.

1 Like
#9

When in PIP press and hold the home button on the firestick remote then you will be able to return to full screen or close the pip window

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Fire TV Picture in Picture on Home Screen