Guide slow, input lags and video stuttering

Channels Apple TV
#13

Been seeing this on my M1 iPad Pro and 1st & 2nd Gen Apple TV 4Ks, all of which are still on iPadOS/tvOS 15. All devices (except the iPad) are hardwired via Gigabit Ethernet and my server is a base model M2 Pro Mac mini!

I've been experiencing terrible sluggishness & unresponsiveness for quite a while now. Usually 5-15 seconds between pushing a button on the remote & action on screen. It's been quite bad for me both in the guide/library and during playback when trying to jump forward/back or scrub.

I was able to mitigate things to some extent. The only thing that worked was deleting old recordings and removing nearly all my Virtual Channels and Local Content (went from 30,000+ library entries to ~16,000... I have a lot of Game Shows! :sweat_smile:). It seems like 20,000+ is where it really gets bad.

That said, while I still need to play around with it some more, the latest TestFlight update seems to have significantly improved both startup time & general responsiveness.

One concrete example: I have a custom WS4000 simulator Weather Channel streaming locally 24/7 via RTSP & it used to take almost 10 seconds to buffer, despite being on the same Mac mini as Channels! Now, it loads nearly instantaneously! (I looked for Report Performance Telemetry but didn't see it in in the Debug menu, so perhaps you don't need it anymore?)

Quite optimistic that perhaps my long, localised nightmare is over... :wink:

#14

This is really great! We've rolled out a new version of our diagnostics that gives us insight any time the app hangs for more than 2 seconds. It's been uncovering a number of performance issues we hadn't been able to track previously.

We'll continue to tackle them as more pop up.

#15

Thank you SO MUCH!

The new TestFlight you pushed while I was typing all that up seems a bit faster, too. From cold startup to the On Now screen in about 5 seconds! I'm just so excited.

2 Likes
#16

You were totally right about the "Report Performance Telemetry" not being available. I had forgotten it was a secret option. I've started a new Testflight build that will expose it. If you'd be willing to turn it on for a little bit, it may give even more insight into any remaining slowness you have.

#17

I'm not seeing the new build yet, but when it shows up, will do!

#18

It's up now.

#19

As a non DVR user would I be able to test these changes on my end via TestFlight?

1 Like
#20

The TestFlight beta is only available for DVR subscribers.

#21

Holy crap, finally. What an improvement! Been suffering with that lag for a loong time. Great job!

#22

Now that there has been a noticeable improvement to the overall experience as reported by the DVR users, will there be an update pushed for us non DVR users? The reason I ask is because this issue has been present for a long time and it would be nice to get any fix which speeds things up in general.

#23

The issues that were addressed had to do with large libraries loading from Channels DVR Server, of which non dvr users do not even have.

Channels for HDHomeRun, the app you're using has practically no network requests or parsing involved except the guide data that is received from Silicon Dust.

If you're seeing weird slow downs without using the DVR service, please submit diagnostics after you see them, and email us at [email protected] along with your HDHomeRun deviceID and a description of what your experience was.

2 Likes
#24

I had previously submitted the video showcasing the issues, uploaded the diagnostics and provided my device ID.

Would it help if I became a DVR subscriber in order help resolve these issues?

#25

If you sign up for the trial and use the testflight beta with the new debug option to capture performance metrics, yes that would be helpful.

#26

Interesting results encountered after signing up and install Channels DVR on my Synology then installing Channels DVR on the AppleTV.

The lag is completely gone on the Original Channels app! This tells me that for non-DVR users, the original Channels application is performing a network query looking for the DVR service at startup and whenever the guide is accessed.

With the DVR service now running on my Synology, the network query is then instantly resolved thus removing the lag completely.

I then stopped the DVR service on my Synology and the lag was immediately encountered again on the original Channels application.

1 Like
#27

Can you remove the guide data on the DVR server, then see if the DVR app is still laggy?

#28

I never experienced lag with the DVR app but I did delete and recreate the database and it made no difference.

If I disable the DVR server then the DVR app reports a communication error and does not proceed any further (Your Channels DVR server could not be discovered).

#29

Leave DVR running, but do not assign guide data to your tuner.

#30

Now I'm experiencing the same lag on the DVR app. It's identical to the Channels app.... same behavior.

#31

Great, so now you can help us gather diagnostics on what's happening:

#32

I will have to download the TestFlight version i think... Let me search your site on how to get a access code.