Initial iOS Beta Feedback

It resumes when control centre is closed, but it still means that video is paused for a simple adjustment, which seems unnecessary.

Question on the video buffer size. Yesterday when using Channels on my 64 Gig Ipad Air2 I paused a show and was surprised when I heard the show restart after approximately 15 minutes. It appears that is the maximum time video would buffer. I believe I’ve got about 30 Gig available.

Is buffer size something that can be increased? Potentially could this be a setup option as to how much space is available for the buffer?

Question on transcoding support.

snow66:

Beautiful HD channel display. Are you using transcoding or full MPEG2 stream?

The app plays raw mpeg2.

I have the HDHomeRun Extend. Will transcoding from MPEG2 to h264 be supported by the iOS apps? I’ve had no problem streaming full MPEG2 but I’ve got a rather new 802.11ac router. Transcoding may be help folks with wifi bandwidth limitations.

Sometimes control center doesn’t come up on the first swipe up , is annoying

Why use physical volume button when a virtual slider is better and faster , who knows what wear and tear that does to the physical buttons , I plan to keep this air 2 for a long time

For YouTube app I use tubex just because it has a volume slider and the no ads in video helps

And like the guy above said sometimes I put my iPad on the desk with a Smart Cover holding the screen up , I would have to grab the iPad with both hands to change the volume with the physical button, first world problems I know

Working great so far, Pretty smooth playback and picture is great. One nice item would be the ability to change channels without going back to the Grid/On Now. Channel Up, Channel down icons, maybe with direct tune in between, something like < 9.1 > . Or a tap /swipe gesture possibly

Channel Flipping (Scrolling Favorites Only):

When playing a channel, tap screen

At the bottom area (thumbnail & description) scroll up, to page through Favorite Channels. Can scroll down within, to return to beginning.

Is there a way for the guide data to remain in the app as it clears each time you exit the app?
I am able to receive 7 days of guide data in NZ and it’s useful to see what’s coming up. It would be useful that it populates new and clears old data but retains current data.

Issue - Current and next show information not updating with the screen controls. When watching a show I tap the screen to bring up the control screen (Rewind, Pause, Fast Forward etc.). On the control screen the current show and next show are not being updated. Current show is previous and next show stuck at ‘in 6 minutes’. If I go back to the grid and reselect the show the current and next shows are updated. I have been able to recreate this consistently.

Issue with phone call when video buffer fills - On iphone6 I took a phone call while watching a show. I answered the call and the show went to the background as espected. If you end call before video buffer fills you return to show and everything is good. However, if the buffer fills while you are on the call the video restarts in the background during the call. Video isn’t displayed but you hear the audio along with the phone call.

Also, video buffer seems to buffer around 10 minutes. I have over 21.5 G free on my phone so I’d like to be able to buffer more video. Could buffer be increased or add a video player setting to control the amount of storage available for buffer?

Thanks.

Plus one on the volume option. Plex’s player lays things out nicely in terms of video playback control

Another option is something like infuse. Gestures for audio and brightness on each side of the screen.

A lil disappointing right now there’s no PIP picture in picture

I could be watching the news on the Dallas shooting & reading safari at the same time on the iPad

Is pip coming ? Or is impossible with this kind of app

I have no other complaints, the app works great

PIP would be pretty stellar on the iPad.

PIP is certainly needed.

Working well on iOS 10

Unfortunately, PIP is not able to be supported. PIP requires that you use Apple’s built in system video player. Channels uses it’s own custom video player because it has to render MPEG2. MPEG2 is not supported by the build in system video player.

I’m as disappointed at you. But to be fair, rendering 18mbit MPEG2 is so heavy on the CPU, that doing it at the same time as using your iPad for other things probably wouldn’t be that great. iOS uses the GPU to render h.264 so the CPU is never really touched.

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Regarding some things mentioned in this thread:

  • Volume slider was added to the video controls
  • CC and Audio Language buttons are much easier to tap now
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The AirPlay button was not included in the volume slider because Channels only works over AirPlay if you use Mirroring. Mirroring isn’t an option in the AirPlay picker when presented in app. It’s only available in Control Center.

CC etc. are easier, CC is highlighted but no CC (however, audio description of video is present). No 2nd language, with audio in English & Spanish, just English. Not really a user of these options, so I may be mis-interpreting.

Volume Slider and media buttons (7/30 descriptions) are welcome additions.

? What is scrollbar flashes?

Understand AirPlay limitations. Too bad:cry:

Thanks for the new beta. Love seeing the progress.

Here in Europe MPEG2 is mostly used for SD-broadcasts and the bitrate is about 4 mbps. I understand, that in North America it’s still used for HD-broadcasts, but couldn’t PIP be optional, since some users could use it? :slight_smile:

The limitation is in the video player not the Bitrate or CPU.