I've submitted diagnostics twice today. Both times, the slow framerate was happening directly before hitting submit.
First time was before I upgrade to the pre-flight version. Second time (just now, April 4, 4:20PM ET) was after updating to the preflight version.
edit: sorry, probably not on the pre-flight version, this is the app itself, not the server, right?
Yes, it’s a separate app to install.
You can join our TestFlight beta program by visiting Channels — Beta Program from an iPhone or iPad and then downloading the TestFlight app on your Apple TV.
If you do not have an iPhone or iPad please email your Apple ID email address to [email protected] and we can add you.
I'm getting an invalid link when I try to open itms-beta://testflight.apple.com/join/kxU7lcEN on my iPhone. I sent an email.
edit: didn't realize i needed testflight installed on my phone and not just tvOS.
Reported this exact issue with diagnostics submitted, but I guess it got missed. OTA Dropping Frames
TestFlight appears to have resolved the issue. Will do some more testing the next couple days then I’ll mark mine as solved.
[Edit] Not resolved. Diagnostics submitted from the client per tmm. OTA dropping frames - #6 by Rt9IByWrWotnb9U
Okay I have the Test Flight build installed and just experienced the issue again. Diagnostics submitted.
Here's another Testflight beta that will hopefully do a better job. If it doesn't, please submit diagnostics again.
Just happened on the 2nd beta, diagnostics submitted.
That's correct, only live TV (direct from HDHR). Recordings are all perfect.
Please try this build and let us know when you reproduce it so we can see if the diagnostics from it tells us anything about the cause.
Was still running 4.5.2139, but confirmed it’s happening on live recordings as well; diagnostics just submitted.
What do you mean by "live recordings"? Does this happen when you have something that is no longer live (is a recording)?
I’m watching a game that’s being recorded right now, I’m behind live by 10 minutes or so and the frame drops still happen. On 4.6.207; just submitted diagnostics again.
Only Live TV from HDHR, for me. Pluto, etc are all fine, as are recordings.
Chiming in here and not sure if its related or not.
How many of you who are having the issue are using ATCS3?
I was watching an ATSC3 channel this morning. I havent used ATCS3 in months, but it was really windy this morning , so I switched over a local news broadcast to the ATCS3 station.
The first thing i noticed was terrible audio distortion. I was on the latest prerelease. When i switched to an older prerelease 3.22.2002 the audio cleared up - I also noticed that the low volume issue with ATCS3 channels seemed to be normalized (yay)
However as i went through all the various prereleases to narrow down where things broke the audio ( i tried most of them) , there were many instances of video buffering issues and pauses on the different releases (with ATCS3). I didnt wait 30 minutes to see if the slow motion issue manifested, but I did notice that the audio is garbled now on ATSC3 channels.
What is very strange is that on TVOS I could reliably go back to the 3.22.2002 prerelease, and it would fix the audio playback every time. Going to subsequent releases I found that it broke the ATSC3 audio.
However , when I started checking this on my ipad to see if I could duplicate the issue, now I cant get rid of the ATSC3 audio distortion on either TVOS or IOS. It suggests one of the two ATSC3 channels on the hdhomerun flex clobbererd something?
@eric i dont want to hijack thread, but i definitely ran into various strange video issues along with this ATSC3 audio distortion as I was going through the different prereleases.
Could be just a coincidence or not, but wanted to point it out.
HDHR cannot display ATCS3. This is all ATCS1, that I am experiencing.
I'm using the ATSC3 HDHR (the "4K") but this is happening on 1.0 channels. (At this point I mostly ignore 3.0 since the powers that be decided to ruin it)
Live broadcast video falls behind after about 1.5 hours, with the audio remaining current. This happens on Apple TV 4K and tested on both of my devices. Also tested on iPad. Verified current audio by tuning in the same channel on my iPhone 16 Pro with iOS 26.4 and listening to both the iPhone and Apple TV 4K simultaneously. There is naturally a slight difference in delivery to the devices which is normal. The longer the Channels DVR App is left in the condition, the farther the video falls behind. Simply exiting the live broadcast and returning to it brings things back to normal.
Current setup:
Synology DS220+ running the Channels DVR package. Software 2026.02.09.1530
Source Tuners are 2 HDHomeRun Flex 4k. Firmware Version 20260326
Apple TV 4Ks on tvOS 26.4 connected to network via MoCA adapter.
All devices are connected to the same 2.5 gbps switch.
iPad running iPad OS 26.4 connected via WiFi Unifi AP
This issue started within the last month or so when my wife pointed it out watching the Today show on NBC. Tested on other channels with the same effect.
Is it happening only on the Apple TV 4K's or iPad and iPhone too?