Local Media-Channels app vs Infuse Pro app - Apple TV

Channels Apple TV
#35

Just to give an update on things for me.

Noticed, mainly with headphones, that in Channels app, playing back my music videos, most have FLAC audio, the audio has a tad bit more wider soundstage and a tad more detail, than Infuse.
Not sure how each app is processing audio compared to each other, how they make use of ffmpeg or what ever for downmixing (ffmpeg comes up alot in the Infuse forms).

I have also noticed that watching HDR 4K vids in Channels is a smoother experience than Infuse of late. As there seems to be lag starting playback, and excessive lag when seeking/scrubbing the timeline on a 4K HDR movie in Infuse. The same file, is silky smooth in Channels.

The Channels UI takes some getting used to compared to Infuse, for local media library navigation. Infuse really wins out on that, so much more seek and modern looking (at least to my tastes). I mainly prefer the full page thumbnail view style that Infuse has that shows all videos in the library, vs the single horizontal bottom slider style of Channels for Videos.

I am slowly finding less and less use for Plex server in of itself. If i had not already have Lifetime Plex server... would have dumped its subscription by now. Infuse just supporting SMB direct, works out fine for my needs really.

But, i will mention, I can get used to the different/missing features and nitpicky things i have mentioned in my previous long post comparing the two experiences. ..

However, the MAIN THING, i just can't get past, the one thing that is truly holding me back for adopting Channels 100% and dumping the rest....is.... the Purple.

OMG, Please, please, please, peas and carrots.... add a Black UI theme.

Sleek, modern., and OLED TV popping awesomeness. That is what many people want! Blackness!
(not a "dark" greyish theme, that makes many tvs, give that "dirty screen" look... a annoying thing on many Samsung tv models it seems when all screen gray is displayed. Even the lighter shade of the purple used currently in Channels has that effect on my tv, unless i crank up the color saturation and turn down the gamma, but then i have black crush.)
And, the seek bar and top quick bar in Channels that appears during playback, already is a shade of light black already....why can't there be an option to have the rest of the app be like it. (maybe even add a option to make those Transparent like it was in the "Carbon" version of the Android app.)

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#36

Another update...

I have managed to import 99% of my media library into Channels.

Cause i have a odd folders setup, Had to put each thing into a folder in a folder. Turns out re-scanning media library in Plex of the same content, that just was moved, the meta data scan was super fast and it did not have to refresh much, so that was not a major issue to change file paths in Plex that i thought it was going to be.

I shut down Plex Server on my Media Server box. Free up a tad bit of system resources. Still keeping it installed for fallback, and since i still did pay for Lifetime on it.
I did find its "Discover" and "Watchlist" features nice though. Showed me popular/upcoming movie trailers and dates. The images and artworks in it GUI is very cool looking.
Infuse also is alot nicer with showing of show related art and such in its UI... but that is not a big deal to me.

Still really like how Infuse has the ability to connect to SMB directly, right in the app, and just browse a network folder for media. I kinda like the "File Directory Tree" browsing style for some things. Channels, add said root directory, and it just tries to identify everything and groups them together with other "Videos". Somethings, i just want separate and not with the rest of my media....

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#37

Please give us a pure black theme!

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#38

Saw this in my YouTube shorts and made me laugh. I’m sure @speedingcheetah will enjoy.

Watch from 0:13-0:23

To be clear I don’t mind the purple, I just wouldn’t mind a ui freshen up if not colours are to be added! :grin:

#39

Is this planned to be implemented?

I'm using Pinchflat to automatically download new content that gets added to various YouTube channels and playlists. So having these new videos appear in Up Next as they become available would be nice.

#40

As of the latest pre-release, Video Groups can now be included in Up Next.

By default, all Video Groups are excluded from Up Next. Simply use their group option Include in Up Next to include them.

2 Likes
#41

Cool! Seems to be working well at first glance here :clap: :+1:

#42

An update. With the addition of Personal Sections (beta), using Channels for local media a much improved experience given the customization possible. Also, the timeline also now shows hh:mm:ss and time remaining. (Also beta tvOS app)

There still a few things i mentioned in my long post ways back in this thread, that would make things even better. But, as it stands, Channels is doing a great job overall.

Really still want a black theme.... :melting_face:

#43

When did the time remaining get added?

#44

Sorry forgot to indicate that is a change to the tvOS/iOS app in beta.

1 Like
#45

That’s incredible update to the app. Never knew how much time was left.

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#46

Whell, Infuse pushed their newest version 8.0. And a new UI...sorta.

The new UI on Apple TV, their New details view, is sloppy and has spacing issues.

They removed the sleek mimilaist seek bar that i have been very praiseworthy of.
Now, it is very cluttered and bloated with all the other player options and controls, including their previous top bar controls, now comes up in a additional section on the bottom.
The new bloated seek bar controls also stays up when paused.

So...they kinda ruined things...

I have moved to CDVR for 99% of my local content, some time ago.
Keeping Infuse around for its easy ability to locally connect to SMB shares, for random things i do not want to add to my CDVR library.
Also, i think that Infuse does a tad better with displaying HDR10+ and DV video correctly.
However, their SMB connection performance is lacking, and it takes 5-6 secs of buffering, just to skip 10 sec with a large GB 4K file.

#47

Revisiting this topic, as Infuse seems to have improved their performance issues with playback of large files, especially HDR files. (for now)

But, i found a new thing to compare to... my Samsung TV's (QN90C 43in) built-in Player (via USB input)

Not sure if, cause the file is being directly processed by the TV, but overall picture, especially with HDR files, is noticeable cleaner, sharper, and more contrasty. HDR has more of a "pop" to it. Tad brighter highlights. There is less noise and almost no grey haze effect that i tend to notice in some HDR content. Even SDR content looks more refined, pleasing, and tad brighter.

Infuse, is well regarded as being the best player app for Apple TV, and it does look great.
But, i now can't un-notice that my TV's built in player does seem to output a bit better picture.

Watching HDR10+ rips of Silo S02, a physically dark/lowly lit show, the contrast is noticeable cleaner with the TV's built-in player.
With Infuse, it has a slightly greyer haze to it. In CDVR, there is even more of a grey haze and a tad softer overall picture.
With the built into the TV player, People's faces and overall picture is cleaner and a tad sharper, can see more details overall.

CDVR, seems to be a bit behind with HDR processing, especially for HDR10+ and DV.
Not sure if the difference is in how each of the players is doing tone mapping or luminance processing etc, however HDR images are processed, but, Infuse just seems to do a bit better job with it, and, my Samsung TV built-in player being a bit better than Infuse.

Though, I will state, that, unless one is actively comparing, back-to-back/ side-by-side, Infuse vs CDVR vs (whatever player) picture quality, the differences are mostly minor overall, subjective, and really boils down to personal preference and your specific hardware and viewing environment and habits.

I would hope that CDVR could take some time, in the future, to refine their HDR processing/support. And maybe overall picture output (there still some things i notice, that i mentioned in my thread about the deinterlacing setting affecting my picture output, banding, flickering etc)

Infuse, still needs to work on improving their playback/seeking performance a bit, and their new UI still has some rough edges.

Using the Samsung TV's USB input though, is a pain, and has downsides.
Clumsy UI, no file management.
No DTS audio support.
VP9 and AV1 plays, but no seek support.
Multi-channel audio downmixing (7.1/5.1) is narrow and surround channels are either same volume as main, or boosted a bit, so soundstage is very forward and narrow. But, does make it easy to hear the normally softer background sounds/effects.
Subtitles always are enabled, and shown, even if the file is tagged to have subs disabled by default.
I might try a USB switcher, so that i can manage files on my PC, then switch it to the TV, and not have to plug/un-plug the usb stick all the time.

#48

Biggest thing for me with infuse is waiting for the library to update.

Sometimes if it has been a while it takes ages to update everything, I just wanna start watching stuff.

I know there is direct mode but it significantly hampers navigating your library IMO.

#49

@speedingcheetah Is it possible the difference in picture quality could be traced to different settings based on input? Or if you used Apple's color calibration tool?

I'd love to see a matrix of the different personal media apps/clients (Plex/Channels/Infuse/etc) and just what audio and video formats will direct play vs transcode. And what exactly happens on a direct play, since there's no bitstream/passthrough output on the Apple TV.

#50

No. The Picture Setting is applied to All Inputs and i made sure they were set the same.
I once tried Apple's tool, it was garbage or failed to even work... I forget.

Plex app, is garbage. I does not support most anything, has to transcode far to much. I always just used Infuse as the front end for Plex, when I had a Plex server running.

#51

channels for live content and some TV DVR. plex on a PC with a 4090/custom mpv/atmos for rips/remuxes/etc. no streaming device/app supports all high end video/audio formats. infuse looks horrible.

the quality difference of using a custom mpv on a high end pc is night and day. these streaming boxes are useless outside of simple TV.

channels kind of sucks for DVR playback though. sometimes i still use plex for watching recordings because the library/metadata/matching experience is miles beyond channels. channels will record something and plex will identify it while channels just "saves" what it knows about the recording. channels can't even play the correct episode. you select an episode on apple TV from your library, and it plays another one. you think they'd have this stuff tested front to back with it being in the name and all.

i just like channels for the live tv and guide honestly.

#52

PC does not do media HDR right. Not even Win 11 or MacOS. But i never cared about that until i got a good tv, and not a computer monitor.
Back in the day, i was all PC only, Windows Media Center, cause i had Cable card tuner.
Eventually, used PC for some time, with MPC-HC.
Moved to Nvidia Shields when I cut the cord, and canceled cable. (ONLY was able to do that cause of the TVE function of Channels DVR, a thing still that does not exists elsewhere)

Android TV has MPV player app and it performed very well and played everything i threw at it as far a local media, and i still could config it to add some sharpening and adjust picture output, looked sick.
But, they ruined the Shield with all the crap ads and things on the home screen etc.
So dumped it for Apple TV cause it just show apps, and I also went to iPhone due to the place i worked at the time was repairing Apple products.

I did use Emby for a long time as well, before i found Channels, but always shad excessive issues with its metadata scanner finding matches often way wrong. Plex, was a tad better, but still was a pain.

Recorded live tv shows, Plex and Emby often suck at, since it is not designed for that really. But Channels uses its guide data to mark for recordings, so, it is not Channels fault if it has bad or inaccurate Guide data, that is Gracenote.

Also, Plex DVR is hot garbage, in my experience. Had nothing but issues with it, if it even worked at all. Plex server, got way too bloated with crap i did not want or care about....

Anyways, Plex is trash as a player app, as it almost ALWAYS requires transcode, even on Android clients.
Infuse direct plays everything. (On Apple TV)
Picture quality is the best i have found for the most part. It uses its own custom made player, i think is fully custom from ground up? not certain.
Channels DVR also uses a custom player, a tweaked version of MPV i believe.
But i do find Infuse does HDR content better, and is better at tone mapping correctly.

I do not have a fancy audio setup, just optical out to a headphone DAC and that to a 2.1 speaker setup...so, i can't really comment on comparing the player apps to a true 5.1 or more/ Atmos speaker setup.

The main thing i really like about Emby and Plex and Infuse , etc, is that is has a BLACK or dark theme. Something Channels, has forever been lacking in.

Edit: If u are a PC only user though, of course u would find Channel DVR the least useful, cause there is no player app on PC, only the web browser based Admin UI, which is NOT meant to be used as a client for media playback really. But, once can use CDVR server as a source/tuner to feed into Emby or Jellyfin (and i think Plex if they support m3u yet) and those all do have a PC full feature client software.

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#53

In all my years of using Channels, extensively, I’ve never experienced this. Not even once.

#54

I have had this happen with some imported TV series ripped from a dvd box set or streaming etc that does not match the episode order the meta data auto generates for it. Had it happen with Walker Texas Ranger( there was like 3 other box sets in the past each different episode order).

However I have had this happen with Plex and Emby.

It plays the actual episode file that it shows the file url is, but the metadata identifies it as a different episode. I manually had to change the metadata source or re-identify the series and that often would work. Or I had to modify my files/folders and naming structure to match.