New Siri Remote, Mute Off Issues

Channels Apple TV
#1

Installed the new Apple TV 4K along with its new Siri remote. AppleTV feeds Onkyo receiver which feeds TV. Home theater control on AppleTv is on with volume control set to Auto via HFMI (receiver). Channels app audio driver is set to experimental to prevent audio stutter when using the remote to issue Siri commands.

The new remote has a dedicated mute button. When clicking MUTE it works perfectly in Channels, no sound.

When I click it again to un-MUTE, most times it pauses live broadcast momentarily, and maybe 2 or more seconds it will either fail to un-MUTE or successfully un-MUTE, seems random whether it responds correctly or not. When it refuses to un-MUTE, hitting up volume restores audio ... limited use in other apps, this new remote’s mute button works just fine, when muting and un-muting.

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Appletv mute issues
#2

Thanks. We’re seeing the same thing. What has surprised us is that the new mute button is doing two things:

  1. Invoking our internal video player’s mute feature.
  2. Actually muting your audio device.

Previously, the Apple remote did not have any ability to mute your audio device. We created our own internal mute (you can tell by seeing our notification in the top right corner). So now both are triggering.

When unmuting, it seems to be unmuting our internal mute, but not the audio device. That gets unmuted but increasing the volume with the volume buttons.

We’re looking into making this work a little more friendly.

#3

Maddox, also take a look at delayed remote response. ever since beta 5.9.2027, there has been very noticeable input lag. it worse on the apple tv hd, a little better on the 4k and better than that on the 4k 2gen.

its like the app freezes when navigating the guide or settings, when it comes back, it goes through all the swipe commands that where frozen.

thanks.

#4

Thank you Maddox for the quick and thorough reply

#5

This should be fixed in the latest TestFlight beta

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#6

Thanks for the explanation, I've tested the versions and see/hear the difference. I'm now wondering if this can be a configurable preference, perhaps under Advanced, that lets the user choose which kind of muting works best with their AV setup?

I ask because I prefer the internal video player's mute feature, at least in my living room. I use Sonos speakers throughout the house, and the kitchen is next to it with an open floorplan. So with your internal player's mute feature, I can mute everything at once. With it just muting my audio device (a Sonos Beam soundbar) it doesn't also mute the kitchen Sonos and there's no quick/easy/silent way to do so with the AppleTV remote.

Maybe one button, or some other gesture, can allow us access to the other kind of mute command? Sadly, as the accelerometer has been removed, the "Shake Remote to Mute" feature doesn't work with the v2 Siri Remote. Can the mute (or any) button recognize the difference between "press" and "long press," perhaps?

#7

No, because the Apple TV is always going to mute your audio output with the Mute button. We can't control that. Channels' internal mute function was only getting triggered by CEC signals that are sent when the device gets muted by the remote.

Weird, muting the soundbar doesn't mute the rest of the group?

#8

I was intrigued by this so I did a quick test. Muting the Sonos soundbar with an IR remote only mutes the soundbar, not other members in the group.

#9

Ah, OK, that makes sense.

It does not, much to the sadness of throngs of soundbar users, for years now:

which is why having access to Channels' internal video player’s mute feature was great.

#10

With the latest Apple store version I’m no longer seeing the pause of playback when unmuting but when pressing the mute it doesn’t fully mute the audio output only lowers the volume and is still audible.

#11

Does that happen with other apps too?

The mute is handled by the OS and sent to your sound system. Maybe sound is coming out of your speaker system and also the tv speakers?

#12

For me, updated the OS. When playing back a recording, hit mute and it mutes fine, hit again to in-mute and it works fine as well, no video delay, works every time (for the 20 or so times I tested it)

Live TV though, hit mute, mutes just fine, hit again to un-mute and the video pauses momentarily, then sound and video restore - repeated multiple times.

#13

Never mind my comments - I have since returned to live tv on another channel, tested it, then returned to the original live tv channel and tested again, and I am still getting random responses. Muting initially always mutes the sound, sometimes there is a momentary video pause, sometimes not. When un-muting I got the same response I had before updating the OS - sometimes video pauses, sometimes it unmutes, sometimes it fails and you have to hit up volume to get sound back, etc

#14

What version number is shown in the Channels app under Settings > Support > About?

#15

Hmmm ... looks like 4.5.4, but I see a 4.5.6 in the App Store, updating now and will report back ... I thought the updates took place automatically when available

#16

So to the extent I could test in the last 10 minutes ... all seems to be working fine now that I have the latest rev of Channels ... tried past recordings and live Tv ... also solved an issue where skip-ahead was not working consistently

If you mute, then unmute, too fast, the unmute won’t work, if you wait another second or two, unmute works fine ... not likely an issue, not sure how often you would in real practice need to mute and unmute so close together.

Thanks

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#17

Sorry I’ve resolved this issue, turned out the internal speakers on the tv was also enabled as well as the ARC connection to the soundbar.

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