No remote playback on iPhone Xs

Channels iOS Troubleshooting
#1

I’m not entirely sure when this started happening, but I think it was within the last few days. Maybe even when I upgraded to the iPhone XS.

What I have:
DVR: 2018.09.23.1858 on Unraid
iOS: 12
Channels iOS: 2.2.7

When I try to playback anything remotely, live channel or recording, I get the black screen with the spinning indicator in the middle of the screen, but nothing ever loads. When this is happening, the DVR activity shows it’s either (starting) the live channel playback or the recording playback. After a few minutes the DVR activity changes back to idle.

I can playback live TV and recordings when I’m at home locally, and also remotely using the web UI on both a computer as well as via Safari on my iPhone.

I’ve restarted my DVR numerous times, as well as force quit the app on my phone and also restarting my phone. Nothing changes after doing these things.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

#2

Can you submit diagnostics from the bottom of the Settings tab?

#3

Submitted.

#4

Diagnostics showed you were on Wi-Fi and there was no attempt to play videos so I couldn’t tell much.

#5

Strange. So it’s not even logging the issue…

#6

I think the app was restarted so it doesn’t have any logs from before

#7

Aha. I was in a meeting when I did it, so I probably screeed up the diagnostic collection. I have virtually no cell service here at home to try it, so will have to submit again in the morning when I’m at the office.

1 Like
#8

Okay, when this issue occurs, the app is completely frozen (other than the spinning wheel in the middle of the screen). I can’t get out of this screen to go back to submit diagnostics. If I force quite the app and then submit diagnostics, will it include the info from prior to force closing?

Note: I also uninstalled the app, installed the “Channels DVR” app, and also tried using the latest TestFlight build and have the same issue with all three.

#9

@tmm1 Hey sorry, just checking in on this. How can I report diagnostics on this issue if causes the app to become unresponsive and requires the app to be killed?

#10

Here is a video of this happening, if it helps. As soon as the black screen comes up with the spinning wheel, the app becomes unresponsive and needs to be force quit.

https://imgur.com/27g3yYl

#11

@tmm1 Okay, I figured out that if I power cycle my phone, when I try to playback something it doesn’t lock up the app immediately. So I was able to recreate the problem, exit the video play and then submit diagnostics. Please let me know that you’ve received them.

Thanks

#12

Thanks for the logs. It looks like the hardware h264 decoder on your phone is choking on the transcoded video for some reason.

Does the same thing happen at home if your set your Home Streaming Quality to 720p?

Is your DVR transcoder set to software or hardware? Does changing it help?

#13

You’re welcome.

I will test changing my in-home streaming to 720p and see what happens.

My DVR transcoder (Unraid, no fancy video card) is software with no option for hardware. It works totally fine via mobile web or Chrome on my computer remotely.

#14

Alright, testing complete. Same behavior when I’m at home on my WiFi and set the in home streaming to anything other than original. I also tested doing the same on my Nvidia Shield TV sand Apple TV. No issues with either of those, just the iPhone XS Max.

#15

Do you have any other iOS devices you can test with?

#16

I may be able to try it on a friend’s device tonight.

#17

Ok, I just downloaded the Channels DVR app on my friend’s phone and logged into my remote DVR. Go to play a channel and the exact same thing happens. iPhone XS Max with iOS 12, just like mine.

#18

Okay, I guess something is going on with that model then. I’m not having any issues on my original X.

#19

If you want to try any ideas on a potential fix, let me know and I’ll help test.

#20

For what it’s worth, 2.2.7 works fine on my iPhone XS.

I’m running the released version of the DVR (2018.09.06.1912).