On to 2023, what are you missing in Channels?

Bummer. Thanks for the quick response.

It seems Hulu tve A-i is getting more sensitive to logins and is more frequently requiring one time verification codes on rescans. I’ve heard that you can input a code when using philo. I would like to see this added for Hulu.

It would be good if there was a way to know if an entry in the guide was starting or in progress.

Use case. Scanning through movies on the guide movies that are in progress and movies that are starting in the current time block look the same. Can't move back in time in the guide to see if one entry started before the current time block.

The info could be available by:

  1. the start time being displayed on the description or
  2. some type of indicator on the bar indicating program started before current time block

If you long-press the Select/OK button when an entry is selected it will bring up the Details modal which includes both the start time and the duration.

There is a thin progress bar—dark purple for regular content, red for in-progress recordings—at the bottom of the cells in the Guide, the tiles in the On Now section, and the tiles in the Quick Guide.

The former requires an extra button press to get to, but the latter does not.

(The above photos show another papercut I'd love to see fixed: on Apple TV when using 24-hour time, Channels will still show AM/PM in the Guide and Details modal. ... Can this be addressed for 2023, too, please?)

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Official Kodi support (with integrations for the TV guide, On Later, etc) would be on my wish list - but I understand how adding yet more platforms to keep up would be a huge ask.

I'm just done with streaming sticks and their UX and their ADS. I'm tired of explaining to people to use this app instead of the built in tv guides, why a movie is being recommended that I dont own, etc.

In 2023 I'm rolling my own Linux Distro, i'll use antbox or something similar for launching youtube and other android apps, but a native Kodi skin (I want to use GTV or something similar) that would automatically launch would be preferable to and emulated androidtv apk.

I'll post the iso if there is demand.

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Are you aware of the existing PVR add-on?

yep. its been in beta since 2021 - kind of a side project. Better than nothing, and I'm happy for anything, but its different than an official branch.

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Another crowdsource data usage: I suspect many of us record the same things (possibly even from the same source). It would be cool to enable an option to use crowdsourced comskip markers, so that I don't need to use my own CPU/resources. So we could toggle a switch, and the local DVR could use other people's comskip data on our recording. Even a little raspberry pi could then have super powers.

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A user account for my mom.

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My wish list would be;

  • A PIP, a little like how Plex does it, or some way of playing in a small box as part of the guide layout, separate and not floating like the tvOS system PIP
  • Option to remove channel numbers from guide, perhaps for larger logos
  • ‘Graceful’ in and out of channel streams via guide - for example BBC iPlayer in the UK employs a nice quick mix when returning from playing video to GUI
  • A grey colour scheme option
  • Removal of US-centric guide details for UK users
  • If I was being really picky, on tvOS, the ‘Start from beginning’ prompt would be more in line with the tvOS interface so smaller and a bit more discreet

Thanks for the lovely job on the picture quality - it’s 100% on the Apple TV the deinterlacing is second to none.

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How about a barebones CarPlay/Android Auto interface that allows live, audio-only access to our Favorite channels?

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Have you seen this thread:

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Pretty sure @Fofer is aware of the audio feature already since they're all over that thread. But they're asking for a car-friendly interface to quickly get in and out of streams without dealing with their phone while driving.

I'm not sure if the devs are willing to dive into car interface development, but maybe expanded Shortcuts functionality with the audio streams could be a middle ground so you could use Siri while driving?

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Thanks alai, yes that's kind of what I was getting at. I had been navigating to the audio-only streams via the Channels app itself, which doesn't work for driving and multitasking was often problematic. Then I used the webUI to navigate, saving some channels as "apps" on my iPhone home screen, but Siri didn't recognize those, and suggested I search in the App Store for them, lol.

Creating shortcuts instead, that just open the appropriate URL in Safari, seems to be working fine with Siri, so I'll use this method now. I'm hoping these URLs don't change or expire? But yeah, if the Channels shortcut functionality expanded to include audio-only streams, I'm thinking it might work better with multitasking. That’s great feedback.

All that said, this was submitted as just another "wish list" item for 2023 or beyond, I think a simple car-friendly interface for audio-only versions of our favorite (and/or commute-friendly) channels would be a surprise feature that would intrigue and inspire customers, new and old. Lots of folks probably wouldn't be interested in manually creating shortcuts for every channel ahead of time, but they'd be delighted to discover that their setup works natively with CarPlay and Android Audio. Especially since it would make it safe, easy and intuitive to surf between different audio channels when commercials come on. A drive-friendly touchscreen interface feels easier to use than voice commands for everything, IMO.

Anyway, this is just another killer feature that would further differentiate Channels from every other local and cloud DVR solution out there. I’m grateful these questions are being asked and that our wish lists are being given consideration.

My issue in the car is if I need to play with Apple Pay at a drive thru or use another app, I miss my programming. Also, phone locks and it constantly distracts or interrupts reopening / navigating etc. I'd love this.

No, but fast kinetic swipes up/down can easily traverse many pages of info in the guide, assuming you haven't disabled the touch capabilities of the remote.

OK, but let’s say we have 40 favorites we enjoy browsing through. We’re swiping or clicking down and eventually reach the end of the guide listing. It takes like 9-10 swipes to get back to the top. Wouldn’t a single down click be more elegant and intuitive?

When actually clicking to channel-surf through these same 40 favorites of live TV though, clicking up to go down (mentioned previously in this thread, but I digress) when we get to the end of the list, we wrap back around to the beginning of the list, so even just for the interface consistency's sake, I would think the same “wraparound” behavior would happen in the guide, too.

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Change the posters for collections so that they match the other poster styles like a regular movie poster. There are tons of posters already made out there for collections on places like theposterdb but they are all oriented in a classic movie style poster so they aren’t usable with the collections posters with channels.

Fix the apple remote settings so that you don’t have to shake to mute anymore. This is problematic for PIP users who want to mute channels while doing something else on the Apple TV because the newest remotes don’t work like this.

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I just tried this tonight when driving, and unfortunately, Siri shortcuts don't play nice with CarPlay. At least this one doesn’t. I couldn’t get KTLA Audio to play via voice command like I can at home with regular Siri.

I get this response with every attempt with CarPlay: "To do that, please try again on your iPhone, when you're not driving, of course." :face_with_raised_eyebrow: :unamused:

Here's a request from a while ago that I forgot to add this to my earlier post:

It would be super nice to have this enhanced customizability in the Collections view, although I've settled on having mixed movies and shows in virtual channels for now.