On to 2023, what are you missing in Channels?

#31

You guys really have put together a fantastic piece of software here. I've got Channels running remote to three different households and have not had a single issue with playback, quality, etc. This is my daily driver and happy to continue to pay for this service, especially since we know how closely you all listen to user feedback.

My wishlist for Channels in the upcoming year (coming from an Apple TV user):

  • Better datasource for Movie & TV imports - I do find myself having to manually update some things that gracenote(?) does not pick up and match automatically. The artwork for some movies and TV shows look a bit cheap and unofficial sometimes, and descriptions can be lacking.

  • True native PIP when in the grid guide. I know it was a pretty big task to get PIP in its current form here, so this is a little bigger of an ask. But it would be really cool to get a PIP screen more embedded in the grid guide (on one of the top corners) so that Apple's PIP doesn't overlap with the content on the screen.

  • I like the purple, but a deeper, darker purple would look good as an accessibility option for those who have a hard time reading text against some of the lighter shades of purple.

  • Option to toggle on/off unwatched markers on TV shows.

I think the enhanced library interface could be cleaned up a bit. Some examples I see:

On the main (Enhanced) Library screen, the "Movies"-"TV Shows"-"Collections" buttons could be on the very top of the screen (above "Up Next" and taking up the entire row), to quickly get into each different section instead of being below the "Up Next" section. I'm not sure if this would improve functionality at all, that's just a UI preference for me.

  • Have the sidebar tabs always be present in every screen within the library. When I go Library>Up Next and am in the "Up Next" screen, the sidebar is gone until you back into the prior screen. Unless that is intentional, it'd be nice to have the sidebar collapsed on every menu.

  • Would also like to see the "All Shows" or "All Movies" access button more prominent from their respective screens within the library.

  • When you are in "All Shows" or "All Movies", a quick-scroll lettered scroll (like on Plex) would be amazing for those of us with large import libraries.

-Super nit-picky, but just some general UI enhancements on the Library pages, like depth, shadows, different spacing, etc. Something to give the libraries a little more pop beyond cover images in a grid. When the Apple TV motion UI has a movie highlighted and enlarged, when it moves around the cover sometimes overlaps a large portion of the title text.

Additionally, I think you guys have mentioned you're on this

  • Reducing the CPU usage when editing Virtual Channels that have a lot of content added

  • Increasing the timeout error message time (I get a handful of Timeout screens on my Apple TV watching remotely within two seconds of loading

But again, the act of watching live TV with my HdHOMERUN, nothing works better than Channels. Keep up the great work guys.

2 Likes
#32

Multi-view on tvOS, iPadOS, and iOS

I’m ready to move on from Xfinity to YouTube TV once they released the mosaic mode feature with the NFL Sunday Ticket

5 Likes
#33

As of now the features I needed for this are pretty much there now thanks to all of the recent work that's been going on, it is just the client loading speed (where it can take anywhere from 30-90 seconds to load depending on how many) that stops us from putting everything in when there are many thousands of strmlnks/video files :slight_smile:

#34
  1. Android TV, ONN box, get double click on Play/Pause (center D-pad button) to do Previous channel.
  2. Jump forward/back 24 hrs in guide with double click on Right/Left D-pad buttons, Firestick and Android TV, ONN box.
    Thanks for a great app.
2 Likes
#35

I actually kinda like the purple. However, the ability to choose from other colors to customize to our liking would be great as well :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#36

Better matching of TV Show/Specials Imports without the current automatic incorrect matching, make it unmatched if not 100% sure.

Fixed header row in web UI grid guide so you can see the time when scrolling down, like you can see the channels on the left if you scroll to the right.

Display scheduled jobs channel# in the web UI calendar view, or add a channel# filter to the web UI scheduled jobs view.

Ability to see what recordings a pass recorded, or at least the latest recording.

Mark as Not Recorded on the recording you already have instead of having to search for it in the grid guide or upcoming airings (if there are any)

1 Like
Skipped recording keeps the program from recording again via pass
#37

Bend the laws of physics and Sync video across multiple instances.

3 Likes
#38

Is that your placeholder while you're thinking about it :rofl:

#39

How many recordings do you have? My appletvs load in a matter of seconds.

Screenshot_20221222_203406_Chrome
Screenshot_20221222_203406_Chrome1034×1085 146 KB

1 Like
#40

I keep around 5000 recordings in normally and the client loads great like you mentioned.

However, I have an additional ~1k movies and ~10k episodes across strmlnks and files that I don't keep in channels right now because it really starts slowing down when they're all in at once. I seem to remember that it may have slowed down more quickly with movie count vs episode count, but I haven't specifically gone in to test that!

#41

So local content imports and strmlinks?

#42

Captions, captions captions!

whether it is streams (Pluto, Samsung TV+, etc.) or ATSC 3, we are waiting and waiting!
Please make 2023 the year of full caption/subtitle support!

7 Likes
#43

Yep.

#44

+1

+2 ! :laughing:

1 Like
#45

A few ideas, in no particular order:

  1. Better third party remote support on Apple TV and other platforms, perhaps a button-learning interface similar to the built-in one on Apple TV
  2. Better integration with platform native interfaces (eg, Up Next on Apple TV or the live TV EPG on Fire TV)
  3. Better integration with a channel’s associated app (eg, selecting a live programme on BBC1 would include a link to that programme on BBC iPlayer)
  4. Mini grid guide to replace the current ‘on now’ drop-down when watching live TV
  5. Properly sized thumbnails on Apple TV home screen
  6. DVB-specific features like EIT p/f for more accurate recording start/stop times, HbbTV for streaming channels
  7. Server-based buffer to allow user to record programme in progress and include the buffer in the recording
  8. Recording clash resolution: automatically select the next airing of a programme if there aren’t enough tuners available to record all scheduled programmes
  9. Auto-retune if an IP-based channel loses connection
  10. Auto-select channel with multiple sources (ie, if tuning fails on first source like IP, move to next source like SAT>IP or HDHR). I think it does this a bit already, but it’s not very reliable.
  11. Auto-delete and re-record next airing if a recording is interrupted or loses connection
  12. Better source(s) for metadata matching for imported TV/film content (I can’t retire Plex until this happens)
  13. Rework recordings list view to organise recordings by TV series, similar to a traditional DVR
  14. More colour theme options
5 Likes
#46

Ability to customize colors

4 Likes
#47

I think I'll probably be more on the crazy thing side :rofl:

  • HDR -> SDR transcoding. There's a lot of HDR content now (i.e. UHD Blu-Rays), and streaming around to different devices I'd like to be able to transcode from HDR to SDR for older devices that can't play HDR content.
  • Dolby Vision support. This is also a hard area with various different profiles and devices that will play basically all the profiles (NDIVIA Shield) and some that is limited but can play a few profiles (Apple TV/Fire Stick). Fallback to an HDR or SDR layer if the player doesn't support that profile would also be nice, and see the previous comment on what to do if it's transcoding :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:.
  • Multiple User Support. Being able to track a few different watched/unwatched lists is all I'd really want to see here. The same recordings, same favorites, etc would be fine just having a different list of what was watched or where a video was stopped for playback would be all I'd really need for the multiple user support.
  • Trakt Support. But only if there's multiple user support to link to different trakt accounts for watched/unwatched syncing and scrobbling for the current position. I really like just using trakt to keep track of what I'm watching and mark stuff there and sync to everything else since there's a lot of different ways to watch episodes.
4 Likes
#48

The guide already indicates which shows are scheduled to be recorded by changing the color as long as the show isn't selected. However, as soon as that show is selected in the guide, the color changes so you don't know that it's already scheduled to be recorded. When selected, the color should turn red or another color to indicate that it's scheduled. Another feature that would be great to have would be if the guide color is changed to indicate that the show is already in the library and doesn't need to be re-recorded. That would cut down on duplicates.

1 Like
#49

First this is a terrific product and service!

  1. Multiple user support
  2. Rotten tomatoes/IMDB or other ratings on all possible content including imported
  3. Black or a least dark purple theme.
5 Likes
#50

Another thought - Channels needs to start distancing from EOL products...

HDHR CableCards
Harmony Remotes
etc

I pretty much have the perfect setup at present (ATV, HDHRs for cablecard and OTA, and a harmony hub), and I'm scared that a wind shift that impacts either cablecards or TVE pretty much eliminates Channels in my house.

Maybe a remote app for iOS would be a good start?

2 Likes