Preparing Your TV…

Channels Apple TV
#1

Sorry this is a bit long.

I’m hosting (via Docker) Channels DVR on a Synology NAS. Sources consist of a couple of TV Everywhere sources plus a Flex 4K/Antenna. I have a large Plex library which I have imported into the DVR. The library is being used to populate various virtual channels.

I have four Apple TVs that people in the household use regularly.

The above works really well and I’m really happy with it overall.

Two user experience annoyances that have been going on for a few months now:

  1. When launching the Channels app on any of the Apple TVs the Preparing Your TV messages is displayed for about 30 seconds. I’d like this to be a lot shorter.

I believe that while the message is displayed there is some kind of library scan happening behind the scenes. Perhaps this could be deferred or configured to run in the background?

2). Even if I leave the Channels app running: If I switch to another app and come back or the Apple TV goes to sleep and wakes - 30 to 60 seconds after starting to use the app it hangs up completely for about 30 seconds. Any remote control inputs performed while the app was hung happen once the apps comes back to life.

Things that I have tried:

  1. Have moved DVR between docker, native synology, Centos VM.

Same behavior regardless of resources provided or HW DVR is hosted on.

  1. Tested wired and WiFi connected Apple TVs.

Same behavior
3. Tried hiding all the imported movies from the library. This cannot be done with shows, only movies.

Same behavior

  1. Remove imported directories (1 for movies,1 for shows. Prune. Add back

Problem goes away until the libraries are imported again. Then it comes back.

We like the Virtual Channels feature a lot and want to use it. If it weren’t for Virtual Channels I would just remove the imported tv and movies.

Is there something I’m missing? Anybody else also experiencing this?

#2

How large is the imported library?

#3

Approximately 32TB split almost equally between shows and movies. I could get show/movie counts is that’s needed.

#4

I have the same issue as well, mine is the same size. I've stopped having my shows imported because of the long loading time.

#5

Good to hear that its not just me.

I had came to the conclusion previously that such a large library wasn’t useful in Channels and removed the imports.

Virtual Channels has had me trying again.

#6

Media counts would be useful.

We are aware of performance issues in this area and have some plans to fix it.

#7

Sounds promising. Thank you.

Episodes: 15594
Movies: 3202

1 Like
#9

Movies: 2999
Episodes: 36050

#10

@Nathan_B , please tell me you guys have back ups. it would be a sad day to lose that much media. also.. that's a lot.

2 Likes
#11

It's all the same movie and episode. He really likes them...

#12

For what it’s worth, I have a second copy synced offsite.

#13

Following this thread. Mine doesn't take that long but its long enough to annoy me

#14

I hope there can be a solution for this.
Currently I don't have my TV shows loaded into Channels, instead I use Dizque for my Virtual Channels for TV.

#15

I realize this is a year-old thread but it sums up what I’ve run into.

A bit ago I stripped out a bunch of strmlnks and local content when I learned it would speed up the client loading. Even with a very fast server and the latest Apple TV this is still an issue when you have thousands of entries. It must be sending the whole set of data to the clients or something similar.

In no way is this meant to be a downer- on the contrary all the new local, metadata, and filtering improvements make me want to put everything back in Channels as soon as this loading speed improves! I’m sure it is still on the list- just consider this another +1 :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#16

I've noticed this in the past couple of weeks - i've increased the size of my library by a reasonable degree and the load time has increased from <5 seconds to 20-25 seconds. Seems it re-syncs everything each time?

#17

It’s a shame as otherwise the functionality is perfect. The slowness on startup and seemingly random lags during normal operation keeps me from having my library imported. I’ve been waiting and hoping this gets fixed. I’d prefer to use Channels only vs Channels plus other products.