Virtual Channel appears as a source, but the specific channel does not. I don’t see any way to favorite or hide.
It's showing as hidden on the Apple TV diagnostics.
You should see the channel inside Settings > Manage Sources > Virtual where you can click it to unhide
I have been having some problems with the guide not refreshing unless I do it manually. For example in the screenshot my Star Wars channel runs out at 8 PM tonight. The guide won’t refresh it at all until I go to the DVR server and do it manually. Eventually other virtual channels run out of programming later at night.
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Additional information for the hang I’m seeing… may be related to the Apple TV going to sleep and waking back up. Just woke it back up from being manually slept last night and the hang happened. Submitted diagnostics again. Even after backing out.. the channel just shows the channel name, not episode data. It won’t load at all, just spins. Something has gone wrong. Going to try updating to newest pre-release.
Update: After going to latest pre-release (and the resulting restart), the channel is working again. This implies the issue was likely on the server side.
Yeah, that option is not there.
It just has the refresh source, enabled, and advanced settings options. None of those have the option to unhide.
You need to select the correct collection from the guide. ie: either favorites or a custom collection where you have added the virtual channel to the collection
So this would explain why some of my channels seem to play the same content quite often and some content not at all.
I would like my virtual channel too loop through all the content at least once before repeating.
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I too am observing that the guide for virtual channels is not being extended automatically. Version 2021.07.28.1650. At DVR startup the guide populates correctly, but doesn’t seem to be extended ongoing. This morning my virtual channel showed only two episodes left:
As others have mentioned, I went into settings and manually asked for a guide update. I could see in the log the channel was being processed, and sure enough, guide data was extended:
Submitted diagnostics 4e486fc4-0873-4a11-8402-3c5842a5dedb
I think this issue could be what is causing the hangs I’m seeing. When the guide data runs out, the player hangs? Not sure though.
I’m loving this stuff. I noticed on Android TV beta that the channel surfing feature doesnt work for virtual channels only. I can still use my Onn remote to channel surf for every other source.
What happens when you try to channel surf?
1 - nothing happens when I try to change the channel using the channel switcher on my remote (even though it works for every other source)
2 - on each virtual channel, when I press down for the quick guide, only the current virtual channel is shown. None of my other channels show up there.
*Again, this is only for Android TV. It works great for Apple TV.
This will great if this is added
I've created a virtual channel of recorded TV. Am viewing them in guide (in Chrome browser). If I try to play one, it brings up the normal pop-up screen but without any "Play" button/option. No way to play the channel. Any suggestions?
Update - I've seen two behaviors. One is that a program that should have just started has no ability to "play" The second is an error message when I try to open a current program in the virtual channel.
Virtual channel playback only works in the Channels app
The latest server pre-release adds the ability to add a movie/show to a collection directly from it's page.
In the latest tvOS/iOS and DVR pre-releases, you can now hide Movies, Shows, and Collections via the Library Visibility function. Just set something to Hidden and it will be hidden from the apps.
Awesome work!!
Update: I do see my virtual channel guide data being refreshed as part of the daily update now. I think it’s just that since it only populates ~24 hours and the guide refresh time has a random offset, it can come very close to running out before the refresh happens. Going to keep an eye on it to see if it ever does run out again, but it’s been ok for a couple of days now, on recent pre-release versions.
There was a bug with the guide update which has been fixed. The guide populates 48-72h ahead every morning so it should never run out.
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