Is this something you're able to do? I'd like to know if you're planning to work on this issue.
Thanks
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The SDK was just a guess. If you want to try the version before and after that change that would confirm.
I'm happy to try that.
Can you tell me the versions before and after?
They're listed in the beta notes thread
You would have to find the beta apk for that version and sideload to test. I believe the apk urls are documented somewhere on the forum.
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Unfortunately this is another problem I've come to investigate before deciding whether to renew my Channels sub.
I'm in the UK and have this issue with live TV on channels as well - screen blanking out, sometimes as OP and just staying blank, other times flashing back to the picture. Probably to do with 25p/50i content.
Sad to say, but my solution is just to go back to Plex DVR, which I abandoned to come to Channels a year ago, which plays live TV and recordings much better (but not as good as 24p content) on my Sony Google TV's.
The more I look on this forum for issues I have the more I feel it's time to say goodbye to Channels as £60+ GBP is a lot of cash to hand over to something that just half works.
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I've always found the devs very responsive and most issues are fixed quickly, but I too am a little disheartened at the lack of support for the android client, especially when I'm paying a monthly subscription.
I'm hoping it's something that will be resolved, I don't really want to go back to Plex, but if I can never upgrade the client, that'll suck too.
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Just replying to you too, for me, going into settings > playback > steaming quality > original delivery quality > stream solved this issue for me (2017 Sony Android TV, AndroidTV 9 API/28), let me know if it helps!
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Hi, thanks for the tip. I've tried streaming before but I found the experience wasn't as nice, from memory it was slower to seek and paused/buffered more often.
Having said that, it might be worth the extra hassles if it means I can continue to upgrade.
In my experience, it takes about 2-3 seconds longer to tune to a channel. Upon starting playback, there is sometimes upto 2 stutters, but there is not any stutters once 30 seconds into playback. All of my clients are wired ethernet though, so your mileage may vary.
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I've just tested this and I still get the black screen 
Interesting. Its clearly not all down to that then. What Android version is your Sony TV on?
Android TV OS version: 10
Kernel version: 4.19.75
Android TV OS build: BRAVIA_VH21_M_PA-user 10....
Can confirm, does not fix the issue. mine finally did it today.
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I have this issue too although is probably more like 15 minutes. In UK on Phillips android TV. Was working well for years.
Have rolled back to 4.6.3 for the time being. Will see if this fixes it.
It's very frustrating that this is seemingly not getting any attention. It is clearly affecting multiple people/devices.
I'll be asking for a discount if there is no movement on this soon.
@Damon_Coursey I replied directly to you via the email you sent in to support, but I wanted to address this directly here on this thread as well.
Basically, the hardware powering Smart TVs is just not very good. TV manufacturers consistently under power the hardware powering their smarts. We've consistently recommended against using it and have recommended using a dedicated streaming device instead as they're almost always more performant in both CPU and RAM.
Channels requires a bit more power than a normal streaming service app does. It does a lot more, and handles a lot more types of video.
I know this seems complicated because we let you install it, but the fact is, many customers live on the Android TV built into their TV just fine, and many do not. It just all depends on what they're doing with it.
This is just the unfortunate state of Android TV. The wide variety of hardware it runs on DOES have a bottom to it, and that bottom is almost always running on Smart TVs. So overall, we do not recommend, and we will not optimize the app, for Smart TVs.
I just wanted to make sure what we've been saying for years was transparent and communicated here on this particular thread.
Thanks for the reply Jon. I do understand what you're saying. I guess my issue is that it DID work fine, for a few years - it was only a recent change that broke it. I forget who the dev was that was replying on this thread - but he thought it was due to a SDK change, or something like that, that Google had made.
To me, this isn't a hardware issue, as it was working totally fine for quite some time. What I really want, as a paid service, is to have some kind of commitment to addressing the issue with the android client.
EDIT: I guess I just want some certainty. If you don't plan to address this particular issue then it would be good to know that it WON'T be addressed. Then I can make the decision whether or not I stick with things as is, or I look for a new solution.
Thanks.
We don't have any way to replicating this problem, which means we don't understand why exactly it's happening. As such, it's impossible to provide certainty on whether a fix is possible.
It's been helpful to narrow down that v4.6.3 works and v4.6.4 broke. But there were many beta builds between those two, so we need someone to volunteer to "bisect" each of those builds to figure out exactly which one introduced the problem.
Let's start with these two. Do either of these builds have the problem?
https://cdn.channelsdvr.net/apk-beta/channels-dvr-406161747.apk
https://cdn.channelsdvr.net/apk-beta/channels-dvr-406222204.apk
Thanks Aman, that is very useful. I don't mind testing this out, when you'd mentioned it earlier I was too busy and it was too difficult trying to find the exact builds, so I really appreciate the direct links to the apk's.
When I have some spare time I'll do some testing and report back!
I've tested both versions. They both seem to be ok. First one I got to 25 mins in, and figured that is ok. And the second one I got to 20 mins and figured that is ok.