Screen goes black after ~5 mins

Channels Android TV
#63

Okay. I suspect the next build is at fault. Though I hope not because it includes several 100k lines of changes.

channels-dvr-406290132.apk

1 Like
#64

I hate to do this to you, but yep, that one reproduces the problem.

#65

Does the issue occur every time at the same spot in a given recording?

#66

I'm not sure. I will do some more testing, but might not be able to do it until tomorrow.

#67

@tmm1 just did it twice and they both went black at around 8mins and 50 seconds.

#68

Okay so if you play that recording again, fast forward to 8min then in 50s the screen goes blank?

#69

If I fast forward to 8mins, it keeps playing past 50 seconds. From memory it ends up being a similar amount of time again before it goes black.

1 Like
#70

Weird. I would expect it to be related to the video data.

#71

When it goes black, I press the back button, then click Watch and it will carry on from where I left off and I get another roughly 8 minutes. I just have to keep doing that till I get to the end of the program.

1 Like
#72

Just want to add that I also doubt this is due to underpowered hardware. It happens on fairly recent high end Sony models and worked fine before the update noted above. Since the time to blank screen is fairly constant is this some kind of memory leak?

2 Likes
#73

Yeah a couple of my Sony Google TVs are only a year old. And they were all working fine until that particular update.

1 Like
#74

Is there anything else you want me to test out for you?

#75

No. I'm afraid we don't have a clear path forward on this right now.

#76

Just to record that rolling back to the previous versions works for me too. It is not a very satisfactory resolution as I have to turn off auto-updating for all apps on my TV.

#77

I have always been a Plex user, and I was very excited when they finally got live tv/dvr implemented. Unfortunately they did a really crap job and it was basically unusable, and they really were poor at spending the time to fix issues. That's why I looked around and landed on Channels, it just worked, and it was great! I was happy to pay the monthly fee because it worked so nicely. I love that you can reliably watch an in-progress recording, you can seek back and forth, it remembers your progress, allowing you to switch to another tv/device.

But with this recent issue I've gone back to see if Plex has improved. It seems like they have improved things somewhat, I haven't had any random crashes when watching in-progress recordings, I can seek back/forth without issues, which is progress. However it's still a bit useless in that you have to watch an in-progress recording from the guide, if it's finished and doing commercial detection, you have to wait for it to turn up in your library before you can watch it. Also, I don't believe you can switch to another device and pick up where you left off.

Even though Plex has its issues, the screen not going black every few minutes is a big win, especially with the wife!

All that said, I would prefer to use Channels, so I do hope this can be resolved. I found having auto-updates turned off was too annoying for all my other apps.

#78

Just updated to latest version and its still an issue so have rolled back again

#79

apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but I wanted to add my experience to assist with analysis.

Televisions
12 month old Sony with ChannelsDVR android application.

Channels Server
Unraid (16 core, 48GB ram, mostly idle)
ChannelsDVR Docker -
timstephens24/channels-dvr - Docker Image | Docker Hub
docker-templates/timstephens24/ChannelsDVR_NVIDIA.xml at master · timstephens24/docker-templates · GitHub

Setup 1
Aerial -> HDHomerun -> Wireless Mesh -> ChannelsServer -> Wireless Mesh -> ChannelsClient (Sony)

Setup 2
Satelitte -> Wideband to Quatrro convertor -> SatToIp (Digibit R1) -> Wireless Mesh -> tvHeadend -> ChannelsServer -> Wireless Mesh -> ChannelsClient (Sony)

I switched from setup1 to setup2, they did not run concurrently

Behaviour (consistent between both setups)
Live television

  • Occasional (every few hours) black screen
  • Image goes black, audio continues to function
  • changing channel and changing back to original channel resolves issue

Recordings
Watching a recording of the live television shows that the picture is being recorded and available for playback

My thoughts
Between the two setups only the following are in common

  • ChannelsServer
  • Wireless Mesh
  • ChannelsClient (Sony)

I lean towards eliminating the ChannelServer and Wireless Mesh as the root cause, due to the behaviour of the recorded live telvision. (picture is recorded and available for playback)

What is left that could be causing the issue

  • Specific channels are the cause (Ill keep any eye on this)
  • Hardware on Sony TV
  • Firmware on Sony TV
  • ChannelsClient behaviour on SonyTV

Anything Else
I have an Nvidia shield plugged into a 10-year-old Samsung, however, we dont watch much live/recorded television on this box, (Ill keep an eye on it)
Due to a house move, I will need another television within the next 6 months. Im settled on an android TV box, however, I am yet to make a decision. Ill post back here if I am able to provide any more insight.
Since swapping to the satellite as the source, I see pixelation and occasional stuttering on the live television.

  • The issue is more prominent on certain channels (BBC1 HD, & ITV HD)
  • Currently I feel that the problem is more noticeable on live television than recorded television, however, I am yet to really investigate
  • This is most likely a complete red herring that most people can ignore