One of the major benefits of Channels on AppleTV was the wonderful scrubbing forward and backward. It used to be instantaneous. For the last couple of months,. it's terrible on all AppleTVs only (NOT a problem on iPads). Going forward only works for a few seconds of video, more than a minute ahead and you can wait for 10 seconds or it just freezes. Have to push pause/play to get it going. It scrubbing say 30 minutes, it takes over 1-3 minutes! Please look into this and bring back the old way. I am guessing the old way buffered more/most of the video, the new way nothing seems buffered. Nothing wrong with my network (high end PFsense/HP), same issue on Wifi and wired AppleTVs. And, scrubs instantly on iPads.
Nothing has changed here. Scrub speed is directly correlated to network speeds.
What does a speedtest to the Apple TV show?
I’ve noticed the same thing on the Apple TV. It used to be instant now it just stalls and you have to play the pause/play game. it used to scrub in real time (frames moving) and now its a crap shoot and its more problematic on TVE streams, not HDHR streams.
its definitely not a speed or network issue, i have a solid, wired business class network.
Speedtest
Download
288.89
Mbit/s
Latency
3.05
ms
Jitter
0.64
ms
Not that I’ve noticed but I don’t use iOS nearly enough in that manner but I just tested it for a few minutes and it’s much better than the Apple TV.
I have Apple TV+, HBO, Showtime, Amazon Prime, etc. Nothing has a problem scrubbing, they are instant (like Channels used to be). This is not a network issue, I am a network person and my home uses commercial equipment. My network is fast and reliable. And as I stated, scrubbing is perfect on all iPads, ONLY a problem on AppleTV Channels App. This started a little before Channels 4 and I assumed it was a bug that would be fixed but it is really annoying for this long. Also looks like other people noticed it too.
I have five 4K AppleTVs with large memory and very few apps added, some wired, some ethernet. All work the same way on all apps (HBO, etc, instant) and all have the same Channels problem.
The DVR is a dedicated 2014 Mac mini with maxed options. Never a problem playing a show, only scrubbing is messed up. The video is connected via USB 3 using a WD black 6TB drive.
Please keep in mind this has been setup for years, Channels scrubbing was instant (like on the iPads now). This started only after a Channels update for AppleTV a month or so back. I also wonder if Apple may have done something that affected it.
A network issue would also affect the 5 iPads, all scrub perfectly in Channels and in fact amazingly fast every test. The AppleTVs never do that anymore, always taking several seconds, sometime over a minute and sometimes we just give up, this is NOT a network issue.
I have not seen this issue with my DVR. It is strange to hear, because the player code is exactly the same on Apple TV and iPad.
The next step would be to gather some logs. You can click Settings > Support > Submit Diagnostics from the app after the issue happens, or access the logs via http://x:57000/log (replace x with the IP of your ATV4)
Is the issue with live tv or recordings or both?
HDHR or TVE or IMPORTED source?
If live tv does it happen with tuner sharing on or off.
I thought it was just me (ATV 4K). I just accepted it on recordings since it's reading from disk but was fighting it on live TV today just to trying to jump back a minute and show wife something. The specific show today was Pawn Stars on TVE History Channel. My network is 1GB and should have been buffering on ATV, so I don't see why it needs to struggle. The good 'ole non-DVR version of Channels I've used until I went to the DVR this year never had the issue (although that was just OTA or Prime cable).
I noticed this the past couple of weeks as well because it WAS really flawless before. Watching a recorded program just the other evening was so bad that we just turned everything off.
To be fair, Plex Live TV right now is even worse, but I'm thinking it may be something that APPLE "upgraded" in the TvOS that's causing the issue.
I’ve noticed the same in the past few weeks. Thought it was a network issue but after checking speeds, there is clearly some other issue happening.
I have also noticed the same thing on my Apple TV 4K past few weeks. I use Ubiquiti Giga-ethernet switch to NAS DVR with Intel CPU 4-Cores 4Ghz. No WiFi at all. My speed test is almost 300Mbps to DVR.
Can you guys describe what you consider "scrubbing"?
Which one do you mean?
- clicking RIGHT/LEFT to skip ahead a few seconds
- Clicking and holding RIGHT/LEFT to fast forward or rewind linearly a la a VCR.
- Pausing, then using the Siri touch pad to move the play cursor ahead in the timeline
1 and 3 for me I never do the second one.
I generally just use 1. Often just to go backwards to hear something I missed or to forward after I've paused for some reason.
1 Like
I do 1 and 3 mostly. I just get stuttering for a few moments after on my ATV4, but my 4K is smooth and fast.
#2 it scrolls super fast at the beginning and then levels off.
The are both tied to my Windows10 DVR with MOCA.
Although the experience is slightly different on live and recordings, they both work for me.
@tmm1 @maddox I also get this spinning circle when I try to go back. It stays on the screen while the show plays and won’t disappear. I have to tap the Siri remote track pad to make it disappear. If I tap again, the circle keeps spinning. Have to back out or trick play again to make it go back to normal.
Diagnostics submitted.
Are you sending audio to a HomePod? My experience is that Channels random access became unusable when I started doing that (to the extent that I switch off the HomePod audio when I am watching a Channels recording).
No. Audio is to a receiver.
Thanks for the diagnostics. The spinner issue appears to be something different than what's being talked about on this thread (slow seek on recorded TV).
Can you submit diagnostics again from the latest testflight build? I've added logging that should help narrow down what's happening here. It's related to Newest version, OSD problem