Slow tuning and crashes (UK H264)

Channels Fire TV Troubleshooting
#1

Okay so I bought the Fire TV version because I really like Channels on the aTV and was hoping for a similar experience.

I’ve installed it on my FTV3 (plus official ethernet adapter). Unfortunately the experience is not what I hoped it to be. It does pick up the HDHR and trick play works well. However channel tuning is very slow (~5 seconds) compared to the ATV version attached to the same gigabit hub in the living room and wired via gigabit ethernet to another gigabit hub in the loft to which the HDHR (and my Channels DVR) attaches.

There are significant combing artefacts on my BBC News ticker (HD stream) which I don’t see on the ATV version.

The scrubber does not time out it just sits there after a channel change until I press the up button on the remote.

I have also had what I can best call a “channel tune abort”. After selecting a new channel the scrubber appeared with the spinner rotating for several seconds. Then the screen went grey and the app dropped back to the menu/guide. It didn’t crash completely.

#2

Do SD MPEG2 channels tune faster? Do they show artifacts?

#3

On a one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi accuracy I get the following

ATV any stream ~2 seconds
FTV HD ~5 seconds
FTV SD ~7 seconds - surprisingly worse

SD channels are deinterlaced properly and the BBC News channel ticker in SD exhibits no combing whereas it does in HD.

There are lots of tuner aborts now. It tries to play the channel then drops to the Channels needs an HD homerun info page (or something along those lines I get a glimpse of it for about a second) before dropping back to the menu/guide.

#4

I’ve also had channels start to play a stream but then freeze for a second and then drop back to the menu as detailed above. I suspect the connection to the HDHR is dropping - which never happens on the ATV.

#5

Is it still showing the spinner too? On both HD/SD channels?

This sounds like the app is crashing and relaunching. I do some some crash reports in the last hour from a FireTV.

#6

Ugh this is discouraging, as it might mean the h264 hardware decoder cannot deinterlace on the FTV3.

I was able to reproduce this and have fixed the issue.

#7

Yes I think it does.

I assumed you might have an FTV to develop on so would have picked this up. As I recall the FTV2 is the opposite. I will test this on the old beta DVR version.

#8

I have multiple FTVs here, but my OTA streams are all mpeg2 and my cable streams are 720p h264 only.

It’s worth verifying first that your BBC HD feed is in-fact interlaced. It seems to vary greatly by region.

#9

I’m happy to provide a sample recording if you could remind me of the command to run over terminal on a Mac to get one although I suspect you have a number of HD 1080i samples submitted from previous posts in the forum. I recall I have submitted at least one. If you haven’t kept them might I suggest you do keep an archive of recordings from various regions to test with.

I believe all UK HD OTA is 1080i though.

I have put my FTV2 and FTV3 side by side to run a few tests.

The FTV3 has noticeable combing on the news ticker in HD but not SD. Interlace artefacts are not noticeable on the main picture however.

The FTV2 using the previous beta that played the HDHR stream via the DVR but without transcoding shows no combing on the HD stream but a bit on the SD stream.

Overall the picture quality is better on Gen2 than Gen3 with the current version I can test with.

#10

I’ve seen a lot of progressive 1080p feeds, including the one that @psykix just sent me in the other thread.

The DVR might still be transcoding to remove the interlacing… You can check the DVR logs to see if it says remux or not.

I’ve just uploaded a new beta build to Amazon and I sent you an invite to install it. It should let you install to your older FTV as well for testing, and it has a new “Submit Diagnostics” option at the bottom of the Player Settings tab. Click that on each device after playing an HD channel and I’ll see if I can figure out why its taking so long to tune.

FWIW, my H264 cable feeds here tune in less than 2 seconds.

#11

Im in the US, and most of my feeds are 1080p even though I have a couple 720p and 2 that are actually 1080i. If you need me to help with any of those feeds let me know.

My channels tune within 3sec (Plex takes 6 sec to tune same channels non-transcoded) just FYI

#12

AFAIK there are no 1080p feeds in the US. OTA HD broadcasts over ATSC are either 720p or 1080i.

There is a known issue on the FTV3 mpeg2 hardware decoder where it takes an extra two seconds to tune into an interlaced channel. We’re working to try to figure that out.

#13

I figured out what’s special about DVB H264 feeds that’s causing a delay. It’s been fixed for the next build, so your H264 HD channels should tune much faster.

#14

Thanks for the link to the test version.

Firstly this version is MUCH more stable. I have had no crashes on my FTV2 in the last 20 mins with multiple SD an HD channel changes. Also the UI disappears as it should.

Secondly @tmm1 you are right. The old DVR beta was getting the DVR to deinterlace the streams. I thought it was meant not to but the log still lists a transcoder startup.

However the Gen2 without deinterlacing produces very acceptable video. So much so I have swapped out my ATV for the time being to help testing. I don’t do this lightly as “she who must be obeyed” would be upset if the video quality was noticeably worse. I will report back after some blinded wife and kids testing.

Hope DVR support is forthcoming soon.

#15

Out of interest - I’m just curious about everything - what is special about DVB feeds?

Will the new version update automatically on the FTV?

#16

There are some extra streams present alongside the video/audio/subtitles… not sure what they are aside from their types (“5” and “11”). The player was trying to probe them in case they were audio/video/cc and wasting a lot of time doing so. We were already ignoring type 5 before, and I added type 11 to the blacklist.

I just uploaded the new build. It seems to take Amazon’s servers an hour or so to process, after which it should update automatically.

On the About tab of the app, it should show “Channels Beta (11)” after the update.

#17

Thanks a lot. It’s 0100 here so I’m off to sleep. Still have beta 9 so hopefully will be able to look at the update in the morning.

I will test on FTV2 and 3 and report back.

#18

You are correct - didnt realize i still have mcrbuddy running it was transcoding everything to progressive

#19

LMK if you are seeing improvements to tuning speed or not.

#20

Yes it is definitely quicker. A bit pixelated for the first few seconds and sometimes a bit of a speed up in framerate before it settles down. Then it’s fine. Combing is visible on Gen2 in both HD and SD but as I said not unwatchable. Haven’t rigged up the Gen3 yet because the kids are hogging the TVs at the moment watching Netflix. Apparently Altered Carbon is very good according to my 13 year old. Once they have gone to bed I’ll plug it in.

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