Start Up channel doesn't have any EPG data

Channels Apple TV
#19

It looks like you discovered some differences in the implementation between Android and Apple TV.

On Apple TV:

  1. There is a 60 second delay before the Resume action kicks in. This allows for quickly leaving and re-opening the app to not hijack what you were in the middle of doing
  2. The Resume action does not get invoked if you are currently watching something in the player. This allows for you to quickly go do something else and come back to the thing you were watching (or have the screensaver start) without interrupting you and start playing the channel again

Thank you for highlighting the differences between the platforms. We will discuss if/how we want to make the experience more consistent across our apps.

#20

I'm not sure I understand. I get that it makes sense, after a short exit to something else, to then return to where you were before.

But at what point are the start up settings meant to take effect? Are you saying they don't at all on Apple TV? That is certainly been my experience - no matter how long my Apple TV has been switched off (even overnight) it still comes back exactly where it was. If I was watching Ch3, it starts the next morning on Ch3. If I was in Guide, it comes back in Guide the next morning. At no point have I seen it obey the Startup section/channel settings.

If that really is the case maybe it should say so in the Server side start up client settings (only on Android) like it does for features that are only available on iOS.

#21

This should be easy to test. With the Setting set to Live TV:

  1. Go to the Guide
  2. Press the button leave the app back to the Apple TV Home Screen
  3. Wait 90 seconds
  4. Open Channels

What happens?

#22

Well, in my case using TestFlight, it goes into Update because there is a new version available! :rofl: But once updated it does then go to Live TV and the start up channel.

So, just so I'm clear, the Start Up section/channel settings only works on Apple TV if you have manually left the app completely and gone back in? If you just turn off the Apple TV with Channels currently the active app, it will always return to where it was no matter how long it has been off when you turn it back on?

If so, isn't the "App Launch and Resume" text in the Start Up section settings wrongly worded? It certainly had me confused.

#23

No, that is not accurate. If you use the power button on the Apple TV remote and wait 70 seconds and awaken the Apple TV again, it will perform the selection.

If you leave Channels on the Apple TV playing a channel and then put the Apple TV to sleep, when you wake the Apple TV up, it will continue to play that channel. We do not ever want to override what is currently active on the player.

#24

Those 2 paragraphs seem totally contradictory to me. The first says turn it off, wait, turn it on and the start up settings will apply, and the second says it won't. Also your second paragraph seems to confirm what I said, but you quote it and say "that is not accurate".

I've re read it several times but am even more confused. :exploding_head:

#25

Is it inside the video player when you're putting the device to sleep?

#26

Yes, normally a Live TV Channel.

Edit. I presume that is still technically inside the video player. To people of our age "video player" conjures up images of a pile of VHS tapes!

#27

Back to the original point of the thread.

This morning I finally managed to get a recording of the system starting up and showing the missing EPG data. I have uploaded it to the dropbox link above.

Initially is gives the Connection Lost message but when I hit OK/Select it starts playing a channel but without any EPG data showing. If I change channels the EPG data is then there. The Start Up Channel was actually BBC1 which is what is set in my Start Up Settings and I'm pretty sure I left it on Channel 4 when I switched it off last night, so at least it is was trying to connect to the right channel.

I have not been testing this issue for very long, so it's not a huge sample size, but it seems that on first start up of the day it either goes to the channel I was watching when I switched off in which case it connects fine and the EPG data is showing, or it is trying to go to the specified start up channel in which case it has missing EPG data and sometimes also the connection lost error beforehand.

Diagnostics submitted 5bdeaa61-6e5a-4e4a-9be0-27330d9e0bd3

#28

Okay. It looks like it's taking 8 seconds for your ethernet switch to enable the port when your AppleTV wakes up, which is causing our internal discovery processes to fail and trip into the issue you're seeing with the guide.

If you have a way to disable STP on your switch for this port, it could fix the issue you're seeing, but I'm looking into what we can do to make this more resilient to these sorts of issues.

#29

I have no idea what that means, never mind doing it! I guess I could google it and find out, but to be honest I'm giving up on Apple TV and putting the unit back on Ebay.

I had to give it a proper try as it the preferred, most up to date device for Channels, but I've ended up hating the damn thing. I won't get into all the things I dislike about it, but it's a long list which has just increased by one because it needs something disabling that the Shield on the next port of the same switch is perfectly happy with.

Now that it seems that the Guide crash issue is sorted on the Android side, I'm going to stick with my Shields.

Thanks for trying to help.

#30

Your switch is acting weird, and normally when a switch acts weird like this, it's because it's doing detection called "STP" that prevents bad things from happening if you plug an ethernet cable into two ports of the same switch. I had guessed that that was the reason why your switch port took so long to turn on (it's not an issue that many people experience).

Whatever you want to do is up to you. Now that we've identified what specifically was going on that caused your situation to be different than what most people are experiencing, it shouldn't be too long before we come up with a way to resolve it.

#31

I'm happy to leave it running long enough to test out any potential solutions you come up with. Maybe it can help someone else with the same issue in the future.

#32

OK. I have checked the network switch in the room the Apple TV is connected to and nothing appears amiss. The PC I'm typing this on, the Shield in the same room, and a printer are all working perfectly as far as I can tell.

I've just done a speed test on the Apple TV Channels app which was 1.3ms, 907.2Mbps, 864.3Mps which all seems pretty good. Maybe enabling the port when it starts up is a completely different issue but there is nothing obvious that would suggest a general network issue.

#33

The latest Testflight beta should resolve the issue you're seeing when you wake your Apple TV up after a long sleep:

#34

Wow that was quick! :+1:

I've just updated it and it was playing Ch 4 when I turned it off.

I'm still a bit confused as to what should happen if I leave it a few minutes in sleep mode. Should it come on in my start up channel?

#35

If you are watching a recording or watching a Live TV channel and put your TV to sleep, when you wake it up it will continue playing the channel or recording that it was playing when it went to sleep, regardless of any settings you have set.

We plan on reviewing the behavior on the Android app and plan to bring it in line with the behavior of the Apple TV.

#36

What?!! Surely not. Don't you mean the other way round? The Android system works perfectly in that area, starting up every time respecting your settings in Start Up. Why would you change that?

#37

The niceties of not changing the screen out from under the user as soon as they leave the app for a moment, etc. are things we intended to have on all platforms but had not realized they were not the same. The behavior on the Apple TV reflects our intended behavior on all platforms.

#38

That seems to have fixed the missing EPG issue. It started up fine this morning with the EPG data available.

It did still start on the last channel I was watching yesterday, which isn't what I would prefer, but that appears to be the intended behaviour. So I've marked this thread solved.

Thanks for your very quick fix for this :+1:

I've been thinking about this and have realised that the difference I am seeing in the Android app start up is that I have set up automated ADB commands that stop the Channels app when the Shield goes into sleep mode and then open it again when the Shield wakes up. I did this so long ago I'd forgotten I'd done it!

Doing that means that my Shields always start up in the Channels app, which is what I want, but it also has the added bonus, for me, of always starting up in my chosen start up condition.

I still think that the Start Up options in Channels should be applied after the app has been idle for a certain period of time. Would anyone really want to continue watching the same thing they were watching before a 2 week holiday on the day they came back? I know that is an extreme example but personally I have never even wanted to continue watching what I was the night before the next morning.

Anyway, just my opinion, and in Android with ADB and API control I can set it up to do exactly what I want anyway, so not a problem.