I just got a new TCL Android TV. My issue is that Antenna channels will not load. I also have TVE enabled and they play fine. I have a shield, mi box, and Hisense Android TV and antenna channels load fine. I also downloaded the HD Homerun app and the antenna channels play fine through it on the TCL. Any recommendations for fixing this through the Channels app?
What happens on the TV when you play one of the antenna channels?
It is just a black screen with the bar on the bottom and the circle loading.
Okay thanks. Please exit the player and immediately after submit diagnostics via Settings > Player > Support
OKay, Ill do that shortly.
I just messed with it for a few minutes earlier and noticed if i push the right arrow once I am on the black screen with the loading circle it will initiate the channel and play fine. It worked on all OTA channels.
I just submitted it and selected Video Player. I am on the Beta app and have uninstalled and reinstalled as well.
You need to try playing the channel first before submitting diagnostics
Sorry, I forced stopped the app and then let the channel load for 30 seconds. It never played video, just loaded. Submitted diagnostics under Video Player again.
I have noticed some significant stuttering on my mibox s. It still works fine on my Pixel 4. I submitted a the log file earlier after playing the antenna channel that stutters.
I uninstalled the beta and went back to the prod app. The channels seem o be loading better except FOX. FOX seems to be the only channel that is VHF. It just loads the channel and then kicks me back out to the guide. It loads quickly and plays fine on the HDHomerun app. On my Pixel 4 it plays fine as well but I do have to enable Hybrid transcoding as Hardware only just plays the audio and no video. I submitted a log after trying to load the channel.
I am having the same issue, uninstalling and reinstalling didn’t correct it for me. Mine is buffering and so if after a second or two I hit right on the directional pad it skips ahead and plays. I just submitted diagnostics.
Does software video decoder help under advanced playback settings?
That did the trick for the HDHR stuff but now it really struggles with the playback of some local content. I set the bitrate to 4mbps which did fix that but then the HDHR stuff does a lot of stops/starts.
This is just a cheap 32” TCL TV I got tonight to put in my home bar, if it’s just not capable I might try out a different one.
No offense, but "smart TVs" are anything but. You'd be better served by purchasing a TV based upon its video display qualities, and using a (replaceable/upgradable) streaming device as your client. That way, when the streaming device becomes insufficient you can replace it without needing to replace the TV.
The only truly capable smart TVs that work well as a Channels client are higher-end Sony Bravia models with Android TV.
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If I could return the TV I probably would. The wifi is really slow and the performance of this TV isn't great. I have now added a Google tv to it and all is good.
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No offense taken, always happy to get other people’s takes. I do have to report though that we ordered this along with a 43” Hisense with Android TV built in and that works like a charm actually, very impressed. I kinda want to try the 32” Hisense to see if it performs as well but I kinda doubt it.
The cure-all is definitely to just get a set top box but I might try the Hisense first to see. These two TVs just need to be functional and simple for guests so having it be the TV’s OS helps some with the latter. We also have a couple Apple TV’s and one of the new Google TV Chromecasts in the house so I know if we need to buy one of those it’ll be a good experience.
Thanks for the input, I think it’s going to get returned. We have Ethernet going to each TV wall mount so I was able to avoid WiFi but I tested the speed on the Ethernet and even it only got like 55mbps back to the wired Channels server and less going to internet speed tests (over our gigabit fiber internet).
That's the same speed I get on wireless. The Google tv is getting over 200 Mbps for a reference. Learned my lesson. Google tv or shield is the only way to go for Android TV.
Yeah that might end up being the solution we end up with. I did test the 43” Hisense A6G that we also got today. That got 175Mbps over WiFi when I just tested it. I’m very impressed with it but that’s the smallest size of that series, the 32” they sell is a totally different model number so it may or may not perform as well. I’ll report back, lol, it’s worth a shot.
Happy to report (in case anyone is out there searching for these part numbers) that the 32” Hisense H55 does work much better than the 32” TCL 3-series. Leaving it on hardware playback works on everything except 4K local files. Those play fine on Plex so it’ll do since I’m not likely to watch movies on this TV anyway.
Thanks for the help everyone!
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