TVOS 11.2 and Channels with LG C7

That’s not true at all. MrMC and Infuse both do dynamic range switching and refresh rate switching and they don’t use the stock Apple video player.

Removing the switch to SDR sucks, and I’ve been using other apps to catch up on all the stuff I missed while I was on a trip last week.

I wasn’t aware other apps with custom players work. I’ve looked at the Infuse website. They switched their video rendering to Metal and perhaps this is why it works with 11.2. Or they have managed to get the API to work whereas the Channels developers have run into issues.
Anyway I know switching is what people want and the developers appreciate that too it seems. However some people with various makes of TVs are having trouble with depth changing causing handshake or other HDMI issues. For these people the only way to get a reliable setup is to turn off dynamic switching. Because of the way the Channels implementation works it cannot be turned off using the aTVs settings. I think the developers are taking a responsible decision until they can get it to work “properly”.

The issue is the way Channels does it vs the others. Channels does it at the app level vs at the individual stream/video level like other apps.

I agree the way it is done at the app level is an issue in that it cannot be turned off. I don’t know much about it but I assume that as it is set in the Apps manifest there can’t be a switch in Channels settings either to turn it off for those who have HDMI issues.
I wouldn’t think that the app level switch causes any more HDMI issues than on a per video case.

I’m sure I remember @tmm1 saying that he had tried it at a per video rather than full app level setting but it kept crashing the app.

The app level doesn’t follow the user designated global ATV4K settings, while individual does. That allows people who have the issues to turn it off, while people who don’t have the issue to turn it on.

All of the content in Channels is SDR. Regardless of the HDHomerun you have, the recieved content is SDR. Everything is SDR. The ATV auto depth switching will automatically switch to HDR if using any other app to play HDR content.

We are all saying the same thing!

We know that all the content Channels displays is SDR so the original choice by the developers was to switch the aTV to SDR on app launch rather than per video to stop multiple switches in browsing the guide and channel hopping for example. The aTV then switches back to the users choice when the app quits or she changes to another app or the home screen.

Apple provided a way to do this but it cannot be switched off in the aTV Settings because it does not respect the Depth/Framerate toggle.

Some people get HDMI handshake issues with their setup when switches occur and need to turn off depth changing (or turn their TVs off and on again in my case). They can then either stick to HDR or SDR whichever they personally prefer.

Either Channels has to change to the swap per video option which will produce lots of switches but can be turned off if need be or Apple need to make the per app setting respect the user choice.

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If they are using their own player and it’s an issue with the Apple settings can’t they just put their own setting in the app?

I’ve been using tvOS 11.2 for a while now and I’ve found the switching to SDR when starting a video no problem whatsoever. One expects a small delay when starting a video anyway.

What I do find annoying is starting Channels and waiting for the Channels home screen to show (due to switching) and again when leaving Channels. It makes me resist looking for something to watch in Channels.

The act of looking for something to watch involves jumping between HBO, Netflix, Amazon and Channels (at least for me). I want that to be fast. Once I’ve picked something to watch, I don’t mind waiting perhaps an extra 1.5 seconds for the video to start. BTW, for this use case, there is less video switching when doing it per video.

Hi folks,

We are working on adding auto-switching into our custom player. Apple provided us with a work-around for the crash we were experiencing. However there’s no public API to ask for a specific range/framerate- the only way to do it is to create a hidden system player and use that to do the switching. I guess this is what Infuse/MrMC are doing and we are working on something similar.

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That was what the Apple “TV” app was supposed to do (which BTW has just launched in the UK) - show stuff to watch from multiple sources. Unfortunately there is no public API for an app like Channels to access. I believe from what has been said before that it is by invitation only. In the UK some of the main broadcaster apps ( BBC, ITV and Channel 5) are catered for but others (Sky, Channel4 and UKTV) are not. That along with Netflix being missing just makes the TV app a bust and it sits on my bottom row.

The hidden system player method is a bit dirty but c’est la vie.

Thanks for the update. It certainly helps clear things up. If you are using a hidden player can you make a setting that allows the user to choose to create either 1 player at launchtime for SDR (app level SDR) which only gets destroyed when the app quits or one per video stream (video level HDR) that is created on playback and destroyed on stopping each stream? Then everyone on this discussion would probably be happy.

Just curious, if the switching is changed to not occur until video playback starts, does that mean every time we jump from live TV back to the guide and then into another live channel, we’ll see switching? If that’s the case there could be many more delays than just the first time loading the app. Perhaps after switching for the first live channel selection, the app should keep in SDR mode until exiting back to the Main tvOS screen.

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A new tvOS beta is available which switches into SDR mode when the video player appears. Please try it out and report back on how it works with your setup.

Isn’t switching to SDR for me. Staying in HDR for both live TV and recordings.

It doesn’t switch for me.

Not switching for me either.

New build available with fix.

Working as intended now.

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