Up Next Broken / Continue Watching Needed

Channels DVR Server Troubleshooting
#1

Despite there being several posts requesting a "Continue Watching" section, they seem to be marked as solved with reference to "Up Next" which is pretty useless for me with the current broken functionality. I thought it would be best for me to post my own topic:

This is not how Up Next works for me. I've found dozens of posts from doing a search of others requesting this so I assume this is not working properly for several people.

Right now I am going through an old TV show that has episodes going back to 2018. Up Next always shows an episode from March 22, 2019, as the "Up Next" episode. I have several episodes from 2018 and earlier in 2019 that I want to watch before I watch the one that Channels is telling me is "Up Next"

Finding the show I want to continue is a TERRIBLE experience.

I have to click on the Wrong Up Next show > Explore Show. At this point sometimes the shows are ordered newest to oldest and sometimes oldest to newest. It seems to change often and I'm not sure why. The font and layout also seems to change week over week - sometimes there are mini descriptions below each episode.

From this point I need to select the older season from the list and scroll all the way to the end to find the old 2018 episode. Each episode is 3 hours long so I often do not finish them in a single session, leaving them half watched.

This half watch episode still doesn't show up as Up Next. I still have to go through the same process to resume the episode I started watching. It is a massive pain. So both Up Next is broken and never shows the next episode that I want to watch and also does not prioritize Continue Watching episodes.

I think this needs to be reworked.

#2

Please submit diagnostics from your dvr and email support with a list of shows and which episode you expected would appear and which episode actually appeared.

#3

Will do - certainly with the several responses of "Up Next" supposed to be showing the "Continue Watching" episode - that is always the one I would expect to show next there but it doesn't seem related at all. Is that what happens normally?

1 Like
#4

Yes that's what is supposed to happen. If I see the diagnostics and know what to look for I can figure out why it's not working.

#5

Thanks for the quick reply (you are awesome!). I have submitted email and diagnostics.

1 Like
#6

Great. I will have a look tomorrow. Remind me next week if you don't hear back.

#7

Thank you for your diagnostics. I was able to see several issues causing it not to work as expected for you.

The next DVR release contains some big improvements which should make Up Next a lot more useful for you.

3 Likes
#8

@tmm1 this is not working for me, we'll about half of the time it isn't. I have narrowed it down to some imported content. Works fine on some shows and others are completely ignored.

#9

I believe imported content will not be considered for Up Next until you play an episode through first. While recordings will automatically populate the list, imports will not.

#10

Are you sure? I came here to post an issue I'm having. I have all seasons and episodes of a TV series (rips from dvd). The show is marked as hidden in the library. I created a virtual channel that shows the episodes in order. When I'm in the Channels Guide and choose the TV series that is airing on TVE (like USA channel) i'm asked if I want to play from the library or TVE. Choosing either option, the tv show will then appear in Up Next despite that it should be hidden.

#11

I've played through dozens of episodes of am imported series and no currently watching or next episodes show in up next. (for about 50% of my imported content) some work fine..

#12

It needs reworked. As I've mentioned multiple times, it is not useful as is and a separate continue watching section needs to be added that consists solely of shows you started watching and haven't finished.

Between everything I record and everything I import, I have a large amount of content.

Right now the Up Next has shows listed and there is no rhyme or reason why they are there. There are shows listed in the first few slots that I haven't even watched recently, yet the latest episode is listed there. It's non-sensical.

1 Like
#13

Please submit diagnostics and email me the name of the show

#14

This seems like the best UX. Having a separate section that pops up on top of Up Next for Continue Watching that shows any shows that are currently in progress if there are any. If you don't have any partially watched shows, it just doesn't show the Continue Watching section.

#15

That is what happens for in-progress movies; presently it does not include to TV episodes. (At least, on tvOS this is the behavior.)

#16

Diagnostics submitted.

"The Chase" is the show I can't figure out why it would be listed as 'Up Next'. I also can't figure out why 'CBS Evening News' would be in there over other programs. There's just no rhyme or reason for any of this based on my viewing habits.

I think the "Up Next" might work for some people's usage habits, but for some of us it's completely non-sensical.

There are a few series I'm watching in order and they sometimes show up in the 'Up Next" top 6 but often don't. So the ones I actually would want to show up because I am watching them fairly regularly often don't.

I would prefer an option on a show where you could do long press on the show and select a 'Include in Up Next" option. That would be much more helpful if I could manage myself. Then the top 6 at least could be shows that I actively want to monitor.

1 Like
#17

I took up next off my Clients rather use enhance library UPNEXT never made any sense to me. At least in library view I get Continue Watching movies ...

#18

This would be great. I completely agree that the Up Next never made sense to us. We have a lot of shows and can't find the ones we want to watch in Up Next because it always seems to shuffle so we never used it.

Trying to hunt down the next episode of an old show that we have lots of episodes of has been a chore. It seems that up next is showing whatever was recently recorded versus what we watch most or watch most recently. It just doesn't fit our watching behavior and makes finding what we want to watch a pain.

My thought is if Continue Watching is supposed to be combined with Up Next (not ideal) it should prioritize like this:

  1. Partially watched / unfinished episodes (Favorited first)
  2. Shows specifically marked as Favorites
  3. Shows watched most recently, oldest / next episode first
  4. Shows watched most frequently, oldest / next episode first

I don't think shows recorded most recently should trump the above like it does today, especially if older unwatched episodes of the same show already exist. Recently recorded episodes shouldn't bump them up - we aren't going to skip ahead, need to watch in order!

#19

Can you tell me more about this show. It seems you've been recording it for a while, and recently all the episodes were deleted before a new one was recorded yesterday (1/5).

Is this a show you've been watching? Or did you just delete all the episodes without watching them?

The idea here was that if I setup a pass two weeks ago for a upcoming show, and then today it finally records a new episode, that episode would appear in Up Next so I can see that my show finally aired and I can watch it easily.

#20

The whole point of up next is to help you watch in order. If it's not working that way then its due to a bug. Clearly it works fine for us, so we are trying to figure out what these edge cases are that cause it not to work and fix them.

There's a new build uploading now which will fix the issue you were seeing on Live PD.