In case this hopefully helps someone else, I was able to implement a scheme yesterday to pause and buffer one channel of the multiview to watch something in quasi real time, or just to play a recording or even a virtual channel on one of your channels on the multiview screen. I tried this last sunday and ran into latency issues, but yesterday I found a workaround, in case anyone wants to try this. You will need an hdmi encoder, a client device like a firestick or ONN box and familiarity with ah4c , etc. If you already have an ah4c tuner setup with an ONN box, firestick, or second apple tv you are already 95% there.
1: Have your main apple tv using multiview
2: set up a custom channel with your second box using an hdmi encoder. I am using an onn box, a link pi encoder and ah4c, and had already set up the tuner for other things on that box.
3: install channels dvr on your ah4c tuner box. In my case an ONN.
4: create an entry in your M3u on your server for the ONN tuner that points to a new “dummy” stream that will actually be a 2nd channels dvr hdmi encoded output stream from the ONN box.
5: modify your bmitune and stopbmitune accordingly, with a case entry for the dummy “channels dvr channel”. In this case, I dont tune or do anything in bmitune other than to open the channels app using adb commands. My stopbmitune force quits the channels app on the onn box, and prepares the tuner for next time use, just like you would do for any other ah4c tuner channel on your tuner boxes.
6: now on your channels server you need to add the new custom “dummy” channel. I had already set up my Onn box to act as a tuner using ah4c on docker using portainer. So all I needed to do here was to refresh the M3U for my ONN tuner and redownload the guide in the channels DVR server
Now on your main Apple TV , open channels DVR , and you can multiplay this new “dummy” channel. You should see an idle instance of the ONN client channels dvr come up from your hdmi encoder. Now with your ONN remote, or a even a clever sofabaton implementation, find your favorite game, virtual channel, recording, etc on the ONN client and HAVE FUN!
At the moment Im playing music videos from one of my virtual channels on the ONN box in Multiview on my main Apple TV. I can play pause, etc. - basically its a full instance of channels, controlled by the other client, but in one of the multiview windows. No latancy issues , and control of the dummy channel with your remote is very usable.
excellent for quasi real time playback for live events. Grab a snack, take a restroom break, come back and catch up to your favorite program within multiview.