Apple TV - Problems on Live TV (Guide and UI inconsistency)

Plex Players
1

Server Version#: Version 4.108.0 (Linux)
Player Version#: 8.25
Tuner Make/Model: Silicon Dust
Guide/Lineup name: Not sure
Using XMLTV?: Not sure
Channel number/Name: All

I’ve been using Plex for about 2 weeks now and it’s replacing several programs for me. I’ve run into 2 glitches on Apple TV with the Live TV function:

  1. The guide info does not automatically update when a program ends and a new one begins. I think this is a player/client issue and likely not a server issue. Say I’m watching According to Jim on a local station (received through a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun tuner). When I go through the listing grid to pick a program to watch, all the metadata is appropriate. If I move to the current/now playing episode of According to Jim, I get the right program description. If I move to another channel or move to the next episode in the grid, the program description updates.

Then I start watching the current episode. At the end of htat half-hour (say, at 4:30), that episode ends and a new one starts. If, on the remote, I swipe down to see the metadata on the episode, it’s the same as the first one I started watching. If I wait until a new show starts, say, at 6:00, when multiple episodes of According to JIm finish and Home Improvement starts, then swipe down, the episode metadata, after several new episodes have started and ended, is still the same as the info for the show that was playing when I last picked a show to watch.

In other words, while the guide stays up to date, the metadata/episode description is never updated while playing. I have to go BACK to he grid to get that info updated. The show description under “info” when I swipe down never changes with the currently playing show, but it does update if I go back to the listing grid, then select the program I’m watching.

  1. When I’m watching Live TV and press “Menu” to go back to the listing grid, once the grid comes up, its behavior is inconsistent. For instance, sometimes I hit “Menu,” the image shrinks to a smaller image and I see the grid and however I move the cursor/select box, nothing happens. I have to hit Menu a second time so I get the sidebar menu. After that, I can select different shows to watch. Other times, when I hit “Menu,” from watching TV, it goes to the grid and I can move around and select shows without using Menu to bring up the sidebar. So sometimes it works one way, sometimes the other. (When I say the interface is non-responsive sometimes, that includes not being able to pick my video source or other features - there is NO response to my input from the remote at that point.)

The 2nd problem is just an annoyance. The first - well, I’m not sure just what is going on there. I know it’s not depending on the tuner, it’s depending on the guide data, which is clearly available. The client/player just isn’t detecting that a show has ended and a new one has started and it’s time to update the data. That’s frustrating to not have that data there.

2

Never got any responses, but I would think these issues would be known to others, yet no word on them.

Is there a way to fix either of these or should I report them as bugs?

3

I pretty much get the same thing. The Plex App is sometimes unresponsive when pressing ‘Menu’.

My issue with Live TV on the Plex App for Apple TV is navigation. Let me just say it’s trash. For instance, If I’m in the middle of the TV Guide, I want to go all the way to the top. My expectation is when I select my Plex Server. Navigation will go to the top and the first one that is selected is the first channel. For instance Channel 2.

Another issue is that if I’m scrolling up and want to scroll fast because of the swipe feature for Apple TV. It scrolls all the way to the top of the screen. I’m expecting a fast scroll, up and down the TV guide.

Anywho, Live TV needs to be fixed for the cord cutters. The Live TV experience is just terrible and feels forgotten. If anything, it needs a whole make over

4

Do you have the same issue with the program info for the current program? If you watch 2 (or more) shows in a row, without changing the channel, the program info does not update to the currently playing show - it stays the same as the first show unless you go back to the guide.

5

Okay, so apparently no way to fix this.

I have noticed the problem seems to be with updates to the programming schedule overall. If I’m watching a show and back out of it to the schedule grid, it’s hard to make sure I’m in “Now” and not in the last half hour or hour or however long it’s been since I started watching.

I’d like to file a bug report (but apparently that won’t help, since it seems, from the discussion on Continuous Autoplay, that Apple clients are a rather low priority in development). Since I’m only using tvOS and iOS devices, I’m not sure if this is a server bug or a client bug. I think I’d need a way to test it on other clients to be sure it’s not a server bug.

Can anyone give me an idea how to deal with that issue and report this? (I know the bug reporting link - but it talks about server bugs and not client bugs.)

6

So is there any way to get an answer on this?