Channels for Android and Fire TV — Release Notes

Version 4.9.4

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

FIXED: Shows would not disappear after last episode was deleted
FIXED: Header would be obstructed by the status bar on newer phones
FIXED: Crash that could happen when adding server side settings for the sidebar

Version 4.9.3

Sun, 27 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

FIXED: Away from Home login was crashing

Version 4.9.2

Sun, 20 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

IMPROVED: Start up performance with large DVR library

Version 4.9.0

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

NEW: Full support for the new Google TV Streamer
IMPROVED: ATSC3 audio compatability in certain regions
IMPROVED: Decreased size of Remote Streaming cache
IMPROVED: Stream link compatibility with Peacock
IMPROVED: Stream link support for intent prototocol
IMPROVED: Support AV1 hardware decoding where available
FIXED: Seeking improvements for broadcast recordings in some scenarios

Version 4.8.0

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

NEW: Picture in Picture Availability setting can be used to dismiss PIP automatically when leaving the Guide or leaving the app
NEW: Sidebar navigation supports updated Server Side Setting allowing custom ordering of items
NEW: TV Shows now have their own Commercial Skipping setting
NEW: TV Shows and Video Groups now have their own Auto Play setting
NEW: TV Shows and Video Groups can be set to automatically show Closed Captions
NEW: Video Groups are now eligible for Up Next
NEW: Recently watched channels are now available as a native collection in Guide and On Now
NEW: Double-click center button in the player to jump to last channel
FIXED: Guide data could fail to load in some cases
FIXED: Refreshing guide data is now more reliable
FIXED: Scroll position was not being retained in the guide when switching sidebar items
FIXED: The Home tab should once again be able to be mapped to remote buttons
FIXED: Rare crash when changing Show settings
FIXED: Rare video playback issues
FIXED: Video playback issue in last build
FIXED: Watch Order setting was not working on Video groups
FIXED: Adjust Recording Options was creating duplicate recording jobs
FIXED: Recently Updated in TV Shows view should now sort correctly

Version 4.7.1

Fri, 12 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

FIXED: Video playback issues on some devices
FIXED: Crashes in some rare scenarios

Version 4.7.0

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

NEW: The Library section has been renamed to Home and moved to top of the sidebar navigation
NEW: Search page has been redesigned and now allows filtering by content type and includes episode results
NEW: Recordings view has been rewritten and now is a multi-pane view on larger screens or in landscape view
NEW: Shuffle playback option for TV shows
NEW: Support for streaming YouTube trailers via URL
NEW: Supports individual closed caption setting on TV Shows
NEW: Test Surround Sound option under Support
NEW: Experimental support for AV1 playback
IMPROVED: Hardware decoding of VP9 videos on supported devices
IMPROVED: Error messages when a recording is not found or corrupted
IMPROVED: Channel tuning time for DVB broadcasts
IMPROVED: Tuning speed on some DVB-S streams with missing subtitles/teletext
IMPROVED: Remote streaming improvements
IMPROVED: Channels is now more reliable on low-memory devices
FIXED: Library Collection sort order was not being correctly used
FIXED: Some rows in the Kids Section were not sorted correctly
FIXED: Some sections were not loading correctly via the Channels API
FIXED: Rare Guide crashes were happening when transitioning between playing content and navigating to the guide
FIXED: Rare crashes while watching Live TV and displaying the guide

Version 4.6.6

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

NEW: Provide a list of up to 3 of the most recently connected servers when selecting At Home to connect to a DVR
NEW: Add the timeout parameter for /api/notify to match iOS/tvOS
IMPROVED: ATSC3 tuning speed
IMPROVED: Error messages when connecting to older HDHomeRun units
IMPROVED: Error messages when streaming remotely now have more detail beyond "Transcoder Reset", now including HDHR errors like "Tuner Unreachable", "All Tuners In Use" and M3U errors like "Stream Limit Reached"
IMPROVED: Error messages when playing Live TV at home will have more informative messages
IMPROVED: Channels that are not in a subscription but aren't properly handled by the HDHR will now be reported as "Not Subscribed"
IMPROVED: Allow for pressing play when an error is displayed to restart the stream
IMPROVED: Error messages when a recording is not found or corrupted
UPDATED: Remove unused Diagnostic reason pop-up
UPDATED: Reduce the HLS cache for recordings to only keep cached segments for 3 days instead of 10
UPDATED: Move the HLS cache for recordings from the persistent data directory back to the cache directory to make it easier to delete via system menus
FIXED: Crash that could happen when viewing the guide
FIXED: Long delay that could happen when finishing watching Live TV when Original Quality Delivery is set to Stream
FIXED: The player could stop abruptly in the middle of a recording when streaming via HLS
FIXED: Unusual situation when using HLS with low disk space that could cause video to prematurely stop
FIXED: Don't display error after playback failure on Virtual Channels
FIXED: Seeking forward when using HLS with limited available disk space could cause playback of a recording to be prematurely ended

Version 4.6.4

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

IMPROVED: Image caching
IMPROVED: Internal diagnostics
FIXED: Unusual crashes

Version 4.6.3

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

NEW: Support for stream links from the Guide via Custom Channels
NEW: Better support for WMV files
NEW: TV Show images with mismatched aspect ratios are now displayed better
NEW: Support custom crop set for images on the dvr web UI
IMPROVED: Error messages when Live TV connection is closed
IMPROVED: Episodes without art will use the show art
IMPROVED: Stream links will now show thumbnails if available from TMDB
IMPROVED: Movies, TV Shows, and Collections without art now have a titled placeholder instead of the logo placeholder
IMPROVED: Performance improvement for remote streaming
FIXED: On Later was not showing movie titles correctly
FIXED: Remote playback of trailers and subtitles
FIXED: Trash all Items option was appearing on phones even with server side setting to disallow deletion

Version 4.6.2

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

NEW: Optionally force video delivery to use Streaming (HLS) or Direct (default) when using original quality
NEW: Support section in Settings now displays remote streaming cache size and a way to clear it
NEW: Scheduled job to clean up old cached recordings daily
IMPROVED: Caching for HLS (Remote) streaming to match iOS/tvOS implementation
IMPROVED: Buffering when tuning into live channel
IMPROVED: More metadata tags show for content (HD, 4K, Atmos, DTS, etc)
IMPROVED: Software decoding option on Stream+
FIXED: Seeking could cause playback to restart with certain recordings when Home Streaming is enabled
FIXED: Playback state could get reset to unwatched at the end of a recording
FIXED: Playing VC1 video with hardware decoder selected could show a blank screen
FIXED: Server-side setting for Virtual Channels > Tuning In was not being set

Version 4.6.1

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

FIXED: Streaming errors while away from home
FIXED: Errors playing some TVE channels like HSN

Version 4.6.0

Fri, 13 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

IMPROVED: Better error messages when remote streaming errors occur
IMPROVED: Support for Windows 11 Subsystem for Android
FIXED: Closed captions were not working with some mp4 files
FIXED: Remote Shortcut for Live TV could crash the app

Version 4.5.1

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

NEW: Support for the custom editable sort title for Movies and TV Shows
NEW: Support for the custom sorting options for Video Groups
IMPROVED: Context menu options in the Library allow easier access to upcoming airings, adding shows to collections, and more
IMPROVED: Support for named hosts when adding a local Channels DVR Server
FIXED: Remote streaming seek issues
FIXED: Badges are now updating properly on the Library episodes view

Version 4.5.0

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

NEW: On Later is now available on Android
NEW: Progress bars appear on On Now, Guide and Quick Guide
NEW: View and edit Device Name under Settings > General
NEW: Current time notch on the Guide
NEW: Support for automatic keyword filters in Channel Collections
FIXED: Currently airing items on the Guide were misaligned when starting after the half hour
FIXED: Virtual channels were showing incorrect timing for "In X minutes" on the timline and quick guide
FIXED: Timeline was not showing padding for recordings still in-progress
FIXED: Some crashes in the player

Version 4.4.1

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

NEW: Select future virtual channel program to watch from that point forward
NEW: Settings > Playback > Seek Options lets you control whether the timeline appears during quick seeks
NEW: Support for Playback Speed in Show options
NEW: Support for allow/block labels via server-side settings
IMPROVED: Bonjour discovery now uses native Android APIs
IMPROVED: No timeline appears on screen when switching to the next program on a virtual channel
IMPROVED: Use the play button on your remote to play a future virtual airing on the guide directly
IMPROVED: Better diagnostic logging when a player error is displayed
FIXED: Placeholder guide data was missing record option
FIXED: Crash when playing virtual channel
FIXED: Start from Beginning button could appear incorrectly on virtual channels after switching to a new program with commercial markers
FIXED: Advanced video decoder setting was not appearing on FireOS 5 devices
FIXED: Trash all Items option was not working from Library

Version 4.4.0

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

NEW: Server-side setting to make clients match DVR's source priority
NEW: New options to define what happens when you tune into a Virtual Channel: Start Live, Start From Beginning, Ask, or the new inline Start From Beginning button
NEW: New resume option for resuming recordings: In Player Button - This will auto resume your recording, with a button showing offering you the ability to start from the beginning
IMPROVED: The Quick Guide will match the currently playing program when the channel has been timeshifted
IMPROVED: Video player was not fitting screen correctly on mobile devices with a cut-out
IMPROVED: Error display when Live TV stream fils
IMPROVED: Pressing play after a Live TV error will now restart playback
IMPROVED: Notifications when network errors are detected
IMPROVED: Expose Keep Forever and Mark as Favorite options for episodes
IMPROVED: Caching and playback behavior when streaming away from home
IMPROVED: WMV/WMA audio/video codecs
IMPROVED: Support for vudu stream links
FIXED: Guide data for older programs would disappear when time-shifting for a couple of hours
FIXED: Hitting the Play button on an Up Next item starts playing
FIXED: MPAA and TV ratings were hard to read
FIXED: Imported .strm was not playing back
FIXED: Timeline text would be overlapped when image was missing
FIXED: Clicking back in Resume/Start from Beginning dialog was not working
FIXED: Virtual channel would skip ahead when moving to next program
FIXED: Rotated videos were not playing back correctly with Hardware decoder
FIXED: Watching a movie would show Watch Next button at the end on phone/tablet
FIXED: Some videos would fail to play with Hardware decoder (player will switch to software automatically)

Version 4.3.2

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

FIXED: Content ratings were not appearing correctly
FIXED: Video player stats was not showing tuner signal levels

Version 4.3.1

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

NEW: View MPAA and TV ratings, and browse movies by rating in Enhanced Libary mode
IMPROVED: Remote streaming reliability
IMPROVED: Add support for Opus audio
IMPROVED: Timeline more accurately represents available playback when using HLS
FIXED: Issue with Library Collection contents not being sorted correctly
FIXED: Seeking multiple times when watching remotely would sometimes jump backward
FIXED: Crash that could happen after watching TV for an extended period of time due to memory exhaustion

Version 4.3.0

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

NEW: Support for Library Collections on your DVR
NEW: Support for Videos imported on your DVR
NEW: Support for Automatic Channels on your Channel Collections
NEW: Support for custom artwork uploaded into the DVR
FIXED: Non-standard aspect ratio images were not appearing correctly
FIXED: App could show stale recordings data after waking device from sleep
FIXED: Playback could stall at the end of some recordings breaking features like Auto Play and Virtual Channels