user experience to switch channels: room for improvement IMHO

[Gui76 6]

Hi,

 

I use 3 different emby clients: web client, android mobile, and android TV

 

On Android TV, switching between channels, seeking for something to watch (one of the main use cases, I guess), is OK IMHO.

Press UP, and you have a quick way to switch between channels, seeing what is currently playing on each of them.

or you press DOWN, and the OSD there is the button to display the mini guide (4 lines only), which allows for quick switching as well - even if I wish I did not have to press Play to really start the stream

On a side note, it is actually VERY slow to tune on my Shield (like 10 seconds or so on Android TV, vs 1 second only on my Android phone and tablet, making emby barely usable for live TV on the big screen, but it's another story). The point is that it's relatively painless to switch to another channel.

 

Of course having a remote with arrow keys changes everything.

BTW it would be nice to leverage all 4 directions IMO, for the most commonly used shortcuts. It could be something like

- up/down does like today

- left/right acts as an instant channel down/up

 

 

In the web client (which does not work either for me - black screen - hopefully solved in the next update apparently) and on Android mobile (where everything is working fine for me - so great for tablet consumption), the workflow to switch between channels is very painful, I find.

 

You select a channel, either via the guide or via the channel list.

Let's suppose you click the channel name in the guide.

The EPG of the selected channel appears.

You click play. the stream starts.

 

Now you want to go to the next channel. You have to:

1. make the OSD appear

2. click BACK. You are back at the EPG of the current channel

3. click BACK again, to see the guide again

4. scroll up/now to find something else

5. click the channel name. You are back at the EPG of the selected channel

6. click play

 

so 2 times BACK + scroll + 2 clicks, to switch to the next channel.... 

You better think twice before tuning to that other channel, make sure it's worth it! :-)

 

Maybe the android TV client uses some platform-specific features, I don't know, but isn't it possible to have something like it, at least from a functional point of view, to allow for a  more convenient way of switching between channels, on the other platforms?

 

- a button to make a list appear, showing a mini OSD (with just channel name - current show). You scroll to pick the one you want, and with ONE click anywhere in the line, the new stream immediately starts

- a channel up/down button in the OSD at the very least

- or anything else, really, that would make it less cumbersome

 

What do you think? Or is it just me who finds the current workflow sub-optimal?

 

Thanks!

 

[Luke 37049]

Hi there, yes we are working on improving this. Thanks for the feedback.