To complain about lacking TVnext progress

[denz 501]

I have over years tried Plex multiple times to see changes and just never liked it neither did any of my family they all like  emby and channels but of course would prefer to just use emby. I have only discovered and started using channels last year. When the tennis season is in Australia nearly all the channels play tennis so during January so I do a lot of channel changes with emby it’s a painful experience with channels delightfull still doesn’t beat the standard of live tv WMC unfortunately can’t be used on my new pc

[arrbee99 1815]

There was a brief period a while ago of Luke enabling fast switching, but think it buggered things up for some users.. Would be nice to have that in the meantime as some kind of switchable option (?)

[scb99 245]

The lack of progress on this is definitely hurting Emby. 4.9 was announced as a short beta cycle but has again stretched out.

I wish Emby could be a bit more transparent about milestones etc. JF is a bit rubbish in many ways but at least I can see what’s going on!!!

The only thing that makes sense to me at the moment with Emby is the priority that was given to the new Windows app.

Though I do understand there can be good reasons behind the scenes of course.

[unisoft 352]

On 06/04/2025 at 22:44, maegibbons said:

As one of the original testers of the most excellent tvnext created by @softworkzi can't tell you how bitterly disappointing it is that all the work that was done on it, what 4-5 years ago has STILL not been integrated in to emby yet!!!

As I understood it it was possible to integrate it with a --tvnext command line switch so it could be optionally tested with minimal extra code required.

Why have you let all that excellent work go to waste @Lukeyou should be ashamed.

Krs

Mark

Is it wasted though? Or just delayed because it needs to fit in with strategic roll out plans? For starters, everyone assumes it would be just an update that is free. Perhaps these changes plus some other major changes like complete UI change, as just one extra random example, are major enough to re-platform the major version and make it a new lifetime charge again.

[maegibbons 1287]

So you want us to pay more for waiting 5 years?

In terms of "strategic roll out plans, isn't 5 years long enough to have strategies, rolled out, debugged and mopped up?

Krs

 

Mark

[CharlesF 36]

7 hours ago, scb99 said:

The lack of progress on this is definitely hurting Emby. 4.9 was announced as a short beta cycle but has again stretched out.

I wish Emby could be a bit more transparent about milestones etc. JF is a bit rubbish in many ways but at least I can see what’s going on!!!

The only thing that makes sense to me at the moment with Emby is the priority that was given to the new Windows app.

Though I do understand there can be good reasons behind the scenes of course.

not only was it announced as a short beta cycle, but the updates they are pushing out now based on release notes appear to be minor....46 reports one fix, "* Additional SMB protocol-related fix".  How this is holding up closing out the beta cycle I'm not sure.

[arrbee99 1815]

4 hours ago, maegibbons said:

So you want us to pay more for waiting 5 years?

In terms of "strategic roll out plans, isn't 5 years long enough to have strategies, rolled out, debugged and mopped up?

Krs

 

Mark

Any enthusiasm for this has long gone for me, though admittedly I'll probably get some of it back when it eventually turns up, hopefully before the children retire.

[kikinjo 281]

i heard that we will see TVNext really soon, exactly after 14 more SMB fixes.

[jesmannstl 0]

I'm really interested in this or even testing on windows 

[Ronstang 293]

On 5/28/2025 at 7:15 PM, jesmannstl said:

I'm really interested in this or even testing on windows 

Me too, except not only have I been waiting almost 5 years from it being promised as right around the corner it has actually been completed and functioning for over a year.  It is like everything around here, don't consider it happening unless it has already happened.

[MadibaJ 20]

They're really desperate not to release this. Beta 4,9 is still going with a fixes now to the "other" folder. 

[ebr 16169]

11 hours ago, Ronstang said:

it has actually been completed and functioning for over a year

This is not correct.

[CharlesF 36]

1 minute ago, ebr said:

This is not correct.

then how about provide an update of substance?

[ebr 16169]

5 minutes ago, CharlesF said:

then how about provide an update of substance?

 

On 4/3/2025 at 10:05 AM, ebr said:

Please refer back to my multiple comments on this.

 

[CharlesF 36]

3 minutes ago, ebr said:

 

 

we all have.  and to be honest they have provided next to nothing.  

[bungee91 133]

I didn't know it was time for our ~quarterly revolt. Let me go grab my pitchfork! 

[Ronstang 293]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

This is not correct.

Semantics?  Softworkz has been using the completed TVNext for  at least a year according to him and I have no reason to doubt what he says.  He even told me that the reason not to include it in emby was not on him and also made no sense to him. 

Whether true or not I think I remember something about the core of emby being rewritten and thus the completed module TVNext no longer worked correctly so then it has to be updated and that is the hold up.  If that is correct then what I said is true, TVNext was completed and compatible but not included.  If this is correct you are technically true here to but functionally you are gaslighting. 

This is the problem for the emby team...no one believes what you say anymore.  You are like the Democrat Party, our eyes see something different from what you say.  Emby has been broken in the web app for me since last Feb and it is not getting corrected because I have to wait for the new beta, but 16 months?  Really?

I apologize for busting your chops.  I have nothing against any of you, I am just frustrated from having smoke blown in my face for 5 years on this issue.  The reason I came to emby and the reason I bought Premiere was for the promise of LiveTV actually functioning properly right around the corner back in the fall of 2020.  I have concluded there is a "Decider", as in KING here and all of you have to haul the water and suffer the consequences for him but whoever he is he has absolutely no clue how to run a business.

Once again, I will reiterate. I love emby and I use it every day in some capacity but my frustration is in not being able to use it the way I want, they way that I was told it would be soon all those years ago.  I just don't post much here anymore because the only thing I really care about is TVNext and I am worn out on purposely vague promises.  Being vague is a form of lying people whether you admit it to yourselves or not. 

[Dibbes 514]

1 hour ago, bungee91 said:

I didn't know it was time for our ~quarterly revolt. Let me go grab my pitchfork! 

I missed the last few... think I lost the habit

I did get my hopes up when I saw versioning going from .0.60 to .1.0... saw only next day it was still classified as beta... :-(

[bungee91 133]

2 minutes ago, Dibbes said:

I missed the last few... think I lost the habit

I did get my hopes up when I saw versioning going from .0.60 to .1.0... saw only next day it was still classified as beta...

That's funny, as I had the exact same reaction with .1.0!

@softworkz you still actively coding this TvNext to get it to the point of addition? 

[ebr 16169]

3 hours ago, CharlesF said:

and to be honest they have provided next to nothing.  

I have fully answered the question repeatedly.  Don't know what else to do.

[Dibbes 514]

3 hours ago, ebr said:

I have fully answered the question repeatedly.  Don't know what else to do.

Erik, from an expectation management perspective, the most important thing you can do right now is to restore trust through radical transparency. The situation, as it stands, doesn’t inspire confidence and hasn't for years, but there are some practical steps you can take immediately to start turning that around:

• Clarify the Beta Timeline
  People are asking because they care. Avoiding the topic fuels speculation and often negativity no matter how many bugs you squash and how hard the team has worked. If the current beta cycle has a projected end date, share it, even if it's subject to change. What I've learned over the years about SDLC is that it's all about adapting (Agile), but to keep your community and users happy, it also requires to have to have some visibility. Communicate clearly: “The current beta cycle is expected to run until [date], with reviews at each sprint to validate readiness for release.” The Emby team took the first step towards this years ago with the open beta programme, maybe it's time for the next step.

• Share the Roadmap
  Does TV-Next have a delivery roadmap? If not, maybe it's time to draft one. It doesn't need to be a rigid Gantt chart, just a high-level view of milestones, sprint goals, and feature releases. If you do have one, make it public (or at least customer-facing). Transparency breeds confidence, and Agile lives, no, thrives on that openness. People understand delays, but they crave honesty and progress tracking, especially for a much anticipated add-on like this.

If you're facing blockers or scope creep, say so. Turn the community into your allies by showing them the plan and how you’re adjusting as needed. This can be a limited audience, you do not have to announce this to the whole world. Also, this isn’t about promising perfection. It’s about continuous delivery, fast meaningful feedback, course correction, and keeping your community, which is already very dedicated as a lot have been around here for a decade or more, happy.

TL;DR:

• Set a target end date for the beta phase

• Publish a delivery roadmap with major milestones

• Communicate often, adjust openly, and be transparent about what’s next

That’s how you manage expectations and keep people engaged.

Edited May 30, 2025 by Dibbes

[arrbee99 1815]

As mentioned, half a decade of 'soon' really doesn't amount to anything much.

[denz 501]

Beta was supposed to be short this time around but it is turning same as the previous one very disappointing that we can start testing something that was said was ready for long time .

[Dibbes 514]

Interesting... 3 days and zip, nada, nothing after suggesting to be transparent... 

[kikinjo 281]

40 minutes ago, Dibbes said:

Interesting... 3 days and zip, nada, nothing after suggesting to be transparent... 

They are fixing the SMB