Recording one-off shows and other problems with Recommendations

[prl]

When I try to set up a recording of a one-off show, like a movie, from the Android app, doesn't offer any way of selecting whether the recording will be a single or a series recording. It just goes right ahead and creates a series recording for no apparently good reason.

The screen to create the recording just has the fields Device, Record (first runs/repeats), Network, Quality, Time and Limit. It doesn't have the "Series recording/Single recording" radio buttons that you get when you set up a recording from TV Guide or Search in the app.

Also, even though the recording setup screen from TV Guide or Search has "Series recording/Single recording" radio buttons, they default to "Series recording" for a one-off show like a movie. That may a hint as to be why recording a one-off from Recommendations creates a series recording.

Also, if you set up a recording for a repeat from the app's Recommendations, the recording defaults to "First runs". Worse, there's no way of telling whether a recording set this way is a repeat or not, except by going back to Search or TV Guide.

If a recording of the same repeat is set up from TV Guide or Search, it will default to "First runs and repeats".

Once a one-off show has been created as a series recording, there's no way of changing it back to one-off that I can find in the app.

If a repeated one-off show is set up for recording as a Single recording by going through TV Guide or Search, there are no controls available to select whether you want to record first runs or repeats (the only field available to set in a Single recording is Device). This appears to do the right thing, but perhaps it would be useful if the Record field was shown.

Finally, when you tap on an "Episode scheduled to record" entry in an existing recording in the app, you get a popup with the question "Cancel Recording?" and the buttons "Yes" and "Cancel", which I think is a bit less clear than it could be. Perhaps "Yes" and "Keep recording" might be clearer.

I'm using the IceTV Android app version 1.30.

I tested the above on War Horse (one-off, repeat) and The Real Mary Poppins (series, repeat) in the ACT guide.

[prl]

Now that the IceFolk are back from the break... bump...

[Dave at IceTV]

Thanks Peter.

I did forward this on with a comment saying that it was nice of you to collate all of the Android quirks into one page to make it easier when we update the Android app.

[prl]

Thanks, Dave

[prl]

Thanks Peter.

I did forward this on with a comment saying that it was nice of you to collate all of the Android quirks into one page to make it easier when we update the Android app.

Any chance of that update happening some time?

[prl]

Is there likely to be any work done on these problems with the Android app?

[prl]

My Android phone downloaded an update to the IceTV app earlier today. Unfortunately, the brief release notes didn't mention anything that might be a fix for these problems.

In any case, I'll give the new application a try and see if anything that I mentioned here has been improved.

I'm a little disappointed about the apparent lack of action on problems that affect key functions of the app.

[prl]

OK, first attempt - Try to set a recording for Knocked Up, Movie - Repeat from Recommendations in the updated Android IceTV app:

• When I tap on Set & Record and go to the setup screen, if I tap on any of the dropdown menus, they're like the Bellman's map - "A perfect and absolute blank!"
• If I poke around in the dropdowns and set the correct device and select First runs and repeats (although the movie is known to be a repeat, the app usefully pre-selects "First runs only"), when I tap Apply, then go to My Week, the movie is not listed there. Neither is it listed in My Week on my IceTV Web pages.
• Using Sync in the app doesn't change anything.
• The Android app's page on Google Play tells me "This app is compatible with all of your devices." and it correctly lists the devices I use Google Play on. This is consistent with the "Requires Android: 4.0 and up" note at the bottom of the Google Play page for the app.
  

I can't find any first-run movies or repeat series in what remains of this week's recommendations to test any of the other issues I had with earlier versions of the app.

IceTV Android app 1.34
Samsung Galaxy S4 Android 5.0.1

[prl]

A smaller issue: on all of the details pages for shows, the icons for the status/action list at the bottom of the show's page are all rendered as too large for their space (overlap onto the text slightly) and are horribly pixilated. They're about 2x the scale that they should be.

The similar icons at the top left of the details pages and in other screens like My Shows, TV Guide and Search are all rendered correctly at the correct size.

The issue seems to be restricted to the icons at the bottom of the details pages for shows.

IceTV Android app 1.34
Samsung Galaxy S4 Android 5.0.1

[prl]

A smaller issue: on all of the details pages for shows, the icons for the status/action list at the bottom of the show's page are all rendered as too large for their space (overlap onto the text slightly) and are horribly pixilated. They're about 2x the scale that they should be.

IceTV Android app 1.34
Samsung Galaxy S4 Android 5.0.1

My phone updated the app to 1.35 this morning. It didn't help with this problem (and I wouldn't have expected it to from the 1.35 release notes).

[prl]

The problems I reported at the head of the topic are still present in version 1.36 of the app, nearly two and a half years on from when I first reported them.

Is there any intention at all to fix them?