[louis]

Hi Devs,

in live tv mode with the "0" key it is possible to switch between the last two watched channels. This does exactly what it describes, but consider the following use case:

I'm watching a channel, lets say channel 5. Now a commercial break starts...what i then normally do is start zapping with "channel up" till i found something which is not as annoying as a commercial break Let's say this is channel 23. After some minutes i'd like to check if the commercial break has finished...but when i press the "prev channel" key on my remote (which is mapped to 0) Kodi switches to channel 22. But I'd like that Kodi switches to channel 5.

It should be possible to implement this feature easily...just "remember" the last channel only after x seconds actually watching this channel. x should be configurable...for me 30s or 60s would be a reasonable value. 

What do you think about that? How think other users about that? Any chance that this feature will get implemented?

Thanks in advance and cheers ... Louis

[Atreyu]

They key is that you are actually switching channels.
When using the option to select ‘press ok to switch’ in livetv settings this will not happen.

I am not in favour of the suggested change, as this would trigger erratic results imho (crap, must not have been watching long enough landing on a random channel).

Would it be a solution for you to use the setting mentioned above ?
Otherwise, what i do is stop at a channel you like, switch (in one go) to the channel you were previously watching and then press ‘0’.

Another possible option is a handy addon that i use: KN Switchtimer service (kodi repo). You can set an autoswitch to an anticipated program straight from the guide. I find myself mainly using that one ( not for avoiding commercials though).

Hope it helps.

[louis]

They key is that you are actually switching channels.

Hi,
 yes...i switch channels since more than 40 years, that's the way i'm watching TV I don't like to decide just by some EPG Info if i want to switch to a channel, i want to see what's going on there. For sure this is some kind of "old school", but People are creatures of habit

Btw...I use the "adaptive switching" feature from TVH and allow to use 2 Tuners to pre-tune possible next channels...with that channel switching is really quick and makes fun.

For me it would be fine if this feature would be implemented with x = 0s as default (as described in my first post), so nothing would change for the users if they do not change this value intentionally. 

Cheers Louis

[Atreyu]

Okay man, good luck with your request.

[da-anda]

I'm with Atreyu here. We have the EPG preview feature for this kind of stuff. Also, I think whatever timespan you will be setting, it will not work for you every single time. But if you have tvh running, why not use of timeshift and then just skiip all the commercials? So tune the show when it starts, wait for like 20 mins and do something productive and then watch the entire show in one go while skipping commercials. That's what I used to do when I still watched TV (I moved to Netflix and Prime and barely watch TV now)

[louis]

Hi da-anda,
 

Also, I think whatever timespan you will be setting, it will not work for you every single time.

Sure, sometimes i'd get a wrong channel. But the current implementation only covers exactly one use case: you switch with the number keys directly from channel A to cannel B and want to come back again from channel B to channel A. And this is a rather narrowed functionality. With "my" approach more use cases are covered...this one by the way too...
 

But if you have tvh running, why not use of timeshift and then just skiip all the commercials? So tune the show when it starts, wait for like 20 mins and do something productive and then watch the entire show in one go while skipping Commercials.

I'm aware of this features, and for sure i use this features...but only in some situations (cool movie i want to watch for instance). Am I the only one on this planet who is watching TV without using his brain? For me it is some kind of relaxing just to stare in the box and not to think about how i do that. May be Kodi is a too sophisticated solution for that...

But nevertheless...i'm an experienced sparetime C++ developer. If a developer would kick me in the right direction and give me some hints where to start to dig into the Code, where the "last channel" Feature is implemented and what is the best approach to start a "timer" (may be in some Kind of a Action Loop or with a separate thread) to remember the last channel only after x seconds, i'd try to implement this feature on my own. For sure there should be a chance that a PR about this feature has a Chance to be accepted then

Cheers Louis

[louis]

PS: this feature is implemented in VDR exactly as described in my first post...so from my Point of view implementing this in Kodi would get Kodi PVR a little bit more to a "grown up" Live TV solution

[ksooo]

@louis  I'm with you, thus https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/14836

:-)

[louis]

Wow...thanks a lot!

[Atreyu]

Well there you go. Haha, nice!

[louis]

Hi Ksooo,

after updating to RC1 i was able to test this new feature the last days. Works like a charm!

Thanks again for implementing this!

Cheers Louis