"RokuJoel" wrote:
I think it is a bug, and i've filed it as such. The mobile team is also looking at adding a way to remove these "zombie" channels via the mobile app.
Sure, it will be best if this "feature" gets fixed.
Which is as simple as to "
stop hiding channels which are not manifesting mm_icon_focus_hd/mm_icon_focus_sd/mm_icon_side_hd/mm_icon_side_sd" - but instead show them with an "empty" icon (be it square with a question mark, or the loading icon* - who cares). This way the user can delete them on the player (or in mobile app, if for some odd reason they choose to).
What i meant is that at some point of time (likely long, long time ago - in fw3) someone has decided that if these attributes are missing, it's not kosher/halal to show the channel in the lineup. And then the "new UI" came and brought the unfortunate potential of "zombies". So in effect, it's a defect caused by two design decisions on top of each other. I was trying to drive the point home that well-intended things can have unexpected consequences.
Re smartphone-app-only solution, that would be an ugly band-aid. To start with, currently ECP /query/apps does not return the zombies. Yes, that can be patched with a web service but what about users w/o smartphone? When starting to patch patches on top of patches, that's wrong - one should zoom out and see the big picture instead.
(*) right now e.g. "Mazes" shows in my lineup without its icon - instead it's a transparent thumbnail with a progress-semicircle, which i am guessing remained from when player last restated and was trying to load the images and failing on that particular channel. Point is, there is already code and "default" icon of sorts to use when needed.