Picture, sound and reliability

Change the decoder only if a channel won’t play. For supported H.264 and HEVC streams, choosing Bundled FFmpeg keeps that software engine selected even when playback learning or recovery requires software decoding. Bundled FFmpeg can decode streams the hardware refuses, but it works the processor hard — and if only one channel needs it, set it on that channel from the player menu instead of here, so the rest of your channels keep the faster hardware decoder.

Per-item settings stay on this device: a decoder or an audio delay describes this box and this speaker setup, so copying them to your other TVs would cause the very problem they were set to fix. Each one shows Default until you change it, and Reset this channel puts it back.

If a channel plays but stutters, and it plays cleanly in another app on the same box, try Reset playback learning. It is on a different page to the rest of this card: Settings → Streaming & reliability, then open Advanced. TiviGlass remembers when a channel failed to decode and quietly uses the slower software decoder for that format afterwards. That is usually right, but it can stick on a box that is perfectly capable, and software decoding works the processor hard enough to make the picture judder. Resetting clears what it learned so the hardware decoder is tried again. It takes effect on the next channel you open, not on the one playing now. Self diagnostics (how-to 65) will tell you whether this is happening: look for Software decoding forced, which says whether your box has a working hardware decoder for the format it has been avoiding.

A few formats depend on your equipment rather than on TiviGlass, and no setting changes them. Dolby TrueHD needs a receiver or soundbar that accepts it directly — unlike Dolby Digital and DTS, there is no way for TiviGlass to decode it in software, so on a TV’s own speakers a TrueHD track cannot play and TiviGlass will say so rather than fall silent. Dolby Vision on a screen that does not support it plays the HDR10 layer of the same picture. AV1 needs Android 10 or newer. MPEG-2, which older European standard-definition channels still use, plays on TV boxes but is missing from most phones and tablets.

Even out volume is the answer to channels that are wildly different volumes. Levelling is available on Android 9 or later and has to decode and process the audio. When Even out volume is on, Automatic passthrough switches to PCM. Force on keeps Dolby/DTS untouched and prevents levelling. A receiver showing Multichannel PCM can still be receiving 5.1; PCM does not mean stereo. If Surround sound is Off, TiviGlass prefers a stereo soundtrack; Stereo PCM is expected when one is selected. Leave Surround sound On to keep a multichannel track while levelling. If live channels play with a picture but no sound — while movies and shows are fine — turn Surround sound off. It means your TV or speaker is stereo only and can’t play the Dolby track those channels carry. Bluetooth speakers are always stereo only.

Surround sound and Audio passthrough are not the same setting. Surround sound chooses which soundtrack to play; passthrough chooses how it’s sent to your equipment. Setting passthrough to Off keeps surround — TiviGlass just decodes it itself instead of handing it over. Passthrough changes apply on the next channel or episode.

When Live AI captions are enabled, Automatic passthrough decodes live sound inside TiviGlass so the on-device caption engine can hear it. Force on remains a literal override and can prevent live captions from receiving audio; use Automatic or Off with captions.

Choosing a Default subtitle language turns Subtitles on by default on for you — they are two settings but one intention, and a language on its own would never show you anything. Leave the language on Stream default to take whichever track the stream marks as its own default. Bottom padding lifts subtitles clear of a broadcaster’s on-screen banner. Turning subtitles on and choosing a language is always free; the cosmetic styling is part of Premium.

A few European channels carry their subtitles as DVB bitmap images rather than text. TiviGlass cannot display those, so they are left out of the subtitle list instead of appearing as a track that does nothing when you pick it. Search subtitles is the way round it.

Subtitle search is free — finding a file that already exists is an accessibility feature. Only live transcription is Premium, and it isn’t available on every device: it needs about 1.5 GB of memory and four processor cores. It no longer matters whether your device runs 32-bit or 64-bit software — the speech recogniser now ships for both, so older sticks such as the first-generation Fire TV Stick 4K are judged on memory and cores like everything else. TiviGlass tells you which of these is the reason on the settings row itself rather than simply failing, and nothing else about your Premium plan is affected. Subtitle sites cap how many files you may download per day. If you reach that cap TiviGlass says so plainly, and the count resets after 24 hours; linking your own OpenSubtitles account gives you your own allowance instead of the shared one.

The external-player choice stays saved if another app cannot accept a particular stream. TiviGlass tells you when it has fallen back to its own player; also check whether Use external player for is set to movies and shows only or to live TV as well. Reset playback learning undoes the automatic codec workarounds TiviGlass has applied for your device — use it if playback got worse after a system update, then let it relearn.