Settings map

Settings opens on one screen with a search box at the top and 16 topics in 5 groups, named for what you are doing when you go looking: Watching TV, What’s on my TV, Make it mine, Household & account and Help & updates. Each group is one row of tiles, drawn like the side menu: the highlighted tile sits on the same bright bar. With a remote, when you come back from a page the highlight lands on its tile, and once you move off it that tile keeps a glowing edge, so you can see where you were. A strip along the bottom says what is inside the tile you are on: what it is for, and the names of its sections. It cannot take the highlight, so it never gets in your way.

Moving around the first screen. Up and down move between groups, left and right along one. Moving down from the end of a longer row lands on the end of the shorter row below it, so nothing is ever out of reach. While part of the first-time setup is unfinished, a Finish setup · N tile appears at the end of the last group; it opens the setup checklist in Help & about and disappears once everything is done. The first-time setup screen on Live TV has the same door: its Finish setting up button opens Help & about › Finish setting up, and Back returns to the setup screen. On a phone or tablet the topics are one scrolling list, each with a line saying what it holds. At the largest text size the groups wrap onto more rows and the screen scrolls.

Search all settings looks across every topic. Type a setting’s name or a problem such as “no sound”, or use the microphone. Each result shows where it lives, for example While watching › Sleep, screen & picture-in-picture, and opens with that setting highlighted. If it sits in a folded group at the bottom of a page, that group opens for this visit only. This works for a setting anywhere on the page, however far down: the page scrolls to it and the highlight lands on it. If it only appears once another setting is on, you land on that other setting and TiviGlass says Turn this on first. When a setting cannot be shown here, search says why rather than landing you on nothing: for example That setting is only in remote layout, Sign in to TiviGlass to use that setting, That setting appears once a TV service is added and in use, That setting appears once this TV has a second TV service, or That setting isn’t available on this device or plan. Settings a version of TiviGlass can never show are not offered at all: the update settings are left out of the Google Play version (which says where its updates come from instead), and test builds leave out the settings they do not have.

How a settings page works

The page title stays pinned at the top with the group above it, for example Watching TV › TV guide, and a back arrow beside it. Back, or Left from the left edge of the page, takes you back one step, usually to the first screen of Settings; Left there opens the menu. Each page is a few sections with a heading each. Every setting is one line: its name on the left and its current value on the right, and the name never changes, so what you search for is what you see.

A setting that only matters while another is on is set in a little under it and only appears while that one is on: Reconnect attempts under Reconnect when playback stops, for example. Less common settings are folded into a group at the very bottom of the page, named for what they fix, such as Fix picture problems · 3; while it is folded it lists what is inside. Your open or closed choice is remembered on this TV.

Jumping through a long page. On any settings page, CH+ and CH− (or Page up and Page down, if your remote has them) jump to the previous or next section; past the last section they move a screenful at a time, as they do on every other screen. They only save time: the arrow buttons reach every setting too, so a remote without those buttons misses nothing. A search result, or a link from elsewhere in the app, opens the page scrolled to its setting with the highlight already on it.

About this setting. Rest on any setting for a moment and a panel on the right explains what it does and what your current choice means. On a narrower screen, or with larger text, the same words appear in a strip under the list instead; the strip grows to show all of them. On a touch screen, tap the ⓘ beside a setting to read it under that line. There is no longer a Show help button on settings pages: the explanation is always one rest of the highlight away. Anything you must know before changing a setting, such as a warning that it stops something else working, is still written on the page under that setting.

Going back. Back, or the back arrow, returns to the first screen with the highlight on the topic you left. Pressing left when there is nothing further left to move to does the same, so you never have to scroll back to the top. Controls that use left themselves, such as text boxes, keep it. When a link inside Settings took you to another page, Back returns once to the page you came from. When something outside Settings brought you here, such as Get help on a playback error, Back returns you to what you were watching or browsing.

The same control on two pages. Eight settings are drawn in two places because people look for them in both. They are one setting, not two copies: changing it on either page changes it everywhere.

Every topic, and what is inside

Folded groups are marked (folded). They always come last on their page.

Management dialogs use the same item borders and rounded backgrounds as Settings, with consistent spacing. Some of them, such as source setup, Stremio addons, movie and show filters, app shortcuts and recording times, still offer Show help beside optional instructions; Hide help collapses them again, and errors, requirements and consent always stay visible.

Choice lists explain themselves. When a setting opens a list of choices, a line under the list says what the highlighted choice does, and the highlight starts on the choice in use. In TV guide sources, Listings from your TV service offers Off, Only where my guide is empty and Use it for every channel; the guide time offset there is a list from −12 to +12 hours in half-hour steps; and Use a guide from another TV service reuses a guide address another service already has. Series Links lists the programmes that record every new episode; you make one by holding OK on a programme in the guide and choosing Series link on this channel.

Shortcuts into Settings from where you are. Many screens now have a way straight to the settings behind them, and Back returns you to that screen:

• TV guide: Customise guide ends with Order & numbers and All guide settings. A group’s options have a Settings tab with Locked groups, Show or hide groups and Group order. When a channel has no listings, resting on it shows a short line pointing to Missing listings, and holding OK on the channel name, or on the empty “No programme information” gap beside it, offers Missing listings too.
• Movies and Shows: Library settings in the toolbar.
• Home, Sports and Kids: each has a Customise button at the end of the bar under its featured area, which opens that hub’s Customise screen (the same one Settings opens). Hold OK on a card for that row’s or that match’s options.
• Recordings: Recording settings at the top.
• The service switchers: Manage services.
• The “Who’s watching?” picker says where profiles are managed: Settings › Parental & profiles › Who’s watching.
• In the player’s options, the tab for one channel or film says it changes that item only, and Quality and Picture size say they change the default for everything you watch. A kids profile has none of these shortcuts.

On the Google Play version, User guide shows the code to scan and the address to type; it does not open the guide on the TV.

Manual recording timers separate the date, repeat days, start time and end time. Schedule, Cancel and any validation error stay below the scrolling form. Long text (the player’s Remote controls guide, descriptions, release notes, the device log and recent activity) scrolls with Up and Down on a remote.

Announcements show a short preview of longer messages; choose Read full message for the rest. An update announcement with Open update settings takes you straight to Updates & storage › App updates, or in the Google Play version to the line saying where updates come from. Other links open directly on a touch device or show a QR code on TV.

Moved in this release

Every setting that moved page or section, under the page it used to be on. The left column is the name you remember; the right column is where it is now, with its new name where it changed. The same list is on the TV under Help & about › Get help › What moved in Settings. Settings that are new to this version, such as Arrange groups or Locked groups, are not listed, because nothing moved.

Older versions

Many TVs keep an older version for months, so a TV in your house may still show the old layout. On an older version, look here instead. The version number is under Help & about › About TiviGlass › Version on a new version, and Settings › About on an older one.