Opening a guide preview full screen raises picture quality gradually: first the preview limit, then up to 720p after about 20 seconds of uninterrupted playback, then your normal quality setting after another stable 20 seconds. Buffering or pausing restarts the current wait. Your Video quality and Data Saver limits still apply. A channel with only one available quality continues to use it.
The same player handles live TV, movies, shows, catch-up and recordings. Press OK to bring up the controls; they fade away again on their own.
| Playback option | How to use it |
|---|---|
| Guide fullscreen rewind | Guide and Search open the same fullscreen player. Rewind uses the stream’s DVR window, a usable local buffer, or your provider’s archive. Fast-forward and LIVE become available while you are behind live. A channel without any usable rewind source shows Rewind unavailable. |
| Picture looks too large | While watching, open More → Picture size → Fit to show the whole picture. Fill stretches it; Zoom and Crop remove edges. This changes your default unless this title already has its own picture setting, in which case that setting is updated. |
| Clock while watching | Open More → Clock. The row shows On or Off; select it to change the setting. On keeps a clock visible when the playback controls disappear. The same option is available on Fire TV and Android TV, including playback opened from the guide. |
| Wrong or missing listings | While watching a live channel, press OK, then More → Match listings. It opens beside the picture, so you can compare each suggestion’s schedule with what is actually on (how-to 14b). |
14b
Match listings: choose where a channel’s listings come from Free
Path: TV guide → hold OK on a channel → Match listings, or while watching → More → Match listings. For every channel at once: Settings › TV guide › Missing listings › Match listings
How
- For one channel: hold OK on it in the guide (or on its empty row), or press More while watching it, or open its options in Search, and choose Match listings. The top of the page says where its listings come from now: Chosen by you, Matched by name, From your provider, or No listings and why.
- The best matches from your guide sources are listed first, with the closest one highlighted. Move down the list and the panel beside it shows what that entry is showing for the next few hours, and which of your channels already use it, so you can compare it with what is on the channel.
- Press OK on the one you want. The guide row fills straight away from the listings already on this TV.
- Not in the suggestions? Use All listings to look through every guide entry, Your channels to use the listings another channel in your line-up already has, or the search box. You can type a channel name in any spelling, an id, or a programme you can see on the channel.
- For every channel: Settings › TV guide › Missing listings › Match listings lists your channels on the left, starting with the ones that have no listings, and the suggestions for the highlighted one on the right with a score. Press OK on a suggestion and it moves on to the next channel. To take many at once, choose a score and Accept all. More options opens the one-channel page for the highlighted channel.
Good to know
A choice is yours. The automatic matcher leaves it alone from then on, on every TV service update. Use automatic match (shown only when you made the choice) removes your choice and nothing else, and the app matches the channel again by itself straight away. No listings for this channel keeps its row blank on purpose, for a channel the app keeps pairing with the wrong schedule; filling gaps from other services leaves it blank too.
Choosing downloads nothing. The row switches straight away to listings already on this TV. Where another of your guide sources carries the same channel, a few of its times can stand in until the next guide update brings in the source you chose.
Suggestions come first, not a keyboard. They are worked out from the channel’s name. A name too short to compare, such as “T2”, gets no suggestions; search for a programme you can see on it instead, or pick one of your channels that has the same listings. An entry with no listings is marked and listed below the others, and choosing one asks first.
Your other TV services. If another of your services has its own guide source, All my services searches that too. Choosing one of its entries adds that guide source to this service as well, so it keeps itself up to date (it asks first).
Accept all takes each channel’s best suggestion at or above the score you pick, and never a weak one. A very large line-up is checked up to 500 channels at a time; accept those, then open it again for the rest.
A PIN-locked channel is never offered as a source of listings, and a channel hidden from your line-up says so. Guide sources opens the sources of the channel’s own service. Your choices follow your account to your other TVs when Cloud sync is on.
Choosing downloads nothing. The row switches straight away to listings already on this TV. Where another of your guide sources carries the same channel, a few of its times can stand in until the next guide update brings in the source you chose.
Suggestions come first, not a keyboard. They are worked out from the channel’s name. A name too short to compare, such as “T2”, gets no suggestions; search for a programme you can see on it instead, or pick one of your channels that has the same listings. An entry with no listings is marked and listed below the others, and choosing one asks first.
Your other TV services. If another of your services has its own guide source, All my services searches that too. Choosing one of its entries adds that guide source to this service as well, so it keeps itself up to date (it asks first).
Accept all takes each channel’s best suggestion at or above the score you pick, and never a weak one. A very large line-up is checked up to 500 channels at a time; accept those, then open it again for the rest.
A PIN-locked channel is never offered as a source of listings, and a channel hidden from your line-up says so. Guide sources opens the sources of the channel’s own service. Your choices follow your account to your other TVs when Cloud sync is on.
15
On-screen controls Free
Path: While watching → OK
The controls sit in one band across the bottom of the picture, drawn like the side menu: buttons rest in a quiet fill, the highlighted one turns into the same bright bar the menu uses, and a soft fade above the band keeps it from cutting across the picture. The band uses your theme’s colours, and your player transparency setting (how much of the band’s background is removed) still applies however you opened the player.
How
- The band has three rows. The top row says what is on: on live TV a red LIVE mark (or BEHIND LIVE once you have paused or rewound), the channel name and the programme title, with the clock on the right; on a movie or episode, its kind, year, genre and rating, the title and one line of the story. The middle row is where you are: the programme’s start and end, its progress and the minutes left, then what is NEXT; on a movie or episode, the seek bar with the time played and the time left. The bottom row is the buttons. After a channel change the band shows the top two rows only (the channel banner); there is no previous/current/next channel strip.
- Choose ⓘ Info to open the full, scrollable programme information: synopsis and any episode, category, year, rating or cast details supplied by the guide. The line under the clock shows the exact resolution the channel is actually sending (for example 1920×1080, not just HD), along with HDR, the video codec and the measured frame rate, then the sound: its format and channel layout, for example DD+ 5.1 or AAC Stereo. If you would rather see a label such as SD, HD, FHD or UHD than the exact size, set Show resolution as (Settings › While watching › Player controls & clock) to Quality label. The Stats overlay adds the deeper read-out: decoder, buffer level, connection speed, the picture’s colour description (bit depth, colour space and HDR type, shown as standard when it is the ordinary case), and an audio output line giving the player’s own volume and whether the sound is being passed through untouched. If you ever report a picture that looks the wrong colour, or sound that stops while the picture keeps playing, a photograph of this overlay usually answers it outright.
- Instead of a caption under the buttons, the end of the button row shows which keys do what, drawn as small key caps the way the Customise screens show them: OK with what pressing it now does (Pause, Add to favourites, Programme information and so on), and on live TV ↓ Recently watched. On a movie or episode it shows ↑ Seek bar; on the seek bar, ◀ ▶ Seek, OK to pause or play and ↓ Controls. There is no previous/next episode strip, so use your remote’s Previous / Next keys to move between episodes. Recently watched expands only when opened, giving its cards room without enlarging the controls. While surfing, Up/Down continues changing channels; press Select to activate the controls, then Down to open recent channels. A custom Down action hides this shortcut. In the panel, move left or right, then Select to watch; the highlighted channel turns into the bright bar. The panel shows OK Watch and ↑ Controls; press Up or Back to return without changing channel. Channel names are larger and programme titles have two lines. If the history refreshes while you browse, your highlighted channel stays selected where possible. The panel stays open while you browse. Opening an options panel closes Recently watched and hides the underlying controls until the options panel is dismissed. On touch screens, tap Recently watched at the end of the button row or a channel, and use Back to controls to return.
- Move along the button row for the buttons this channel offers. It is deliberately short: rewind, play/pause and fast-forward sit together in one group, then Favourite, Info, Record and More, each with its name on it. A filled star in your theme’s accent colour means the channel is a favourite. Rewind always keeps its place: a line through its icon means there is no usable rewind source, and the key reminder then says Rewind unavailable. Fast-forward and Live (with a red dot) join the group while you are behind the live edge. On a movie or episode the buttons are rewind, play/pause and fast-forward, then Sound, Subtitles and More; Sound looks quieter when the title has only one audio track, and still opens.
- More holds playback choices: Sound, subtitles, quality, Switch source when the same channel exists more than once in your playlist, Advanced playback for this item’s picture size, video decoder and external player, the Sleep timer, Stream facts, Diagnostics and Remote controls. On a movie or show it adds Speed.
Good to know
A physical Info button opens the same programme panel when programme details are available; otherwise it keeps showing the existing channel and picture information. The on-screen information action is hidden when the guide supplies nothing beyond a title and time.
Some providers put tonight’s event in the channel name instead of in the guide. TiviGlass still shows that title next to the picture, so you can tell what is on without waiting for the name to scroll. If the name includes a start time, the progress bar uses it; if it does not, the title is shown without a made-up clock.
On a touchscreen, tap the picture to show or hide controls. Double-tap the left or right side to seek a movie by your chosen step or change live channel; drag horizontally to scrub a movie or swipe between live channels. Drag vertically on the left side for brightness or on the right side for volume. A percentage appears while you drag. Leaving playback restores the previous screen brightness, so the rest of the app follows your phone’s normal brightness again. Gestures wait for a clear direction, so a diagonal or ordinary tap does not accidentally adjust playback.
The action row only ever shows what applies to the channel you are on, and moving left or right walks exactly the buttons you can see. If one disappears while it is highlighted — the guide stops supplying details, or a stream you had rewound catches back up to live — the highlight returns to play/pause rather than being left on nothing.
For a live stream that has frozen or keeps buffering, choose More → Reload stream to reconnect the same channel at its live edge. This works from both player screens without changing channel. With Premium, Remote & buttons → Shortcut keys can bind Reload live stream to a spare remote button.
More lists only what this screen can actually do. Watching full screen from the guide opens the same player as Search, including its timeshift controls and More options. Back returns you to the guide.
The recent-channel prompt only appears once you have some viewing history, so a brand-new install won’t show it. How long the controls stay up is yours to set: Settings › While watching › Player controls & clock › Hide player controls after. Back hides the controls first and only leaves the player on a second press.
Some providers put tonight’s event in the channel name instead of in the guide. TiviGlass still shows that title next to the picture, so you can tell what is on without waiting for the name to scroll. If the name includes a start time, the progress bar uses it; if it does not, the title is shown without a made-up clock.
On a touchscreen, tap the picture to show or hide controls. Double-tap the left or right side to seek a movie by your chosen step or change live channel; drag horizontally to scrub a movie or swipe between live channels. Drag vertically on the left side for brightness or on the right side for volume. A percentage appears while you drag. Leaving playback restores the previous screen brightness, so the rest of the app follows your phone’s normal brightness again. Gestures wait for a clear direction, so a diagonal or ordinary tap does not accidentally adjust playback.
The action row only ever shows what applies to the channel you are on, and moving left or right walks exactly the buttons you can see. If one disappears while it is highlighted — the guide stops supplying details, or a stream you had rewound catches back up to live — the highlight returns to play/pause rather than being left on nothing.
For a live stream that has frozen or keeps buffering, choose More → Reload stream to reconnect the same channel at its live edge. This works from both player screens without changing channel. With Premium, Remote & buttons → Shortcut keys can bind Reload live stream to a spare remote button.
More lists only what this screen can actually do. Watching full screen from the guide opens the same player as Search, including its timeshift controls and More options. Back returns you to the guide.
The recent-channel prompt only appears once you have some viewing history, so a brand-new install won’t show it. How long the controls stay up is yours to set: Settings › While watching › Player controls & clock › Hide player controls after. Back hides the controls first and only leaves the player on a second press.
16
Sound, subtitles and speed Free
Path: While watching → Menu, or the More button on the controls
How
- Choose More → Sound for audio tracks, Fix sound, sound timing and the audio decoder in one place.
- The track list shows the languages carried by the stream. The scope note explains whether a language choice is for this title or changes your default.
- Fix sound runs the existing sound recovery. Its result distinguishes a selected track from confirmed sound; you still need to listen through your TV or speakers.
- Sound timing uses Earlier and Later. Timing and the audio decoder here apply to this item only, where an item is available. Choose Default to follow this TV’s sound settings again.
- Other tabs keep Subtitles, Speed, Quality and Picture size together. Speed appears where playback supports it. Advanced playback opens the item-specific picture and player choices.
Good to know
More and playback options open on the right beside the picture. From More → Sound, Back to More returns to the Sound action; the next Back returns to the video. An option opened with a direct shortcut instead offers Back to video. The return button stays below the choices. Switch source, subtitle search, recording options and the channel list also open as panels on the right. Remote controls is in More. Set defaults once instead of choosing every time: Settings › Picture & sound › Sound › Default audio language, and Settings › Subtitles › Turning subtitles on › Subtitles on by default and Default subtitle language.
17
Subtitles the stream doesn’t carry Free
Path: Menu → Subtitles → Search subtitles… / Load file…
How
- Search subtitles lists matching files online; choose the one to attach.
- If it finds the wrong title or nothing at all, choose Search by title. Enter the movie or show name, and optionally both season and episode for a show. This search replaces the service’s match. Use service match returns to automatic lookup.
- Load file attaches a subtitle file from the device.
- Turn on Settings › Subtitles › Finding subtitles online › Search online automatically to have it happen without asking.
Good to know
Subtitle search is free. You can link an OpenSubtitles account for better limits, and prefer hearing-impaired (SDH) results. If a subtitle drifts, there are two different controls and they are not interchangeable. For a subtitle you searched for or loaded from a file, use the Sync −0.5s / Sync +0.5s / Reset sync buttons in the Subtitles section of the player’s track picker (press More, then Subtitles). They move that one subtitle either way, up to 30 seconds, they take effect straight away, and they are free on every plan. For a subtitle that came inside the stream itself — broadcast captions, DVB subtitles, or a track built into an HLS channel — there are no Sync buttons, because the file those buttons rewrite does not exist; use Subtitle delay under Settings › Subtitles › Size, look & timing instead. That one holds a subtitle back by up to two seconds. It only goes one way on purpose: a subtitle that has not arrived yet cannot be shown earlier than it arrives, so it can fix a subtitle running ahead of the speech and cannot fix one running behind. It is part of Advanced playback, so it needs Essentials or Premium.
Search subtitles is offered on movies and shows, because a live channel has no single film to look up. Load file is offered on movies, shows and live channels. Neither appears while you are watching Catch-Up or a recording: those have no separate identity to save a subtitle against, so a subtitle saved there would show up on the whole channel instead.
Search subtitles is offered on movies and shows, because a live channel has no single film to look up. Load file is offered on movies, shows and live channels. Neither appears while you are watching Catch-Up or a recording: those have no separate identity to save a subtitle against, so a subtitle saved there would show up on the whole channel instead.
18
Picture quality and shape Free
Path: Q for quality, A for aspect ratio
Good to know
The information bar also carries what the stream itself is: its resolution, HDR, the video codec, the measured frame rate, the sound’s format and channel layout (DD+ 5.1, AAC Stereo), and the video and audio bitrate where the provider declares them. Plenty of live streams declare no bitrate at all, and in that case the badge is simply left out rather than showing a zero. The sound badge describes what the channel sends, not what your speakers play: a 5.1 channel on a TV with stereo speakers still reads 5.1.
Show resolution as (Settings › While watching › Player controls & clock) picks between the exact size (1920×1080, the default) and a quality label (FHD). The label goes by the width as well as the height, so a film cropped to 1920×800 still reads FHD. The choice follows your account to your other TVs when Cloud sync is on.
Keep a clock on screen (Settings › While watching › Player controls & clock) shows the time in the top corner for as long as something is playing, instead of only while the information bar is up. It uses the 12 or 24 hour Time format set on the same page, which is the same setting as the one on Look & feel. To protect your screen, the clock drifts by a few millimetres every minute rather than sitting in exactly the same spot — anything left in one place for hours can mark an OLED panel, so it is never still for long enough to leave a trace. The movement is slow and small enough that you will not catch it happening.
Show resolution as (Settings › While watching › Player controls & clock) picks between the exact size (1920×1080, the default) and a quality label (FHD). The label goes by the width as well as the height, so a film cropped to 1920×800 still reads FHD. The choice follows your account to your other TVs when Cloud sync is on.
Keep a clock on screen (Settings › While watching › Player controls & clock) shows the time in the top corner for as long as something is playing, instead of only while the information bar is up. It uses the 12 or 24 hour Time format set on the same page, which is the same setting as the one on Look & feel. To protect your screen, the clock drifts by a few millimetres every minute rather than sitting in exactly the same spot — anything left in one place for hours can mark an OLED panel, so it is never still for long enough to leave a trace. The movement is slow and small enough that you will not catch it happening.
How
- Q lists the stream’s quality variants.
- A cycles through picture shapes when a channel is letterboxed or stretched.
- For permanent defaults use Settings › Picture & sound › Picture.
- To change the shape for one channel or one film only, open More → Advanced playback → This channel (or This movie / This episode) and pick an aspect there.
- If the black bars are part of the picture your provider sends, the shape options cannot help — they scale the bars up too. Use a Crop choice instead: Crop to 2.35:1 for widescreen films, or Crop 5% / 10% / 15% to trim a little off every edge.
Good to know
Automatic Use less data is recommended for unstable connections. TiviGlass keeps full quality while the connection is healthy, then lowers adaptive-stream quality in steps when repeated stalls show the link cannot sustain it. Always on deliberately selects the lowest available variant.
Once a channel has its own picture shape, A changes that channel’s shape rather than your global default — so the button always changes what you can see. Everything else keeps following the default until you say otherwise.
Cropping always loses some of the picture. Filling a normal TV with a widescreen film means the left and right edges go off the screen; that is the trade for losing the black bars. The A button skips the Crop choices, so it stays a safe thing to press blind — pick a crop from the menu, and pick Fit there to undo it.
Once a channel has its own picture shape, A changes that channel’s shape rather than your global default — so the button always changes what you can see. Everything else keeps following the default until you say otherwise.
Cropping always loses some of the picture. Filling a normal TV with a widescreen film means the left and right edges go off the screen; that is the trade for losing the black bars. The A button skips the Crop choices, so it stays a safe thing to press blind — pick a crop from the menu, and pick Fit there to undo it.
19
Pause and rewind live TV Essentials
Path: Settings › While watching › Pause & rewind live TV
Opening a live channel from the TV guide, Search or a reminder uses the same fullscreen player and controls. Your entry point only changes where Back returns and which channel order you browse. Rewind and fast-forward work directly from guide playback when the channel has a provider DVR window, a usable local buffer or provider catch-up. Rewind is always visible, with a line through the icon while unavailable. It becomes usable as soon as a DVR window, local buffer or provider archive is ready; Forward appears once you are timeshifting. Provider archive rewind can go back before you started watching, within the service's archive limits. The local buffer holds only what this TV has buffered since tuning in; it cannot recover earlier television. Changing profile discards a live channel that was still opening for the previous viewer. Enable local buffering under Settings › While watching › Pause & rewind live TV. Channel up/down keeps the guide's displayed order, and Back returns to the guide. Channel up and down never stop to ask: they step over any channel that would ask for a PIN or an age confirmation, and the banner says how many they skipped. Choosing such a channel yourself still asks first, however you opened the player: from the channel list, by typing its number, with Last channel, from Recently watched or from Sources, including a copy of the channel on another of your TV services. The PIN keypad also takes your remote’s number keys, and Back or Cancel keeps you on the channel you were watching. Playing a recording of a locked channel asks the same way. Movies and programmes opened from Catch Up already have their own seek controls.
How
- Turn on the timeshift buffer and choose a size.
- While watching live, Pause holds the picture and Rewind goes back through the available history.
- Live (with a red dot) in the controls returns you to the live edge. While you are behind, the band says BEHIND LIVE and its bar shows where you are, with how far behind live you are beside it.
Good to know
Rewinding into your provider’s own archive is free — it’s the on-device buffer that needs a paid plan. The buffer is marked experimental and uses storage while it runs, so leave it off if space is tight.
The local buffer rolls as you watch. Supported transport streams share one live connection with the recorder in both guide preview and fullscreen. Local capture stops when playback is sent to the background with Home; ordinary live viewing can continue if recording permission is removed. Rewind waits for new recorded data without jumping live, and an explicit pause stays paused. Turning the local buffer off, or losing access to that paid feature, restores the live source while keeping your play/pause choice; a paused viewer must press Play to continue. If space cannot be freed safely, capture stops to preserve your position and the controls explain why. The chosen duration is limited by available storage and the stream’s bitrate. Choose Where paused TV is kept in the same Settings section to use app storage or a connected USB / SD drive. Use Refresh storage list after connecting a drive. This choice belongs to this device and applies to the next viewing session; it does not move existing history or travel with a profile or backup. If the selected drive is unavailable or has too little free space, live viewing continues with an explanation that local capture could not start. TiviGlass never silently switches to another drive. Opening the playing guide preview in fullscreen, then returning with Back or the TV guide action, keeps the live session, local rewind history and your play/pause choice. Changing channel in fullscreen returns that channel to the guide. If the handoff has expired, playback has failed, or access has changed, the channel may need to start again. Leaving for another section can discard local history. Provider archive playback follows its separate catch-up journey. A provider DVR window and a provider archive have their own retention limits.
The local buffer rolls as you watch. Supported transport streams share one live connection with the recorder in both guide preview and fullscreen. Local capture stops when playback is sent to the background with Home; ordinary live viewing can continue if recording permission is removed. Rewind waits for new recorded data without jumping live, and an explicit pause stays paused. Turning the local buffer off, or losing access to that paid feature, restores the live source while keeping your play/pause choice; a paused viewer must press Play to continue. If space cannot be freed safely, capture stops to preserve your position and the controls explain why. The chosen duration is limited by available storage and the stream’s bitrate. Choose Where paused TV is kept in the same Settings section to use app storage or a connected USB / SD drive. Use Refresh storage list after connecting a drive. This choice belongs to this device and applies to the next viewing session; it does not move existing history or travel with a profile or backup. If the selected drive is unavailable or has too little free space, live viewing continues with an explanation that local capture could not start. TiviGlass never silently switches to another drive. Opening the playing guide preview in fullscreen, then returning with Back or the TV guide action, keeps the live session, local rewind history and your play/pause choice. Changing channel in fullscreen returns that channel to the guide. If the handoff has expired, playback has failed, or access has changed, the channel may need to start again. Leaving for another section can discard local history. Provider archive playback follows its separate catch-up journey. A provider DVR window and a provider archive have their own retention limits.
20
See what’s really happening Free
Path: S for stats, P for a screenshot
From the full player or the fullscreen TV guide player, open More → Stream facts. Choose it again to hide the panel. The Colour row reports declared bit depth, colour space, transfer and range. Unknown means the stream did not provide that fact; it does not establish 8-bit SDR. The panel appears immediately and says Waiting for playback details until the player reports its first sample. Channels without guide information and audio-only streams can still show the facts they provide.
How
- S overlays the codec, resolution, measured frame rate, buffer level and connection speed.
- P saves a still of what’s on screen.
Good to know
The stats overlay is the first thing to check when a channel stutters — it separates “the stream is thin” (buffer emptying) from “this device can’t decode it” (frame rate far below the stream’s).
21
When a stream misbehaves Free
Path: Player controls → More → Switch source / Also showing on…
How
- If the same channel exists more than once in your playlist, More → Switch source hops to another copy.
- Turn on Try another copy of the channel to have it happen automatically.
- Reconnect when playback stops plus Reconnect attempts control how hard TiviGlass retries. An occasional live HTTP 403 is retried once with a clean stream session before TiviGlass asks you to intervene. With Reconnect when playback stops on, which it is by default, a stream that was already playing and is then answered with a web page instead of video also gets one retry, after a short wait, because that is usually your provider still counting the connection that just dropped. If the page comes back, TiviGlass stops and says so.
Good to know
All three live in Settings › While watching, under When a channel stutters and When a channel fails · Fusion. Together with Merge duplicate channels (Channels & groups › Duplicate channels) they turn a provider’s five copies of one channel into one entry with four fallbacks.