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Emergency Broadcast Alert - Still Annoying

chaste
chaste Posts: 13 Participant
edited November 12 in Spectrum TV App Feedback - Apple Devices and Apple TV

The previous post was closed without any confirmation that it was either fixed or expected behavior. Every time I open the app, I have to arrow down and select "ok" TWICE, in order to watch programming. on ALL my TVs. Never mind that I already got the alert on every F'ing phone and tablet in the house.

I really, really don't like this. But would be grateful if you would either fix it or confirm that you guys think this is a reasonable way to implement the functionality.

Thanks

Comments

  • Satch
    Satch Posts: 6,157 Contributor
    edited October 12

    Good Evening,

    Unfortunately, neither Spectrum, Apple, or any other vendor can do anything about Emergency Broadcast Alerts (EBA alerts.) You would have to file a complaint with the FCC:.

    Satch

  • William_M
    William_M Posts: 1,529 ✅ Verified Employee Moderator

    Hey @chaste, I'm sorry for the trouble with the Emergency Alert System.

    The previous post you commented on was for an issue with the same alerts coming up repeatedly, even after pressing OK to dismiss it, and was resolved shortly after the post was made. I do believe needing to press OK to dismiss the alert is a reasonable implementation of the alert system, but it should only show on devices that have the Spectrum TV app loaded when the alert is first sent. Are you seeing old ones come in when you turn on your phones/TVs?

  • chaste
    chaste Posts: 13 Participant

    Thanks for the reply. Couple of notes:

    1. It happens on ALL of the TVs, regardless of it is is open/running in the background, or completely stopped when the Alert is sent.
    2. This last go around, it appeared twice. After pressing "OK" in would briefly go away, and then the modal popup would return and are required to press "OK" again to dismiss the alert.
    3. On the ATV, you are required to press the down arrow to highlight the "OK" before pressing the select button. A little annoying, but fine.
    4. Also, after dismissing (both) modal alert dialogues and exiting the app and fully closing the app. Once I returned, I was required to dismiss the alert (twice) again. I finally just left them running to avoid that mess. It seems to have gone away today, so good news.
    5. I agree, that pressing the "OK" to dismiss the alert (once) is a reasonable implementation. Although I certainly would prefer that it operate like the OTA broadcast alert and just display for a short period of time and go away without requiring user action. If it worked as you described, I would not have started this topic.
    6. I am on TVos 26.01 and Spectrum V 3.32. Looks like there is update, maybe this is all my fault!

    @Satch, I am sure that is true, and in general I think it is a wonderful capability in times of need. That said, over-saturation could lead to the "boy who cried wolf" syndrome, ultimately limiting effectiveness.

    Again, thank you for the quick reply.

  • PontiacBandit
    PontiacBandit Posts: 6 Spectator

    @chaste - yup I started the previous post about this & it happened to me again about a week or 2 ago. I had to hit OK multiple times for it to go away (not 19 this time) but even after letting the audio recite the entirety of the alert caption, the pop up kept coming back. I had to exit out of the app & restart my Apple TV to finally get it working correctly.

  • Satch
    Satch Posts: 6,157 Contributor

    Hey Everyone,

    Personal thoughts on the EBS alerts. Even though it's an FCC thing, I don't like them either! I am a late night TV watcher, and while they don't show up often, they run those tests at the most inopportune times1 You have those three ear-piercing buzzing noises and than the test message with the crawler that seems to go on forever!

    I have a regular Spectrum DVR (Arris 210) and Spectrum put software updates on the boxes that they rent so that the EBS messages and Amber Alerts go away after one to two run throughs of the text crawler. If you have a third party box, you might need to get a regular box, regular DVR, or XUMO streaming box from Spectrum to get the alerts to go away normally, (After about two run throughs of the message.)

    Spectrum tries to do "best fit" accommodations with the third party boxes and apps from Apple and Tivo, but there might be some configuration conditionals that haven't been quite worked out yet where users with third-party hardware configs have to reboot or ride out the annoying test alert message,

    I really don't know how accommodating third-party hardware boxes are to working with the FCC to get the messages to go away in a timely manner. It seems, not very good! I have been with cable since 1985, and the older boxes would very often keep the message going for like a half hour or something close to that before it would go away. Sometimes it would go away at the expired time listed in the EBS or Amber Alert Message. But there would be times when you would have to reboot. With the newer boxes from Spectrum, I have not had to reboot them to get rid of EBS or Amber Alert Messages,

    Satch

This discussion has been closed.

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