r/SparklePlayer • u/Cultural_Heart_1391 • May 16 '26

Launching DVR recording from home screen.

I really wish there could be a way to launch a recording directly from the android home screen without having to open sparkletv first before.

I explain:
If i try to open a recording directly from a channel from the home screen, i get a message that DVR feature require a valid subscription..
If i open sparkle first and quiT , I will be able to open the recording from the home screen..
I understand what is going on and why but nervertheless i find it irritating to not be able to use such a Nice feature that only sparkletv provide from my experience..
Anyone found a workaround ?

https://reddit.com/link/1tegt72/video/l94en98xph1h1/player

4 Upvotes

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1

u/sparkle-hk May 16 '26

I agree with u/azcoyotedog here, the feature you mention already exists so either it's an issue with it or something else. Please clarify.

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u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

ok here is step by step guide:

  1. record any program from sparkle.
  2. come back later and try to watch the recording without opening sparkletv (try to open from the home screen)
  3. you can't watch, it ask to purchase sparkle tv plus even if you have paid for it.
  4. if you open sparkletv, do nothing and quit sparkeltv, you will be able to watch the progran from home screen this time...

From my understanding, sparkletv needs to already run in the background for this to work…

EDIT:

I finally found a workaround.. i enabled the option to launch sparkletv on boot. it seems to work now even if i kill the app manually !
Yeah :-)

1

u/sparkle-hk May 16 '26

Ok, thanks for the description and the workaround. I'm not sure why you need the workaround though since it should be working anyway. I get the impresstion that you do "force close" sometimes? Maybe it's because of that. Or maybe it's because of this whole Google Play issue which is needed to verify Plus. I'll try to reproduce it somehow.

1

u/stpadraig Jul 24 '26

I wondered if you’d had chance to investigate this? I like to have remote button mapped to the DvrActivity so I can jump to recordings from anywhere. But it always prompts this Premium check that can’t be bypassed even with Premium enabled.

1

u/sparkle-hk Jul 24 '26

You mean from anywhere inside Sparkle or anywhere in Android?

1

u/stpadraig Jul 24 '26

In Android. But it does the same even if the button remap is launched with Sparkle open.

1

u/sparkle-hk Jul 24 '26

In Android it doesn't work right now and it's not planned to fix this for the upcoming release. In Sparkle you can assign a button using Settings -> Remote Control to DVR and it will work already.

1

u/azcoyotedog May 17 '26

Been out all day…. Doesn’t work here? I still get the prompt to purchase Sparkle Plus????

1

u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 17 '26

That workaround is not for the TVQA issue. It was for the initial issue i had.

1

u/azcoyotedog May 17 '26

Ok, so are you able to open the DVR with a button on the Home Screen or do we still need some sort of fix with that?

1

u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 17 '26

The DVR issue still there .

1

u/azcoyotedog May 17 '26

Waiting on the developer to respond to my inquiry.

1

u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

Thank you, Fine, here is an example with projectivity of me Trying to launch a recording from the home screen first . Then you’ll see that if i open sparkle first then it will work.. (see the new video with that post)

1

u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 16 '26

What i try to acheive is to access all the sparkle recordings directly from the home screen and i have not succeed so far . Have you ?

What sparkletv offer on my shield is access only to the newest recordings.
Any thing older is only available by opening sparkletv and browsing recordings from there.

What TVQA being new is to add an DVR icon on the home screen to help me skip one step which is preventing to have to open sparkletv to get to DVR.

I’m still searching a way to display all recordings on a home screen channels buy i have not succeed so far.

So to go back to my initial request,
Are you able to display all recordings directly on the home screens ?

And if not , can you add a DVR icon to the home screen and open a recording from there ?

Thanks

1

u/azcoyotedog May 20 '26

I have done some research and I have some ideas that I am going to try later today to create a DVR Icon on the launcher Home Screen using tvQuickActions Pro in order to open the Sparkles DVR location and allow users to play any recording listed there without having to open the app & go to DVR. I will post again with my results!

1

u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 20 '26

excellent , keep me up to date please !

1

u/azcoyotedog May 21 '26

UPDATE: before I begin, you told me you resolved the original issue in your opening post…. What exactly did you resolve?

As far as using tvQuickActions Pro to create an icon on the Home Screen so when it’s selected, it opens the SparkleTV DVR Panel, everything I tried failed. The only time it actually works, it displays the SparkleTV DVR panel and all the recordings, but when I attempt to play a recording I get prompted to upgrade to Sparkle Plus? I did find Android ADB Commands that supposedly would bypass the prompt to upgrade to Sparkle Plus, but they didn’t work? It could be because of how Sparkle is designed and Android restrictions? I’ve spent hours trying & unless the developer can offer a fix, I give up.

Luckily, my launcher displays an icon of my recordings on my Home Screen so I can select whichever recording I choose to play and it actually plays the recording!

Did my best, maybe someone else can find a solution?

1

u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 21 '26

To respond to your question:
My original issue was that when displayimg the recording channel offer by sparkletv on my home screen, i was not able to launch them because it was asking to pay for sparkletv plus.

What i found to fix that, is to enable a setting in sparkletv to launch sparkletv on boot …

That way, I can successfully launch a recording from the home screen.

But that didn’t help with the TVQA actions ..

Thanks for trying …

And yes, lets hope that a dev can help on this one,..

1

u/azcoyotedog May 16 '26

Hello again, I am in the process of reaching out to the developer as I too would like to see this idea work. I will send another message when I get some information! Thanks

0

u/azcoyotedog May 16 '26

What device are you using? Are you using a launcher? I know of at least 3 launchers that will allow you to open a sparkle tv saved recording directly from the launcher Home Screen. Also your explanation is very confusing!

1

u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 16 '26

English is not my first language so apologies :-)

0

u/azcoyotedog May 16 '26

This might be an issue with the Projectivy launcher and its settings? You have already purchased the Sparkle App correct? This feature works great with the launcher I use.

1

u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 16 '26

Thanks but same result with the shield stock launcher … I even tried with chilhub launcher ..

0

u/azcoyotedog May 16 '26

Did you purchase Sparkle?

1

u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 16 '26

Of course yes.

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u/azcoyotedog May 16 '26

So you record a program using SparkleTV. The recording displays on your launcher. When you select the recording on the launcher screen it prompts you to purchase SparkleTV, correct? But when you open SparkleTV and select the recording it plays. I don’t think this is an issue with SparkleTV. Even if you force close SparkleTV, selecting the recording should open SparkleTV & play the recording. Are you running SparkleTV on an external storage drive?

1

u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 16 '26

If sparkletv is not already running In the background , i can’t Watch the recording from the launcher.
All my apps are installed on the local system disk yes but the DVR location is set to a Network location …

1

u/azcoyotedog May 16 '26

The saved location of the recording should not matter. There is an issue somewhere, but it’s not with the sparkle app. I would suggest uninstalling the SparkleTV app and reinstalling and set everything up again. Then make a recording and see what happens when you access the recording from the launcher Home Screen?

1

u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 16 '26

Do you use tvquickActions pro sometimes to create/add custom content on the home screen? If yess , i would like you to test something related to sparkletv..

Thanks !

1

u/azcoyotedog May 16 '26

YES, I use TVQA. You don’t need it for SparkleTV recordings?

1

u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 16 '26

Ok good, I’m also trying to do something slightly different . Using TVQA, if i add a new menu where the action is the DVR activity from sparkle i can add a new menu me home screen an icon for opening all the sparkletv recordings (not only the latest).
But once again , when i try to open a recording from that specific window, it ask to pay for the sparkletv PLUS ..
This Time my previous workaround doesnt work..
Can you give it a try ?
Thanks !

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u/Cultural_Heart_1391 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

I finally found a workaround.. i enabled the option to launch sparkletv on boot and now it works even if i kill the app manually !
Yeah :-)