OrbitTv/docs/VERIFICATION-0.99.6.md

Orbit TV 0.99.6: After Dark review applied

Paul gave his final decisions on 4 November 2026 at 09:09 (docs/replays/after-dark-uncertain-2026-11-04.md). The change is to the After Dark and Horror pools only. This release includes 0.99.5.

What's in it

• ChannelProgramming.withdrawn lists library items taken off a channel by editorial decision, by their Emby item id, so only that exact file is affected. The pool reader drops them however they arrived: the channel's list, its old line-up or an accepted suggestion (withoutWithdrawn). The withdrawn ids are part of the pool's signature, so After Dark reads its pool again after install.
• After Dark withdraws 38 items (AfterDarkWithdrawn in ChannelSchedule.kt):
  • 16 off-brief films: Koi... Mil Gaya, Mystic River, Missing, An American Crime, I... for Icarus, Splendid Outing, Murder by Natural Causes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Name of the Rose, Helter Skelter, Demons (1971), Lock In, Moonshine, Extra Weird Sampler, The Game, Equilibrium.
  • More Things That Happened (2007): Lynch extra material. It's noted in the roadmap as a possible special extra.
  • 16 mainstream films whose home channel holds the exact same file. I checked each against the box's pools by Emby item id, not by title, and all 16 match:
    • BritX: 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead.
    • Sci-Fi: Alien, Predator, Starship Troopers.
    • Horror: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Carrie (1976), Jaws, Saw, Sleepy Hollow, The Exorcist, The Omen (1976), The Orphanage, The Others, The Shining.
    • VHS: Gremlins.
  • 5 films moved to Horror: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Interview with the Vampire (1994), Red Dragon (2002), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), The Devil's Advocate (1997). Horror's list now names each with its year. Each has a playable file in the library: it's in After Dark's pool today and not marked as failed. None was on Horror before.
• Kept on After Dark: the 56 cult and midnight films, plus Terrorizers, Black Swan, The Outcasts and Zombieland.
• Nothing is deleted from the library or from Paul's saved choices, and committed bookings of any of these films still air.

Checks before install

• 414 unit tests pass, including the hand-run replays. Lint has no errors.
• New AfterDarkReviewTest:
  • Exactly 38 valid ids are withdrawn, from After Dark only, and the kept films come through untouched.
  • The five moves are on Horror's list by title and year and aren't on After Dark's.
  • Only After Dark's signature carries withdrawals.
• Four-week network replay with After Dark's pool as it will be (131 films) and Horror's with the five added (118). Box copies were taken at 09:12, with every channel booking together (docs/replays/after-dark-review-replay-0.99.6.txt):
  • Horror: 113 → 118 different films over four weeks. Median repeat gap 7.7 → 8.0 days. No fixed-order fallbacks.
  • After Dark: 136 → 124 different films. Nights still rest 14 days. The daytime block (05:00 to 21:00) now has fewer films, so its adaptive rest drops from 5.0 to 3.3 days, and its median repeat gap from 5.3 to 3.8 days.
  • Clashes: no new booking clashes on any channel. The only overlap is the old committed Shaun of the Dead on 7 November.
• Fingerprints on today's pools are identical to 0.99.5. That's expected: withdrawals and moves only take effect when the two pools are read again on the box.

Something for Paul to decide

Most of the withdrawn films were daytime suggestions. After Dark's daytime block now shares fewer films across 16 hours, so they come back every three to four days. The options:

• Accept that.
• Let some of the kept late-night films play by day.
• Shorten the daytime block.
• Add more daytime cult titles through the suggestions review.

Nothing here changes until Paul chooses.

After install

When the pools refresh, check on the box that:

• the five films resolve on Horror to the same item ids (5638364, 6044302, 6049755, 6414670, 5718634)
• After Dark's pool no longer holds any of the 38
• the log lines show clashes=0

Rollback

Install 0.99.5. After Dark's pool then reads its full accepted list again.

Installation record (4 November 2026, 09:36 GMT)

Paul approved this release at 09:35. Orbit wasn't on screen; the TV was on its home screen, with Orbit's last playback note at 09:01. I took a snapshot of all 96 schedule files, then installed over 0.99.3 with adb install -r. The box reports 0.99.6-after-dark-review.

I launched Orbit so its scheduler would run. Once the checks were done, I returned the TV to its home screen with a launcher intent rather than a remote key. There was no crash in the log. The rollback APK is in outputs/revision-0.99.3.

• Committed plans: every one of the 31 plans kept every remaining entry identical. The only change was the normal daily trim of programmes that ended more than 24 hours ago.
• New bookings: Vortex and Orbit X topped up on their own, adding 64 and 67 programmes from about 10 November, because their plans dropped under six days ahead. All of the new bookings carry weighted reasons. These are Vortex's first bookings under the hybrid. Every other plan cursor is identical.
• Episode cursors: every aired cursor that moved points to an episode that has started in its plan. None was reset.
• Schedulers in the installed configuration (WeightedRotationTest):
  • 15 channels weighted.
  • Rewind, Dark Files and Vortex with the 24-hour hybrid.
  • Riot, Terra, Ring X and Junior on equal turns.
  • Tots' Wind Down and Night on equal turns.
  • After Dark and Premiere with adaptive film rest.
• After Dark re-read its pool (cache=false, 73 requests), going from 170 shows to 132.
  • None of the 38 withdrawn item ids is in it, and nothing else left.
  • Terrorizers, Black Swan, The Outcasts and Zombieland are present, as are the 56 kept cult films.
• Horror re-read its pool, going from 113 films to 118. All five moved films resolve to exactly the intended items: 5638364, 6044302, 6049755, 6414670 and 5718634.
• Clashes: every channel's log line reads clashes=0.
• Playback: this morning's notes on Orbit Three show idents and changeovers working, with no player, decoder or audio-clock errors in the log. No DTS programme played during the check, so DTS isn't verified here.
• Planning speed, a known limit:
  • Two weighted top-ups were slow: Orbit X took 41 seconds for 67 programmes, and Vortex 17 seconds for 64. They run in the background and don't affect playback, but they hold up the next channel's top-up.
  • The likely cause is each pick scanning every show's episode list. That isn't confirmed. I'll measure it and fix it in the audit release.

On-air verification (pending)

• From about 10 November: the hybrid on Rewind, Dark Files and Vortex; the seven newly weighted channels; After Dark without the withdrawn films; and the five films on Horror.
• Paul's eyes and ears on playback, DTS, audio sync and presentation.