Android application: taSageTV

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by dlevey

The point is to have one app that does it all well, like sagetv does for the end points it supports.

Well, technically SageTV makes use of a lot of third party plugins and such to try and fulfill everyone's needs, as they don't have the resources to do everything themselves and reinvent the wheel over and over. As a single developer with another dozen projects going on, I have even less resources. While I do see the interest for streaming, it is not the focus of my application.

I don't mind off-loading the streaming to another streaming server + media player, but so far the offerings have not been impressing...

I would say that with this product you have a good start. I would just like to see it taken to the next logical level.

Which goes back to the limited resources. I am happy to fix issues, add features and so on, but some things are harder than others...

[CyRex]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Hmm, that looks interesting! So far I've had no luck when I contacted Air Video, Orb, ZumoCast and so on, but since that project is open source, I might be able to submit a patch or something to enable what I'd need, if it's not already in it...

I haven't spent too much time digging into Subsonic's API, but people have created fully functional desktop and web apps using it. Not sure what functionality you'd require - what exactly are you envisioning?

The subsonic server re-encodes the audio on-the-fly, and each "player" device can specify it's own bit rate. I've been using it for a few months now, and it has been extremely stable, not to mention lightweight and fast.

-Dan

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by CyRex

Not sure what functionality you'd require - what exactly are you envisioning?

Basically, I'd like to pass a filename and get a stream back... From what I saw of the API, it expects an ID for the file (based on its own indexing), and will return a stream.

[CyRex]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Basically, I'd like to pass a filename and get a stream back... From what I saw of the API, it expects an ID for the file (based on its own indexing), and will return a stream.

Gotcha. Seems like it would be pretty easy to provide a search by path API method that would return the song ID, or just create the stream based on the path like you suggested.

-Dan

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by CyRex

Gotcha. Seems like it would be pretty easy to provide a search by path API method that would return the song ID

Right, I can use their search2 method, to grab the ID, and then stream it... Assuming SageTV and Subsonic have matching metadata, which they should...

I am also looking at using an Icecast streaming server, though that does seem to require another Android app for playback.

[George M]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Sounds like you lost connection during the sync, or the metadata in one list choked the parsing... Something that a log could tell... I'd suggest wiping the database and to resync one section at a time.

Resyncing one at a time did the trick. Now I can spend some time playing with it.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by TechBill

I stream perfectly inside LAN but when I go out and use 3G or Wifi elsewhere it connects to my SageTV fine but it give "Video cannot be played" message when I try to stream

Just some random findings which might or might not be related:

- It seems that on some phones, to stream over 3G you still need to keep the wifi antenna on.

- The port 5554 works better than 554 on some phones...

[CyRex]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Right, I can use their search2 method, to grab the ID, and then stream it... Assuming SageTV and Subsonic have matching metadata, which they should...

I am also looking at using an Icecast streaming server, though that does seem to require another Android app for playback.

I did a little playing around with search2 and figured you might be interested in seeing the actual response from the server. This was for a query string of "Beatles She Loves You" with albumCount=0, artistCount=1, and songCount=1.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<subsonic-response xmlns="http://subsonic.org/restapi" status="ok" version="1.4.0">
  <searchResult2>
    <song id="5c5c686f6d657365727665725c6d757369635c54686520426561746c65735c315c303320536865204c6f76657320596f752e6d7033" parent="5c5c686f6d657365727665725c6d757369635c54686520426561746c65735c31" title="She Loves You" isDir="false" album="1" artist="The Beatles" duration="141" bitRate="128" track="3" year="1963" genre="Pop" size="2269523" suffix="mp3" contentType="audio/mpeg" coverArt="5c5c686f6d657365727665725c6d757369635c54686520426561746c65735c315c3031204c6f7665204d6520446f2e6d7033" path="The Beatles/1/03 She Loves You.mp3"/>
  </searchResult2>
</subsonic-response>

The responses include the path to the song, so worst case you could always parse the result set and search for the correct file.

-Dan

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by CyRex

I did a little playing around with search2 and figured you might be interested in seeing the actual response from the server.

Thanks! That id is impressive...

[CyRex]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Thanks! That id is impressive...

No kidding! Looks like it's a concatenation of the folder ID and the song ID, but calling it overkill would be an understatement.

[Fonceur]

For the streaming, the usual suspects (Air Video, Orb, ZumoCast, etc.) have not shown much interest in making it possible for a third party app to launch the streaming... OTOH, I did find a more receptive ear with the author of VLC stream & convert...

So I would suggest that you try out this Android streaming application. If the results are good, maybe drop the author a note to encourage him into adding Intent filtes making it possible for third party applications to start a stream from a file name...

[Fonceur]

Version 1.28

- Fix: The TCP listening thread could come out of sleep mode in a bad state.

[blair_42]

Hi, I'd like to get this going. I am a relatively new Droid2 owner. I am currently away from home and have my HD200 with me but I forgot my remote, which is highly annoying.

The TASageTV page at http://talluscorp.com/mediawiki/inde...TV_Application says that SageTV version 7 is required. I have 6.6. I don't want to upgrade if I don't have to. I don't know what version 7 would offer me that 6 does not.

The first problem I run into is with the wiki instructions at http://talluscorp.com/mediawiki//ind...=SageTCPServer which say that for version 6 SageTCPServer can be downloaded at http://www.talluscorp.com/Software/S...rver_Setup.exe This is a bad link.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by blair_42

The TASageTV page at http://talluscorp.com/mediawiki/inde...TV_Application says that SageTV version 7 is required.

Technically, it is more highly suggested than strictly required, as it does work with SageTV 6. Eventually I do intend to make use of things only available in SageTV 7 but I'm not there yet.

This is a bad link.

I'll poke the Tallus owner so he can fix this, but in the mean time you can get the individual files from:

SageTCPServer

and

GKusnick's Studio Tools

[blair_42]

I have placed the SageTCPServer.jar file in the JARs directory and added:

load_at_startup_runnable_classes=sagetcpserver.StartServers
sageTCPServer/clients=local.9250,001d6a4bfd3c.9260

to sage.properties. I setup taSage for the server and a HD200 extender connection. It indicates connection to both. I see information from the server. The remote control functions have no effect on the extender. Actually I think I have another problem with the extender as I get nothing past the splash screen. The extender is set to "force HDMI" mode and I have no HDMI here. I was hoping that by pressing the video button I could regain control. I would expect I could at least turn it off with the power button on the remote.

The 2nd problem is that the line added to sage.properties is overwritten once sage starts.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by blair_42

The 2nd problem is that the line added to sage.properties is overwritten once sage starts.

Sounds like you haven't stopped the SageTV service, which would be why the settings are not sticking...

[Fonceur]

Version 1.29

- Fix: was leaking an intent on shutdown.

[Surtr]

Maybe a little bit off topic, but anyone using this with an LG Optimus, or do you really need something with a hotter processor like an Evo or Droid X to get good results with taSageTV?

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by Surtr

or do you really need something with a hotter processor like an Evo or Droid X to get good results with taSageTV?

Well, technically only the streaming might require the extra processor power, since displaying lists or controlling an extender don't...

[Fonceur]

Version 1.30

- Initial support of images in detailed view (through Sage Remote API).


This requires the Sage Remote API (Sagex service) installed. Since the full size image is sent, this is relatively inefficient and even transfers the image twice to work around some memory issue with large images. So it will get better, this is a work in progress...