Android/AndroidTV Placeshifter client (Discussion)

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I think he's trying to stay within the placeshifter protocol here.

I seem to remember that it was some custom/proprietary stuff, though it might just have been when transcoding. If that part of the protocol is also part of the Open Source code, then it doesn't matter as he can check any special settings used.

[phantomii]

I installed this version on both my 7" LG tablet as well as my G-Box Q TV streaming device. The menu screens worked very well on my LG tablet but this version did not run on the G-Box Q, the device I really wanna see it work on. Upon starting the app on the G-Box Q I get to the screen which shows my server, but when selecting it I am returned to the Android Desktop. Tried it several times but no success and the same results. Are there any logs or other info I can provide back to assist in future builds? Let me know.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by phantomii

I installed this version on both my 7" LG tablet as well as my G-Box Q TV streaming device. The menu screens worked very well on my LG tablet but this version did not run on the G-Box Q, the device I really wanna see it work on. Upon starting the app on the G-Box Q I get to the screen which shows my server, but when selecting it I am returned to the Android Desktop. Tried it several times but no success and the same results. Are there any logs or other info I can provide back to assist in future builds? Let me know.

This box looks like it is running Android 4.4, so that should meet the min requirements. In the next release, I've added a new logger to allow log files to be written to the external storage so that they can be easily viewed, and emailed, if necessary. But, right now, the only logging is using android internal logging that that's almost impossible to access without development tools. I don't see a reason why this not work on the gbox... but you'll like have to wait a few builds before it all gets sorted out. I'm not doing another build until I get some very basic video playback working... so it's likely 2-3 weeks before the next build.

I also found (not sure I fixed yet)... an issue whereby the "connection" would fail because the UI was attempting to be resized before it was fully available to render... and that would cause a crash... this was a timing issue... so if this box is sufficiently fast, you might be hitting that issue.... but we won't know until we can get logs

[phantomii]

No worries, just wanted to let you know and see if I could help. The box is a quad core and I believe it is pretty fast so maybe your thoughts are correct. We'll see in a few weeks! Thanks again.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by phantomii

No worries, just wanted to let you know and see if I could help. The box is a quad core and I believe it is pretty fast so maybe your thoughts are correct. We'll see in a few weeks! Thanks again.

It looks like a very nice box... my Nexus player is envious But on the other hand, it works on my nexus player

[clarenceb5]

Hi, when I saw this post I got very excited. I would love to help get this app working but unfortunately I am not a developer so I can't contribute to development. But I can help with testing. I have a few Nexus devices I can test with, Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 7 (2013) and Nexus 10.

[jm9843]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I also found (not sure I fixed yet)... an issue whereby the "connection" would fail because the UI was attempting to be resized before it was fully available to render... and that would cause a crash... this was a timing issue... so if this box is sufficiently fast, you might be hitting that issue.... but we won't know until we can get logs

This is a likely candidate for what is happening with the latest public build on the Shield. I wasn't going to say anything until the next build with the logging enabled if it weren't for your comment.

[brewston]

Tested this out last night on phone (Nexus 5) and TV (ADT-1) and it looks promising I noticed that the fan art (on both phone & ADT-1) were somewhat pixelated, like it was using a limited colour map - Is this a known issue ?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by brewston

Tested this out last night on phone (Nexus 5) and TV (ADT-1) and it looks promising I noticed that the fan art (on both phone & ADT-1) were somewhat pixelated, like it was using a limited colour map - Is this a known issue ?

I'm not known... but at the same token, this project is in such an alpha state, that there are 100s of unknown issues (and few known ones). If you want to track it, you can add it to the issues database on the github project site. https://github.com/OpenSageTV/sagetv-miniclient

I think once we get to a RC phase, I'll start looking at issues.

And I guess I can give an update as to where we are at this point Nothing new has been done to the UI side of things since the last build (there have a been a couple minor things, but nothing major). The focus is still on getting a video to play. I've gone through ExoPlayer, LibVLC, IJKPlayer, and now I'm using libVLC from the VideoLAN sources that I built myself. While I can play a video (in some cases), it's not even at an alpha state yet In all fairness, I'm only getting about an hour a day to work on this, so, the video part is slowly coming. Jeff is helping troubleshoot some issues as well, so, I'm sure we'll eventually get something working.

[brewston]

Thanks Sean.

I looked at the 'extender' properties via the web server and the window & display size are set to 1842x1034 which looks a bit odd to me. I'll try to investigate further before adding it as an issue on github

screenshot here :

https://goo.gl/photos/neHcYcayLs8pfRDh9

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by brewston

Thanks Sean.

I looked at the 'extender' properties via the web server and the window & display size are set to 1842x1034 which looks a bit odd to me. I'll try to investigate further before adding it as an issue on github

screenshot here :

https://goo.gl/photos/neHcYcayLs8pfRDh9

The screen size would be whateven Android is reporting as the "available" screen size... so that's not surprising... I've seen all kinds of values there, but in the end, the app will upscale to the physical displayed size. I've even forced the UI to be 720x480, which upscales to the phsicaly screen size, and it doesn't cause much pixelization.

I see from the screenshot that the client is "unregistered", could the pixelation be something related to the fact that sagetv is causing this because of an unregisted client?

[brewston]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I see from the screenshot that the client is "unregistered", could the pixelation be something related to the fact that sagetv is causing this because of an unregisted client?

I'd not reinstalled the placeshifter licence after the last rebuild but it's installed now and hasn't affected the problem ie it's still pixelated. I'll keep playing around with this..

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by brewston

I'd not reinstalled the placeshifter licence after the last rebuild but it's installed now and hasn't affected the problem ie it's still pixelated. I'll keep playing around with this..

Do you get pixelation if you run the placeshifter on the desktop?

[Jabroni]

For those interested in getting some Nexus Players to try the betas of this great work in progress, theres currently a deal on Target for this units.. I just grabbed 2 for 24.99 each And got another 2 by pricematching at bestbuys. (YMMV)

Original thread @ slickdeals

hxxp://slickdeals.net/f/8168644-nexus-player-on-clearance-at-target-for-24-98-ymmv?src=SiteSearchTest2

@Stuckless:
Have u though on opening a bounty for your work?? Would be a great idea so all the comunity can somehow give back something to the devs involved for their work / time. Would be nice to have a bounty subforum and ppl would put in money towards X or Y feature they would like to see on Sage

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Jabroni

For those interested in getting some Nexus Players to try the betas of this great work in progress, theres currently a deal on Target for this units.. I just grabbed 2 for 24.99 each And got another 2 by pricematching at bestbuys. (YMMV)

Original thread @ slickdeals

You guys (ie, non-canadians) get all the great deal

Originally Posted by Jabroni

@Stuckless:
Have u though on opening a bounty for your work?? Would be a great idea so all the comunity can somehow give back something to the devs involved for their work / time. Would be nice to have a bounty subforum and ppl would put in money towards X or Y feature they would like to see on Sage

I have given this some thoughts... Especially since it could be a way for me to buy to hardware for testing (like the Shield and QBox 2)... Not sure I'm there, yet... I'd like to get some basic playback working.... (That being said, I have had people PM me for paypal id to donate money, which is sean at stuckless dot org) Thing is... i can't make any promises... even if people donate... so no one should feel like doing so. I do what I do because I actually enjoy the challenge. I might never succeed, but at least I tried

[stuckless]

Well... about 40+ emails later... with Jeff's help... I have some videos playing. This is slow going... but good progress.

I may push out a build this weekend (arm only)... but keep in mind, it can play some videos, but seeking is still not working.

[phantomii]

I will retry this on the G-Box (as well as my tablet) and assuming you have incorporated the potential fix for the "connection" would fail because the UI was attempting to be resized before it was fully available to render mentioned above, maybe we will have success!!! I will try the release (and all future ones) and let you know!

John

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by phantomii

I will retry this on the G-Box (as well as my tablet) and assuming you have incorporated the potential fix for the "connection" would fail because the UI was attempting to be resized before it was fully available to render mentioned above, maybe we will have success!!! I will try the release (and all future ones) and let you know!

John

There is still a couple of things that I need to do before I can do another release. One of them is actually look at this fix Since I hit it so very rare, I haven't fully tracked it down yet. The other thing is to enable logging to the SD card so that we can better view the log when there are issues. The latter is probably even more important, since if we can capture a log, then we can pinpoint exactly why something is failing.

I may need to add a setting page to turn on/off logging to the SD card, and we'll eventually need a setting screen to configure other things as well.

I'm optimistic that perhaps I can get a build out this weekend... but no promises.

[KarylFStein]

FYI, I installed this on a Galaxy Tab S and an nVidia SHIELD TV. Looks great on the Tab! I have the same problem as others on the SHIELD, (closes right after selecting the server).

[stuckless]

I think I know why the NVIDIA Shield does not work. I think the Shield is 64bit. The means that I'll need 64bit native libraries for ALL the native components that I use, which is quite a few

I'm pretty sure the components that I use all have 64bit counterparts... but, I need to restructure the project, and start creating hardware specific builds for armv7, arm 64bit, and x86. This is going to take some time I also think the new FireTV is 64bit as well... I don't recall if people did it working on FileTV or not.

So, in short, it's likely there won't be a build this week. Also, since I don't have a Shield, this will be hard for me to verify and test.