Android/AndroidTV Placeshifter client (Discussion)

[stuckless]

I've been working on this, for what feels like, a very long time We've had 8 ALPHA builds, and tonight was the first time that I've actually used the Application on my Android TV unit (Nexus player ADT-1). Sure I've loaded it several times to test video playback, etc, but I can't say that I've actually used it to watch a complete show, etc.

It's clear that the limited remote actions that I've added aren't going to cut it, but, we are limited by the controller buttons, etc. I've ordered a FLIRC unit, so I'm curious if that will offer more functionality in terms of using a real remote (if it lives up to its promise).

All in all, though, I was quite happy with the performance (wired). There are a few UI glitches, but the video playback seemed pretty solid.

[wayner]

I don't have any Android devices - but Well done!

Any recos on what device to buy to try out that are reasonably priced?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

I don't have any Android devices - but Well done!

Any recos on what device to buy to try out that are reasonably priced?

To be honest, If you don't have an android tv device, then I'd probably just wait for a bit for this project to mature. But, I think the Nexus player, when you can get it for $50 is a pretty good entry level device. On the upper scale, I think the NVidia shield will be a great device (still waiting for mine )

My current AndroidTV device is a Nexus Player (developer edition). When it's hard wired, then Gemstone feels are fluid as it does on the HD300. On WiFi, it's still pretty good, but, wired is great.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I've been working on this, for what feels like, a very long time We've had 8 ALPHA builds, and tonight was the first time that I've actually used the Application on my Android TV unit (Nexus player ADT-1). Sure I've loaded it several times to test video playback, etc, but I can't say that I've actually used it to watch a complete show, etc.

It's clear that the limited remote actions that I've added aren't going to cut it, but, we are limited by the controller buttons, etc. I've ordered a FLIRC unit, so I'm curious if that will offer more functionality in terms of using a real remote (if it lives up to its promise).

All in all, though, I was quite happy with the performance (wired). There are a few UI glitches, but the video playback seemed pretty solid.

The FLIRC unit simulates keystrokes. I use it on my Nexus Player to control Kodi and Plex. It also comes with configs for FireTV ... Media keys .... WMC and a couple of others.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

The FLIRC unit simulates keystrokes. I use it on my Nexus Player to control Kodi and Plex. It also comes with configs for FireTV ... Media keys .... WMC and a couple of others.

Then it should work perfectly, since all I'm doing is simulating keystrokes

[brewston]

I shot this at the weekend on my wired ADT-1

https://goo.gl/photos/mG4pCtKDX2hJrJJ79

It's not the best video but you can get a feel for it on Android TV

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by brewston

I shot this at the weekend on my wired ADT-1

https://goo.gl/photos/mG4pCtKDX2hJrJJ79

It's not the best video but you can get a feel for it on Android TV

Awesome. I've been meaning to do this as well. I linked to your post from the first post.

[dgeezer]

I just wanted to let you know that the Alpha 8 did fix the tiny UI problem for me. The SageTV UI now shows up full screen on my Shield TV.

[brewston]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Awesome. I've been meaning to do this as well. I linked to your post from the first post.

Thanks ! You wrote Nexus Player on the first post but it's the ADT-1 wired. BTW - all the navigation was done using the Nvidia remote (ie direction pad, select & back) Since Jusjoken kindly added me in a pause button, it's 99% usable for me. Just needs FF/REW

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by brewston

Thanks ! You wrote Nexus Player on the first post but it's the ADT-1 wired. BTW - all the navigation was done using the Nvidia remote (ie direction pad, select & back) Since Jusjoken kindly added me in a pause button, it's 99% usable for me. Just needs FF/REW

ADT-1 is the nexus player... It's just the developer model for the Nexus player. That's what I have as well. Yeah, I noticed the pause... i didn't see that in my menu

[dinki]

Sean, Have you tried playing any 720p MPEG2 recordings on your Nexus Player? I've tried the latest version and am still seeing odd artifacts on my wired connection but only for 720p content. 1080i and 480i work without these artifacts.

I'm attaching the logs in the hopes that it might prove useful. Thanks again for all the work you've put into this!

[cncb]

Originally Posted by dinki

I've tried the latest version and am still seeing odd artifacts on my wired connection but only for 720p content. 1080i and 480i work without these artifacts.

Same here although there is still something off with 1080i content for me (I think deinterlacing issues).

Also, does it seem like the player will allow for audio bitstreaming (DD and DTS)?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by dinki

Sean, Have you tried playing any 720p MPEG2 recordings on your Nexus Player? I've tried the latest version and am still seeing odd artifacts on my wired connection but only for 720p content. 1080i and 480i work without these artifacts.

I'm attaching the logs in the hopes that it might prove useful. Thanks again for all the work you've put into this!

I have not... I only have h264 encoded files, personally. Have you tried to turn off hardware acceleration in the Preferences, to see if it plays the same or differently?

I'm happy to see the SendLog functionality is working... while the log didn't really show much happening, I can at least see the playing playing the file, etc, which is helpful. It doesn't show any errors related to playback, etc.

[dinki]

Originally Posted by cncb

Same here although there is still something off with 1080i content for me (I think deinterlacing issues).

I did notice that with 1080i as well and I guess I should have phrased my reply a bit differently. 1080i does have some odd interlacing motion type artifact but it is tons better than the 720p content.

Originally Posted by stuckless

I have not... I only have h264 encoded files, personally. Have you tried to turn off hardware acceleration in the Preferences, to see if it plays the same or differently?

I'll give that a try. I've run into this problem before with my old MX2 Android box but I was able to get around it by flashing it with Openelec (Linux) and the content played fine. It's kind of sad as I've been chasing a box that can play MPEG2 without issue and they are pretty hard to come by for the price point I'm at.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by dinki

I'll give that a try. I've run into this problem before with my old MX2 Android box but I was able to get around it by flashing it with Openelec (Linux) and the content played fine. It's kind of sad as I've been chasing a box that can play MPEG2 without issue and they are pretty hard to come by for the price point I'm at.

I think it's great the Kodi can play all sorts of videos, without issues. It's also great that Kodi has over 450 developers that have contributed to the project for the last 13 years. This project will never compete or replace KODI as a universal media player that can play any file flawlessly on any device. Not when it has a single developer, working a couple hours week. I'm not being snarky here, but I see a few posts like, "KODI can play this on my nexus player flawlessly, why can't this app?" (that wasn't your question, but sometimes, I feel there's an implicit question )... I hope the 450 vs 1 and 13 years vs a couple months helps put that in perspective.

I think we all have to re-align whatever our expectations might be. For me, I'll be extremely happy if I have play 720p h264 encoded content as well as i can on the HD300. That's a far cry from play any format, any resolution, etc. I would like it to play anything... but until we get more people joining the project with various experiences, especiallly video playback experience, we are going to have to settle for less

It isn't a question of could the nexus the player play any file flawlessly... the answer is yes, and Kodi proves it so. But, it won't be my goal to do that, especially since, I don't have the video playback skills (or the time) to make that happen

[dinki]

Apologies as I did not give a complete statement (again). The problem I had with the MX2 Android box was that the 720p MPEG2 file did not play well in Kodi under Android but it did play fine under Kodi under OpenElec Linux on the same hardware. I was more trying to elude to what I'm thinking is an Android issue more so than a software issue, but I'm pretty much a dunderhead so my guessing is probably way off base I have not tried the 720p MPEG2 files under Kodi on the Nexus Player yet to know if they play okay or not. I know that most of my issues can be solved by spending some money and getting a PC client but the budget doesn't allow for that and I don't really _need_ a replacement for my HD200 yet.

I'm very appreciative of your efforts and have enjoyed testing the different builds. You've far surpassed anything previously available and I am enjoying using the latest on my phone to view SD content.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by dinki

Apologies as I did not give a complete statement (again). The problem I had with the MX2 Android box was that the 720p MPEG2 file did not play well in Kodi under Android but it did play fine under Kodi under OpenElec Linux on the same hardware. I was more trying to elude to what I'm thinking is an Android issue more so than a software issue, but I'm pretty much a dunderhead so my guessing is probably way off base I have not tried the 720p MPEG2 files under Kodi on the Nexus Player yet to know if they play okay or not. I know that most of my issues can be solved by spending some money and getting a PC client but the budget doesn't allow for that and I don't really _need_ a replacement for my HD200 yet.

I'm very appreciative of your efforts and have enjoyed testing the different builds. You've far surpassed anything previously available and I am enjoying using the latest on my phone to view SD content.

Thanks, and to be clear, I was NOT offended by the comments, but I do wanted people to realize that the scale of this project will never compete with the 13+ years and 450 developers of Kodi

It is interesting that Kodi for android has some issues... but it's likely that for Android, they have to rewrite the player (or parts of it) and it's limited compared to their native implementation.

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I think we all have to re-align whatever our expectations might be.

My wish is to have a fully functioning MiniClient (ie, HD300 like) app especially for Android TV type boxes.

HDxxx extenders were in the price range of $150 to $200. If we can find a box that does "direct play" and runs an Android Sage App that would be ideal. New Sage users will want an extender type device.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

My wish is to have a fully functioning MiniClient (ie, HD300 like) app especially for Android TV type boxes.

HDxxx extenders were in the price range of $150 to $200. If we can find a box that does "direct play" and runs an Android Sage App that would be ideal. New Sage users will want an extender type device.

I'm optimistic about what we can do... i just don't think we'll get to the KODI level of playback. If we have deviced that have hardware decoding for mpeg2 and h264, I think that covers a lot of ground. Now when we get into things like interlaced video has issues, etc, not sure what we can do about that If I recall I had issues when I started using my HDPVR to create 1080i videos, which is why I record all stuff in 720p.

[moothekow]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I'm optimistic about what we can do... i just don't think we'll get to the KODI level of playback. If we have deviced that have hardware decoding for mpeg2 and h264, I think that covers a lot of ground. Now when we get into things like interlaced video has issues, etc, not sure what we can do about that If I recall I had issues when I started using my HDPVR to create 1080i videos, which is why I record all stuff in 720p.

For what it's worth - I'm completely behind your plan of attack here. Seems like the best/most realistic approach :-). 80/20 rule.. do the 20% of the work that covers the 80% use case.