Android MiniClient 1.2.9

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by nettech_gt

I don't see 1.2.9 on the Amazon app store or JFrog... Will it be made available soon? Thanx!

I'll try to upload it to bintray this weekend. I'll see about Amazon as well.

[jm9843]

Do you happen to know if Jeff is still interested in/able to make any changes to the code he added for MPEG2-PS?

I've only done limited testing but it appears that MiniClient 1.2.9 with ExoPlayer is working great on the Shield for MPEG2-TS. The skipping has been flawless and it doesn't have the slowdown that ijkplayer exhibits on resume after skip. It's nice to have passthrough audio with (so far) flawless playback.

Can you make the switch from PS to TS?

[TwistedMelon]

I'm about 110% sure playback issues are due to bugs in EXO, so I'm hesitant to try and twist my settings to saving a full TS for every recording to compensate. I'd also have to do something about all the recordings I already have - though I suppose I could start the long road to transcoding all the ones I want to keep long-term to H.264.

Digging through the forum (via google) revealed the Sage property "encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=true" and some business about changes in SageTV version 6 for this. I honestly can't tell when/if my recording format ever changes as I've been running Sage full-time since 2004 and have re-started from scratch a few times, wiping all previous recordings. Some of the oldest recordings I can see are from 2010 and are saved as PS already.

[TwistedMelon]

For comparison purposes, I changed the property state and made one TS file for testing. Seems to work well - proper rate playback and good skip performance with EXO.

I've been putting off for a long time doing a major overhaul on my Sage server system, and while I don't think I'll be changing any of the hardware right now, I'm going to invest some time in changing up the software setup. The last time I made any significant change was in July with the move to version 9 and Schedules Direct.

I'm in the process of setting up Comskip, which I haven't used in years since one of the last rebuilds, and then I'll look into the potentially arduous process of transcoding all my existing recordings. I figure that the space savings on the recording drives will help pay off the effort - as a bonus, I don't have to wait for any EXO bug fixes as we've been discussing.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I'll try to upload it to bintray this weekend. I'll see about Amazon as well.

Bintray and Amazon have been updated. The version will say 1.2.10 (ie, the .10 following .9), since I'll be posting a new version Android Play store later this week as well, with some additional Seek fixes.

[TwistedMelon]

I think I spoke too soon about EXO and -TS from my HVR-2250 OTA receivers. The results aren't positive after all.

In continued testing, I converted a couple of other recordings without success. Then I noticed that Live TV continued to have the same issues as when saving -PS files (pausing video, no audio - unusable). In testing the channel from which the initial successful recording was made, it worked fine. So it looks like the issue may not necessarily be -PS / -TS related but the streams coming from different channels OTA.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Bintray and Amazon have been updated. The version will say 1.2.10 (ie, the .10 following .9), since I'll be posting a new version Android Play store later this week as well, with some additional Seek fixes.

Hold off on 1.2.10... I introduced a severe seeking issue I'll post a .11 later today.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Hold off on 1.2.10... I introduced a severe seeking issue I'll post a .11 later today.

I uploaded 1.2.11 to binTray and Amazon

[TwistedMelon]

1.2.9 on ShieldTV, switching between IJK/EXO from within Sage using the <-> button on the pop-up menu seems to have no effect, whether "one time" or "yes" is selected. The current player continues to be used.

If "yes" was selected, quitting the miniplayer and restarting will come back with the correct player active.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by TwistedMelon

1.2.9 on ShieldTV, switching between IJK/EXO from within Sage using the <-> button on the pop-up menu seems to have no effect, whether "one time" or "yes" is selected. The current player continues to be used.

If "yes" was selected, quitting the miniplayer and restarting will come back with the correct player active.

What makes you think it didn't switch the player? I've used this many times myself, especially while testing ExoPlayer (ie, ExoPlayer would screw up, so I'd switch to IJK and continue watching a show).

[TwistedMelon]

Originally Posted by stuckless

What makes you think it didn't switch the player? I've used this many times myself, especially while testing ExoPlayer (ie, ExoPlayer would screw up, so I'd switch to IJK and continue watching a show).

After switching, playback exhibits the same behavior as before switching (unexpected behavior). This includes stopping and restarting playback or trying an alternate recording.

In testing, this means while EXO is showing stuttering and lack of audio or super-speed playback with audio, switching to IJK looks to continue to playing with the same defects.

Conversely, while IJK is playing back a particular recording properly, switching to EXO continues to play back with seemingly no issues apparent (an no pass-through audio).

Restart the miniclient in either case and playback occurs with expected behavior.

[nettech_gt]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Hold off on 1.2.10... I introduced a severe seeking issue I'll post a .11 later today.

Thanx!

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by TwistedMelon

After switching, playback exhibits the same behavior as before switching (unexpected behavior). This includes stopping and restarting playback or trying an alternate recording.

In testing, this means while EXO is showing stuttering and lack of audio or super-speed playback with audio, switching to IJK looks to continue to playing with the same defects.

Conversely, while IJK is playing back a particular recording properly, switching to EXO continues to play back with seemingly no issues apparent (an no pass-through audio).

Restart the miniclient in either case and playback occurs with expected behavior.

That's interesting. In testing, I need to switch players all the time, and from the logs, I haven't noticed it NOT switching players.

[TwistedMelon]

Another small issue:

Starting the miniclient doesn't seem to cause Shield to stop background audio playback from another app that supports that feature, such as Plex.

Example:

Playing music album in Plex
Exit Plex to Launcher - music continues to play and is displayed in a a "Now Playing" recommendation tile
Open Sage Miniclient and music continues to play
Start playback of a recoding and music continues to play

Behavior when launcning another app, like Netflix:

Playing music album in Plex
Exit Plex to Launcher - music continues to play and is displayed in a a "Now Playing" recommendation tile
Open Netflix and music stop playing right as as app splash page comes on the screen - music resumes when Netflix is closed

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I'll try to upload it to bintray this weekend. I'll see about Amazon as well.

Hi. I’ve searched around a bit here but found nothing concrete to the question: can the mini client be used on an Amazon Fire HD tablet?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Hi. I’ve searched around a bit here but found nothing concrete to the question: can the mini client be used on an Amazon Fire HD tablet?

It is uploaded to the a Amazon app store. It doesn't support all devices but most are supposed, from what I can tell. Whether or not it works well it's another question.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

It is uploaded to the a Amazon app store. It doesn't support all devices but most are supposed, from what I can tell. Whether or not it works well it's another question.

ok, thanks. I just grabbed a 8” 16gb HD Alexa version on a lark ($35 Black Friday) so it’s worth a try to experiment...

[DigiDAD]

Does the Android miniclient support streaming MPEG2 / TS without transcoding? I know it is an option in Windows Placeshifter. For a hard wired TV box with gigabit Ethernet or perhaps even AC wireless, it seems unnecessary to tax the server with the task of transcoding everything.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by DigiDAD

Does the Android miniclient support streaming MPEG2 / TS without transcoding? I know it is an option in Windows Placeshifter. For a hard wired TV box with gigabit Ethernet or perhaps even AC wireless, it seems unnecessary to tax the server with the task of transcoding everything.

Exo player doesn't. The ink player plays mpeg 2 back fine, but you are stuck with stereo.

[AzJazz]

I am running into an odd situation where the SageTV MiniClient will lock up when accessing some videos on my NAS device.

Most videos on the NAS will play fine. Recordings stored on the NAS also play fine.

However, as I scroll through my imported "Folders" list, the MiniClient will freeze when it touches (not even playing) certain files. The control menu is still accessible, but the SageTV GUI stays stuck. I have to use the control menu to forcibly exit the MiniClient before I can use the MiniClient again.

Is there anything I can collect / send to help identify the issue?

Thanks,

AzJazz