Andorid Miniclient 1.3.4 Issues

[benjamintm]

Hi All,
I'm running into a problem with 1.3.4 android miniclient on my 2015 Nvidia Shield. The first time I start the client up and try to play back a recorded (from HDHomeRun) the miniclient locks up and then exits to the Nvidia home screen. If I start the miniclient back up and try to play back the same recording it works w/out issue. I'm using the stock setting for the miniclient. I've also tried removing and re-installing the software. My HD300 works w/o issue.

It might be related to this thread, but there doesn't seem to be a solution other then downgrade to 1.2.8 which I haven't done yet.

Ben

[samgreco]

Well, that's weird. I was about to post the exact same issue.

I can say that i see this EXACTLY.

[sacrament055]

1.3.0 seems to work on my Amazon FireTV but 1.3.4 on Shield locks up immediately. I'm thinking I may try replacing the 1.3.4 version from my shield with the 1.3.0 version.

[Blista]

I sideloaded 1.2.8 last week, but it updated itself shortly after. Is there a way to prevent it from updating on the gen2 Shield?

[benjamintm]

I side-loaded 1.2.8 and it seemed to solve most of my issues.

You can't (as far as I know) disable updates for any given app but you can disable for all apps in the app store. That's what I did and it's stayed at 1.2.8.

[Denali]

Having similar lockups on Amazon FireHD with 1.3.4 trying to launch video. Reverted to 1.3.0 from Amazon and no longer locks up.

[stuckless]

Hey guys, I've been travelling for a few weeks. I just looked in the Play Console (where errors are reported) and I can see a couple of troubling things.

1. I'm seeing crashes in the low level ffmpeg code for ijkplayer
2. I'm seeing some out of memory errors

These are both troubling, and I'll try to take a look this weekend. ijkplayer hasn't been updated in about 9 months now, and I'm not sure if it will be. I may need to find an alternate player at some point, especially if ExoPlayer doesn't get to the point where it's more usable. I've used exoplayer for a few months, but, since the last couple of releases, it's gotten worse for me, and I had to go back to ijkplayer.

The out of memory errors are even more troubling

[wnjj]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Hey guys, I've been travelling for a few weeks. I just looked in the Play Console (where errors are reported) and I can see a couple of troubling things.

1. I'm seeing crashes in the low level ffmpeg code for ijkplayer
2. I'm seeing some out of memory errors

These are both troubling, and I'll try to take a look this weekend. ijkplayer hasn't been updated in about 9 months now, and I'm not sure if it will be. I may need to find an alternate player at some point, especially if ExoPlayer doesn't get to the point where it's more usable. I've used exoplayer for a few months, but, since the last couple of releases, it's gotten worse for me, and I had to go back to ijkplayer.

The out of memory errors are even more troubling

I’m in the process of getting the 64-bit Windows stuff running but if you can send me the crash details I can always see if there’s something that can be fixed easily. It may just push the error somewhere else and ultimately it all may be a memory issue anyway.

[btrcp2000]

Not much new to add other than another confirmation that rolling back to 1.3 and shutting off auto updates in the play store fixed it for me on both a mi and shield. I did have to find it out on the interwebz though. Couldn't do 1.28 for fear of impact to WAF because I need remote buttons

[bigbill]

Wow, I use the v2017 Shield in my RV and I started having the exact same issue as the first reporter. Click on a show it locks up and in a bit returns to the main screen where I try again and it works fine as if nothing is actually wrong with the show.

It happens every time. Wont work, then try again and it works.

That sort of makes me think the player is working correctly -Bill

[waylo]

I just purchased a Shield as there's an excellent sale on Amazon currently.

I can't say I had any of the issues listed here. Maybe because it was a new install, there were no carry-over issues from earlier versions.

I did run into the issue of having garbled script showing up in my menus. On a whim, I downgraded to 1.3.0 and though that issue is still there, it's far less common.

Also I'm using a keyboard, and oddly the miniclient doesn't quite recognize many buttons. Insert and delete are not recognized. Maybe that's an Android issue rather than a miniclient issue.

[btrcp2000]

I discovered that the mini client recognizes key presses but they have to be manually recorded and assigned within the client itself inside detailed setup->commands (not the app settings). When I use my harmony remote as a Bluetooth keyboard and hit Ctrl X for example while in the “Show Sagetv commands linked...” section, it registers as Meta-X. No idea what that is, but all I had to do was link Meta X command to the guide command, and I can now use the harmony remote to execute keyboard commands directly.

[waylo]

Thanks, I had seen some previous older thread about getting the keypresses assigned. My issue is that the miniclient sees the keypresses, but is unable to assign them to any commands. I'll start a new thread with all the issues I've run into using the last 3 versions.

EDIT: New thread here https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65749

[DigiDAD]

Received a new MiBox S today and installed miniclient from Play Store. I too am experiencing constant app lockups when trying to playback recorded MPEG2 ATSC/OTA files. Same behavior on my S912 based generic box as well. 1.3.4 is basically unusable. I uninstalled and reinstalled 1.3.0 from APK. No problems for now. Seems in Android TV auto-update apps is a global setting however, rather than per app, so I am hesitant to leave it off. Has anyone found another solution for 1.3.4? Is there a new version in the works?

Update: Turned on the TV this morning and had the garbled menu text issue as well. Had to exit and restart.

[stuckless]

I spent some time this morning looking back through the MiniClient releases, to try and see where the 1.3.x started to become unstable.

Unfortunately, I've done a piss poor job of actually tracking the releases in git (I disappoint myself so many times ). But at least i did keep an informal change log, and from that i recreated branches for each release, so that I can better see what changed.

On Bintray, I kept 1.2.8 and the latest 1.3.4. I went to 1.2.8, because from the reports that seemed to be the last stable, but, I think people can use 1.3.0 as well and not experience some of these issues (based on reports here). I assumed that the instability came in 1.2.9 because it was there I updated the video player libraries, but, if 1.3.0 seems to play ok, then, likely it's not the video player updates that are causing an issue.

1.3.0 was significant since it was the first release that added support for cusomized key mappings in the client. (ie, support for you to configure keyboard/mouse key mappings). And I think this was for the most part, stable. I do recall fixing one bug around this.

1.3.1 is where we added support for changing/selecting audio tracks. I'm wondering if maybe this is where much of the video crashing is happening. ie, a timing issue of when the audio track is being selected. 1.3.2, then next day, fixed a crashing issue, but, I wondering if there are more that we haven't caught.

1.3.3 was a lot of small changes for catching some issues that were showing up in the google play console. 1.3.4 was a small fix in the show help dialog.

I'm going to prepare a 1.3.5 release where I'll upgrade to the latest exoplayer (2.9.2 vs the 2.8.4 that we have now), and I'm going to review the audio track code, and I might see about wrapping that in a preference, so that it can be turned off, and that might help identify whether or not the problems are there. In the google play console, I see no reports of failures in this code, so, either people are not reporting it, or, it's crashing and the problems are being swallowed, such that they can't be reported.


I've rebuilt and republished the v1.3.0 release to BinTray
https://bintray.com/opensagetv/saget...niClient/1.3.0

I don't recommend getting the APK from any other site, site, since, I can't be sure it hasn't been tampered with.

**1.3.4 (2018-10-08)**
- sls: Fixed crash when showing Help

**1.3.3 (2018-10-05)**
- sls: Fixed issues listed in crash reports
- sls: removed logging on startup that can cause App to hang on some hardware
- sls: removed code that was designed for pre android 21 devices
- sls: Fixed NPE bug in the key listener
- sls: Upgraded ExoPlayer to 2.8.4

**1.3.2 (2018-09-24)**
- jvl711: Fixed bug in Audio Track selection that would cause player to crash (sometimes)

**1.3.1 (2018-09-23)**
- jvl711: Add support for SageTV server to signal Subtitle track changes.
- jvl711: Added audio track change support to ExoPlayer.
- jvl711: Added the ability to switch audio tracks.
- jvl711: Allowed unmapped keys to allow system actions to occur.

**1.3.0 (2018-08-04)**
- jvl711: Added configurable remote mapping ability from within the application 

**1.2.13 (2018-07-01)**
- Upgraded ExoPlayer and IJKPlaer
- Work Around for Shield (and other 8.x versions) where UI gets completely messed up.


**1.2.12 (2017-11-11)**
- Fixes to Skip ahead for ExoPlayer
- Fixed Paused Issue (ie, timeline changes when paused)
- Fixed issue where pause/play would be intercepted by background app


**1.2.9 (2017-11-01)**
- updated IJKPlayer to 0.8.4
- updated ExoPlayer to r2.5.4
- Enhanced ExoPlayer (Seeking in .ts files seems OK for everyday use)
- Build Tools to 26.0.2
- Fixed lots of NullPointerExceptions

**1.2.8 (2017-05-28)**
- Upgraded to IJKPlayer 0.8.0
- Upgraded to ExoPlayer r2.4.0
- Upgraded to LibGDX 1.9.6
- Add "Duplicate" connection action
- Each connection have a different client id
- Each connection can set stateful remote on/off (useful for testing Phoenix)
- Aspect Ratio update for larger non 16/9 screens
- Added support for GUIDE and INFO keys
- Added support for F1-F12 keys

[DigiDAD]

Thanks for your work on this, and for reposting 1.3.0. I will uninstall the one I downloaded from a random site and reinstall with the apk from bintray. Feel free to PM me if you need someone to test 1.3.5 - I have a MiBox running Oreo, a generic box running Nougat and various phones and tablets...

Thanks again

[Blista]

+1 for offering to help test / troubleshoot.

In case it helps you figure out where the issue might be, I'm getting the crashing at the start of playback for TV recordings (via HD Homerun), but am able to play Videos (DVD Rips, etc.).

[stuckless]

So, I've looked at the code for the audio track selection... and it seems ok, but I did add more checking around the timing of setting the audio track, etc.

I did not upgrade exoplayer, since, it appeared to work worse on my system

There is a 1.3.5-dev build posted if people want to try it out.
https://bintray.com/opensagetv/saget...ient/1.3.5-dev

It's important to note if you are using ExoPlayer or IJKPlayer or both when you have issues.

Sadly the best way to troubleshoot this is via logs, but, getting logs from the MiniClient is extremely hard.

[DigiDAD]

Thanks stuckless,

I installed 1.3.5-dev. Behavior is the same. First try fails to play video - just the spinning wait indicator. Close & restart - second try plays successfully. I am using default settings - so IJK player.

I just PMed you a box link with a coupe 1 minute recording samples. Both exhibit the behavior.

I also took a picture of the garbled menu text. This appears to happen when you have the app running but switch apps and go back to it after some time.



Thanks again

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by DigiDAD

Thanks stuckless,

I installed 1.3.5-dev. Behavior is the same. First try fails to play video - just the spinning wait indicator. Close & restart - second try plays successfully. I am using default settings - so IJK player.

I just PMed you a box link with a coupe 1 minute recording samples. Both exhibit the behavior.

I also took a picture of the garbled menu text. This appears to happen when you have the app running but switch apps and go back to it after some time.



Thanks again

So, if you leave the app running, then switch apps, and then later go back, then yeah, the garbled menus will happen. I guess, I really should just enforce and kill the app when you switch out of it. My typical usage is to enable that setting, but also, I always use the long press and exit when I leave to shut it down. SageTV is not really meant to be running in the background.

Thx for the vidoes, I'll see if i can reproduce.