[Android MiniClient] Now in BETA

[KryptoNyte]

Seems like Sage isn't liking the resize event;

19:41:45.209 [ANDROID-MINICLIENT] WARN  s.m.android.AndroidMiniClientOptions - Unmapped Hardware Audio Codec: [ac3] for OMX.SEC.ac3.dec
19:41:45.209 [ANDROID-MINICLIENT] DEBUG s.m.android.AndroidMiniClientOptions - --------- END DUMPING HARDWARE CODECS -----------
19:41:45.209 [ANDROID-MINICLIENT] INFO  s.miniclient.MiniClientConnection - Connecting to media server at 192.168.254.101:31099
19:41:45.211 [ANDROID-MINICLIENT] INFO  s.miniclient.MiniClientConnection - Establishing Server Connection 192.168.254.101:31099 for Connection Type: 1
19:41:45.245 [ANDROID-MINICLIENT] INFO  s.miniclient.MiniClientConnection - Connection accepted by server: 192.168.254.101
19:41:45.245 [ANDROID-MINICLIENT] INFO  s.miniclient.MiniClientConnection - Connected to media server 192.168.254.101
19:41:45.246 [ANDROID-MINICLIENT] INFO  s.miniclient.MiniClientConnection - Connecting to ui server at 192.168.254.101:31099
19:41:45.246 [ANDROID-MINICLIENT] INFO  s.miniclient.MiniClientConnection - Establishing Server Connection 192.168.254.101:31099 for Connection Type: 0
19:41:45.251 [ANDROID-MINICLIENT] INFO  s.miniclient.MiniClientConnection - Connection accepted by server: 192.168.254.101
19:41:45.252 [ANDROID-MINICLIENT] INFO  s.miniclient.MiniClientConnection - Connected to gfx server 192.168.254.101
19:41:45.270 [GLThread 1010] DEBUG s.m.android.gdx.MiniClientRenderer - SIZE: width: 1920; height: 1080
19:41:45.271 [GLThread 1010] DEBUG s.m.android.gdx.MiniClientRenderer - VIEWPORT: width: 1920; height: 1080
19:41:45.272 [GLThread 1010] DEBUG s.m.android.gdx.MiniClientRenderer - VIEWPORT: x: 0; y: 0
19:41:45.272 [GLThread 1010] DEBUG s.m.android.gdx.MiniClientRenderer - WORLD: width: 1920.0; height: 1080.0
19:41:45.274 [GLThread 1010] DEBUG s.m.android.gdx.MiniClientRenderer - SCALE: Scale{xs=1.0, ys=1.0}
19:41:45.275 [GLThread 1010] DEBUG s.m.android.gdx.MiniClientRenderer - Notifying SageTV about the Resize Event: Dimension{height=1080, width=1920}
19:41:45.284 [GLThread 1010] INFO  s.m.android.gdx.MiniClientRenderer - Error sending Resize Event
java.lang.NullPointerException: Null pointer exception during instruction 'monitor-enter v3'
	at sagex.miniclient.MiniClientConnection.postResizeEvent(MiniClientConnection.java:1291) ~[na:0.0]
	at sagex.miniclient.android.gdx.MiniClientRenderer.notifySageTVAboutScreenSize(MiniClientRenderer.java:166) ~[na:0.0]
	at sagex.miniclient.android.gdx.MiniClientRenderer.resize(MiniClientRenderer.java:160) ~[na:0.0]
	at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.android.AndroidGraphics.onSurfaceChanged(AndroidGraphics.java:249) ~[na:0.0]
	at android.opengl.GLSurfaceView$GLThread.guardedRun(GLSurfaceView.java:1520) ~[na:0.0]
	at android.opengl.GLSurfaceView$GLThread.run(GLSurfaceView.java:1248) ~[na:0.0]

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Seems like Sage isn't liking the resize event;

Sometimes I get that as well (still haven't tracked it down), but only once in about 100 connects... Typically if I get a failed to connect, then I reconnect again, and it works.

[KryptoNyte]

Okay.

Carry on with the working devices.

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Well, based on the above posts, I have no idea what the problem is with this Verizon S4. I've always tried to use the Android client that is wifi connected to same router/switch as the SageTV server.

For me personally, it was only a blank screen until I put my place shifter license back on the server, even while on my local lan.

I could then get into the Ui and watch recordings. The difference when I was not in my local lan was that it would now ask for the place shifter username and password before connecting.

I had to have the place shifter license on the server, no matter local lan or not with the phone. I'm using ver 7.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by SteveW

For me personally, it was only a blank screen until I put my place shifter license back on the server, even while on my local lan.

I could then get into the Ui and watch recordings. The difference when I was not in my local lan was that it would now ask for the place shifter username and password before connecting.

I had to have the place shifter license on the server, no matter local lan or not with the phone. I'm using ver 7.

Hi, Steve. Tried that again just now, but still no go. It looks like it's something with either my phone or my server (leaning towards server at this point), so I think I'll just hold on this until I have another Android device in the house. At this point, it's more of a curiosity than a matter of importance, so not a big deal to just wait.

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Hi, Steve. Tried that again just now, but still no go. It looks like it's something with either my phone or my server (leaning towards server at this point), so I think I'll just hold on this until I have another Android device in the house. At this point, it's more of a curiosity than a matter of importance, so not a big deal to just wait.

Can't say you didn't try!

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by SteveW

Can't say you didn't try!

Yes, sir! And I appreciate the suggestions.

[stuckless]

The high level, here's what's changed.
- Added HEVC support
- Added ability to use HALF NATIVE screen resolution
- Added better handling of END OF STREAMs
- Smart Remote: Long Press Left/Right will issue Left/Right commands
- Smart Remote: Added MENU_HINTS
- OSN: Added REW2 and FF2
- OSN: Added ability to change players

Here's what each of these mean
Added HEVC support
While SageTV has no support to transcode HEVC files (yet -- require ffmpeg update), it can pass those HEVC, untouched, to a client that supports HEVC decoding. Many android devices have built in hardware decoding support for HEVC, so these files may play. Some caveats include... HEVC in ts stream will not play, but HEVC in MKV will.

Added ability to use HALF NATIVE screen resolution
By default the Android MiniClient will use full native resolution when reporting its size to SageTV. After talking with Jeff, apparently this won't make any difference in bandwidth, so, while it might save on memory, it won't actually decrease the bandwidth

Added better handling of END OF STREAMs
There were cases where I noticed the END OF STREAM (EOS) was not working ideally, so there are fixes in there around this.

Smart Remote: Long Press Left/Right will issue Left/Right commands
By default smart remoote is enabled. Smart Remote detects the state of the client, ie, playing a video or not, and depending on the state, it will re-map the left/right/select buttons, so that when a video is playing select will pause/play and right will skip forward. The problem I ran into was that when it hit a commercial and auto-skip is disabled, I had to manually skip over the commercial. Now I can long press rigth, and it will skip over it.

Smart Remote: Added MENU_HINTS
Building a "Smart Remote" is not easy with SageTV since the client doesn't know much about the state of the UI. I added a new function to the SageTV server to send the client a "hint" every time a menu or popup becomes visible. Not in the client, I can use that information to better decide if I should be using the normal remote actions, or smart actions. For example if I'm playing a video and dialog pops up, the remote thinks it's still in "video" mode when it needs to actuallly be normal mode. This all works correctly now, provided you are running the latest Sage.jar. Another "hint" is a keyboard hint. When a keyboard input is required, the client will automatically show the Android keyboard. This may obscure the fields, and I'll have to work around that another way.

OSN: Added REW2 and FF2
Pretty self explanatory, but the on screen navigation now has buttons for REW2 and FF2

OSN: Added ability to change players
I tend to use ExoPlayer, mostly, because I find it works very well with my HDPVR TS files. But, sometimes I get a video that Exo cannot play, and I have to exit the client, and reconfigure the player, and then relaunch the player. That's annoying. So, this action in the OSN will ask if you want to switch players. You can say yes, and it will permanently change from Exo to IJK or vice verse. You can say, no, and it does nothing. Or you can say, "Yes, One Time Only", it will switch players for ONLY the next video playback request, and then revert to the standard player after that. So the use case for this would be, you try to watch a video using Exo, and it fails (or you get no audio), then you can quickly reconfigure the player, and try again using IJK. While I like Exo better (usually), IJK is a solid player that plays just about anything.

FYI... I've been going on 3 weeks (or longer) using 100% the Android MiniClient as my primary viewing device for movies and tv. In that time, I have not reverted to using the HD300. It's not perfect, but the experience is getting closer to the HD300 with every release.

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I guess, I should qualify... I'm not saying that you'll play 100% of everything... but that some things, such as recordings, will most likely play.... And even in those cases YMMV depending on the recorded media.

Originally Posted by stuckless

OSN: Added ability to change players
I tend to use ExoPlayer, mostly, because I find it works very well with my HDPVR TS files. But, sometimes I get a video that Exo cannot play, and I have to exit the client, and reconfigure the player, and then relaunch the player. That's annoying. So, this action in the OSN will ask if you want to switch players. You can say yes, and it will permanently change from Exo to IJK or vice verse. You can say, no, and it does nothing. Or you can say, "Yes, One Time Only", it will switch players for ONLY the next video playback request, and then revert to the standard player after that. So the use case for this would be, you try to watch a video using Exo, and it fails (or you get no audio), then you can quickly reconfigure the player, and try again using IJK. While I like Exo better (usually), IJK is a solid player that plays just about anything.

FYI... I've been going on 3 weeks (or longer) using 100% the Android MiniClient as my primary viewing device for movies and tv. In that time, I have not reverted to using the HD300. It's not perfect, but the experience is getting closer to the HD300 with every release.

Hmmm. It's interesting. I CAN'T play my HDPVR files with Exoplayer at all. I have to use IJK. IJK won't play any of my blurays or dvds. Haven't tried Exo on my blurays or DVDs. Will have to try that.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by SteveW

Hmmm. It's interesting. I CAN'T play my HDPVR files with Exoplayer at all. I have to use IJK. IJK won't play any of my blurays or dvds. Haven't tried Exo on my blurays or DVDs. Will have to try that.

I probably should have clarified...because there hasn't been any work to get dvds working... not even sure it's going to possible.

I did a post earlier about the pros/cons of Exo and IJK. Exo is still lacking MPEGPS support, and sagetv uses that alot. For me, the HDPVR recordings are MPEG2TS .ts files and they work fairly well in Exo. Most of my collection is h264 .ts files and .mkv, and .mp4 files, so it works pretty well.

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I probably should have clarified...because there hasn't been any work to get dvds working... not even sure it's going to possible.

I did a post earlier about the pros/cons of Exo and IJK. Exo is still lacking MPEGPS support, and sagetv uses that alot. For me, the HDPVR recordings are MPEG2TS .ts files and they work fairly well in Exo. Most of my collection is h264 .ts files and .mkv, and .mp4 files, so it works pretty well.

So now I'm scratching my head. I would assume that since I'm also using the HD-PVR, that means my files would also be MPEG2TS, yet mine won't play in Exo like yours do. I'm running mine at 1080i. Are you also or are you running yours at 720p?

My movies (DVD and Bluray) are all VOB or M2TS so guess that is the issue on that front.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by SteveW

So now I'm scratching my head. I would assume that since I'm also using the HD-PVR, that means my files would also be MPEG2TS, yet mine won't play in Exo like yours do. I'm running mine at 1080i. Are you also or are you running yours at 720p?

My movies (DVD and Bluray) are all VOB or M2TS so guess that is the issue on that front.

if the files are .ts, then they should be MPEG2TS if coming the hdpvr. I do use 720p because in the beginning I has issue with 1080i even on the HD300. I do have some 1080i samples, but they are .mpg and not .ts.

On linux I can run a command "mediainfo" which dumps all the media metadata and stream info about a file. it's quite handy. Not sure if someone can recommend a Window mediainfo type of tool, but that would help when looking at these problems. The other thing would be if you could make available the file (or even the first 50mb of the file), then i can grab it and do some testing.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by SteveW

So now I'm scratching my head. I would assume that since I'm also using the HD-PVR, that means my files would also be MPEG2TS, yet mine won't play in Exo like yours do. I'm running mine at 1080i. Are you also or are you running yours at 720p?

My movies (DVD and Bluray) are all VOB or M2TS so guess that is the issue on that front.

There is a setting in the Sage properties file that can force the hd pvr to save files in the .ps program format instead of the default.ts transport format. Are you sure you haven't changed this?

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by stuckless

On linux I can run a command "mediainfo" which dumps all the media metadata and stream info about a file. it's quite handy. Not sure if someone can recommend a Window mediainfo type of tool, but that would help when looking at these problems.

MediaInfo is also available for Windows.

[stuckless]

With this BETA, I think the MiniClient is close to RC status. I might do one to two other betas, and then actually create a release.

BETA 8 fixes many UI issues that have plagued the Android MiniClient from day one.

So, if you have DISABLED Surfaces in the Preferences, you can now enable those again, and reap the performance benefits of using them. On really fast hardware, like the Shield, it might not amount to much, but on phones/tablets and Nexus Player it should make a difference.

There were also a few other UI glitches that I cleaned up as well, such as using proper blending modes, etc, so as of now, the UI should look pretty close on the HD300 and on the Android MiniClient.

And if you are reading this, and you missed the BETA-7, then read that POST, since it was a HUGE release.

[KryptoNyte]

Not sure what you did, Sean, but 0.08 works on the S4.

Thanks!

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Not sure what you did, Sean, but 0.08 works on the S4.

Thanks!

Well, it wasn't an intentional fix on my part (ie, had no idea the UI fixes would make it work on your device, but I'm glad it did). There were a number of UI glitches that are fixed in Beta8.

[troycheek]

Just FYI, I've been following this project for a while because I'd like to use my Kindle Fire HD 7 (of course purchased days before the HDX was announced) as a client. The Alpha versions installed and ran with varying degrees of success, but all the Beta versions give me a Parse Error ("There is a problem parsing the package.") when I try to install them. Not sure what the OS version is (or how to check that).

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by troycheek

Just FYI, I've been following this project for a while because I'd like to use my Kindle Fire HD 7 (of course purchased days before the HDX was announced) as a client. The Alpha versions installed and ran with varying degrees of success, but all the Beta versions give me a Parse Error ("There is a problem parsing the package.") when I try to install them. Not sure what the OS version is (or how to check that).

I don't know what version the Kindle Fire HD 7 uses, but this app has a minimum requirement of Android 4.1. The problem with Amazon's Android... is that we can't be sure what they have included or excluded I know it does run on the latest Fire TV, but other than that, I can't be sure. Typically to find the version of android your device is running, you should be able to go to an "About" section in the settings somewhere and it should tell you which version of android it's running (or might only tell you which version of Amazon it's running)

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by Tiki

There is a setting in the Sage properties file that can force the hd pvr to save files in the .ps program format instead of the default.ts transport format. Are you sure you haven't changed this?

They are all .TS in the file extension... So I assume I never changed it.