Android TV Device Comparisons

[CollegeProject]

I broke down and bought the MI yesterday. Oddly enough walmart kept them in the back and not on the shelf....Couldn't bring myself to buy a shield with a new one seeming to loom soon.

That being said I updated it when I got it and overall am amazed at this little $70 box. It has fed everything I can throw at it from plex. Then I installed sage and equally impressed. I do notice a little stuttering at the first of every feed do others see this? It's like when the OSD is sliding out of screen if I skup forward the issue is gone completely. It doesn't seem to happen on liveTV only on archived stuff. Some is mpeg 2 others is mpeg 4.

Overall greatly impressed runs my little collegeproject UI pretty great. Although seeing it on a TV will definitely lead to some changes in the UI

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by CollegeProject

I broke down and bought the MI yesterday. Oddly enough walmart kept them in the back and not on the shelf....Couldn't bring myself to buy a shield with a new one seeming to loom soon.

That being said I updated it when I got it and overall am amazed at this little $70 box. It has fed everything I can throw at it from plex. Then I installed sage and equally impressed. I do notice a little stuttering at the first of every feed do others see this? It's like when the OSD is sliding out of screen if I skup forward the issue is gone completely. It doesn't seem to happen on liveTV only on archived stuff. Some is mpeg 2 others is mpeg 4.

Overall greatly impressed runs my little collegeproject UI pretty great. Although seeing it on a TV will definitely lead to some changes in the UI

There are couple of rendering issues that I'm aware of...

1. The UI is not a fluid as the HD300 for animations. It's close, but not quite there. This is largely because
- I'm not an opengl developer and my opengl skills are minimal
- SageTV used opengl 1x and Android requires OpenGL 2.x, and many things are different there, so while I could get some details from the existing code, it's not a direct port
- I ran into issues with Android requiring that I do the writes on the UI thread, and I wasn't able to figure out a way to get a purely background rendering process, so this alone hampers the UI framerate. (So today, the UI commands are buffered in the background as they come in, and then replayed/rendered directly to the opengl context on the UI thread)

2. I do see during video playback that when a video starts, I get slo-mo video with realtime audio, and if I let it go, they will sync up in about 5 seconds. If I just skip forward and then back again, they actually sync up and everything is fine... i get this for all kinds of videos. I don't really have an explanation for this... I thought it might be because there isn't enough buffered video for it to be smooth, but, I don't really know what I'm talking about

[CollegeProject]

Oh I wasn't complaining. I actually think the animations are pretty good. Not as fluid as native Android but I didn't expect that. I think they render well and smooth in my short time. I just noticed the blip on start of shows.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stuckless

2. I do see during video playback that when a video starts, I get slo-mo video with realtime audio, and if I let it go, they will sync up in about 5 seconds. If I just skip forward and then back again, they actually sync up and everything is fine... i get this for all kinds of videos. I don't really have an explanation for this... I thought it might be because there isn't enough buffered video for it to be smooth, but, I don't really know what I'm talking about

I actually see this in Placeshifter when playing locally as well, so it's probably a common issue in the way videoframe is handling the buffering, not necessarily an issue in your playback path.

[CollegeProject]

For those of you using a AndroidTV box would love some feedback and testers of my interface.

See screenshots here

[uberpixel]

Could someone help walk me through how to get a FLIRC up and running with the Mi Box in conjunction with a Harmony (890) remote?

I've tried messing around with it a few times but don't seem to be getting anywhere.

Do I have to enable the FLIRC somewhere in the Android TV settings or does it just work out of the box? I couldn't find anything in the Mi Box menus...

Also, on the FLIRC settings which configuration should I use? I tried using the MCE remote codes on my Harmony and then had the FLIRC learn those by pressing buttons on the remote. That all seemed to be working but the Mi Box doesn't respond to my button presses.

Where have I gone wrong?

-uberpixel

[bialio]

I'm interested in this too - or at the very least how do you get more keys for the Android TV boxes. I have Harmony and want a Home Button, and an Options button, and a Guide button. etc....

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by bialio

I'm interested in this too - or at the very least how do you get more keys for the Android TV boxes. I have Harmony and want a Home Button, and an Options button, and a Guide button. etc....

If you are using FLIRC you can try mapping keyboard keys to remote actions (map a remote key to "Ctrl+o" for options, etc.

Flirc works by sending keyboard keystrokes (simulating a keyboard).

[bialio]

So you plug the FLIRC in and the Shield sees a Keyboard? And I'm assuming the harmony knows what a FLIRC is and can talk to it?

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by bialio

And I'm assuming the harmony knows what a FLIRC is and can talk to it?

It does. In the MyHarmony app, click add a device and choose "FLIRC" and "Kodi".

[uberpixel]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

It does. In the MyHarmony app, click add a device and choose "FLIRC" and "Kodi".

Hmm. I don't think the MyHarmony App is compatible with the Harmony 890. The compatible software hasn't been updated for some time and likely doesn't know what Kodi or FLIRC is...

Does the FLIRC need to be somehow enabled in Android TV or does it just work once plugged in?

-uberpixel

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

Hmm. I don't think the MyHarmony App is compatible with the Harmony 890. The compatible software hasn't been updated for some time and likely doesn't know what Kodi or FLIRC is...

Does the FLIRC need to be somehow enabled in Android TV or does it just work once plugged in?

-uberpixel

the beauty of it is a shows up as a generic USB keyboard, so it works right when you plug it in. It does need to be configured in your PC first, so it knows what IR signal equates to what keystroke, but once done, you can move it from device to device, and it will always send that keystroke when it sees that IR command.

[uberpixel]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

Hmm. I don't think the MyHarmony App is compatible with the Harmony 890. The compatible software hasn't been updated for some time and likely doesn't know what Kodi or FLIRC is...

Does the FLIRC need to be somehow enabled in Android TV or does it just work once plugged in?

-uberpixel

Okay - I got it working with my Harmony One+ remote (ditched the 890 for now) since it allowed me to use the newer MyHarmony software which has FLIRC and Kodi loaded as an option. Obviously the buttons aren't all the same as the SageTV remote so I will need to fiddle to figure out how to manage that problem. Is the MCE remote a viable option instead?

Overall I would say that the performance of the stream is great for recorded TV once it gets going. A little hiccup at the start and then it moves right along. 10 second skips aren't as crisp as they are on the HD300 - definitely some lag. This is something I do a lot and may end up being a deal breaker for me. I was thinking it would be nice to have an Android TV box instead of the HD300 so I could have all of my content in one place (Netflix/Sage/etc), but if it's going to be a step down in performance I will keep using the HD300 until it dies (I also have a spare so it could be a while).

Is this 10 second skip delay similar on the Shield or is this a Mi Box thing?

I know I'm being picky. In general this Android Mini-Client is an awesome development and I'm very thankful for all of the hard work that went into putting it together.

-uberpixel

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

A little hiccup at the start and then it moves right along. 10 second skips aren't as crisp as they are on the HD300 - definitely some lag. This is something I do a lot and may end up being a deal breaker for me. I was thinking it would be nice to have an Android TV box instead of the HD300 so I could have all of my content in one place (Netflix/Sage/etc), but if it's going to be a step down in performance I will keep using the HD300 until it dies (I also have a spare so it could be a while).

Is this 10 second skip delay similar on the Shield or is this a Mi Box thing?

I was in the States yesterday, and I bought a Mi Box, so I'll do some testing on that box, this weekend (hopefully).

The skip forward/back is instant on the Shield. Like you, I use this all the time, and when doing the MiniClient, I wanted to make sure it performed as good as the HD300, which on the Shield it does (at least of me).

I also tested this on the FireTV and Nexus Player and even on those boxes the skip was instant, so, I am a little surprised that you are experiencing a lag. I'm actually wondering if it's the FLIRC that is causing the lag here or the client.

In my house,I've retired all the HD300s (now sitting in storage), and I use 2 Shields and a FireTV. The FireTV has codec issues, which is why I'm going to be trying the Mi Box.

[CollegeProject]

Are you hardwired or wifi?...I am thinking it's the flic or your network connection. My Mi over wifi AC is absolutely instant (crazy fast actually). With any skips I've done with the default Bluetooth remote. Definitely smooth and fast. I do get the blip at the beginning which I'm thinking is UI related and I'm testing that theory this weekend.

Honesty the skips are faster than tv or anything I else I love being able to just hit a left or right and boom it's done.

[uberpixel]

Originally Posted by CollegeProject

Are you hardwired or wifi?...I am thinking it's the flic or your network connection. My Mi over wifi AC is absolutely instant (crazy fast actually). With any skips I've done with the default Bluetooth remote. Definitely smooth and fast. I do get the blip at the beginning which I'm thinking is UI related and I'm testing that theory this weekend.

Honesty the skips are faster than tv or anything I else I love being able to just hit a left or right and boom it's done.

I'm running the Mi Box on Wireless-N right now. I don't have an AC router or a USB to LAN adapter so maybe I'll try running it without the FLIRC and see if I can rule that out as a lag inducer.

-uberpixel

[CollegeProject]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

I'm running the Mi Box on Wireless-N right now. I don't have an AC router or a USB to LAN adapter so maybe I'll try running it without the FLIRC and see if I can rule that out as a lag inducer.

-uberpixel

I would definitely get a usb-lan if I didn't have AC dedicated to media only. I've seen reports of issues even with shield wireless. I plan on running mine wired soon just to be safe

[Prestermatt]

I'm considering buying a Mi Box, once I get around to upgrading to v9. Could someone please clarify for me what can be done (and not done) with the included remote? In particular I'm interested in the skips -- I have the ones on my HD200 set to 10 and 30 seconds, and I use them constantly. I almost never use the regular FF or REW. Thanks!

[Korny]

I bought a Mi box last week and used wireless connection at first. I have not updated to wireless AC due to my house being hardwired with cat 6. With wireless n 300 Sage TV was very laggy and playback was poor, even with an excellent connection being reported by both the access point and the Mi box. I bought https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and it works with the Mi Box and Sage TV I'd working great.

[bialio]

Originally Posted by stuckless

If you are using FLIRC you can try mapping keyboard keys to remote actions (map a remote key to "Ctrl+o" for options, etc.

Flirc works by sending keyboard keystrokes (simulating a keyboard).

So I got a FLIRC and it seems to be sending what I want it to send - however I'm not having any luck on the Shield. All of the control+<key> options are showing up as unmapped.

left_ctr is unmapped. right_ctr is unmapped. esc is unmapped. home is unmapped. etc.

It does work for numbers, so the keypad is working again. And there are some media commands (stop for instance) that are working.