Android MiniClient for TV is Released to the Play Store

[Bucsfan2008]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

I agree. I'm amazed that anyone puts themselves through this hassle for free apps, but I really am grateful that you choose to be a masochist.

I probably should mention that RC2 was the last version that would successfully run on the Fire TV stick. The Fire TV devices are running Fire OS which I don't believe has any Android TV compatibility. Starting with RC3 I have been able to install, but not been able to run the miniclient most likely due to the Android TV requirement. I probably should have said something, but I presumed it was expected behavior.

I am currently running both RC5 on the regular Fire TV very successfully however it does not show up to be managed in apps, it does show up in "My apps" though.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Bucsfan2008

I am currently running both RC5 on the regular Fire TV very successfully however it does not show up to be managed in apps, it does show up in "My apps" though.

I can access the app, but when I try to launch it, it just fails. I removed RC2 before installing RC5. I just tried it again to make sure nothing changed. It still will only install. Also the Open option after it installs is grayed out. When I go to launch it from the apps on the home screen, I just get a blank screen for a few seconds and then I'm returned to the apps. I'm guessing this is a FireTV stick specific issue. I have a normal FireTV that I haven't plugged in yet. I'll try that out and report back.

Update: Amazon says the regular FireTV is also incompatible. The FireTV is working even worse with RC5. It refuses to install the package entirely say that "There was a problem parsing the package." I did enable the developer options to install software outside of the app store. I also re-downloaded the package just in case. I can't think of anything else that should be done. Am I missing an important detail?

Update 2: The latest version I can install is RC2 and the icons are corrupt. Is this because I have a Gen. 1? On the plus side, 60fps video is working a lot better and not falling behind like it did on the Fire TV stick and the video looks a lot better than the Nexus Players hardware MPEG-2 decoding.

[jm9843]

Originally Posted by stuckless

..then Google sent me a suspension letter because my project is "impersonating" something...

I was actually surprised that the TV app was approved because of the copyrighted images in Play Store listing (Hawaii Five-O background, banner). I think that Google lumps copyrighted images into the 'IP infringement and impersonation policy' category. It's why apps like Emby and Kodi only have images in their listing of stuff released under a creative commons license (e.g. Big Buck Bunny, Elephants Dream, etc.).

Besides the inconvenience of creating screenshots that are less-representative of the product (albeit clearer that they don't furnish copyrighted content); Google doesn't seem to apply the rule consistently. Which I think can be attributed to the manual, human driven app approval process that they switched to in March of last year.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

I can access the app, but when I try to launch it, it just fails. I removed RC2 before installing RC5. I just tried it again to make sure nothing changed. It still will only install. Also the Open option after it installs is grayed out. When I go to launch it from the apps on the home screen, I just get a blank screen for a few seconds and then I'm returned to the apps. I'm guessing this is a FireTV stick specific issue. I have a normal FireTV that I haven't plugged in yet. I'll try that out and report back.

Update: Amazon says the regular FireTV is also incompatible. The FireTV is working even worse with RC5. It refuses to install the package entirely say that "There was a problem parsing the package." I did enable the developer options to install software outside of the app store. I also re-downloaded the package just in case. I can't think of anything else that should be done. Am I missing an important detail?

Update 2: The latest version I can install is RC2 and the icons are corrupt. Is this because I have a Gen. 1? On the plus side, 60fps video is working a lot better and not falling behind like it did on the Fire TV stick and the video looks a lot better than the Nexus Players hardware MPEG-2 decoding.

When I browse the listing on Amazon, it says it's incompatible with my FireTV as well... yet I do I have RC5 installed on it (which was the same version, code wise, that was released to the app store). I'll have do some republishing a few times, like I did with Google's Play Store to get the "features" right for Amazon PITA

Originally Posted by jm9843

I was actually surprised that the TV app was approved because of the copyrighted images in Play Store listing (Hawaii Five-O background, banner). I think that Google lumps copyrighted images into the 'IP infringement and impersonation policy' category. It's why apps like Emby and Kodi only have images in their listing of stuff released under a creative commons license (e.g. Big Buck Bunny, Elephants Dream, etc.).

Besides the inconvenience of creating screenshots that are less-representative of the product (albeit clearer that they don't furnish copyrighted content); Google doesn't seem to apply the rule consistently. Which I think can be attributed to the manual, human driven app approval process that they switched to in March of last year.

Again, you could be 100% right... we just don't know... and from what I read, no amount of "please tell me what I did wrong" will fix it... you just have recreate the entire publication again, and then resubmit. When google "suspends" a project, you can't go back in and just edit it... You have to start at ground zero and redo everything

On a different note... this was my 13th app that I setup on the play store... if I was superstitious...

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by stuckless

When I browse the listing on Amazon, it says it's incompatible with my FireTV as well... yet I do I have RC5 installed on it (which was the same version, code wise, that was released to the app store). I'll have do some republishing a few times, like I did with Google's Play Store to get the "features" right for Amazon PITA

I found that I had an update pending which fixed the icons in RC2, but I still can't run RC5. In case it made any difference I sideloaded the app with adb (instead of installing it via ES File Explorer) and it still will not open.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

I found that I had an update pending which fixed the icons in RC2, but I still can't run RC5. In case it made any difference I sideloaded the app with adb (instead of installing it via ES File Explorer) and it still will not open.

I'm working on a version that has both the TV and Phone UIs in a single APK. The downside is that it raises the min Android Version to 4.4 for a phone/tablet, but I'm hoping this version will support more hardware in the play stores.

[DarkWolf77]

Originally Posted by stuckless

When I browse the listing on Amazon, it says it's incompatible with my FireTV as well... yet I do I have RC5 installed on it (which was the same version, code wise, that was released to the app store). I'll have do some republishing a few times, like I did with Google's Play Store to get the "features" right for Amazon PITA



Again, you could be 100% right... we just don't know... and from what I read, no amount of "please tell me what I did wrong" will fix it... you just have recreate the entire publication again, and then resubmit. When google "suspends" a project, you can't go back in and just edit it... You have to start at ground zero and redo everything

On a different note... this was my 13th app that I setup on the play store... if I was superstitious...

I suddenly remembered something I read awhile ago about the impersonating thing, actually. It comes down to naming your app in such a way that you make it obvious that you're don't belong to the company. Here's a link explaining it: http://www.xda-developers.com/google...akes-to-avoid/

Basically, you should name it something like Miniclient for SageTV instead of SageTV Miniclient. It's a bit ridiculous if you ask me, and obviously you're free to keep distributing via bin tray... I sure won't complain.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by DarkWolf77

I suddenly remembered something I read awhile ago about the impersonating thing, actually. It comes down to naming your app in such a way that you make it obvious that you're don't belong to the company. Here's a link explaining it: http://www.xda-developers.com/google...akes-to-avoid/

Basically, you should name it something like Miniclient for SageTV instead of SageTV Miniclient. It's a bit ridiculous if you ask me, and obviously you're free to keep distributing via bin tray... I sure won't complain.

It could be that.... Personally, I don't think that google is that "intelligent" in their banishments. And while it could be that, how hard it is to actually tell the person "why". Imagine getting pulled over by the police, and you ask "why" and in response you get "you violated the traffic act... here's booklet, you can read it and understand what you did wrong".

The reality here, is that right now, the entire project is suspended, and people have offered (thanks) about 4-5 different reason why that might be. So if I acted on each of those, I have to change the source code, rebuild, re-sign, and then re-create from scratch a brand new project, filling all the details, including artwork, icons, etc, etc, and then publish it, and then wait and see. If it got suspended again, then I'd need to repeat that process until finally something worked... and each time, I'm throwing away a good android namespace in the process, and wasting time that I could be doing something fun

Because I don't think that google is that intelligent when it comes to this, my best guess is that google's "search" found another project that looked pretty damn close to the one that I published... but it's not smart enough to know that the other project is actually mine as well (If only they some sort of AI they would use....)

But, as I said, I don't intend to challenge it or fight it, since as a hobby, this is now work... and I have enough real work to keep me busy, I don't need to take on more in my spare time.

[TechBill]

Originally Posted by stuckless

It could be that.... Personally, I don't think that google is that "intelligent" in their banishments. And while it could be that, how hard it is to actually tell the person "why". Imagine getting pulled over by the police, and you ask "why" and in response you get "you violated the traffic act... here's booklet, you can read it and understand what you did wrong".

The reality here, is that right now, the entire project is suspended, and people have offered (thanks) about 4-5 different reason why that might be. So if I acted on each of those, I have to change the source code, rebuild, re-sign, and then re-create from scratch a brand new project, filling all the details, including artwork, icons, etc, etc, and then publish it, and then wait and see. If it got suspended again, then I'd need to repeat that process until finally something worked... and each time, I'm throwing away a good android namespace in the process, and wasting time that I could be doing something fun

Because I don't think that google is that intelligent when it comes to this, my best guess is that google's "search" found another project that looked pretty damn close to the one that I published... but it's not smart enough to know that the other project is actually mine as well (If only they some sort of AI they would use....)

But, as I said, I don't intend to challenge it or fight it, since as a hobby, this is now work... and I have enough real work to keep me busy, I don't need to take on more in my spare time.

If I was you, I would just message Jeff and see if he could contact someone at Google to see what's up with this for you.

Bill

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by TechBill

If I was you, I would just message Jeff and see if he could contact someone at Google to see what's up with this for you.

Bill

that seems logical. Am hoping he quietly reads all this and is already on it...

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by TechBill

If I was you, I would just message Jeff and see if he could contact someone at Google to see what's up with this for you.

Bill

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

that seems logical. Am hoping he quietly reads all this and is already on it...

Jeff has offered... In fact, this entire project would have never happened without the 100s of emails/responses that I have had with Jeff. I asked Jeff not to intervene... for a couple of reasons... 1. I don't think a developer should need an advocate inside the wall in order to figure this shit out... 2. I really don't want to play the game. I said it several times that doing this is fun for me... and when it's not fun, I don't have time for it.... Or it gets done when I have no other recourse. Jeff has better things to do inside of Google than deal with this.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Jeff has offered... In fact, this entire project would have never happened without the 100s of emails/responses that I have had with Jeff. I asked Jeff not to intervene... for a couple of reasons... 1. I don't think a developer should need an advocate inside the wall in order to figure this shit out... 2. I really don't want to play the game. I said it several times that doing this is fun for me... and when it's not fun, I don't have time for it.... Or it gets done when I have no other recourse. Jeff has better things to do inside of Google than deal with this.

sounds logical as well

[reggie14]

I've seen so many posts from other Android developers telling similar stories. I have to say, I've lost a lot of respect for Google over how they've handled the play store. It should be that hard to provide a more meaningful description of the alleged violation. I suspect it was the fanart- Mizuu was similarly temporarily suspended over what turned out to be TMDb fanart- but legitimate developers shouldn't be treated that way. I feel fairly confident that Mizuu was only able to get a clear description of the violation because it was a fairly popular app and the Android sites picked up his blog post when it was suspended.

But, at least you can sideload apps in Android. You can't do that on iOS and Apple has their own problems.

I certainly don't mind sideloading the app on my phone and tablets. Down the line, it might be nice if the app checked for updates itself. It's a bit more of a hassle to sideload apps on Android TV, though.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by reggie14

I certainly don't mind sideloading the app on my phone and tablets. Down the line, it might be nice if the app checked for updates itself. It's a bit more of a hassle to sideload apps on Android TV, though.

Ironically enough, the App is available to install for Android TV via the Play Store... It wasn't until I tried to publish a second project that I got the suspension for the second project, but the first project (ie, the one for Android TV) is still there, I'll send updates via that channel.

[dinki]

I'm not sure if this is the right thread, but I tried installing Miniclient to my FireTV Stick from Amazon App Store and it shows incompatible. Does the Miniclient only work on the full FireTV?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by dinki

I'm not sure if this is the right thread, but I tried installing Miniclient to my FireTV Stick from Amazon App Store and it shows incompatible. Does the Miniclient only work on the full FireTV?

You might be able to side load it... but, if it's not showing as compatible, then there is something that Amazon is not liking about the package, and as such, it won't let it be installed via the app store.

[stuckless]

Uploaded a new build...

Bugs Fixed
- Upgrade IJKPlayer (now uses ffmpeg v3)
- Non Standard External Port Support
- Background music playback interrupt slideshow
- Resume in PULL mode (IJK at least) restarts at 0
- Added support for Tablets and TV in single APK

[stuckless]

So, I got an email from Amazon... I guess they tested my app on a FireTV and when they enter a random IP into the add server dialog it tell them them the server isn't valid, so they failed it. Yet they passed it for File Tablet. I sent them a link to the download section of this forum in case they want to setup a sagetv server... I'm not very hopeful

I miss the days when developers could just do crazy stuff like write software and share it, and not have to deal the bullshit of "guardians".

I'll let you know when/if Amazon decides to setup a SageTV server for testing my App.

[EnterNoEscape]

I'm curious why this concerns them. Is this a kind of quality control? There are plenty of apps that require a proper corresponding server to function correctly. With this kind of testing, I wonder how they ever pass things like Crestron control apps.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Uploaded a new build...

Bugs Fixed
- Upgrade IJKPlayer (now uses ffmpeg v3)
- Non Standard External Port Support
- Background music playback interrupt slideshow
- Resume in PULL mode (IJK at least) restarts at 0
- Added support for Tablets and TV in single APK

I guess this Miniclient is not recommended for livetv as it refuses to play most of my channels. What is the best setting to use for the Nexus Player? ... or is it a problem with ffmpeg v3? Maybe someone else that has Comcast and uses OPenDCT and is going through the H.264 conversion can try livetv on several channels.