Fork of SageTV MiniClient for Android TV

[KryptoNyte]

Correction. On the Galaxy Note 8 I can get the keyboard to hide with the back button, move between fields and such, and get the keyboard back with the slide in from the left, but I can't get the keyboard to register any alphabet characters.

On the Fire stick 4k, I can't hide the keyboard at all to move between fields or see what's behind it.

[jvl711]

Question for you guys. Does the mini client work on Fire Stick 2nd Gen? I see it does not have hardware mpeg-2 decoding. Will it even work with ExoPlayer and mpeg-2 live tv.

If 2nd gen is a no starter, how is the Fire TV Stick 4k?

I currently only own a 1st gen and a 2nd gen.

Thanks,
Josh

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by jvl711

I added a screen that shows which codecs are available to ExoPlayer in the settings menu. Check to see if your device has MPEG2 codec available. A handful of devices do not have MPEG2. For instance my Pixel phone does not.

In that case you will need to use IJKPlayer. I may look into adding the ability to fallback to IJK when the codec is not supported...

Thanks,
Josh

First, let me say thanks for moving this forward. Given that I'm not likely to be coming back to development with this, I can certainly look at transferring the ownership of that repo to you, if you want. I did notice that your forked repo is 130 commits behind the opensagetv repo, so hopefully you've been pulling updates, but you just haven't pushed it back up to your forked repo.

Something I was considering was to actually remove IJKPlayer (since it is no longer being developed) and just support ExoPlayer, which has come a long way over the years, and is being actively developed. I was also thinking to remove LibGDX rendering and only use the native OpenGL rendering. Removing both of these would simplify the code/support.

As for the Codecs, I would think that when the connection is established with the server, we send the list of codecs that we support, and if we don't support a codec, then sagetv should try to transcode. So if pixel doesn't support mpeg2 sagetv should try to transcode (which would be more like the remote placeshifter in that scnario)

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by jvl711

Question for you guys. Does the mini client work on Fire Stick 2nd Gen? I see it does not have hardware mpeg-2 decoding. Will it even work with ExoPlayer and mpeg-2 live tv.... It does Work on Fire Tablets.

If 2nd gen is a no starter, how is the Fire TV Stick 4k?

I currently only own a 1st gen and a 2nd gen.

Thanks,
Josh

FireTV 4K works and so does the New FireTV Cube. I know Google had messed up MPEG2 hardware decoding in the latest Android release ... It does not play on my Samsung Tab 4 only get sound no Video.

https://community.getchannels.com/t/...ndroid/22675/3




Fire Tablet ..

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by stuckless

First, let me say thanks for moving this forward. Given that I'm not likely to be coming back to development with this, I can certainly look at transferring the ownership of that repo to you, if you want. I did notice that your forked repo is 130 commits behind the opensagetv repo, so hopefully you've been pulling updates, but you just haven't pushed it back up to your forked repo.

Something I was considering was to actually remove IJKPlayer (since it is no longer being developed) and just support ExoPlayer, which has come a long way over the years, and is being actively developed. I was also thinking to remove LibGDX rendering and only use the native OpenGL rendering. Removing both of these would simplify the code/support.

As for the Codecs, I would think that when the connection is established with the server, we send the list of codecs that we support, and if we don't support a codec, then sagetv should try to transcode. So if pixel doesn't support mpeg2 sagetv should try to transcode (which would be more like the remote placeshifter in that scnario)

Hi Stuckless,

If you really do not think you are going to come back, I would be willing to try and move forward with the mini client. I want to make sure that you are OK with me possibly moving in different directions than you were originally thinking. I forked and started maintaining my own version, to be able to go in different directions. Somewhat for learning experience, and somewhat for personal preference. I would not want to upset or disappoint you. You did some awesome work. Without this I think SageTV may have disappeared a long time ago.

I agree with stripping back some of the supported layers! Unfortunately on the main device I use SageTV, LibGDX performs much better . I would like to remove as much "Options" as makes sense. It is just more to support. But I also want to make sure it is still very usable.

I will play with the transcoding. I am worried it will look like crap though. Upgradding the transcoding support has been one of my wish list items. Agree that this is what we "should" be doing.

Side note: Are you the owner of the SageTV Plugin repository. If so, could you give me write permission to publish a plugin. I have an open pull request.

Thanks,
Josh

[wayner]

Originally Posted by stuckless

As for the Codecs, I would think that when the connection is established with the server, we send the list of codecs that we support, and if we don't support a codec, then sagetv should try to transcode. So if pixel doesn't support mpeg2 sagetv should try to transcode (which would be more like the remote placeshifter in that scnario)

Isn't one of the issue that the version of mplayer (or some other program) that SageTV uses does not work well with 1080i. I believe that Placeshifter has never played 1080i content properly..

[sacrament055]

Originally Posted by jvl711

Question for you guys. Does the mini client work on Fire Stick 2nd Gen? I see it does not have hardware mpeg-2 decoding. Will it even work with ExoPlayer and mpeg-2 live tv.

If 2nd gen is a no starter, how is the Fire TV Stick 4k?

I currently only own a 1st gen and a 2nd gen.

Thanks,
Josh

I have firetv 4k pendant and firetv 4k (newer version) the pendant version works with ijkplayer for mpeg2 perfectly. I can't get it to work with ExoPlayer for Mpeg2. (Keep in mind that I'm referring to live OTA streaming from HD Homerun not pre-recorded Mpeg2 that may or may not work properly)

The newer firetv 4k I was able to get IJKplayer to work by disabling one of the 2 MPEG2 hardware decoders. can't remember which one off hand but one did not work and if I disabled it the other would work.

thanks for your efforts in supporting the SageTV community

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by jvl711

If you really do not think you are going to come back, I would be willing to try and move forward with the mini client. I want to make sure that you are OK with me possibly moving in different directions than you were originally thinking. I forked and started maintaining my own version, to be able to go in different directions. Somewhat for learning experience, and somewhat for personal preference. I would not want to upset or disappoint you. You did some awesome work. Without this I think SageTV may have disappeared a long time ago.

I agree with stripping back some of the supported layers! Unfortunately on the main device I use SageTV, LibGDX performs much better . I would like to remove as much "Options" as makes sense. It is just more to support. But I also want to make sure it is still very usable.

I will play with the transcoding. I am worried it will look like crap though. Upgradding the transcoding support has been one of my wish list items. Agree that this is what we "should" be doing.

Side note: Are you the owner of the SageTV Plugin repository. If so, could you give me write permission to publish a plugin. I have an open pull request.

Thanks,
Josh

You can fork or you can take ownership of the one that is there, it's up to you. I no longer run SageTV, so I'm doubtful that I'll be back on development. That combined with the fact that I simply don't have the time (if I did, then I'd likely still do the development, because i really did enjoy it).

Originally Posted by wayner

Isn't one of the issue that the version of mplayer (or some other program) that SageTV uses does not work well with 1080i. I believe that Placeshifter has never played 1080i content properly..

Likely... and I think even players like HD200 had issues here... I recall setting my server to record in 720p because I had issues with 1080i many years ago.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

You can fork or you can take ownership of the one that is there, it's up to you. I no longer run SageTV, so I'm doubtful that I'll be back on development. That combined with the fact that I simply don't have the time (if I did, then I'd likely still do the development, because i really did enjoy it).



Likely... and I think even players like HD200 had issues here... I recall setting my server to record in 720p because I had issues with 1080i many years ago.

Ditto. I set mine to record 720p because Placeshifter couldn’t handle 1080, ESPECIALLY remotely while traveling. I just got used to and accepted 720p as my Sage ‘normal’. Never changed back....

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Ditto. I set mine to record 720p because Placeshifter couldn’t handle 1080, ESPECIALLY remotely while traveling. I just got used to and accepted 720p as my Sage ‘normal’. Never changed back....

Hard to do with digital tuners.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by jvl711

2015 XBR-65X850C Sony Android TV. Works pretty flawlessly.

OMG. I'll definitely have to try this out as I have a similar era 43X830C which the (current) MiniClient has issues with. I think it might use the same MediaTek processor as yours.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by jvl711

I will play with the transcoding. I am worried it will look like crap though. Upgradding the transcoding support has been one of my wish list items. Agree that this is what we "should" be doing.

That would be awesome! When I did have the miniclient working on the Fire stick 4k, it looked like about 360p at best.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

That would be awesome! When I did have the miniclient working on the Fire stick 4k, it looked like about 360p at best.

You mean to say when you remoted into Sage correct ? not locally.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

You mean to say when you remoted into Sage correct ? not locally.

Yes. Remote connection. Thanks, Edwin. It usually doesn't transcode when I'm local.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Hard to do with digital tuners.

yeah, I rarely record from my HDHomerun because the OTA is so unreliable. 60 miles between two, big cities :\

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

yeah, I rarely record from my HDHomerun because the OTA is so unreliable. 60 miles between two, big cities :\

Yeah I am lucky that with a small indoor Antenna i get all the channels ... some people that have Locast in their area for OTA use Channels DVR to record locals... when they have poor reception.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by sacrament055

Anybody else test this with MPEG2 OTA TV Stream? I didn't seem to have any luck with getting EXOPlayer to work for me there but when I switch back to IJK it works same as before.

Unfortunately, the new ExoPlayer still does not work for MPEG2 on my Shield TV. Plays back in super slow mo with no audio.

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by cncb

Unfortunately, the new ExoPlayer still does not work for MPEG2 on my Shield TV. Plays back in super slow mo with no audio.

Are you the only one reporting this issue with the Shield TV? Is this possibly something isolated to your installation?

Josh

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by stuckless

You can fork or you can take ownership of the one that is there, it's up to you. I no longer run SageTV, so I'm doubtful that I'll be back on development. That combined with the fact that I simply don't have the time (if I did, then I'd likely still do the development, because i really did enjoy it).

Hi Stuckless,

I have started merging the code bases. It actually went more cleanly than I would have thought! I have a branch that I am going to test.

Question for you if you do not mind. If I were to want to attempt to post this on the playstore, should I just post it as a new application? I do have a developer account. If I need to post as a new application, do I need to change the name?

Any thoughts or pointers would be helpful.

Thanks,
Josh

[cncb]

Originally Posted by jvl711

Are you the only one reporting this issue with the Shield TV? Is this possibly something isolated to your installation?

It is/was my impression that Shield TV users were never able to get ExoPlayer to work properly with MPEG2. IJK player works but you lose Dolby Digital surround and seeking is not ideal.