Fork of SageTV MiniClient for Android TV

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by jvl711

Hi,

Here is a beta version for you guys to try out. This has the 2.11.5 version of the ffmpeg extension. I am hoping this will fix some of the issues that we were seeing. Let me know what you guys are seeing.

1.5.1_beta

Thanks,
Josh

P.S. Compiling that extension is a real pain in the butt...

Any reason why you removed this ? "EXO: Disable Audio passthrough use FFMPEG Instead"

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Any reason why you removed this ? "EXO: Disable Audio passthrough use FFMPEG Instead"

There was a reason, and honestly I do not remember why. I will need to dig back thru the code. I made changes to when it would use ffmpeg. It may have been a bad decision, but I am not sure yet. Need to review.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by jvl711

There was a reason, and honestly I do not remember why. I will need to dig back thru the code. I made changes to when it would use ffmpeg. It may have been a bad decision, but I am not sure yet. Need to review.

No problem so far the beta is looking good ... I just asked because some users I support will be asking ... Thanks for your efforts.

[nyplayer]

Observations So far with Beta ... FireTV Cube 2 with Echo Atmos System

My Playon recordings play great MPEG4 .. former miniclient was out of sync.
LiveTV both H264 and Mpeg2 play great.

Will test H265 Later ... tested plays great ..

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Observations So far with Beta ... FireTV Cube 2 with Echo Atmos System

My Playon recordings play great MPEG4 .. former miniclient was out of sync.
LiveTV both H264 and Mpeg2 play great.

Will test H265 Later ... tested plays great ..

That is great news. I await any feedback you have. Thank you for being my go to unit tester for many years!

I am glad my theory most likely is correct on what the issue was. It will be easier for me not to mess stuff up when I get a few more clients for testing. My 4k fire stick should be here this week.

Josh

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by jvl711

That is great news. I await any feedback you have. Thank you for being my go to unit tester for many years!

I am glad my theory most likely is correct on what the issue was. It will be easier for me not to mess stuff up when I get a few more clients for testing. My 4k fire stick should be here this week.

Josh

The FireTV 4K also plays great ... not as Snappy as the Firecube 2 but a great non-expensive client.

[sacrament055]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Observations So far with Beta ... FireTV Cube 2 with Echo Atmos System

My Playon recordings play great MPEG4 .. former miniclient was out of sync.
LiveTV both H264 and Mpeg2 play great.

Will test H265 Later ... tested plays great ..

Ok so out of curiosity you mentioned live TV OTA MPEG2 and I"m guessing you're pushing that through Sage DCT?

I'm asking since I just tested it using a standard HD Homerun stream and while using EXO Player on a FireTV 4k Pendant I get the initial picture up then it does not continue to play and no audio. Wondering if it has to do with me not using the SageDCT setup that you're using.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by sacrament055

Ok so out of curiosity you mentioned live TV OTA MPEG2 and I"m guessing you're pushing that through Sage DCT?

I'm asking since I just tested it using a standard HD Homerun stream and while using EXO Player on a FireTV 4k Pendant I get the initial picture up then it does not continue to play and no audio. Wondering if it has to do with me not using the SageDCT setup that you're using.

OPENDCT

[sacrament055]

Ok so further testing based on your comments.

I went ahead and upgraded my server to the latest Windows 64bit version.

Installed the plugin and enabled both options.

Now I am able to successfully watch MPEG2 OTA live TV using EXOPLAYER on your new version of the miniclient.
That test was done on an Firetv 4k Pendant.

I attempted the same test on my 2015 shield and and seeing an error there. Video starts playing (choppy) and eventually an exo player error message popped up with something about the audio being a problem.

Just figured I'd share my findings

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by sacrament055

Ok so further testing based on your comments.

I went ahead and upgraded my server to the latest Windows 64bit version.

Installed the plugin and enabled both options.

Now I am able to successfully watch MPEG2 OTA live TV using EXOPLAYER on your new version of the miniclient.
That test was done on an Firetv 4k Pendant.

I attempted the same test on my 2015 shield and and seeing an error there. Video starts playing (choppy) and eventually an exo player error message popped up with something about the audio being a problem.

Just figured I'd share my findings

I tend to agree with you the Problem appears to be the Audio... I wish we could still have the option to use FFMPEG for the Audio and see if that helps. I very seldom use my Shield.... but will use it exclusively today see what happens.

[sacrament055]

A bit more testing on my FireTV is showing mixed results. I tried skipping around and am seeing some EXOplayer errors popping up. IJKPlayer still seems to handle it pretty well when I switch back to that.

[dstanley]

Originally Posted by jvl711

Hi Dwight,

Can you please try again. I did not have distribution turned on for any other country than the US. It is now set to US and Canada. I should probably open this up world wide.... I may do that next release.

Josh

Thanks Josh - I was able to install it from your Playstore link above- a search from my TV Playstore only showed the ‘old’ app.

Dwight

[jvl711]

For those following the thread 1.5.1 has not been posted to play store yet. I will try and publish tomorrow. Are your comments about 1.5.0?

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I tend to agree with you the Problem appears to be the Audio... I wish we could still have the option to use FFMPEG for the Audio and see if that helps. I very seldom use my Shield.... but will use it exclusively today see what happens.

Started doing my research on why I removed the setting for ffmpeg... Below is the three possible settings. Off, On and Prefer. So previously with the old setting it was either Prefer, or off. I changed it to be on all the time. I assumed that if there was a codec to handle it, in most cases that would be better than using ffmpeg. And if there was no codec, ffmpeg would be utilized. I did not think there was a possibility that ffmpeg would be better than the codecs on the device.

Below is a build with it hard coded to Prefer. Can you let me know if that makes a positive difference. I think I am going to add a setting for all three values (On, Off, Prefer), but I just want to make sure it is worth the effort first.

1.5.1_beta2

/**
   * Do not allow use of extension renderers.
   */
  public static final int EXTENSION_RENDERER_MODE_OFF = 0;
  /**
   * Allow use of extension renderers. Extension renderers are indexed after core renderers of the
   * same type. A {@link TrackSelector} that prefers the first suitable renderer will therefore
   * prefer to use a core renderer to an extension renderer in the case that both are able to play
   * a given track.
   */
  public static final int EXTENSION_RENDERER_MODE_ON = 1;
  /**
   * Allow use of extension renderers. Extension renderers are indexed before core renderers of the
   * same type. A {@link TrackSelector} that prefers the first suitable renderer will therefore
   * prefer to use an extension renderer to a core renderer in the case that both are able to play
   * a given track.
   */
  public static final int EXTENSION_RENDERER_MODE_PREFER = 2;

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by jvl711

Started doing my research on why I removed the setting for ffmpeg... Below is the three possible settings. Off, On and Prefer. So previously with the old setting it was either Prefer, or off. I changed it to be on all the time. I assumed that if there was a codec to handle it, in most cases that would be better than using ffmpeg. And if there was no codec, ffmpeg would be utilized. I did not think there was a possibility that ffmpeg would be better than the codecs on the device.

Below is a build with it hard coded to Prefer. Can you let me know if that makes a positive difference. I think I am going to add a setting for all three values (On, Off, Prefer), but I just want to make sure it is worth the effort first.

1.5.1_beta2

/**
   * Do not allow use of extension renderers.
   */
  public static final int EXTENSION_RENDERER_MODE_OFF = 0;
  /**
   * Allow use of extension renderers. Extension renderers are indexed after core renderers of the
   * same type. A {@link TrackSelector} that prefers the first suitable renderer will therefore
   * prefer to use a core renderer to an extension renderer in the case that both are able to play
   * a given track.
   */
  public static final int EXTENSION_RENDERER_MODE_ON = 1;
  /**
   * Allow use of extension renderers. Extension renderers are indexed before core renderers of the
   * same type. A {@link TrackSelector} that prefers the first suitable renderer will therefore
   * prefer to use an extension renderer to a core renderer in the case that both are able to play
   * a given track.
   */
  public static final int EXTENSION_RENDERER_MODE_PREFER = 2;

Wow what a difference I had a few recordings that would start in Slo Mo then play fine ... but with this beta no problem at all. I think we have a winner !!!.

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Wow what a difference I had a few recordings that would start in Slo Mo then play fine ... but with this beta no problem at all. I think we have a winner !!!.

I think I am going to add the setting as "ExoPlayer FFmpeg Audio Extension" with the three values (On, Off, Prefer). I am going to default it to "on" I think. What do you think about that? It is working completely fine on my Sony TV with it set to "on". I think "on" allows for most use cases, but you can change to "prefer" if you are having issues.

Thanks,
Josh

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by jvl711

I think I am going to add the setting as "ExoPlayer FFmpeg Audio Extension" with the three values (On, Off, Prefer). I am going to default it to "on" I think. What do you think about that? It is working completely fine on my Sony TV with it set to "on". I think "on" allows for most use cases, but you can change to "prefer" if you are having issues.

Thanks,
Josh

Yes I think on is great by default because I think it addresses the most case uses ... but options are always great. Once again thanks for pursuing this .. I bet you never though it would be so popular ?

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Yes I think on is great by default because I think it addresses the most case uses ... but options are always great. Once again thanks for pursuing this .. I bet you never though it would be so popular ?

I did not think it would be! I am glad there are still many people enjoying SageTV!

[jvl711]

Quick status update.

I decided to add the setting for the FFmpeg extension before releasing 1.5.1. I am going to add that setting, and produce one more beta before pushing the update.

I have been attempting to publish the app on the Amazon App Store. I think I am going to need to rebrand the app to get it approved. I renamed it in the app to "SageTV Andriod Client". Hopefully this will not conflict with the other listing, and allow it to be published. I may rename the Google play store entry to match. Have not decided yet.

Josh

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by jvl711

Quick status update.

I decided to add the setting for the FFmpeg extension before releasing 1.5.1. I am going to add that setting, and produce one more beta before pushing the update.

I have been attempting to publish the app on the Amazon App Store. I think I am going to need to rebrand the app to get it approved. I renamed it in the app to "SageTV Andriod Client". Hopefully this will not conflict with the other listing, and allow it to be published. I may rename the Google play store entry to match. Have not decided yet.

Josh

It has been rock solid.