Android App: Phoenix for SageTV

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I'd like to get a sense for what people might light to see next, provided there is enough support to continue working on this...

I'm going to gather a list of items, and then create a Poll, and then choose the most active item from that poll, as the next piece to work on.

So, if you can post some of your "feature" requests here, and I'll start a poll over the next couple of days.

Here are some thoughts/ideas...
1. Bugs should get filed in the issue tracker and not listed as a "feature'. ie, I'll try to fix bugs where I can, but they are not features (http://code.google.com/p/sagephoenix/issues/list)
2. "Seamless" streaming playback is not a viable feature, so I'll just through that out there... The current streaming solution using vlc and client tweaking (or raw stream over network), is probably as good as it gets.

"My" list includes...
- new Wall view/Poster view for movies (mainly for tablets/tv/landscape)
- new Music centric View
- Ability to schedule recordings without linking to the Mobile Web View (today, you can search airings and schedule recordings, buy using the View in Web View option on the search results)
- Ability to Manage Favorites
- EPG view (probably more tablet centric)

So, Post some ideas, and I'll create a POLL, to see which wins out.

Ability to set/clear "Don't Like".

I was looking over my upcoming recordings (I use Intelligent Recording) and saw a couple movies that I didn't want IR to record. On an extender, or WebServer I just mark it as Don't Like and IR takes it off the list.
There was no way to set/clear Don't Like without going over to the Web View. That is an ability I would like to see added.

When I travel I've gotten used to using the Remote Webserver to maintain my system/recordings. The things I use most often are set/clear watch status, set/clear Don't Like, delete recordings, set padding on manual records, and the occasional force epg update.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by Dargason

I have found an issue that I think is unrelated to Phoenix.

Some of my recordings have audio and others don't. I tried changing the vlc options (in BMT) so that the audio codec was mp4a instead of mp3, and I got the musical background audio, but I didn't get any of the dialog. I seems like it's picking the wrong audio stream or something... any ideas?

I am not getting audio on certain shows either when using VLC streaming .... with no transcode I get audio. Original audio is 5.1.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by farscapesg1

OK, I feel stupid for asking, but how do I configure VLC to work with a Windows SageTV server? I've gone to the batch metadata tools, Phoenix streaming services, VLC options and tried to enter the path information for the VLC executable. To make things as simple as possible I installed VLC on the server under c:\vlc and set the path to c:\vlc\vlc.exe, but the VLC check keeps failing... and when I try to launch a video I don't see any VLC activity on the server side.

When you go into servers, and long press, and then do a "Test Connection" what message is displayed beside the VLC check failed message?

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I am not getting audio on certain shows either when using VLC streaming .... with no transcode I get audio. Original audio is 5.1.

This is a problem that I've had with "transcoding" in just about everything solution ie, sometimes when I use handbrake or other tools, I'm left with no audio. And vlc is no different.

I do get audio for all my hdpvr recordings, but there are some mkv files where I get no audio.

I'm at a loss to explain it, since I don't know enough about transcoding to solve it. BUT, I'm hoping that by providing an easy way to play with the transcoding options in BMT, that smarter people than I will figure this out, and then I'll package that up in future builds.

This is going to be a work in progress for awhile different people figure stuff out.

[Dargason]

The following transcode options will work... I got these from an open source copy of VLC Remote. It uses rtsp streaming instead of HLS though. Maybe it can work for HLS by modifying the output module portion, but I won't have a chance to try that until this evening.

:sout=#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=384,acodec=mp4a,ab=64,channels=2,fps=25,venc=x264{profile=baseline,keyint=50,bframes=0,no-cabac,ref=1,vbv-maxrate=4096,vbv-bufsize=1024,aq-mode=0,no-mbtree,partitions=none,no-weightb,weightp=0,me=dia,subme=0,no-mixed-refs,no-8x8dct,trellis=0,level1.3},vfilter=canvas{width=320,height=180,aspect=320:180,padd},senc,soverlay}:rtp{sdp=rtsp://0.0.0.0:5554/stream.sdp,caching=4000}}

[farscapesg1]

Originally Posted by stuckless

When you go into servers, and long press, and then do a "Test Connection" what message is displayed beside the VLC check failed message?

Everything passes except the VLC check which says..

X VLC configured (server)? -VLC not configured

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Dargason

The following transcode options will work... I got these from an open source copy of VLC Remote. It uses rtsp streaming instead of HLS though. Maybe it can work for HLS by modifying the output module portion, but I won't have a chance to try that until this evening.

:sout=#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=384,acodec=mp4a,ab=64,channels=2,fps=25,venc=x264{profile=baseline,keyint=50,bframes=0,no-cabac,ref=1,vbv-maxrate=4096,vbv-bufsize=1024,aq-mode=0,no-mbtree,partitions=none,no-weightb,weightp=0,me=dia,subme=0,no-mixed-refs,no-8x8dct,trellis=0,level1.3},vfilter=canvas{width=320,height=180,aspect=320:180,padd},senc,soverlay}:rtp{sdp=rtsp://0.0.0.0:5554/stream.sdp,caching=4000}}

yeah, it looks like that #transcode section can just be popped into the configuration. In terms of rtsp... I played around with that and the hls worked better in my testing. But, I do intend to make some tweaks to the phoenix streamer to enable support. ie, if you juse replaced the bmt configuratiion with that, then it would not work... but I do intend on making some changes so that you can play with rtsp and hls configurations. (maybe I'll get some time on the weekend to push out a phoenix update with that ability)

Originally Posted by farscapesg1

Everything passes except the VLC check which says..

X VLC configured (server)? -VLC not configured

That is the message you get when VLC can't be located as a file. So, just to clarify, in the BMT web ui, you've entered the following for the vlc command?

c:\vlc\vlc.exe

And, you've verified that c:\vlc\vlc.exe does exists, and that from a console, you can run it?

Also, check the SAGE_HOME/logs/phoenix.log (shortly after you do a test on the device) and see if has any information in there as well.

[Dargason]

Ok, I stole a few minutes between meetings and tried this out, and it works pretty well in the 30s or so of testing I did.

You can have audio sync issues if your setup exceeds the bandwidth available to you, but this particular one works on my cellphone with fairly crappy 3g. I'll try to come up with some higher quality stream settings later when I have wifi available (and more time).

#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=256,acodec=mp4a,ab=64,channels=2,fps=15,venc=x264{profile=baseline,keyint=50,bframes=0,no-cabac,ref=1,vbv-maxrate=4096,vbv-bufsize=1024,aq-mode=0,no-mbtree,partitions=none,no-weightb,weightp=0,me=dia,subme=0,no-mixed-refs,no-8x8dct,trellis=0,level1.3},vfilter=canvas{width=176,height=144,aspect=320:180,padd},senc,soverlay}:std{access=livehttp{seglen=5,delsegs=false,numsegs=0,index=${PMS_PLAYLIST_FILE},index-url=${PMS_BASE_URL}${PMS_MEDIA_ID}-########.ts},mux=ts{use-key-frames},dst=${PMS_OUTPUT_DIR}/${PMS_MEDIA_ID}-########.ts}

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by stuckless

So, Post some ideas, and I'll create a POLL, to see which wins out.

Some amount of metadata searching/editing would be nice.

[JerryB]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I am not getting audio on certain shows either when using VLC streaming .... with no transcode I get audio. Original audio is 5.1.

I'm seeing the same thing here. I get the VLC transcode selection screen. If I then select one of the transcodes, I get video with no audio. If I select no transcode, then I get both video and audio. The result is the same regardless of whether the original audio is 2 or 5.1 channel AC3.

PS: Thanks for this great application. I bought a copy and it's well worth the price even if I never get transcoded audio streaming to work.

[Dargason]

Originally Posted by JerryB

I'm seeing the same thing here. I get the VLC transcode selection screen. If I then select one of the transcodes, I get video with no audio. If I select no transcode, then I get both video and audio. The result is the same regardless of whether the original audio is 2 or 5.1 channel AC3.

PS: Thanks for this great application. I bought a copy and it's well worth the price even if I never get transcoded audio streaming to work.

I think I understand this now. The fix is to add another option to the audio encoder: (scroll right to see the added option)

#transcode{width=480,height=360,fps=25,vcodec=mp4v,vb=500,venc=x264{aud,profile=baseline,level=30,keyint=30},acodec=mp4a,ab=96, channels=2}:std{access=livehttp{seglen=5,delsegs=false,numsegs=0,index=${PMS_PLAYLIST_FILE},index-url=${PMS_BASE_URL}${PMS_MEDIA_ID}-########.ts},mux=ts{use-key-frames},dst=${PMS_OUTPUT_DIR}/${PMS_MEDIA_ID}-########.ts}

Obviously, you need to add this to each of the 7 profiles.

[JerryB]

Originally Posted by Dargason

I think I understand this now. The fix is to add another option to the audio encoder: (scroll right to see the added option)

#transcode{width=480,height=360,fps=25,vcodec=mp4v,vb=500,venc=x264{aud,profile=baseline,level=30,keyint=30},acodec=mp4a,ab=96, channels=2}:std{access=livehttp{seglen=5,delsegs=false,numsegs=0,index=${PMS_PLAYLIST_FILE},index-url=${PMS_BASE_URL}${PMS_MEDIA_ID}-########.ts},mux=ts{use-key-frames},dst=${PMS_OUTPUT_DIR}/${PMS_MEDIA_ID}-########.ts}

Thanks, I just tested your fix and can confirm that audio on transcoded files plays correctly after implementing this change.

[stuckless]

Thanks to everyone that has supported the app via the In App purchase.

Thanks for the suggestions on future features... I've collected the list, and I'll put together a Poll this weekend where you can vote for the next major feature. (Don't worry if your feature doesn't make it to the first poll... there'll probably be multiple polls)

And lastly, thanks for working on the streaming tweaks. This is why I released it with a configuration that allows for tweaking. I'll add the "channels=2" to the next update in phoenix, and I'll continue to tweak the profiles based on your suggestions and testing.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

This is a problem that I've had with "transcoding" in just about everything solution ie, sometimes when I use handbrake or other tools, I'm left with no audio. And vlc is no different.

I do get audio for all my hdpvr recordings, but there are some mkv files where I get no audio.

I'm at a loss to explain it, since I don't know enough about transcoding to solve it. BUT, I'm hoping that by providing an easy way to play with the transcoding options in BMT, that smarter people than I will figure this out, and then I'll package that up in future builds.

This is going to be a work in progress for awhile different people figure stuff out.

in Handbrake, if you select one of the Apple TV presets, or the Universal preset, TWO audio streams are created; a Dolby pro logic mix, and an AC3 passthrough stream. If you didn't know you'd created two streams, that may be a problem...or not. You can choose the audio channel/stream in Sage and VLC, but not in some other video players

[BobbyDing]

I was having the same problem with VLC not passing the test in Win7 64 bit. I did some tinkering with the permissions for VLC (opening it up to full access for all users), but what seemed to have done the trick was after I saved the changes I went to the refresh option in BMT and did a "refresh configurations". After that the VLC test passed. The audio fixed above also worked and I now have audio in all the trans-code options. This is on a Sammy Note 2 7".

I also have it on my kindle which is running 1.8, which was downloaded from the Googlecode site. Everything works wonderfully, except it won't play the transcoded stuff. Any chance of getting the latest version posted to the GC site?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

in Handbrake, if you select one of the Apple TV presets, or the Universal preset, TWO audio streams are created; a Dolby pro logic mix, and an AC3 passthrough stream. If you didn't know you'd created two streams, that may be a problem...or not. You can choose the audio channel/stream in Sage and VLC, but not in some other video players

Yeah, it's been awhile since I've done this in any tool... but if i recall, I was having issue using sagetv to transcode some stuff... I was getting files with video and no audio, and as such, I stopped using the transcode option on sagetv. (This was a long time ago)

Originally Posted by BobbyDing

I was having the same problem with VLC not passing the test in Win7 64 bit. I did some tinkering with the permissions for VLC (opening it up to full access for all users), but what seemed to have done the trick was after I saved the changes I went to the refresh option in BMT and did a "refresh configurations". After that the VLC test passed. The audio fixed above also worked and I now have audio in all the trans-code options. This is on a Sammy Note 2 7".

I also have it on my kindle which is running 1.8, which was downloaded from the Googlecode site. Everything works wonderfully, except it won't play the transcoded stuff. Any chance of getting the latest version posted to the GC site?

I've uploaded 2.0.1 to the downloads area.

[JerryB]

Originally Posted by BobbyDing

I also have it on my kindle which is running 1.8, which was downloaded from the Googlecode site. Everything works wonderfully, except it won't play the transcoded stuff. Any chance of getting the latest version posted to the GC site?

How did you get this to run on your Kindle? I just downloaded the 2.0.1 version from the Google code site but when I attempt to run it on my Kindle Fire I get the following error message

"Sorry The application Phoenix Remote (process org.jdna.sage.phoenix) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again."

This occurs before I get to a point where I can enter any Sage Server configuration info into the app.

Edit: Okay. I've done more testing and it appears that something about configuration changed 1.8 and 2.0.1. I uninstalled the 2.0.1 version of the app and downloaded and installed the 1.8 version. As soon as I ran the app under 1.8 I got the server configuration screen. I added in my server information and verified that the 1.8 version of the app was working. I then upgraded the app using the 2.0.1 apk that previously didn't work. As soon as I did this, the app found the server configuration information from the 1.8 install and now works on my Kindle Fire.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by JerryB

How did you get this to run on your Kindle? I just downloaded the 2.0.1 version from the Google code site but when I attempt to run it on my Kindle Fire I get the following error message

"Sorry The application Phoenix Remote (process org.jdna.sage.phoenix) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again."

This occurs before I get to a point where I can enter any Sage Server configuration info into the app.

Edit: Okay. I've done more testing and it appears that something about configuration changed 1.8 and 2.0.1. I uninstalled the 2.0.1 version of the app and downloaded and installed the 1.8 version. As soon as I ran the app under 1.8 I got the server configuration screen. I added in my server information and verified that the 1.8 version of the app was working. I then upgraded the app using the 2.0.1 apk that previously didn't work. As soon as I did this, the app found the server configuration information from the 1.8 install and now works on my Kindle Fire.

hmmm... this might be require some additional testing... since I don't have a kindle. I suspect that because I pulled in the In-App billing APIs, they are unsupported on Kindle and as a result, it may be causing the "force close" issue. I'll look into moving all that code into another View so that it doesn't prevent the app from loading

Not sure, I can get that done this weekend, because as I mentioned earlier, I have some home desktop/server maintenance that I'll be doing over the weekend

EDIT: So it does work on your Kindle... but only if you go from 1.8 to 2.0.1... that's odd I wish I could get the error output to know "why" the configuration screen caused an error.

[JerryB]

Originally Posted by stuckless

hmmm... this might be require some additional testing... since I don't have a kindle. I suspect that because I pulled in the In-App billing APIs, they are unsupported on Kindle and as a result, it may be causing the "force close" issue. I'll look into moving all that code into another View so that it doesn't prevent the app from loading

Not sure, I can get that done this weekend, because as I mentioned earlier, I have some home desktop/server maintenance that I'll be doing over the weekend

EDIT: So it does work on your Kindle... but only if you go from 1.8 to 2.0.1... that's odd I wish I could get the error output to know "why" the configuration screen caused an error.

It turns out that the error is still there, it just manifests itself differently. Since the app now picks up the initial configuration from the 1.8 install, the error doesn't show up as soon as I launch the app. However, it, i.e. "Sorry The application Phoenix Remote (process org.jdna.sage.phoenix) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again. Force close," now shows up as soon as I stop watching a video. Unfortunately, I don't see any other output information regarding the error that I could send you.

Don't worry about when you can get to this. It's working great on my Android phone and I even have it working on my Kindle other than having to restart the app after watching a video. Just let me know if/when you have something and I'll be happy to test it on my Kindle.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by JerryB

It turns out that the error is still there, it just manifests itself differently. Since the app now picks up the initial configuration from the 1.8 install, the error doesn't show up as soon as I launch the app. However, it, i.e. "Sorry The application Phoenix Remote (process org.jdna.sage.phoenix) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again. Force close," now shows up as soon as I stop watching a video. Unfortunately, I don't see any other output information regarding the error that I could send you.

Don't worry about when you can get to this. It's working great on my Android phone and I even have it working on my Kindle other than having to restart the app after watching a video. Just let me know if/when you have something and I'll be happy to test it on my Kindle.

ok... this still may be related to the in-app billing (which would not be supported on kindle) so I may have to try to refactor that out and then give you a custom build to see if the problem goes away... if we can confirm that is the problem, then I can then look for a way to solve it, at some point.

[thatdude90210]

Glad to see this app. I only started revisited the forum again (just upgraded my server to Win7 from xp, my previous install was so old it was still on the frey technology folder, so I had to search the forum for info on upgrading to win7) It's probably the closest we are ever going to have to a mobile client/placeshifter.

Question about the buying/unlocking. How does it work if we have multiple android devices? I bought it on my Galaxy Nexus, but I also have a GTab 10.1. It still have the buy/unlock setting on the Gtab.

Btw, the latest Mx player have something called HW+, it's in the decoder section of settings. Putting a checkmark for all the Use HW+ boxes made it work better on my Gtab. Might be useful for other tegra 2 tablets too.