Android App: Phoenix for SageTV

[tvmaster2]

myself, and I am sure others, are stoked at what a great app you've created for Android/Sage. The ability to check listings and schedule recordings is more than anyone can expect for free.
The only thing that's missing (or that I don't know how to do) is accessing my video library.
I connect at 4G, and when my phone falls back to 2G, forget about playback. Still works for administrative purposes...
And as far as Netflix...until they support universal 5.1 audio...pfffft

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

The only thing that's missing (or that I don't know how to do) is accessing my video library.

When you say "access" do you mean to simply view you TV and Movies. There are views for that, but you can also create (on the server) new views. For example, my video collection is too large to view as a single collection, so I have a number of smaller views, and the most important ones are "Unwatched TV" and "Unwatched Movies". These are smaller "views" which the app can display fairly easily.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

When you say "access" do you mean to simply view you TV and Movies. There are views for that, but you can also create (on the server) new views. For example, my video collection is too large to view as a single collection, so I have a number of smaller views, and the most important ones are "Unwatched TV" and "Unwatched Movies". These are smaller "views" which the app can display fairly easily.

yes, my Video library, where I keep Internet video, converted items, archived recordings and any other mish-mash.
I guess I'm not sure how to create "views"
I will look in this thread for how to do this.
The ones that exist now are Recently imported, Rec Recorded, Scheduled and TV Shows

[panteragstk]

Hey Sean, just thought I'd throw this out there, but any plans on thinking about maybe looking into adding Chromecast support? It would be a pretty great alternative to a full placeshifting client.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

yes, my Video library, where I keep Internet video, converted items, archived recordings and any other mish-mash.
I guess I'm not sure how to create "views"
I will look in this thread for how to do this.
The ones that exist now are Recently imported, Rec Recorded, Scheduled and TV Shows

Give it a shot... if you can't figure it OUT, then PM me, and I'll spend some time helping you get one or more views setup.

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Hey Sean, just thought I'd throw this out there, but any plans on thinking about maybe looking into adding Chromecast support? It would be a pretty great alternative to a full placeshifting client.

When I get my chromecast device... I'll see what's involved

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Give it a shot... if you can't figure it OUT, then PM me, and I'll spend some time helping you get one or more views setup.

can you just give me a heads up on where the current ones are stored, aka directory structure, so I can poke around? for eg. TV Shows phoenix.view.default.TV

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by stuckless

When I get my chromecast device... I'll see what's involved

It took me about a week to get mine. Seems that they can't keep up with the demand, even as limited as it is right now.

Hopefully it will be pretty simple. It seems that the dev that created AirCast is going to share how he did it, so maybe it will be pretty simple.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

can you just give me a heads up on where the current ones are stored, aka directory structure, so I can poke around? for eg. TV Shows phoenix.view.default.TV

current ones are in STVs/Phoenix/vfs/x-vfs.xml (may be other files in there as well, such as gemstone, etc)

basically don't edit that file, or add files to that directory instead put new files in SAGE_HOME/userdata/Phoenix/vfs/

Typically you'd create a view in file, say, unwatchedtv.xml,

<!DOCTYPE vfs SYSTEM "vfs.dtd">
<vfs>
    <views>
               <view name="tvmaster2.TV.unwatched" label="TV Shows (Unwatched)" flat="true">
                        <tag value="tv" />
                        <tag value="default"/>
                        <view-source name="phoenix.view.primary.recordedtv"/>
                        <view-source name="phoenix.view.primary.importedtv"/>

                        <filter by="watched" value="false"/>

                        <presentation level="1">
                                <group by="show">
                                        <option name="prune-single-item-groups" value="false"/>
                                </group>
                                <sort by="recentactivity">
                                        <option name="folders-first" value="false"/>
                                        <option name="sort-order" value="desc"/>
                                </sort>
                        </presentation>

                        <presentation level="2">
                                <sort by="originalairdate">
                                    <option name="sort-order" value="desc"/>
                            </sort>
                        </presentation>
                </view>
    </views>
</vfs>

You can put more than 1 view in an xml file, but i'd keep it one per file, just to keep it simple. As a rule of thumb, prefix all your custom views with tvmaster2, so that you can tell that they are YOUR views.

TO re-load them into sagetv/phoenix, you'll need to either restart the sagetv server, or use BMT Refresh -> Refresh Configurations.

Then in the Android App, you can load that view by doings to tripple dot menu, Manage Views, click the +, and then click the VFS View ID tripple dot menu, then select your vfs id, give it a name and save

[tvmaster2]

wow...thanks for the detail. I'll try my best to not fail....lol
stay tuned

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

current ones are in STVs/Phoenix/vfs/x-vfs.xml (may be other files in there as well, such as gemstone, etc)

basically don't edit that file, or add files to that directory instead put new files in SAGE_HOME/userdata/Phoenix/vfs/

when you say SAGE_HOME, in my case, that would be program files\sage tv\sage tv\userdata\Phoenix\

currently, there is NO vfs dir there, so I'd create one.

That being said, how does the remote app know to look in that location?

[tvmaster2]

anyone have advice on their favourite media player for this app on android phones? Right now, I have one player called Mirage beta, but it seems to have disappeared from the Android Store...

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

when you say SAGE_HOME, in my case, that would be program files\sage tv\sage tv\userdata\Phoenix\

currently, there is NO vfs dir there, so I'd create one.

That being said, how does the remote app know to look in that location?

Yeah, you'll want to create it. Phoenix Android App communicates with the phoenix server... and the server "knows" about these directories

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

anyone have advice on their favourite media player for this app on android phones? Right now, I have one player called Mirage beta, but it seems to have disappeared from the Android Store...

Stock video player works fine in many cases... I also used MXPlayer and Mobi Player.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Stock video player works fine in many cases... I also used MXPlayer and Mobi Player.

I too use MXPlayer, but there was a recent update which seems to have caused videos to begin at least one minute in, with a long delay before any video is seen (normal setting).
Mobi won't play video for me at all...just a black, paused screen
Mirage works the best, but it seems to have vanished from the store....
Is there a limitation as to what wrappers won't, or can't playback?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

I too use MXPlayer, but there was a recent update which seems to have caused videos to begin at least one minute in, with a long delay before any video is seen (normal setting).
Mobi won't play video for me at all...just a black, paused screen
Mirage works the best, but it seems to have vanished from the store....
Is there a limitation as to what wrappers won't, or can't playback?

In terms of of what Phoenix produces, when you select a transcoded stream (low, normal, high), the stock video player appears to play it fine. I'm on Android 4.3 (Galaxy Nexus), but 4.2 worked as well. The transcode engine creates httpls files that are basically h264 ts files.

To play "raw" streams like AVI and MKV, etc, I tend to use MXPlayer, but I do that so rarely, that I haven't noticed the bug in MXPlayer.

[tvmaster2]

I'm using Android 2.3.4 on an HTC branded phone....maybe that's part of the problem. When you say "stock", that would be AMP?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

I'm using Android 2.3.4 on an HTC branded phone....maybe that's part of the problem. When you say "stock", that would be AMP?

Sorry see that you are running 2.3 By "stock" I just mean the Android Video Player that comes with the device. It didn't get httpls support until 4.x (if I recall), so you will need a 3rd party video player that supports http live streaming.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Sorry see that you are running 2.3 By "stock" I just mean the Android Video Player that comes with the device. It didn't get httpls support until 4.x (if I recall), so you will need a 3rd party video player that supports http live streaming.

ah...there you go. As James May would say, "good tip"
thanks
I am trying BSPlayer, which seems to be more responsive....

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

I'm using Android 2.3.4 on an HTC branded phone....maybe that's part of the problem. When you say "stock", that would be AMP?

I feel sorry for you. Things have changed for the better in 4.0+. Maybe visit XDA developers and see if you can update your phone. You'll be glad you did. Stock Android is miles better IMHO than anything the manufacturers have released.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I feel sorry for you. Things have changed for the better in 4.0+. Maybe visit XDA developers and see if you can update your phone. You'll be glad you did. Stock Android is miles better IMHO than anything the manufacturers have released.

and then the OS/phone companies get you playing the "game" - update update update....

trying out VPlayer, which also seems quite responsive under my old OS

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

and then the OS/phone companies get you playing the "game" - update update update....

I'll make the assumption you are running your Sage Server on windows 3.11, to avoid playing the 'update' game? He did not recommend you go out and purchase a new phone, he said to look at a 3rd party site that develops and distributes upgraded firmware's to bring older hardware up to newer softwares.