Android/AndroidTV Placeshifter client (Discussion)

[Fuzzy]

The first quick thing you could check is to see if the problems are the same on every playback. Lost packets in a MPEG stream result in the blocky pixelation you describe - if it is lost packets, and issue in the transport from server to client, than it would not be the same packets lost each playthrough. If, however, it's a problem in the way the player handles a given stream, than it WILL be the same on each playthrough.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

The first quick thing you could check is to see if the problems are the same on every playback. Lost packets in a MPEG stream result in the blocky pixelation you describe - if it is lost packets, and issue in the transport from server to client, than it would not be the same packets lost each playthrough. If, however, it's a problem in the way the player handles a given stream, than it WILL be the same on each playthrough.

It has to be the way the player handles the stream because they play perfect in KODI on the same NEXUS Player but Pixelated in the MINICLIENT. KODI uses SMB I am not sure what the MiniClient uses.

It appears to be the ijkplayer or the way the Mini Client accesses the file... hard to believe I am the only one reporting this it most likely is happening to all devices just notice it more on large screens.

[dinki]

I reported the same thing. I just added a wired Ethernet to the nexus and am getting the same pixelation as before. This is only happening on HD recordings and live TV.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

It appears to be the ijkplayer or the way the Mini Client accesses the file... hard to believe I am the only one reporting this it most likely is happening to all devices just notice it more on large screens.

your not the only one reporting issues it is only an ALPHA build issues are expected. many have seen issues and Stuckless said video is still a work in progress. Kodi plays it fine but that's a different ball of wax. this will get there

[TechBill]

I managed to get FTP working on the Fire Stick so now I can pull the log file from it to my PC anytime I wanted.

What logging level should I set it to? Error? I am having issue where entering channel guide boots me back to server selection menu.


Bill

[panteragstk]

Got a nexus player at Fry's for $50. Nice little device. I installed the latest .apk using adb and I am very impressed with how well this build works.

Played an HD colossus recording and it played back perfectly. Wasn't expecting to play that smoothly. Didn't even use an external player.

Very nice work so far.

[moothekow]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Got a nexus player at Fry's for $50. Nice little device. I installed the latest .apk using adb and I am very impressed with how well this build works.

Played an HD colossus recording and it played back perfectly. Wasn't expecting to play that smoothly. Didn't even use an external player.

Very nice work so far.

https://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-goo...mpaign=6159289

Can pick them up for $39 until 11/6 for anyone that doesn't have one and wants one.

[PLUCKYHD]

this one still shows stock for $39.99
Google Nexus Media Streaming Player by ASUS

http://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-google-nexus-media-streaming-player-by-asus-1?utm_source=uu15765425&utm_campaign=UserReferral_ma

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by TechBill

I managed to get FTP working on the Fire Stick so now I can pull the log file from it to my PC anytime I wanted.

What logging level should I set it to? Error? I am having issue where entering channel guide boots me back to server selection menu.


Bill

You send me the logs... set the logging level to debug... log levels work such that if you set it to debug, then you get debug, info, warn and error. If you set it to error, then you only get error.

[Gustovier]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Does this MINICLIENT sometimes require SageTV server to transcode the VIDEO ... because sometimes the quality is really bad as if I am not getting the true recording but a transcoded one ... or is this the embedded players problem?

Lots of little squares on fast motion ... colors seem to bleed.

For those thinking that transcoding is happening just look for the sage transcoder process running on your server.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Kodi plays it fine but that's a different ball of wax. this will get there

I don't know about that... I'm like a one man mariachi band... not sure I can compete, on par, with the resources of Kodi

The ijkplayer (like pretty much every other player out there) uses ffmpeg under the hood. The player will use hardware decoding, if the codecs are there, otherwise it will default to software decoding. Personally I don't think these issues are related to the player, as much as they are related to the App being to process consume data being sent. I think that Fuzzy is probably right in that frames are being dropped and resulting in the pixelization.

Initially I'm ok, with "work OK" and later (hopefully if others join in), maybe we can make the stream handling in the APP (not the server), be more efficient to process the data.

[cncb]

I was finally able to try this on my Shield. Strangely enough, I got the small UI display up in the corner of the screen while I was using it and it suddenly jumped to full screen after restarting the app several times?

I have found the following for playback:

1) Stop from my Harmony remote doesn't seem to work.
2) 720P MPEG2: I get pixelation like others have described.
3) 1080i MPEG2: No pixelation but the deinterlacing seems to be off.
4) No Dolby Digital passthrough, everything is pcm stereo


I think I read that people were able to play MKVs with the "built-in" player via ES File explorer complete with HD Audio passthrough. If I'm not mistaken, you tried the built-in player before but ran into some complications but would it be worthwhile trying to revisit the built-in player to avoid troubleshooting and the unknown limitations of the third-party player?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by cncb

I was finally able to try this on my Shield. Strangely enough, I got the small UI display up in the corner of the screen while I was using it and it suddenly jumped to full screen after restarting the app several times?

I have found the following for playback:

1) Stop from my Harmony remote doesn't seem to work.
2) 720P MPEG2: I get pixelation like others have described.
3) 1080i MPEG2: No pixelation but the deinterlacing seems to be off.
4) No Dolby Digital passthrough, everything is pcm stereo


I think I read that people were able to play MKVs with the "built-in" player via ES File explorer complete with HD Audio passthrough. If I'm not mistaken, you tried the built-in player before but ran into some complications but would it be worthwhile trying to revisit the built-in player to avoid troubleshooting and the unknown limitations of the third-party player?

The only thing that I can say, is that the limitations of the Android Native player far exceeds that of using the ijkplayer. The Native player would not even parse the .ts streams. It's only after I went to VLC and ijkplayer that basic playback was even possible. I don't intend to spend any more time on the android player, but, the good thing about open source is that anyone is free to take it, and do what they want with it. I need to focus on a single player, so the next build will also remove the VLC player. I'm not willing to throw in towel on ijkplayer before we even get playback fully working.

I suspect that mpeg2 will be an issue, but, for me, I only have h264 encoded files

[brewston]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I suspect that mpeg2 will be an issue, but, for me, I only have h264 encoded files

The recorded TV I've been testing with is MPEG2 albeit SD not HD. I'll record some HD stuff and take a look at that.

I remember the problems with native android player on phoenix-app-ng which forced you over to ijkplayer

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by brewston

The recorded TV I've been testing with is MPEG2 albeit SD not HD. I'll record some HD stuff and take a look at that.

I remember the problems with native android player on phoenix-app-ng which forced you over to ijkplayer

Yeah, the native player is brutal

Eventually (as I've said a couple times), once the basic player is working, we'll create a repository of "bad" samples and work through the issues... I suspect these are not actually player issues, but if they are. we'll actually have an easier time getting the maintainer of ijkplayer to help/fix, then we will getting Google to update/fix the Native player

[cncb]

Originally Posted by stuckless

The only thing that I can say, is that the limitations of the Android Native player far exceeds that of using the ijkplayer. The Native player would not even parse the .ts streams. It's only after I went to VLC and ijkplayer that basic playback was even possible. I don't intend to spend any more time on the android player, but, the good thing about open source is that anyone is free to take it, and do what they want with it. I need to focus on a single player, so the next build will also remove the VLC player. I'm not willing to throw in towel on ijkplayer before we even get playback fully working.

I totally understand. I hope, like me, you have interest in MKV file playback with HD audio and PGS subtitles .

[TechBill]

Originally Posted by stuckless

You send me the logs... set the logging level to debug... log levels work such that if you set it to debug, then you get debug, info, warn and error. If you set it to error, then you only get error.

Thank you I will set it back to Debug then.

Maybe change the menu to

Debug | Info | Warn | Error
Info only
Warn only
Error only

Make it easier to understand ...

Do I send the log via PM or what would you prefer? email?

Bill

[TechBill]

Amazon Fire Stick - 0.06-ALPHA

Crashes when loading channel guide but if I playback a recording first and then go back to channel guide it will not crash and I could playback LiveTV from channel guide after watching a recording first.

Slow fps on file .ts recorded from Colossus hardware during playback when mini-client hardware is enabled (playback is better when disabled but fps need improving).

But playback on file recorded by HDHomerun have terrible fps and some pixalations. I think know why. When I install HDHomerun, i left it at default format which probably is mpeg2.

Attached Log - channel crashes and boot back to server selection menu.

Bill

[TechBill]

Originally Posted by TechBill

Amazon Fire Stick - 0.06-ALPHA

Crashes when loading channel guide but if I playback a recording first and then go back to channel guide it will not crash and I could playback LiveTV from channel guide after watching a recording first.

Slow fps on file .ts recorded from Colossus hardware during playback when mini-client hardware is enabled (playback is better when disabled but fps need improving).

But playback on file recorded by HDHomerun have terrible fps and some pixalations. I think know why. When I install HDHomerun, i left it at default format which probably is mpeg2.

Attached Log - channel crashes and boot back to server selection menu.

Bill

I think it make no different if hardware acceleration is enable or not, either way some playback are okay but fps is a bit slow and some have terrible fps.

Also I noticed that I cannot enable Closed Captioning in the playback menu so I assume that is the player limitation right?


Bill

Edited to add - After more testing, fps is a hit and miss sometime the fps is poor and sometime is good after restarting application.

Bill

[TechBill]

Amazon Fire Stick - 0.06-ALPHA

Crashed back to Fire Stick home screen when pressed play/pause

I was watching a couple of shows with no issues and pretty good fps then at one point when I paused it crashed back to Fire Stick home screen.

I don't see anything recorded in the log about the crash but I am going to go ahead and attach it to post anyway.


So far it very playable on Fire Stick but I am still working on getting it to play back HDHomeRun smoother. I am not sure if you can change how it save to file yet, I am reading it up on forum now but if there a way to set how HDHomeRun save recording to file please do let me know how.

Bill