Android/AndroidTV Placeshifter client (Discussion)

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by foolio

hi, is it possible to access your sage server over cellular LTE? which port needs to be forwarded?

the app working very well on my local network... great job

I'm working on the placeshifter capabilities. For now, not quite there.

[trallyus]

By the way Stuckless - don't forget to add the Hisense Vision Model 40K368AW

The app works but playback is out of sync. I had to play with the remote buttons to find what did what but I thought I would give you a heads up

P.S. you may want to update your Campaign page with the future goals you have here too

[Gustovier]

Originally Posted by trallyus

By the way Stuckless - don't forget to add the Hisense Vision Model 40K368AW

The app works but playback is out of sync. I had to play with the remote buttons to find what did what but I thought I would give you a heads up

P.S. you may want to update your Campaign page with the future goals you have here too

I think making sure this works and in general other TVs that have android tv on them is going to be really difficult unless Google has some good emulators (they did just recently roll out their new IDE with better emulators). The issue is that TVs usually don't have good hw decoding capabilities and have slow processors and bad network interfaces. They are also very closed systems and the communities of users that can contribute info and learnings are very small as opposed to boxes like the nexus android tv and Nvidia shield. Don't want to be a Debbie downer but this is just the reality.

[trallyus]

No Problem Gustovier,
If Stuckless does do video transcoding in the future then the problem with video playback is a moot point.

I thought I read he may try later on down the road so I am still testing the app on my TV since plex transcodes and plays stuff fine.

If stuckless never gets playback problems fixed it is no big deal as I have a keedox box that will probaly be powerful enough to play stuff back without out of sync issues so either way I am just excited the app finally works on my tv

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by trallyus

By the way Stuckless - don't forget to add the Hisense Vision Model 40K368AW

The app works but playback is out of sync. I had to play with the remote buttons to find what did what but I thought I would give you a heads up

P.S. you may want to update your Campaign page with the future goals you have here too

I've updated the main post to include the Hisense (I didn't even realize it was a TV, I thought it was tablet). I'll update the campaign as well, that's a good idea. Out of curiousity, which stretch goals or future goals are you most interested in?

Originally Posted by trallyus

No Problem Gustovier,
If Stuckless does do video transcoding in the future then the problem with video playback is a moot point.

I thought I read he may try later on down the road so I am still testing the app on my TV since plex transcodes and plays stuff fine.

If stuckless never gets playback problems fixed it is no big deal as I have a keedox box that will probaly be powerful enough to play stuff back without out of sync issues so either way I am just excited the app finally works on my tv

Have you tried setting the streaming mode to "FIXED" in the preferences. There is DYNAMIC, PULL, and FIXED. I should be set to Dynamic, but I wonder what happens if you set it to fixed. (it might force the serve into transcoding).

[trallyus]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I've updated the main post to include the Hisense (I didn't even realize it was a TV, I thought it was tablet). I'll update the campaign as well, that's a good idea. Out of curiousity, which stretch goals or future goals are you most interested in?

Have you tried setting the streaming mode to "FIXED" in the preferences. There is DYNAMIC, PULL, and FIXED. I should be set to Dynamic, but I wonder what happens if you set it to fixed. (it might force the serve into transcoding).

No , I did not try this as I did not even know you could do that with the app. Is that under settings? I will have to test it after Thanksgiving. Thanks!!!

Only thing I would like is nice seamless playback but I still have to try your suggestion to set the streaming mode
as I did not know that was possible

[gerberdude]

Does this client require the upgrade to v9? Or can I use it with my existing v7 setup? You know, because it's black Friday soon and I may need to buy a fire stick for $25.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by gerberdude

Does this client require the upgrade to v9? Or can I use it with my existing v7 setup? You know, because it's black Friday soon and I may need to buy a fire stick for $25.

You can connect to a v7 server. That being said, not sure how well the Fire Stick works. Just check through the posts to see if people are having good success with it.

[SHS]

By the way stuckless forgot add Android-x86 (PC Port)
And it no longer in 1/4 screen it now in full screen I think was in ver 7, 8 is when you fit it I don't recall when

[stuckless]

This build fixes the UI in the Placeshifter mode. Previously you'd get a completely black UI, not you should actually get a UI

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stuckless

This build fixes the UI in the Placeshifter mode. Previously you'd get a completely black UI, not you should actually get a UI

Cool! I can see a login screen now.. now if only I could type in a login and password.. ;-)

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Cool! I can see a login screen now.. now if only I could type in a login and password.. ;-)

If you have a bluetooth keyboard, you can use it

I am working on adding a keyboard/remote overlay, but it's still a work in progress, and it's not there yet.

[Fuzzy]

Yeah, I know - just teasing. Does the miniclient know when there is an active cursor in a text box widget, or is that all rendered completely on the server?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Yeah, I know - just teasing. Does the miniclient know when there is an active cursor in a text box widget, or is that all rendered completely on the server?

Everything is rendered on the server. In fact that "cursor" on the client is nothing more than the server sending box and line drawing commands. I have no idea if I'm drawing a cursor, or line in a video details screen.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Everything is rendered on the server. In fact that "cursor" on the client is nothing more than the server sending box and line drawing commands. I have no idea if I'm drawing a cursor, or line in a video details screen.

That's what I had figured - so the on-screen keyboard you are looking to do, is a drawer on top of the rendering?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

That's what I had figured - so the on-screen keyboard you are looking to do, is a drawer on top of the rendering?

There's a couple of things...

I've started a separate "remote" project that I've been using to test interactions with MiniClient because I don't have a full blown remote connected to my AndroidTV or phone. This remote project is fully customizable in that users can provide their own key layouts, etc. One of the "actions" of that remote to toggle showing the Android keyboard.

In the MiniClient, I started down the road of using the pull out drawer for a "remote", but I haven't added many actions to it. So, my goal would be to bundle this remote project with the mini-client and then show the remote in the pull out drawer, or as a translucent dialog over the ui, based on either pulling out from the edge, or maybe bind it to the "home" button, etc.

Once the remote is integrated, you can then turn on the android keyboard and start typing and it will send the keypreses to SageTV, so if you happen to be in a text box, sagetv will start rendering the keypresses.

This all works now, when I run the MiniClient on my phone, and then I use another older phone to run the "remote". I just need to integrate it so that you don't need a second device.

Maybe something I can do, quickly, is add a button to the pull out drawer that will toggle the android keyboard. (I'm not happy with the pull out drawer, so, I'm looking for some alternates to that as well).

[Fuzzy]

I think a lot of this SHOULD be handled at the STV level. Most text entry in the SageTV7 and Gemstone STV's have an onscreen keyboard, which is great - but a few do not. And more importantly, SecureLogin.xml (which is the min-STV that handles Placeshifter Logins) also does not. I think I might look into copying the base STV's on-screen keyboard into the SecureLogin.XML, and checking it in, which shouldn't be too difficult.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I think a lot of this SHOULD be handled at the STV level. Most text entry in the SageTV7 and Gemstone STV's have an onscreen keyboard, which is great - but a few do not. And more importantly, SecureLogin.xml (which is the min-STV that handles Placeshifter Logins) also does not. I think I might look into copying the base STV's on-screen keyboard into the SecureLogin.XML, and checking it in, which shouldn't be too difficult.

I'm not preventing it from being handled at the stv level... it's just another point for interacting with SageTV, which I need for testing. I haven't rolled it into the core MiniClient, but it's something that I use daily during testing. If there's no value in it, then I won't roll it in, but I'll still build it out for testing, because it's something I need.

[stuckless]

Along the same lines... (but a bit off topic), SageTV uses a lot of 1-9 to enter the alphabet on many screens. I know why they do it, but i do think that having a universal STV enabled keyboard for data entry would be better. I can't think a of a case where using 1-9 (where each key has to pressed mulitple times to pick a letter) is easier or faster than using a fully blown keyboard that you navigate using cursor keys.

[dranockcir]

Originally Posted by stuckless

This build fixes the UI in the Placeshifter mode. Previously you'd get a completely black UI, not you should actually get a UI

Awesome, got it working on shield remotely. Could also check the box that says to auto login so now when I reconnect I don't have to enter the user and password.