[Android MiniClient] Now in BETA

[cncb]

Originally Posted by stuckless

You should enter an issue on the issue tracker, since I'm likely to forget about this one, since I never seek when paused. Not even sure what it should do, so I'll have to try it on my hd300 and see.

It would be good if it would seek and then update the (static) image with the current location while staying paused which I'm pretty sure is how the HD300 works.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by stuckless

You should enter an issue on the issue tracker, since I'm likely to forget about this one, since I never seek when paused. Not even sure what it should do, so I'll have to try it on my hd300 and see.

If you pause then seek, Sage will jump to the new playback location as soon as you hit play.

[cncb]

If I turn on recording to MPEG2-TS (since MPEG2-PS is not supported yet), ExoPlayer has problems playing it with the video freezing briefly every few seconds. I have confirmed that the recording seems to be OK, since it plays smoothly in Sage on my PC.

I am also getting consistent crashes (kicks me out to MiniClient settings screen) when I try to view Gemstone screens of the "wall flow" type.

[FreshOne]

I tried BETA4 out on my new Nvidia Shield TV and it seems to work great.

I am uisng default options (so IJKPlayer). I played 3-4 HD-Homerun recorded TV shows with no issues. I played several 1080p BluRay MKV rips and they also looked good.

One Question though - I did notice that for the MKVs that the aspect ratio seemed off. Is there any way to change aspect ratio in the client ?

You have done some amazing work in a short period of time. Bravo.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by cncb

If I turn on recording to MPEG2-TS (since MPEG2-PS is not supported yet), ExoPlayer has problems playing it with the video freezing briefly every few seconds. I have confirmed that the recording seems to be OK, since it plays smoothly in Sage on my PC.

I am also getting consistent crashes (kicks me out to MiniClient settings screen) when I try to view Gemstone screens of the "wall flow" type.

Can you provide any information about your device (types, android version, etc)? Wired Wireless? And can you provide any information about your video (720p, 1080i, etc, mpeg2, h264, etc)

Originally Posted by FreshOne

I tried BETA4 out on my new Nvidia Shield TV and it seems to work great.

I am uisng default options (so IJKPlayer). I played 3-4 HD-Homerun recorded TV shows with no issues. I played several 1080p BluRay MKV rips and they also looked good.

One Question though - I did notice that for the MKVs that the aspect ratio seemed off. Is there any way to change aspect ratio in the client ?

You have done some amazing work in a short period of time. Bravo.

I haven't tackled anything around apsect ratios, yet. Might be a good idea to add add a defect to the defect tracker, providing as much details as you can, in terms of video resolution and what you are seeing in the player.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Can you provide any information about your device (types, android version, etc)? Wired Wireless? And can you provide any information about your video (720p, 1080i, etc, mpeg2, h264, etc)

Shield TV wired with MPEG2-TS recordings from Sage played in ExoPlayer. Brief freezing happens with both 720P and 1080i. MPEG2-TS from NextPVR seem to play fine.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by cncb

Shield TV wired with MPEG2-TS recordings from Sage played in ExoPlayer. Brief freezing happens with both 720P and 1080i. MPEG2-TS from NextPVR seem to play fine.

Are you using "Dynamic" mode or PULL? (ie, this would be setup in the Preferences)

Your setup is very similar to mine, in that I use Shield, 720p MPEG2-TS files from HDPVR, and ExoPlayer to play them, and they play fine. Are the files mpeg2 video, or h264... Mine are h264 encoded files in a MPEG2-TS container.

Also, I assume you are running the lastest, BETA-4 as well.

[cncb]

I'm using Dynamic in Beta 4. They are MPEG2 (US OTA from HDHomerun). I can provide a small sample if it would be helpful.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by cncb

I'm using Dynamic in Beta 4. They are MPEG2 (US OTA from HDHomerun). I can provide a small sample if it would be helpful.

Yeah, if you could PM me with a download location for a small sample, that would be great. I'm gradually building a library of different media formats If you could name it something like "720p_mpeg2_hdhomerun.ts" that would be helpful. Just makes it easy for me to tell by the title what kind of file I'm testing.

[cncb]

I PM'd you a link to a small (~296 MB) sample.

Regarding the crashes in Gemstone with the "wall flow" views, do you need a log file for this?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by cncb

I PM'd you a link to a small (~296 MB) sample.

Regarding the crashes in Gemstone with the "wall flow" views, do you need a log file for this?

Log files always help

So, I tried your file... and since it's an mpeg2 video, then using IJKPlayer it has to use to the software decoder to play it back. That being said, I played it back using my shield and I didn't get any pauses in the video.

I Also switched to ExoPlayer and it played it back as well, using hardware decoding. But in my setup, I don't have a valid AC-3 passthrough device, so, I don't get audio.

Something that I did notice though, is that the feel can't be seeked. Whenever I try to seek in the file, it jumps to 0, and then the video is just blank.

I also had to try and play the video twice before it would actually play... the first time, it was just a black screen.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure how fixable these problems are

[cncb]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I Also switched to ExoPlayer and it played it back as well, using hardware decoding. But in my setup, I don't have a valid AC-3 passthrough device, so, I don't get audio.

For me in ExoPlayer it alternates between playing for ~2 seconds and pausing/freezing for ~2 seconds. I do get audio since I have the Shield connected to an AVR that handles AC-3 so that might explain the difference. It seems to be related to how Sage records the files because I haven't had any problem with MPEG2 .ts files recorded in NextPVR.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by cncb

For me in ExoPlayer it alternates between playing for ~2 seconds and pausing/freezing for ~2 seconds. I do get audio since I have the Shield connected to an AVR that handles AC-3 so that might explain the difference. It seems to be related to how Sage records the files because I haven't had any problem with MPEG2 .ts files recorded in NextPVR.

You nailed it right there it is the way SageTV creates the files ...that is why anything Created by OpenDCt and other network encoders play fine. So any files created by sageTV even if you create MPEG-TS or MPEG-PS you will have that problem. I believe it has to do with the SAGETV BDA Compatibility Mode.

I just remux any MPG created by SageTV to TS and they play fine.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

You nailed it right there it is the way SageTV creates the files ...that is why anything Created by OpenDCt and other network encoders play fine. So any files created by sageTV even if you create MPEG-TS or MPEG-PS you will have that problem. I believe it has to do with the SAGETV BDA Compatibility Mode.

I just remux any MPG created by SageTV to TS and they play fine.

What do you mean when you say "created by sagetv". In what cases is SageTV creating recordings. For example I have and HDPVR, so is sagetv creating those recordings? Is this something that is fixable inside of the sagetv server, and if so, how would be go about fixing it?

[tmiranda]

Installed beta 4 two days ago and have been using it to try things out. It's a big improvement I see two things that I am not sure are bugs are not:

1. The highlighted items do not stand out that much compared to how they appear on an HD300.

2. If I walk away for several hours the municlient disconnects and I have to relaunch the app. Sometimes it takes 2 tries to get it to reconnect.

This is on a Cheapo nexus Player.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Installed beta 4 two days ago and have been using it to try things out. It's a big improvement I see two things that I am not sure are bugs are not:

1. The highlighted items do not stand out that much compared to how they appear on an HD300.

2. If I walk away for several hours the municlient disconnects and I have to relaunch the app. Sometimes it takes 2 tries to get it to reconnect.

This is on a Cheapo nexus Player.

Both issues are known (to me at least), although, not sure if they are entered as issues or not.

The first issue is something that I've dabbled with fixing a few times, but I haven't found a solution. Jeff and team will open source (at some point) a newer opengl es UI that they were working on, but never released. I'm hoping when that happens, I can rewrite the UI layer using their logic.

As for 2... There are a number of connection type issues that I've encountered. The challenge with writing something like this as an app, is that it takes a considerable amount of memory to run a MiniClient. on an HD300, that's not bad, since it's the only thing running, but on Android, it's just another app. So, depending on the box, if it's idle, it can terminated by the system, and I need to do a better job of stabilizing the client under these conditions. Personally, I tend to exit the client when I'm not sure using it (ie, long press on the select, and then select exit icon on the top left). This way, I'm freeing valuable system memory when it's not in use. For example, the video buffer alone is 16mb buffer.

[stuckless]

There is a Beta 5 available for download.

In this beta, there are a couple of fixes to IJKPlayer
1. IJKPlayer can now seek in PUSH mode and retain the correct time
2. Fixed a bug whereby IJKPlayer would start using software decoder when a hardware decoder is available
3. Added a preference, for debugging, where if enabled, a short message will appear when you play video, and it uses a software decoder. I recommend turning this on, since when you have video issues, it's always worth knowing if its because a software decoder is being used.

At this Point IJKPlayer and ExoPlayer are fairly equal... I'm including support for both, since, they both had advantages in other different areas. In my testing I sometimes have to exit the app and switch players, when I encounter an issue.

Here's a guide to determining which Player you might want to use.

ExoPlayer
- AC3 passthrough (only)
- MPEG2 hardware decoding if the device supports it
- H264 hardware decoding
- H265 hardware decoding if the device supports it
- NO support for MPEG2-PS
- NO support for AVI
- Will play MKV, MP4, FLV, TS (mpegts), MPG containers
- If it has to transcode a file, it will not play (sagetv sends MPEG2-PS stream)

IJKPlayer
- Plays any file type
- NO MPEG2 hardware decoding support, even if the device supports it
- Hardware decoding for h264
- Hardware decoding for h265 (if the device supports it)
- NO AC3 passthrough (it will be decoded and played)

I do find that ExoPlayer is a faster player, when it works. ie, Seeking and shut down is fast. IJKPlayer is a little slower, and it think its because it has to do more work in both cases.

If all you have is h264 encoded content and ac3 passthrough on your system, then you can get by with ExoPlayer. I tend to use ExoPlayer the most, but that was mainly because PUSH seeking wasn't working in IJK (it is now). But, ExoPlayer would still have problems on some TS files that I recorded. ie, i could have 2 recordings on the same night, one works one doesn't. In IJK the both work. If You have MPEG2 content and device that support MPEG2 hardware decoding, then you'll want to use ExoPlayer. If you have a diverse collection of media, then you'll want to use IJKPlayer.

[cncb]

Something to add to the list above: VC-1 video (in MKV) plays with software decoding in IJKPlayer and does not play at all in ExoPlayer.

Regarding the crash I'm getting in Gemstone, I have attached the log file. There appears to be a NullPointerException.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by cncb

Something to add to the list above: VC-1 video (in MKV) plays with software decoding in IJKPlayer and does not play at all in ExoPlayer.

Regarding the crash I'm getting in Gemstone, I have attached the log file. There appears to be a NullPointerException.

Thanks I can see the error in the log, which is helpful.

As for ExoPlayer, it's a hardware only player, so unless the device has hardware decoding for VC-1 then it won't play it. To be honest, I've never heard of VC-1, so I'm not sure if it's a container that hold another formation, or if it's an actual codec. Either way, I don't see any reference to VC-1 in ExoPlayer.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by stuckless

As for ExoPlayer, it's a hardware only player, so unless the device has hardware decoding for VC-1 then it won't play it. To be honest, I've never heard of VC-1, so I'm not sure if it's a container that hold another formation, or if it's an actual codec. Either way, I don't see any reference to VC-1 in ExoPlayer.

VC-1 is a codec mainly used in older blu-ray disks. It is listed as supported in the Shield TV specs so maybe ExoPlayer needs to be updated:

Supports: MPEG-2/ MPEG-4/ Xvid/ DivX/ WMV9/ ASF/ AVI/ MKV/ MOV/ M2TS/ MPEG-TS/ H.263/ H.264/ H.265/ VC-1/ VP8/ VP9