Android MiniClient 1.4.0

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by Telecore

I may have found a problem with this new version (1.4.2) - first of all thanks for developing this - when trying to playback a recording that is in progress (in this case the Today show on NBC), the playback doesn't work properly with Exoplayer. It does work with ijkplayer and playback of live tv channels by selecting a channel from the guide seems to work OK (I tested several channels both 1080i, 720p), but for some reason, playback of this show that has been recording for an hour or so doesn't work - it is hard to describe, but the playback is jerky and seems like it is too fast like it is coming out in bursts. I am testing this on my older 2015 Nvidia Shield. I have seen this playback problem before, but it seemed to go away on more recent versions of the miniclient. In fact, recent versions of the miniclient seemed to have good av-sync with 5.1 sound using Exoplayer. This could be just an Exoplayer issue. Is anyone else seeing this problem?

I've seen where the recording plays at maybe 2x speed. This is not "live" TV. I saw this a couple times over the past week, but didn't look at it and switched to the HD300. Today I updated to 1.4.2 and looked at more of the same show (I have about 70 episodes recorded). I found a handful that were just blank screen and finally one with the FF-type deal. There are CableCard H.264 720P MPEG2-TS files. I tried some of the blank screen ones and the FF one in IJKplayer and they worked.

[btrcp2000]

I had the same issue with NBC this morning, also with Today show. That was on IJK though. I have seen it occasionally before but never frequently enough to look into.

I still can’t get Exo to play anything at all, with and without the ffmpeg box checked. I was hoping to get 5.1 back. My sources are r5000 outputting h264 mpeg4 and ancient hdhomerun dual mpeg2. This is all on 2017 shields

[waylo]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Both of these are addressed in v1.4.2. BTW, the insert is mapped to NONE by default, but you can map it to whatever you need/want in the settings.

Great work, the insert button works as intended in 1.4.2!

I was wondering if you could comment on the key mapping, specifically how the server handles the key mapping vs the miniclient? I had initially gone into the server's key mapping settings rather than the miniclient and found that the server was not recognizing Insert.

Is this because Android/the keyboard is sending non-standard mappings to the server?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by waylo

Great work, the insert button works as intended in 1.4.2!

I was wondering if you could comment on the key mapping, specifically how the server handles the key mapping vs the miniclient? I had initially gone into the server's key mapping settings rather than the miniclient and found that the server was not recognizing Insert.

Is this because Android/the keyboard is sending non-standard mappings to the server?

The SageTV server is uses Java's AWT (abstract window toolkit) for it's key handling. So, it means that any keys you send it needs to map to a key code in AWT. So for any program like a placeshifter or full client that is running on the desktop and also using AWT (which they do), then key handling is pretty much automatic, just read a key and send a key.

For android, it does not use AWT. It has its own key codes, so, any application that sending keys to the sagetv server needs to map those keys from Android to AWT and then send that code.

So, on Android, when you press 'A' the key code is 29, but, on SageTV, 'A' is 65. On Android the INSERT key is 155 and on SageTV it is 124. So you can see that every key might be pressed and received on Android needs to be mapped to a different number before it goes to the SageTV server.

Android also has a lot more keys than what SageTV knows about. For example, gamepad keys are mapped separately. Android also knows about media keys and remote keys (DPAD UP, DOWN, etc), and they have to managed as well.

The SageTV server can accept keys and it can accept "commands" like MENU, HOME, GUIDE, etc. So, on Android for some keys we allow mappings to happen, in Android, so that you can map some keys to a sage Command. So, INSERT as received on Android can map to something other than INSERT on sagetv.

On Android the Key Mapping is further complicated because, most Android TV units only use a 8 button remote, so, I added a "smart" remote feature where by things like left/right can mean something different depending on the screen you are in. Eg, left/right will normally send a left/right key code to sagetv, but, if you are watching a video and you press LEFT it will send a REW command instead of LEFT. And this is further complicated by the fact that on Android I've also implemented long presses so that a long press left can mean something different than a regular press left. eg, when a video is playing if I press right it will skip 30 seconds, but if press and hold right it will skip the commercial.

Key handling is further complicated by managing key repeats and long presses and knowing the difference. All in all key handling on the miniclient on Android is a highly complex process. It's not just as easy as read a key send a key.

[waylo]

Really appreciate the tutorial into key mapping!

[samgreco]

Originally Posted by stuckless

3. Key presses will emit a sound effect (much like the standard android UI). This can be turned off in the settings.

Where in settings? I swear I've looked everywhere

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by samgreco

Where in settings? I swear I've looked everywhere

Settings -> Media Key Mappings -> Sound Effects

[sacrament055]

Up until 1.4 I've been able to use my CEC enabled TV remote with my Shield to bring up the overlay on long press. That's no longer working for some reason. Seems to work with my shield game controller though. (I don't have the shield tv remote)

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by sacrament055

Up until 1.4 I've been able to use my CEC enabled TV remote with my Shield to bring up the overlay on long press. That's no longer working for some reason. Seems to work with my shield game controller though. (I don't have the shield tv remote)

Did you check the Media Key Mappings to see if Long Press bring up OSD is enabled?

Did you turn on show unmapped key presses to see if it's somehow unmapped?

[sacrament055]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Did you check the Media Key Mappings to see if Long Press bring up OSD is enabled?
Yes, checked it both ways and couldn't get it to work

Did you turn on show unmapped key presses to see if it's somehow unmapped?

Didn't try this yet but it does work as a select option when I select items within the app it's only not allowing me to bring up the overlay.

I'll see if the unmapped keypress shows anything but I suspect it will show it as select since it is working for everything else within sage.

[gclayto]

I'm having the same issue with the CEC remote.

One other problem, when you press the stop recording key while watching live tv the recording will stop and then immediately start again. Nothing I do will stop the live recording. I don't know if this is by design or not but, it did not work that way before.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by gclayto

I'm having the same issue with the CEC remote.

One other problem, when you press the stop recording key while watching live tv the recording will stop and then immediately start again. Nothing I do will stop the live recording. I don't know if this is by design or not but, it did not work that way before.

Have you checked the media mapping keys settings? Is smart remote enabled (it is by default), but likely should not be enabled if you are using a full remote. Do you have show unmapped keys enabled?

[sacrament055]

Hi Stuckless I checked long press is enabled. I assume you mean for me to go into the commands menu and "show commands linked to infrared keystroke" I did that and noticed that for some reason when I press the "select" button on my tv remote it does not show a mapping. I then told it to "Link Infrared/Keystroke to SageTV Command" and assigned my select button to the select function. Once again tried to show the linked code and again it showed nothing. It does function for everything else just not the long press for overlay part.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by sacrament055

Hi Stuckless I checked long press is enabled. I assume you mean for me to go into the commands menu and "show commands linked to infrared keystroke" I did that and noticed that for some reason when I press the "select" button on my tv remote it does not show a mapping. I then told it to "Link Infrared/Keystroke to SageTV Command" and assigned my select button to the select function. Once again tried to show the linked code and again it showed nothing. It does function for everything else just not the long press for overlay part.

No... In the minicliet app, there is a settings, before you connect to sagetv. In there you control the media key mappings and remote behviour (see my earlier post when someone asked me to explain how remote/key mappings work in the ANdroid client).

[cat6man]

@stuckless

thank you very much for all your hard work!
know that it is much appreciated.

[gclayto]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Have you checked the media mapping keys settings? Is smart remote enabled (it is by default), but likely should not be enabled if you are using a full remote. Do you have show unmapped keys enabled?

I turned smart remote off and this fixed the CEC remote exit/back key to get from the guide to the menu. I still cannot stop live video from playing. it will stop briefly and then restart on its own.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by gclayto

I turned smart remote off and this fixed the CEC remote exit/back key to get from the guide to the menu. I still cannot stop live video from playing. it will stop briefly and then restart on its own.

What button is "stop recording"? Is it just the "stop" button? What is the stop button mapped to in the Media Key Mappings (in the MiniClient not sagetv)? Have you tried long pressing to bring up the on screen keys and then using the "STOP" button there, and does it behave the same way? (if the answer is yes, then likely a bug, if no, then likely something in your setup -- either in the minicliet or sagetv).

[gclayto]

Originally Posted by stuckless

What button is "stop recording"? Is it just the "stop" button? What is the stop button mapped to in the Media Key Mappings (in the MiniClient not sagetv)? Have you tried long pressing to bring up the on screen keys and then using the "STOP" button there, and does it behave the same way? (if the answer is yes, then likely a bug, if no, then likely something in your setup -- either in the minicliet or sagetv).

The stop key is the square icon to stop the recording. Yes, the OSD menu behaves the same way. I suspect it is a bug.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by gclayto

The stop key is the square icon to stop the recording. Yes, the OSD menu behaves the same way. I suspect it is a bug.

I guess this is good news (for me at least ). The OSD does not use the remote mappings, so in the OSD when you select the Square Icon it sends a "stop" command to SageTV. So this bypasses any remote handling. So that means your sagetv server is somehow triggering this behaviour. I would look in your sagetv_0.txt log file after you press stop and see what sagetv is doing there. Have you reconfigured any remote actions withing sagetv?

Does this only happen on recorded tv? The MiniClient itself has no concept of recorded tv vs live tv... it's all the same, and it has no way to know the difference. My point being, is that if all media behaves the same way, "stop" causes a stop followed by a replay, then I can see the MiniClient possibly being at fault (although it doesn't happen to me, in my setup). If LiveTV behaves differently than pre recorded tv, then, this is definitely something happening in the SageTV server.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by gclayto

I turned smart remote off and this fixed the CEC remote exit/back key to get from the guide to the menu. I still cannot stop live video from playing. it will stop briefly and then restart on its own.

Do you have this property set?
mmc/encoders/<tuner number>/never_stop_encoding=true

If you do set it to false.