Fork of SageTV MiniClient for Android TV

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by wayner

This may be kind of awkward but assuming that you have the SageTV web UI installed then you can use the remote control on the web UI to hit the options key.

It's only awkward if you make it awkward.

That's a little-used feature (for me, anyway) that I only discovered not that long ago, and it never occurred to me to try it with the miniclient, so thanks for the suggestion. That's a lot easier than trying my old bluetooth keyboard.

[wayner]

There is also a separate Mobile web client that was developed a long time ago, before phones got larger screens. But it may not work anymore.

That is fine since the main web UI works fine on phones with larger screens and is very usable, including the page for the web UI remote. I wouldn't want to use that all of the time, but to change the occasional setting it works pretty well.

[Zogg]

Maybe I'm stupid, okay that's a given, but I don't see an Options button on the web remote and none of the keys available will pop up the options menu. Looks like I may have to try a bluetooth keyboard after all.

[wayner]

This is the URI that would do the command. You can try it from a browser, not sure if the button is on the web page. You need to enter your own username, password, server IP address, server port and the context is the MAC ID of the extender.

http://user:password@192.168.1.99:70...ommand=Options

http://user:password@192.168.1.99:7070/sage/SageCommand?context=001d6a4cf581&command=Options

edit - Pasted in a code box so that the URL does not get truncated.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by Zogg

Maybe I'm stupid, okay that's a given, but I don't see an Options button on the web remote and none of the keys available will pop up the options menu. Looks like I may have to try a bluetooth keyboard after all.

What do you mean by options it is there on the main menu what is it that you do not see? If you long press the select the options is there. The hamburger Icon. There is also an AndroidTV APP you can download from play store. You can pair with your Android box.

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

What do you mean by options it is there on the main menu what is it that you do not see? If you long press the select the options is there. The hamburger Icon. There is also an AndroidTV APP you can download from play store. You can pair with your Android box.

When you are viewing the list of recordings and you pop up the sort/filter options on the right of the screen. The button to show that options menu isn't on the web remote.

I was able to use the link that wayner sent to display the menu, but for some reason the miniclient started freezing up shortly after I start it. I'll keep working on it though.

[KeithAbbott]

I have a Fire TV Stick 4K device loaded with the SageTV MiniClient. If I am watching a "live" television show, what do I press on the remote to stop watching/recording? Pressing the play/pause button only pauses the show, I want the recording to stop.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

I have a Fire TV Stick 4K device loaded with the SageTV MiniClient. If I am watching a "live" television show, what do I press on the remote to stop watching/recording? Pressing the play/pause button only pauses the show, I want the recording to stop.

long press select and a menu will popup with all the keys including stop.

[DarkWolf77]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Try exoplayer with the ffmpeg audio extension set to always see if that helps.

So it's on the latest 1.7.0, tried the ffmpeg audio extension option and it's still bad. If I disable that, though, I get no audio - otherwise the audio becomes a buzzing noise, almost as if it's playing it back at the wrong audio frequency.

[t4runnr]

Josh,

This is amazing work. I will be donating shortly for sure.

I used the Android Client for my pair of Amazon Firesticks with no issue. I recently got a pair of Nvidia Shield TV Pros that I also installed the app on.

Everything works great and importing the settings was a breeze. However, I did notice that on the Shields, the text in my Gemstone flows are slightly getting cut off. Its not much but it makes "T" and "7" look weird.

I only notice it on the Shields. The Firesticks and my PCs do not have this issue.

The Gemstone flow I'm using is Dual. I also see it happening in my TV show flows.

If this is something that can be fixed/set on my end, please let me know and I'll get to it.

Thanks again!

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by t4runnr

Josh,

This is amazing work. I will be donating shortly for sure.

I used the Android Client for my pair of Amazon Firesticks with no issue. I recently got a pair of Nvidia Shield TV Pros that I also installed the app on.

Everything works great and importing the settings was a breeze. However, I did notice that on the Shields, the text in my Gemstone flows are slightly getting cut off. Its not much but it makes "T" and "7" look weird.

I only notice it on the Shields. The Firesticks and my PCs do not have this issue.

The Gemstone flow I'm using is Dual. I also see it happening in my TV show flows.

If this is something that can be fixed/set on my end, please let me know and I'll get to it.

Thanks again!

Thank you for the kind words. I am glad that it is working well for you. Would you mind posting a screen cap. I do not use Gemstone, so may not have seen this. Maybe someone else could chime in.

Some things I would try. There are two rendering engines. Try with OpenGL on and off and see if that makes a difference. Double check the overscan settings in SageTV to make sure it is not trying to scale down the UI.

Interesting that it looks different on those two devices!

[t4runnr]

Originally Posted by jvl711

Thank you for the kind words. I am glad that it is working well for you. Would you mind posting a screen cap. I do not use Gemstone, so may not have seen this. Maybe someone else could chime in.

Some things I would try. There are two rendering engines. Try with OpenGL on and off and see if that makes a difference. Double check the overscan settings in SageTV to make sure it is not trying to scale down the UI.

Interesting that it looks different on those two devices!

I tried the OpenGL setting (default was off) as on. Neither made a difference.

Where do I check the overscan settings? Is that different than the overscan during general setup? If its that where we set the upper left and lower right, then those are ok.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by t4runnr

I tried the OpenGL setting (default was off) as on. Neither made a difference.

Where do I check the overscan settings? Is that different than the overscan during general setup? If its that where we set the upper left and lower right, then those are ok.

When you say, ` importing the settings was a breeze` what does that mean exactly? Is that the gemstone import?

Here's what I'd try...
Remove the app (or just go in a clear all storage setting for the app)
Install the app
Go through the default SageTV configuration (ie, launch sagetv, and since all data was removed you'll be starting over in terms of having to configure it). Take note as you going through the configuration looking for T and 7 to see if the have the issues.
- do you see the same font issues?
Load gemstone UI, but don't configure it
- do you see the same font issues?
Configure gemstone
- do you see the same font issues?

Basically just trying to determine at which stage the problem is occurring.

You are not sharing the client properties on the sagetv server, correct? (if you don't know what that means, the answer is probably no)

I'll explain a little bit about how fonts are managed on the Placeshifter, HD300, Android MiniClient. Fonts are rendered on the Server as bitmaps and then sent across to the client. So while a font might start out as a TTF, font characters from a client's point of view are treated as images. Thie images are cached on the client since they'll be requested MANY times, but it's also why when you see it rendered incorrectly once, it's likely it'll be rendered that way forever. If fonts change on the server, these changes may not make it a client until the client's cache is cleared.

[t4runnr]

Originally Posted by stuckless

When you say, ` importing the settings was a breeze` what does that mean exactly? Is that the gemstone import?

Here's what I'd try...
Remove the app (or just go in a clear all storage setting for the app)
Install the app
Go through the default SageTV configuration (ie, launch sagetv, and since all data was removed you'll be starting over in terms of having to configure it). Take note as you going through the configuration looking for T and 7 to see if the have the issues.
- do you see the same font issues?
Load gemstone UI, but don't configure it
- do you see the same font issues?
Configure gemstone
- do you see the same font issues?

Basically just trying to determine at which stage the problem is occurring.

You are not sharing the client properties on the sagetv server, correct? (if you don't know what that means, the answer is probably no)

I'll explain a little bit about how fonts are managed on the Placeshifter, HD300, Android MiniClient. Fonts are rendered on the Server as bitmaps and then sent across to the client. So while a font might start out as a TTF, font characters from a client's point of view are treated as images. Thie images are cached on the client since they'll be requested MANY times, but it's also why when you see it rendered incorrectly once, it's likely it'll be rendered that way forever. If fonts change on the server, these changes may not make it a client until the client's cache is cleared.

Yeah, I was referring to the Gemstone import. My setup is simple enough to setup. I'll start over as you recommended and note when/if it happens again.

Thanks for your help.

EDIT: I did a re-install of the app. After going through the initial setup, I didn't change anything and went straight to videos. The effect on the text is there. You can see it for all the movies listed in the image below. I did the same thing on one of the Firestick 4Ks with a fresh install and there were no issues. If its something that can't be fixed immediately or fixed at all, thats ok. Its definitely not a show stopper for me as we can still read the titles.

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by stuckless

When you say, ` importing the settings was a breeze` what does that mean exactly? Is that the gemstone import?

Here's what I'd try...
Remove the app (or just go in a clear all storage setting for the app)
Install the app
Go through the default SageTV configuration (ie, launch sagetv, and since all data was removed you'll be starting over in terms of having to configure it). Take note as you going through the configuration looking for T and 7 to see if the have the issues.
- do you see the same font issues?
Load gemstone UI, but don't configure it
- do you see the same font issues?
Configure gemstone
- do you see the same font issues?

Basically just trying to determine at which stage the problem is occurring.

You are not sharing the client properties on the sagetv server, correct? (if you don't know what that means, the answer is probably no)

I'll explain a little bit about how fonts are managed on the Placeshifter, HD300, Android MiniClient. Fonts are rendered on the Server as bitmaps and then sent across to the client. So while a font might start out as a TTF, font characters from a client's point of view are treated as images. Thie images are cached on the client since they'll be requested MANY times, but it's also why when you see it rendered incorrectly once, it's likely it'll be rendered that way forever. If fonts change on the server, these changes may not make it a client until the client's cache is cleared.

I did not realize that they were images. Thanks for explanation! That makes complete sense. That way the font will be rendered correctly on every platform regardless of the availability of the font.

Thanks,
Josh

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by t4runnr

Yeah, I was referring to the Gemstone import. My setup is simple enough to setup. I'll start over as you recommended and note when/if it happens again.

Thanks for your help.

EDIT: I did a re-install of the app. After going through the initial setup, I didn't change anything and went straight to videos. The effect on the text is there. You can see it for all the movies listed in the image below. I did the same thing on one of the Firestick 4Ks with a fresh install and there were no issues. If its something that can't be fixed immediately or fixed at all, thats ok. Its definitely not a show stopper for me as we can still read the titles.

It is odd how the font is getting cut off in different directions. I am not sure if this is the right direction to go or not, but can you try and delete the fontcache on the server. I would delete all of the files in the folder named "fontcache" and let them rebuild. See if that has any effect.

[t4runnr]

Originally Posted by jvl711

It is odd how the font is getting cut off in different directions. I am not sure if this is the right direction to go or not, but can you try and delete the fontcache on the server. I would delete all of the files in the folder named "fontcache" and let them rebuild. See if that has any effect.

Yes. I can try that. Thank you.

EDIT: That didn't work. Again, I appreciate the help in troubleshooting this.

EDIT #2 - 21Dec: So weird but it’s fixed now. I didn’t do anything. But it’s all fixed now. Go figure. Maybe something to do with the cache?

[hb4]

Very pleased overall with the client on the Firestick 4K; it's made watching from a low bandwidth remote location pleasurable.

The only issue I've been seeing is that from time-to-time the client hangs up and I have to 'TeamViewer' into the server and cycle SageTV Service to get it to release. Nearly always, it hangs at the 'Connecting to the <my server name> Server', although it's happened at other times as well. I suspected it was caused by my slow remote DSL bandwidth but I've recently upgraded to a cable-supported 10Mbs service and it is still happening. Maybe that's still too slow, but wondering if there's another fix.

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by hb4

Very pleased overall with the client on the Firestick 4K; it's made watching from a low bandwidth remote location pleasurable.

The only issue I've been seeing is that from time-to-time the client hangs up and I have to 'TeamViewer' into the server and cycle SageTV Service to get it to release. Nearly always, it hangs at the 'Connecting to the <my server name> Server', although it's happened at other times as well. I suspected it was caused by my slow remote DSL bandwidth but I've recently upgraded to a cable-supported 10Mbs service and it is still happening. Maybe that's still too slow, but wondering if there's another fix.

Do you have any server logs from when this happens. I have not seen this in my own environment, so any logs might help. Not sure if anyone else has encountered this.

[crl]

It's exciting to see this client approach the level of replacing HD300! Thanks to all for their contributions. I've seen a few others upthread with same issue as mine, but without any replies.

I have 1.7.0 working with MPEG2 OTA streams on Fire Stick 4K only when Exoplayer is disabled. I also have the first MPEG2 hardware decoder (OMX.MTK.VIDEO.DECODER.MPEG2) unchecked. This works reasonably okay.

It seems most in this thread are using OpenDCT to fix the MPEG2 container in order to successfully use Exoplayer. Since I use internal an PCI capture card I don't think OpenDCT is an option for me (it didn't discover my cards when I tried.)

Is there any way to enable the same streamfix when using an internal capture card as what OpenDCT is doing?

Is there any way to disable a specific hardware codec for Exoplayer in the same way IJK allows it?

I suspect I'd be all set if either of the ideas above are possible - and others who don't have HDHRs.

Thanks!