Android TV navigation questions

[HDGuy 3]

New to Emby on my 2019 Nvidia Shield- when I navigate a video with the directional pad and lift my finger the video will pause- is there a way to change this behavior? I dislike having to keep pressing “Play” a few times to get a video to play again. All the other video players I’ve used will just continue playback after I’ve navigated to a specific point.

[ebr 14958]

Hi.  If you just press once, the app will skip ahead/back and continue playing but, if you hold down your finger, then it will produce thumbs for visual seeking.  At that point, you need to navigate to the exact place you want then tell it to continue there.  If we just continued, you might not be where you want to be yet since you are examining thumbnails.

This is the same behavior YouTube, for example, uses because you need to see where you are going to "land".

[HDGuy 3]

Interesting. I have thumbnails turned off. On every other playback app I use when I lift my finger it just continues. Vimu Media Player defaults to how your app functions but it also gives you the option to have playback just continue immediately- I prefer that way. I can see exactly where I am in the video. The way it is now I have to press PLAY 2x after I navigate to the point in the video I want to watch. I find it sort of annoying.

Ah, I see what you mean- if I press up on my remote I see the icons for the navigation thumbnails- I decided not to create those so they are blank. I’m talking just holding down the directional button without pressing up first. It then just fast forwards the video progressively, until I lift my finger and the video then pauses. I now have to press PLAY twice to get playback restarted from that point.

Edited August 22, 2023 by HDGuy

[ebr 14958]

27 minutes ago, HDGuy said:

The way it is now I have to press PLAY 2x after I navigate to the point in the video I want to watch

Hi.  Just press "OK"...

[Luke 37240]

Has this answered your questions?

[HDGuy 3]

It has- although I would prefer the option to just have playback continue automatically after navigating rather than having to press OK every time.

Perhaps an option to toggle this? As I said almost all the playback apps on the Android TV work this way. 

[ebr 14958]

13 minutes ago, HDGuy said:

As I said almost all the playback apps on the Android TV work this way

Hi.  That hasn't been our experience.  Both YouTube and Netflix behave the exact same way we do.

[HDGuy 3]

12 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  That hasn't been our experience.  Both YouTube and Netflix behave the exact same way we do.

Did you remove the part where I listed Kodi, Vimu, Nova, MX Player and any of the file format playback apps? I am not talking about streaming platform apps, I am talking about playback apps for personal content.

[Luke 37240]

More options to control this are certainly possible.

[HDGuy 3]

Try out the apps I mentioned and see what I mean. Justplayer is basically just Exoplayer and works the way I stated.

I also use a Logitech Harmony remote and checked my mapping, my Play button is mapped to "Play" (Microsoft Keyboard) and the center/enter button is mapped to "Select" (Nvidia Shield). Regardless of which one I press, each one needs to be pressed 2x after the navigation to restart playback. The OK/Select button shouldn't behave this way. 

I will break out my official Shield remote and see how it behaves. 

Thanks for your patience. Emby is new to me and everyone's setup is different. Otherwise I like it- I run a server on my Unraid setup and I find no stutters at all to my Shield with no encoding. There are a few issues here but I will bring that up as I get used to it. 

 

Edited August 25, 2023 by HDGuy

[HDGuy 3]

I just tried my official 2019 Shield Pro remote. After fast navigating with the left directional button and the video stops, I need to press either “Play” or “OK” (center button) 2x ro get the video to restart. 

Edited August 26, 2023 by HDGuy

[CBers 6787]

4 hours ago, HDGuy said:

I just tried my official 2019 Shield Pro remote. After fast navigating with the left directional button and the video stops, I need to press either “Play” or “OK” (center button) 2x ro get the video to restart. 

When FF or RW fast by holding the button down, you do have to press play when you get to the point you want to play from. 

There was a reason for this when it was implemented, but as @ebrsaid, it is the same for YT.

I don't like the implementation personally in Emby or YT, but you do get used to it after a while and muscle-memory kicks in and you don't even notice it. 

If you just FF/RW via single clicks on the Shield remote, Emby will play when you stop clicking the remote, so there is a workaround of sorts. 

 

[rbjtech 4330]

After many years of use, I've never really noticed this tbh - but after testing it, you are spot on - it does pause lol.   If I do need to do this - then I multi click, as each click is a set duration and for Ads especially, you get to know 'three clicks' gets you to the end of the Ads.. haha.

When I want to 'find' a scene, then I always use the 'up' button to get to the chapters and if I then want granular ffwd/rwd (thumbs for every 10 seconds), hit down button, then left or right to ffwd/rwd - I then navigate using the thumbnails so I can see exactly where I wish to go.  During all these navigations, playback continues.    After I'm at the place I want to be - I then hit enter and it jumps to the location.

 I guess it would make sense to keep playing when you just ffwd/rwd and HOLD - but blindly ffwd/rwd isn't a major function that I personally use.

[pwhodges 1538]

7 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

for Ads especially, you get to know 'three clicks' gets you to the end of the Ads.. haha.

I also use the clicks method - but on the Roku clicks are 10 sec and can't be changed, so getting to end of the ads is 25 clicks (ITV) or 24 clicks (Channel 4)!  Still quicker than fiddling around with random seeks, though.

Paul

[HDGuy 3]

3 hours ago, rbjtech said:

After many years of use, I've never really noticed this tbh - but after testing it, you are spot on - it does pause lol.   If I do need to do this - then I multi click, as each click is a set duration and for Ads especially, you get to know 'three clicks' gets you to the end of the Ads.. haha.

When I want to 'find' a scene, then I always use the 'up' button to get to the chapters and if I then want granular ffwd/rwd (thumbs for every 10 seconds), hit down button, then left or right to ffwd/rwd - I then navigate using the thumbnails so I can see exactly where I wish to go.  During all these navigations, playback continues.    After I'm at the place I want to be - I then hit enter and it jumps to the location.

 I guess it would make sense to keep playing when you just ffwd/rwd and HOLD - but blindly ffwd/rwd isn't a major function that I personally use.

But I’m not using it for any of the Premium streaming features- I just have the Android TV app unlocked on my Shield and am playing my own rips off my NAS. That’s it. I didn’t even scrape thumbnails as I have quite a sizable library. So for me to double-press to restart every time I FF with the directional pad is an annoyance. No other Android TV media playback app (I’m talking about the ones that play your own ripped videos, not streaming like YT/Netflix) works this way. 
Vimu has solved this problem by giving you the option to turn auto-pause after navigation off so it works both ways.

Double clicking play every time is completely unintuitive.

 

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by HDGuy