Issues with frame rate interpolation and some thoughts.

[plazma 13]

Hi,

 

Over the weekend i upgraded my mums old CRT tv, which has a kitkat android tv box attached to it, she has been using the android app for a far long time (pre December and it becoming paid for).

 

We had originally gone down this route as at the time i installed it for her the android tv app was young and initially did not have support for kitkat (lollypop onwards only), obviously thats all changed now.

 

However here is the issue, when i upgraded the tv so she could at last enjoy hd i quickly noticed there was a big issue with the android app and frame rate interpolation, by which i mean the maths/method its using to make say 23.976 fps work at 60hz (essentially 60fps). The video would noticeably skip every second or two, thinking initially it maybe the android box (which is over a year old now, but is a quad core unit) was the issue. So i tried it with mx player (as an external player) and the play back was butter smooth, however this is no long term fix as when your transcoding (although i think it did work long ago with the old android app, i maybe wrong) there is no ability to skip.

 

So i installed the android tv app (which now has kitkat support) and again the playback was fine (no stutter just like i had got with mx player), i tested with a few files (different fps) and its my feeling from the results i got (although i could be wrong) that the two emby android apps are actually (despite both being vlc based on the back end) doing something very differently (as i said i suspect its down to frame rate interpolation). On smaller phone and tablet screens the issue would not likely be as noticeable/perceivable, but on a large hd tv its very apparent.

 

As a side point it would be great if both apps were not called just "Emby", and the android tv app was instead called "Emby TV", "Emby+" or something else to differentiate, as it very confusing if both are installed, as they have the same logo and title.

 

Im guessing the reason behind this is both are at different re-lease cycles or/and possibly by different development teams, however considering both are using the same back end player its strange that an issue was so evident in one and not the other.

 

Its not a problem, she will happily pay the money for the Android TV app (despite having the other one for free) as she did prefer the way the interface works (where as a long time back she didnt have the choice due to a lack of kitkat support). 

 

Just something i though worth sharing/pointing out and hopefully something that could be fixed in the android app.

 

Also like the android tv app, i would consider changing the "you must pay to now play" to be the same free for x days, its a far nicer way of doing things and allows users to at least see things working before coughing up money.

[Luke 37166]

Thanks, this is a good idea, and yes, chances are the apps will probably merge at some point.