Request new player in android/amazon app

[Vidman 589]

The mobile app works fine with a remote. It works better with touch or a pointing device, but you can work it with a remote.

OK finally had a chance to try the mobile app on my MINIX tv box and I would say it is still not useable with a remote

Since when? I'll have to give it another try

[CBers 6771]

Anyone actually testing/using this new functionality ? Just curious.

 

Doesn't look as though the OP (@wolfgang) has been online for a month.

[CBers 6771]

Many of these external players track their own resume points (MX does). It is just that Emby will have no knowledge of it so it won't appear in places like "Continue Watching".

 

Perhaps we could/should target MX Player then and possibly reach out to the developers and see if they can assist any ??

[speechles 1919]

The mxplayer developer already shared this info:

https://sites.google.com/site/mxvpen/api

 

Unlike its page name, this is not actually an API definition but just an Intent definition for playing back videos through MX Player.

 

Using this Intent definition, 

 

You CAN:

Play single or multiple videos

Provide subtitles to be drawn together.

Select decoder and simple options such as video zoom, etc.

Receive playback result including whether it is completed or not, last playback position, etc.

 

You CANNOT:

Play or pause playback.

Touch user interface.

Change playback options except provided ones.

Change settings.

Access native features of MX Player such as extracting thumbnails, search videos, etc.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[CBers 6771]

The mxplayer developer already shared this info:

https://sites.google.com/site/mxvpen/api

 

Nice find speechles !!

[speechles 1919]

Nice find speechles !!

This should satisfy ebr's concerns about a half-baked approach. Using mxplayers intents even allows for fixing the DAR issue with anamorphic pal dvd rips on a firetv (see here). It offers everything you would need to combine mxplayer seamlessly into emby. Keeping your watched status, resume points, continue watching, and next up all correct. Good call focusing on mxplayer.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[ebr 14913]

I can try and include the resume information.

 

We might get lucky and it gets recognized by some of the others too.  Hopefully, it doesn't conflict...

[CBers 6771]

@@ebr - on my Shield TV that is connected to a non-Smart TV, all videos with a DD audio track play without sound.

 

I have "Audio Output" set to "Down mix to Stereo", which is the way it's always set.

 

Nothing has changed my end other than the latest beta being installed.

 

Has anything been inadvertently changed within the app please?

 

I'm not using External Player at the moment, but will install MX Player to test.

 

Thanks.

[Luke 37071]

Not inadvertently, but there are two major changes, one of which is updating to the latest version of libVlc so there will probably be some short term issues to work out.

[CBers 6771]

OK, I've just reinstalled the previous version (.36) and audio is back again, so I assume the latest release broke it.

[ebr 14913]

Yes, this is an issue with the new libvlc which should be addressed with the next beta.

 

Also, the next beta will include resume support for MX Player (although I have not found it to be totally reliable with all video types).

[MSattler 387]

Yes, this is an issue with the new libvlc which should be addressed with the next beta.

 

Also, the next beta will include resume support for MX Player (although I have not found it to be totally reliable with all video types).

 

Implement it and we will test =)  Although I really think these days, for me standard h264/h265 covers like 95% of my content.

[RanmaCanada 345]

@@RanmaCanada - just installed the Archos Media Player and the FREE codecs pack on my 2nd Shield TV and it does playback DTS.

 

Try it.

But it still won't use internal sub styling, which for me and all my anime is a bad thing haha.  MX Player and SPMC are doing a bang up job.  I picked up some more Nexbox A95X with the S905 because Kodiloaded made a custom firmware for them that is extremely stable and has a lot of bells and whistles.  Good old root and adaway

[Luke 37071]

libVlc that we're using supports internal sub styling.

[MSattler 387]

Ok so some weird stuff I came across....

 

I decided to have my Nvidia Shield directly mount my 4k movies share, so it can play it correctly with MXPlayer.  Have had issues with the emby client.  I found that if I selected HW  and not HW+ for 4k content I would get 4k playback and DTS-HD working without issues.

 

Here is the thing, using MXPlayerand having HW set, Emby playback will not work when it calls MXPlayer.  It only works when choosing HW+, and I cannot get more than 2 channel audio working with it.

 

Has anyone else been able to get TrueHD/DTS-HD working with MXPlayer on a shield with Emby?

 

 

**EDIT Grrr now MXPlayer does nothing but freeze on me.

Edited August 26, 2016 by MSattler

[MSattler 387]

Just did some more playback testing...

 

I mounted one of my unraid servers directly to the Shield.

 

Browse through via ES File Explorer, find a 4k file, play it with the builtin Android player, and it plays and I get TrueHD audio.

 

Browse through via ES File Explorer, find a 1080p mkv, play it with the builtin Android player, and it hangs.  Receiver shows TrueHD for a split second and then nothing.

 

This kind of emulates what I was seeing with MXPlayer Pro.  That with HW, it would play 4k fine with TrueHD, but with HW+ there was no TrueHD, but only way 1080p worked.

[Heuer 76]

I get Dolby sound with HW and stereo sound with HW+. Both play fine but HW passthrough to my AV receiver is obviously the one I use. All 1080p .mkv  or 1080i .ts

 

ebr: resume support now in MXplayer does seem to work OK but not had time to fully test it.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Heuer

[MSattler 387]

I get Dolby sound with HW and stereo sound with HW+. Both play fine but HW passthrough to my AV receiver is obviously the one I use.

 

ebr: resume support now in MXplayer does seem to work OK but not had time to fully test it.

 

@@ebr,

 

What are you passing to the native player for playback?  Are there any options?  I'm assuming something is different for you to get 1080p to playback, when I cannot get to do it locally.

 

Will it be possible to say use the native player for 4k, but an external for 1080p?

[ebr 14913]

@@ebr,

 

What are you passing to the native player for playback?  Are there any options? 

 

Yes, the one right under the External Player option that says "Pass Direct Path".  If that is checked, it passes the path to your item as seen in the web client detail page.  If the path isn't setup with a protocol, then it will try to convert it to a SMB path.

 

If that option isn't chosen, then a direct streaming url is constructed and it is passed through the server.

 

I'm not going to have any more options than what is there now for this iteration of the feature.  Perhaps in the future.

[MSattler 387]

Yes, the one right under the External Player option that says "Pass Direct Path".  If that is checked, it passes the path to your item as seen in the web client detail page.  If the path isn't setup with a protocol, then it will try to convert it to a SMB path.

 

If that option isn't chosen, then a direct streaming url is constructed and it is passed through the server.

 

I'm not going to have any more options than what is there now for this iteration of the feature.  Perhaps in the future.

 

It's interesting when I used Pass Direct Path it auto-loaded Kodi/SPMC.  So almost as if it knows only that player can play back SMB based stuff.

 

I'm just trying to figure out what's different between what you are passing to the native player, and what I am getting when I try and play the file directly through the native player.

 

The fact that the native player can play back 4k with TrueHD/DTS-HD sound, means it really should work on all content with the built in player.  I didn't know if specific options are being used when you send it.  Was hoping to try and test different options to see what does and does not work.

[ebr 14913]

So almost as if it knows only that player can play back SMB based stuff.

 

That's exactly how it works.  When you create an app in Android, there is a mechanism for defining what types of items you can be requested to view.  So, Kodi/spmc is the only one you have installed that registered itself as being able to see smb so it is the only option given you by the OS.

 

We are just passing a path to the item and a mime time (which will be something like "video/mkv") and the the OS determines which installed apps can handle that item.

 

The difference you are encountering is probably because, when not passing the path directly, we are passing an Emby url so the item is going through our server.  It may be going direct or being remuxed or even transcoded potentially but most everything should just be going direct.  You can tell by whether or not a remux or transcode log is produced.

[MSattler 387]

That's exactly how it works.  When you create an app in Android, there is a mechanism for defining what types of items you can be requested to view.  So, Kodi/spmc is the only one you have installed that registered itself as being able to see smb so it is the only option given you by the OS.

 

We are just passing a path to the item and a mime time (which will be something like "video/mkv") and the the OS determines which installed apps can handle that item.

 

The difference you are encountering is probably because, when not passing the path directly, we are passing an Emby url so the item is going through our server.  It may be going direct or being remuxed or even transcoded potentially but most everything should just be going direct.  You can tell by whether or not a remux or transcode log is produced.

 

That's a good point.... just odd that the internal player has issue with TrueHD only with 1080p natively.

[Heuer 76]

Done some more testing and it looks like either the resume feature in MXplayer is causing it to crash or switching between HW and HW+ is doing it. It looks like this is what MSattler was experiencing but it has nothing to do with 4k material as I do not have any.

[ebr 14913]

Done some more testing and it looks like either the resume feature in MXplayer is causing it to crash or switching between HW and HW+ is doing it. It looks like this is what MSattler was experiencing but it has nothing to do with 4k material as I do not have any.

 

Yes, I saw this as well and was what I meant when I said it wasn't totally reliable.  I haven't completely related it to the resume feature but I never had MX crash before we were passing that info.

 

I think what may be going on is that MX cannot seek certain types of streams and, if we request a resume point in an unseekable stream (to it) then it crashes.

[MSattler 387]

Yes, I saw this as well and was what I meant when I said it wasn't totally reliable.  I haven't completely related it to the resume feature but I never had MX crash before we were passing that info.

 

I think what may be going on is that MX cannot seek certain types of streams and, if we request a resume point in an unseekable stream (to it) then it crashes.

 

Do we need to go back to the MX player developer and see what all streams he reports?

 

I really just wish Nvidia/Google would get the native player working for this.  Arg.