Direct/I vs. Direct/V for live TV

[Kramerika 16]

What is the difference in streaming live TV using VLC vs. the internal player on the Android TV app (Shield TV)?  In switching back and forth, I don't notice anything different, but I was curious if one had advantages over the other.

 

I had an issue last night watching the Olympics where the audio and video would get out of sync after a certain amount of time.  I would restart the channel, and it would right itself only to get out of sync eventually again.  This was using DIrect/V.  I turned off the option to use VLC, and it switched to Direct/I.  This did not have the sync issue.  Oddly enough, today I am using VLC again and have not had the issue yet.

Edited August 6, 2016 by Kramerika

[Kramerika 16]

I spoke too soon on the sync issue.  Direct/V with VLC got out of sync again.  It just took longer.  I am leaving it on Direct/I (VLC off) now to see if it ever happens.

[ebr 14930]

Use whichever configuration works best in your situation.

[Admo16 0]

I am actually having the same issue as well - the audio goes out of sync from the Video when watching Live TV when using the Shield TV.

 

After playing with it for a while, it seems to occur when the audio from the channel changes from Dolby to Stereo (based on how my receiver is detecting it) and the only way to get it back in sync is to stop the channel and restart it. This doesn't seem to happen with every channel, just those channels that are cheaping out and using Stereo for their commercials.

 

I'm interesting in helping getting this resolved, so please let me know what other information I could send to help. I'm new to these forums (though, I've been using MB/Emby for the last couple of years), so I'm not sure exactly what you need to help.

[Kramerika 16]

I have not had the issue with "always attempt to direct stream TV with VLC" turned off.  As long as it uses the internal player (Direct/I), I still get DD 5.1 audio which does not go out of sync with the video with no other noticeable difference for me in the quality of the picture or audio, so I am fine with it for now.  It is bothersome that one of the options causes the issue though.

[Doonga 17]

I had a similar issue on both of my SHIELDs, using both the internal player or VLC, some of my channels get out of sync within seconds of starting to play them. I tried all different combinations, direct/not direct VLC/Internal but some channels just wouldn't work right. I even installed tvheadend and installed SPMC, that worked great, the native HDHomerun app works great. It's just in Emby on Android that I see the issue. Emby in my web browser is fine.

 

I ended up having to give up and bought the HDHomerun DVR (Grey app) which works, but isn't nearly as integrated as I want.

 

I'm using OTA broadcasts, not cable though.

[Kramerika 16]

I am using OTA broadcasts only as well.  I am using an HDMI splitter to split my video to HDMI and the audio to optical.  I don't know if that makes any difference.  The internal player paired with DD 5.1 doesn't have the issue for me, at least I have not seen it yet.

[Kramerika 16]

If you read my post before I edited this, disregard.  For some reason I had to change options on my audio splitter to get things working again.  At the moment, it is working again.

Edited August 20, 2016 by Kramerika

[Luke 37114]

Thanks for reporting back.