joekrill 6 Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 I wasn't totally sure if this request belongs here or in the "Feature Requests" forum. Since it's such a platform specific request, I opted to throw it in here for now. Most apps on my Android TV will continue to play in the background when switching to the launcher. The Emby app is a notable exception. Would the team consider enabling background playback in the Android app? More info here: https://developer.android.com/training/tv/playback/options.html I tend to hit the Home button by accident fairly often instead of the menu button. It can be slightly annoying because then I have to relaunch Emby and restart the video. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14958 Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 We'd need a lot of additional support for that. IMO, that is an infuriating feature of the current implementation because there is no way to stop playback once you've done that other than starting something else. We do, however, plan to implement the new "PiP" feature which will allow you to browse with playback in a small window. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joekrill 6 Posted December 4, 2017 Author Share Posted December 4, 2017 We'd need a lot of additional support for that. IMO, that is an infuriating feature of the current implementation because there is no way to stop playback once you've done that other than starting something else. We do, however, plan to implement the new "PiP" feature which will allow you to browse with playback in a small window. Wouldn't opening the Emby app again simply bring the app back into the foreground as though you never left -- with the video playing as usual? That's how it works with other apps that use this feature. If you launch a completely different app, though, the playback just stops completely. Good to hear about PIP support. I'm guessing we need Oreo for this feature, though -- hopefully Nvidia updates the Shield soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14958 Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 A lot of people "close" the app by hitting the home button even during playback. I think this change would be disadvantageous to them (I know I'd hate it personally). I can't stand the fact that when I exit the channels app the Live TV stream is still going and the only way I can stop it is to open some other random app. That is just not intuitive to me at all since all modern players stop playback by backing out of the item. As with anything though - you get enough people behind you to disagree with me and we'll definitely consider it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joekrill 6 Posted December 5, 2017 Author Share Posted December 5, 2017 A lot of people "close" the app by hitting the home button even during playback. I think this change would be disadvantageous to them (I know I'd hate it personally). I can't stand the fact that when I exit the channels app the Live TV stream is still going and the only way I can stop it is to open some other random app. That is just not intuitive to me at all since all modern players stop playback by backing out of the item. As with anything though - you get enough people behind you to disagree with me and we'll definitely consider it. I can definitely see both sides of the argument. One thing I really dislike is when apps ask me if "I'm sure I want to quit" -- and I suspect this background behavior functionality is an attempt to make that unnecessary. I guess it's really a personal preference at this point, though I suspect at some point one behavior is going to win over the other as 1) more apps choose a side; and/or 2) Google/Android push for a particular pattern. Although I personally favor the background play, I really just want it be consistent across apps. Any chance of making it an application setting that can be toggled in the meantime? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14958 Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 My suspicion is that the new PiP will usurp this background video on the Android TV because they are doing the same thing in two different ways and the PiP method is more useful. You can't really see the background video and you can't tell what app it is coming from so you have no idea how to navigate back to it on top of the fact that the only way to stop it is to open any other random app. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bungee91 101 Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 A lot of people "close" the app by hitting the home button even during playback. I think this change would be disadvantageous to them (I know I'd hate it personally). I can't stand the fact that when I exit the channels app the Live TV stream is still going and the only way I can stop it is to open some other random app. That is just not intuitive to me at all since all modern players stop playback by backing out of the item. As with anything though - you get enough people behind you to disagree with me and we'll definitely consider it. Agree with this statement, closing the app (or backing out of an item) should stop playback. If all remotes had a dedicated stop button (which is unfortunately no longer the norm) I would be fine with it playing in the background, however without that ability this would annoy me to no end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deathsquirrel 741 Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 A lot of people "close" the app by hitting the home button even during playback. I think this change would be disadvantageous to them (I know I'd hate it personally). I can't stand the fact that when I exit the channels app the Live TV stream is still going and the only way I can stop it is to open some other random app. That is just not intuitive to me at all since all modern players stop playback by backing out of the item. As with anything though - you get enough people behind you to disagree with me and we'll definitely consider it. It would drive me nuts if the app kept playing when I backed out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniel.bmyer 9 Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 I just opened a thread (wrongly in the mobile thread) on something similar and wondering if it's related. When playing music in Emby if I go to the home screen in NVIdia or say a weather app, the music starts getting really choppy and cuts in and out and will eventually quit. If I go back to Emby while it's cutting in and out, it will play smoothly again. Is this related to the above posts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14958 Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 I just opened a thread (wrongly in the mobile thread) on something similar and wondering if it's related. When playing music in Emby if I go to the home screen in NVIdia or say a weather app, the music starts getting really choppy and cuts in and out and will eventually quit. If I go back to Emby while it's cutting in and out, it will play smoothly again. Is this related to the above posts? No that would be unrelated. That sounds like maybe the app you are moving into is either taking all the CPU/network cycles away from us in the background or, possibly, that the other app is trying to play sounds and asking our up to "duck" for them. I'm not really sure as I haven't seen this but I'll see if I can reproduce it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hstamas 153 Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 We'd need a lot of additional support for that. IMO, that is an infuriating feature of the current implementation because there is no way to stop playback once you've done that other than starting something else. We do, however, plan to implement the new "PiP" feature which will allow you to browse with playback in a small window. Any update on PIP @@ebr? Its implemented in the Plex Android client and I find it very useful lately when playing random background videos (repeats) and want to browse for something else to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14958 Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 Hi. Sorry, no update on this at this time. We are currently working on lots of other features with a wide audience. Note that the background playback that used to be there in Android, did, indeed, vanish... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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