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Serenity for Android with Emby Server Support


kingargyle

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kingargyle

Serenity for Android 2.0.5 is rolling out to both the Amazon App Store and the Google Play Store.

 

Download: https://github.com/NineWorlds/serenity-android/releases/tag/v2.0.5   

 

What's new:
 
* Improve Server selection in a multi server environment.
* More reliably switch between Emby and Plex Servers
* Improve detection of Direct Play/Direct Streaming support
* Enable Tunneling playback mode on supported devices
* Improve speed of navigation on Android TV devices when holding down directional pad buttons
Edited by kingargyle
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  • 4 weeks later...
kingargyle

Working on getting improved NVIDIA Shield support in detection of supported audio formats.   Unfortunately unlike the Amazon Fire TV which reports back that it supports audio/ac3 the NVIDIA Shield doesn't have a codec on the device for this, but does do AC-3 Pass through, as it does the DTS as well.   I'm working on a work around for this, now that I have an NVIDIA Shield to do more testing on.   Hopefully the next release I do will have better direct play on these devices.

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kingargyle

So I seem to have a work around to enable better direct streaming support for NVidia shield, and still keep the appropriate detection working for other Android based devices (like Fire TV).   Right now, I will prefer passthrough for AC-3, EAC3, DTS, and DTS-HD if they are detected as containers and Serenity is running on NVidia.    I may eventually need to make a preference setting to allow the user to control this better for their particular device.   But as the Fire TV is the number one device that is being used by my users, and NVIDIA and the Sony Bravia are the next devices, I think this will cover most cases.   Transcoding is the fall back if nothing works as expected.   Eventually I'll switch things off transcoding to the HLS live streams so that FF and REW can be enabled for these streams (hopefully).

 

I'll test for a few more days but will probably put another bug fix out this weekend with these changes and couple of other minor fixes as well.

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kingargyle

Thanks @@kingargyle, looking forward to testing it.

 

@@CBers I have rolled out the the Google Play Store and Amazon App Store the latest version.  Please let me know if you see any improvements on the Shield.   I was definitely getting most of my library to direct play on the device where it was doing transcoding before.

 

I've also put up the latest release for download on the Github project site as well.

 

https://github.com/NineWorlds/serenity-android/releases/tag/v2.0.7

 

This includes not only improved support for Nvidia Shield but Bravia Android TV televisions as well.   Most everything else was to address crash reports in odd situations and update to some of the latest libraries I use within the app.

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CBers

Not your fault, but the Emby server Dashboard says Direct Playing, but it is in fact transcoding/remuxing.

 

5c72c1a6f0627_Screenshot20190224at160819

 

Perhaps get Luke to look at that.

 

Is there any way of seeing how playback is being performed within the app ?

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kingargyle

Not your fault, but the Emby server Dashboard says Direct Playing, but it is in fact transcoding/remuxing.

 

5c72c1a6f0627_Screenshot20190224at160819

 

Perhaps get Luke to look at that.

 

Is there any way of seeing how playback is being performed within the app ?

 

If you have a debug version you can search the logcat for Transcoding or Direct Play to see if it is doing so.  I have an issue open to add this information as an option on the Status Overlay when the video is playing.

 

https://github.com/NineWorlds/serenity-android/issues/387

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CBers

@@CBers for that video that is transcoding what codecs and container is being used?

1080p HEVC MKV with Dolby Digital Plus (EAC3) audio.

 

Direct Streams in the Emby ATV app.

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kingargyle

@@CBers any possibility you can give me a short sample of that?  I don't have any eac3 audio, so I suspect I'm not checking correctly how Emby is reporting it.  Latest code should detect EAC3 and Shield, and pass everything through.

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kingargyle

Thanks.   I'll get some of these samples loaded up with the latest Emby server and see if I can get them direct playing correctly on the Shield.  

 

@@CBers @@Luke I was able to download and direct stream the Dolby Digital Plus from here on my Shield TV and it seemed to detect it fine.

 

https://www.demo-world.eu/download-2d-trailers/?file=dolby_digital_plus_channel_check_lossless-DWEU.mkv&pic=dolby_digital_plus_channel_check_lossless.jpg

 

I'm going to try and get some 4K content down and see if it will direct play.    With Serenity @@CBers if you see the skip ahead and skip back on screen options enabled in the video, it means it is direct playing.  Those options won't be enabled if Transcoding is occurring.   Will report what I find for the 4K content.

 

Update:

 

I also tried the following 4K file, and it direct streamed as well on the Shield.

 

https://www.demolandia.net/downloads.php?id=60876578

Edited by kingargyle
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I had no idea Serenity was still being developed.  I used it years ago with Plex and then development just seemed to stop.  I'll give it another go now that I've moved to Emby.  

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CBers

With Serenity @@CBers if you see the skip ahead and skip back on screen options enabled in the video, it means it is direct playing. Those options won't be enabled if Transcoding is occurring.

Yes they were there, but they weren't functional.

 

Do you have the Emby ATV app installed?

 

If so, you'll see the sort of things on the OSD that are nice to have.

 

Just a thought for the future.

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kingargyle

I had no idea Serenity was still being developed.  I used it years ago with Plex and then development just seemed to stop.  I'll give it another go now that I've moved to Emby.  

 

Yeah, I migrated over to emby in the last year.  Particularly with some of the practices that Plex was putting into place, and the fact that they never had a publicly supported API for the application.   My future work will be primarily on Emby going forward, but I still have several people that use Plex so at least for the 2.x series I'll continue minimal support for Plex... Emby is the future though for Serenity.

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kingargyle

Yes they were there, but they weren't functional.

 

Do you have the Emby ATV app installed?

 

If so, you'll see the sort of things on the OSD that are nice to have.

 

Just a thought for the future.

 

I'll probably need samples of the particular files that are giving you trouble.  I'll work on getting the on screen display info for Transcoding and a few other items, so you can debug easier.  Will let you know when that is available.   Probadbly a 2.0.8 release, and you'll need to go to the Settings screen to turn it on as it'll be off by default.

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I installed the latest version available on the app store to my nVidia Shield and I can't get past the login screen.  Serenity detects my server and then prompts me to choose a user.  No matter who I select nothing happens.  It registers the keypress (I see the user depress on the screen) and then nothing.  I can press many times with the same result. 

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