Which app to use for Google TV?

[Rock1m1 3]

Android TV or Android? Confused on this as both works.

[CBers 7654]

Whatever works best for you at the moment. 

 

[sargenthp 39]

I believe the plan is to eventually drop the Android TV app.  But I still prefer it when using a remote.

[Rock1m1 3]

Yea the Android app is more performant, but the TV app is good for remote.

[Luke 42816]

15 hours ago, Rock1m1 said:

Yea the Android app is more performant, but the TV app is good for remote.

Hi, what do you mean by "good for remote" ?

[Rock1m1 3]

10 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, what do you mean by "good for remote" ?

I feel like the ui is a lot bigger and less of the things you really need when watching on TV on the old Google TV app. Which makes it easier to navigate using the tv remote.

[thostr 12]

One of the deal breakers for me on the universal android app currently the lack of fast forward/revarse on a remote. I can navigate to the progress bar, but it moves sooo slow and only moves in miliseconds. 
Also I  can't find the option for starting the app with profile selector.

[arrbee99 1864]

41 minutes ago, thostr said:

One of the deal breakers for me on the universal android app currently the lack of fast forward/revarse on a remote. I can navigate to the progress bar, but it moves sooo slow and only moves in miliseconds. 
Also I  can't find the option for starting the app with profile selector.

In case you don't know, in the new(er) app, if you go to fast forward, once its fast forwarding slowly if you click the FF button again and again it gets faster and faster.

But I still prefer the old way in the old app where you just hold the button down and it gradually accelerates all by itself.

[caveman456 2]

The best function for me in the Android for TV app over the Android app is the quick select to the right when in TV or Movies etc to quickly toggle on/off watched or favourites without going inside the filter function.

[FrostByte 5550]

12 hours ago, caveman456 said:

The best function for me in the Android for TV app over the Android app is the quick select to the right when in TV or Movies etc to quickly toggle on/off watched or favourites without going inside the filter function.

You can do the same in the Android app by hard pressing the enter button which pops up a menu with those options

[mlcarson 15]

The best function for me in the Android for TV app over the Android app is the channel number navigation for live TV.

[tattler 31]

Hi Emby Team,

I’ve recently been testing the new Emby Client for Android on my Nvidia Shield TV Pro. Overall, I’m really impressed with the performance improvements and the UI refinements.

I did run into one critical issue regarding audio playback:

• Missing Audio Passthrough: Unlike the Android TV app, the standard Android client currently lacks an option to pass through raw audio streams (such as DTS-HD MA, TrueHD, Dolby Digital, etc.).

• Server Transcoding: Because passthrough isn't currently supported in this client build, the Emby Server is forced to transcode these audio tracks during playback.

A couple of quick questions for the dev team:

• Is audio passthrough planned for future builds of the standard Android client?

• Will the existing Android TV app continue to be supported until feature parity (like audio passthrough) is achieved on the main Android app?

Thanks for all your hard work on the platform!

 

[Luke 42816]

Quote

Missing Audio Passthrough: Unlike the Android TV app, the standard Android client currently lacks an option to pass through raw audio streams (such as DTS-HD MA, TrueHD, Dolby Digital, etc.).

Hi, it’s not needed. It will already do this whenever possible.

[Luke 42816]

Quote

Because passthrough isn't currently supported in this client build,

That’s not true. Pass through is supported.

[FrostByte 5550]

2 hours ago, tattler said:

Hi Emby Team,

I’ve recently been testing the new Emby Client for Android on my Nvidia Shield TV Pro. Overall, I’m really impressed with the performance improvements and the UI refinements.

I did run into one critical issue regarding audio playback:

• Missing Audio Passthrough: Unlike the Android TV app, the standard Android client currently lacks an option to pass through raw audio streams (such as DTS-HD MA, TrueHD, Dolby Digital, etc.).

• Server Transcoding: Because passthrough isn't currently supported in this client build, the Emby Server is forced to transcode these audio tracks during playback.

A couple of quick questions for the dev team:

• Is audio passthrough planned for future builds of the standard Android client?

• Will the existing Android TV app continue to be supported until feature parity (like audio passthrough) is achieved on the main Android app?

Thanks for all your hard work on the platform!

 

Not true.  The standard app has always done passthrough of DTS-HD, TrueHD, DD, etc.  Nobody would be using it if it didn't.

The option in AndroidTV you are thinking of was added to prevent passthrough of certain codecs, not allow it.   The whole reason that option was added in ATV was to give people from within the app who have soundbars, etc which don't support a certain codec a way to tell the server to transcode something to DD 5.1 and stop the Shield from converting it to PCM 2.0. 

The same option (but worded different) is in the standard app shown in the pic below.  As long as you have your Shield settings correct it should passthrough everything your audio equipment supports.

If you are not getting passthrough of DTSHD or TrueHD then you should open a separate thread with a description of your problem and post logs.

ebr has been diligently maintaining the old AndroidTV app for the last 6 years when Emby first publicly said they wanted to eventually sunset the ATV app. If he didn't do so until the Android app was ready a lot of people would probably jump ship

[FrostByte 5550]

Well, jinx me. 

[tattler 31]

Thanks for the update. I appreciate the explanation. I don't have fancy sound equipment, just plain SONOS playbar with 2 Play One speakers set up as surround sound with a sub mini. I noticed if I didn't turn on the option to Convert unsupported surround audio to Dolby Digital, DTS-HA stream, for example, gets downmixed to PCM 2.0. If I turn this option on, Emby will transcode the audio in the background to Dolby Digital 5.1, whereas the ATV version will just pass thru it to Shield and Emby Server will direct play it instead of transcoding. This is something I don't understand at the moment. Does ATV work differently internally regarding the high res audio? Or do I need to change something in the audio setting in Shield to make it work better? Please advice! I really love the new Android version. Thanks!

[FrostByte 5550]

2 hours ago, tattler said:

Thanks for the update. I appreciate the explanation. I don't have fancy sound equipment, just plain SONOS playbar with 2 Play One speakers set up as surround sound with a sub mini. I noticed if I didn't turn on the option to Convert unsupported surround audio to Dolby Digital, DTS-HA stream, for example, gets downmixed to PCM 2.0. If I turn this option on, Emby will transcode the audio in the background to Dolby Digital 5.1, whereas the ATV version will just pass thru it to Shield and Emby Server will direct play it instead of transcoding. This is something I don't understand at the moment. Does ATV work differently internally regarding the high res audio? Or do I need to change something in the audio setting in Shield to make it work better? Please advice! I really love the new Android version. Thanks!

Funny thing is that the option in AndroidTV was added to support someone else's' SONUS soundbar and prevent everything just being passed through and then a similar option added to the new app at the same person's request. 

The problem is that when probed the Shield reports that it supports everything because it technically does.  It's the audio devices on the other end that may or may not. 

Those two options in the two apps basically do the same thing though.  Before those options were added both apps just passed everything through and let the Shield handle it.  Now in AndroidTV it passes everything through by default unless you uncheck codecs to force the server to convert whereas in the new app that isn't necessary because it gets all the information it needs from your Shield's settings and you check the setting in the pic to force server transcoding. 

However, you can also just allow everything to passthrough and let the Shield do the conversion if you use your TV's speakers and then you get lossless stereo.

 In the end though they do the same thing if you prefer DD 5.1 from the server instead of PCM 2.0 from the Shield for unsupported audio formats.

Edited 5 hours ago by FrostByte

[tattler 31]

Thanks for the explanation @FrostByte. If I understand you correctly, the new Android version is basically the same as the ATV version in regards to passthru of high res codecs? At least in my case, it works differently though. With the same Shield settings, ATV lets Shield do the transcoding and in Emby Server it is direct played. On Android version, it gets downmixed to PCM 2.0 and if I enabled the option to convert it, Emby Server transcodes it and not Shield. This feels counter intuitive and unnecessary.

It feels the new Android version works differently internally. This is what I have observed in my testing. I can't fully switch over to the new Android app yet until this is resolved/fixed. Hopefully the ATV version will not be taken down in the foreseeable future.

 

[FrostByte 5550]

1 minute ago, tattler said:

Thanks for the explanation @FrostByte. If I understand you correctly, the new Android version is basically the same as the ATV version in regards to passthru of high res codecs? At least in my case, it works differently though. With the same Shield settings, ATV lets Shield do the transcoding and in Emby Server it is direct played. On Android version, it gets downmixed to PCM 2.0 and if I enabled the option to convert it, Emby Server transcodes it and not Shield. This feels counter intuitive and unnecessary.

It feels the new Android version works differently internally. This is what I have observed in my testing. I can't fully switch over to the new Android app yet until this is resolved/fixed. Hopefully the ATV version will not be taken down in the foreseeable future.

 

Yes, they will both passthrough everything by default.

What is it you want the new app to do?  

Do you want the new app NOT to passthrough certain codecs and have the server convert to DD 5.1?  If I recall correctly the SONOS doesn't support TrueHD, DTSHD, or DTS which is why those 3 settings are in ATV.

If you don't want the new app to passthrough those formats, then all you should have to do is go into your Shield settings and tell it your soundbar doesn't support them and then check that box in the picture above to get DD 5.1.

 

Or, are you wanting the Shield to convert it to PCM 2.0?  Then all you should have to do is uncheck that box in the new app to let the server passthrough.  Then the Shield should convert it to PCM 2.0 if your Shield settings reflect that you have a soundbar which doesn't support DTSHD.

What are the Shield settings for the audio formats you're having an issue with?

@CBerssaid he will test it tonight if he has the chance as he has a SONOS

 

 

 

[FrostByte 5550]

The reason I'm a bit confused is because in your first post your said "the standard Android client currently lacks an option to pass through raw audio streams (such as DTS-HD MA, TrueHD, Dolby Digital, etc.)" and then you said it's passing through everything, and you get PCM 2.0

[FrostByte 5550]

I just tested the following settings and the new app was converting TrueHD to AC3 5.1 for me

 

When I turned "Convert unsupported surround audio" off then it was direct playing TrueHD and I couldn't hear anything out the rear speakers.  So, I assume I was getting PCM 2.0 but my soundbar doesn't tell me if it's playing PCM (just Atmos and DTX) so I can't say for sure.

 

 

[FrostByte 5550]

SFN doesn't display the number of channels when converting, but I could hear sound out the rear speakers and below is the ffmpeg code showing it used 6 channels

 

 -sn -c:v:0 copy -bsf:v:0 hevc_mp4toannexb -c:a:0 ac3 -ab:a:0 384000 -ar:a:0 48000 -ac:a:0 6