Live TV on Android TV stick (Strong Leap 4K) - problem with SD content

[stevenpuk 0]

Hi all

I've been using emby as a premiere member for years on various devices and have only just encountered the first problem I've been unable to resolve through searching the forums, reddit and trying all sorts of changes to emby server and client settings.

Set up: I have two emby servers, one on a QNAP NAS holding my DVD and Bluray collection and the other on a windows 11 pro machine running Live TV via a HDHomeRun Quattro. I'm in the UK. I have numerous clients: Samsung and LG TVs, android mobiles and tablets and windows devices.

I've no issues with the QNAP NAS server, only the windows one running Emby Live TV. Live TV works fine on the Samsung, LG and windows devices. It struggles a bit on a Samsung mobile but not on a Pixel mobile.

I recently bought a Strong Leap NOVA 4K stick to replace Tizen on an ageing TV. As most of you know, there are two apps in the Play store - the stock android app and a specific android TV app. Since there is a general move towards using the stock android app rather than the android TV app, I installed that first.

The stock android app on the NOVA stick looks very much what I'm used to on other devices and I'm really pleased that it it does direct play PGS subtitles from my NAS collection and also gapless playback on ogg vorbis music tracks.

However, I've got some peculiar problems with the stock android app on the NOVA stick. It picks up the HDHomeRun fine but will not play any SD (MPEG-TS 576i) live content. This is regardless of whether direct play LiveTV is on or off and regardless of whether auto stream or specific stream rates are selected. The screen simply shows a still image and no sound. It plays the HD channels (e.g. BBC 1 HD on 101) fine. It will also not play previously recorded SD content on the windows server but will play previously recorded HD content. If it's any help, 'stats for nerds' says the renderer is Mediacodec on the NOVA stick.

I've spent hours trying to get it to work and in the end gave the specific android TV app a try - and it works!

I'd rather use the stock android app, so any help gratefully received. My searches hint it might be something to do with deinterlacing the 576i stream but I can't find any setting relating to this.

Thanks, Steven