Jump to content

Android Mobile


Recommended Posts

Posted

Any chance camera upload can do two way sync? I know damn kitkat doesn't exactly allow third party apps modifying sdcard. But at least for on-device pictures, two way sync would be sweet.

 

Otherwise, love it!

MSattler
Posted

AVC is h264

 

Are you on a Fire TV Stick and are you getting any direct playback working?

Posted

The app works but its  behaviour varries quite abit depending on device.

 

On my ten inch thinkpad tablet it crashes when trying to coneect.

On my MK80IV in the living room it behaves fine.

On my S89-H in the bedroom it  works fine but live tv doesn't work.

 

The tv interfeace is a mess and often causes the android taskbar to pop up which the moblie interface doesn't.

dark_slayer
Posted

Are you on a Fire TV Stick and are you getting any direct playback working?

No but I have tested things out quite a bit on a FireTV, and I currently use a Nexus Player

 

What will be supported (like h264) and what profile it will be supported at is going to dictate whether it can direct stream in the android video player regardless of whether the hardware is capable of more. There are unfortunate times when a codec and profile is fully supported but only in certain containers. Watching android, wmc, and dlna smart tv forums has indicated that, but it's still a real pita if it ends up being the case. The only 2 ways around the issue (if the file cannot direct play in the native android video app) are to complain to Amazon about their supported formats vs what native player can play or use a non-native video player (which isn't and doesn't yet make sense to be an option for MB-android)

MSattler
Posted

No but I have tested things out quite a bit on a FireTV, and I currently use a Nexus Player

 

What will be supported (like h264) and what profile it will be supported at is going to dictate whether it can direct stream in the android video player regardless of whether the hardware is capable of more. There are unfortunate times when a codec and profile is fully supported but only in certain containers. Watching android, wmc, and dlna smart tv forums has indicated that, but it's still a real pita if it ends up being the case. The only 2 ways around the issue (if the file cannot direct play in the native android video app) are to complain to Amazon about their supported formats vs what native player can play or use a non-native video player (which isn't and doesn't yet make sense to be an option for MB-android)

 

 

Yeah, that all makes sense.  I got my Nexus Player today, and love the Android TV app.  At this point though I think the FireTV performs better all around in regards to playback.  I'm having issues with the Nexus having freezes every 4-5 minutes, and then picks right back up.  Although I noticed with the Nexus my ffmpeg utilization is only 10-12%, where-as on the FireTV it uses 95-98% cpu utilization.  I suspect that the Nexus is playing back content at a higher overall transcoded bit rate than the FireTV, it just doesn't appear to be as stable.  I will have to try and sideload the Android app on the Nexus to see how it does.

 

Thanks!

dark_slayer
Posted

I think you may be seeing network issues on your nexus, because as far as playback is concerned I've not had issue with anything outside of hardware deinterlace and vc1 (both of which the fire TV cannot do either). I have mine connected to the media-dedicated 5GHz band of my ac68u. In kodi I can play back full bitrate mkv rips without changing the audio codec. Hevc will fail on all current mainstream android boxes (with the exceptions being unreleased hardware and Chinese boxes by amlogic or rockchip which have a different can of worms anyway)

MSattler
Posted

I think you may be seeing network issues on your nexus, because as far as playback is concerned I've not had issue with anything outside of hardware deinterlace and vc1 (both of which the fire TV cannot do either). I have mine connected to the media-dedicated 5GHz band of my ac68u. In kodi I can play back full bitrate mkv rips without changing the audio codec. Hevc will fail on all current mainstream android boxes (with the exceptions being unreleased hardware and Chinese boxes by amlogic or rockchip which have a different can of worms anyway)

 

 

Hmm I'll try a ethernet connection next then.  I'm using a AC-1900 5ghz only connection, and currently only the iPhone and the Nexus were connected.  And the phone can pull 86Mpbs down from the internet..... I'll order the ethernet connector and go from there.

 

Thanks!

dark_slayer
Posted

I recall having that issue now that you mention it again. In kodi there is an advanced setting I modified called cachemembuffer. You can force ram caching and allocate memory for it, and I only had this issue in a few full rips but it took care of everything for me. Others on good authority never had to mess with it at all just using USB Ethernet.

 

I've not side loaded and tried the new android app since they enabled higher than 21Mbps maximum bitrate either, so my MB3 testing was always transcoding those titles . . .

  • Like 1
MSattler
Posted

I recall having that issue now that you mention it again. In kodi there is an advanced setting I modified called cachemembuffer. You can force ram caching and allocate memory for it, and I only had this issue in a few full rips but it took care of everything for me. Others on good authority never had to mess with it at all just using USB Ethernet.

 

I've not side loaded and tried the new android app since they enabled higher than 21Mbps maximum bitrate either, so my MB3 testing was always transcoding those titles . . .

 

I just posted this over in the AndroidTV forum, and I think it is good news as to the capabilities of this app, despite some limitations by particular players <FireTV Stick>.

 

So..... I went ahead and loaded the classic Android MB client on the Nexus Player last night, installed MX Player with the codec set that supports DTS, and I was able to get playback without any trans coding.  Of course it doesn't show that way in the web interface since MX player cannot report playback.  It still would skip here and there as I am still waiting for the Ethernet adapter.

 

So if Google ever bothers to add DTS support to the built in player, there is hope for Direct-Play for most of our content.

 

So basically..... if we find a player that can support DTS, has a good network connection, we should be able to Direct-Play.

dark_slayer
Posted

 

 

So if Google ever bothers to add DTS support to the built in player, there is hope for Direct-Play for most of our content.

 

So basically..... if we find a player that can support DTS, has a good network connection, we should be able to Direct-Play.

Sounds good. Doesn't seem like it will affect this app any time soon. Transcoding audio shouldn't take much grunt anyway, so when the transcode throttling is implemented you likely wouldn't see a ton of CPU usage when playing an h264 video with transcoded audio

 

In the meantime, kodi can direct play if you want. You can install them side by side to check it out. You don't really need to use kodi for anything other than a dlna play to target, so you can fire up mb web client and choose kodi as the target then start your videos

 

My nexus player is probably going to one last member of my family for mb server access. They are external only access, so this app is perfect for that.

 

Ebr, kudos on the use of android TVs recommended items :D

MSattler
Posted

Sounds good. Doesn't seem like it will affect this app any time soon. Transcoding audio shouldn't take much grunt anyway, so when the transcode throttling is implemented you likely wouldn't see a ton of CPU usage when playing an h264 video with transcoded audio

 

In the meantime, kodi can direct play if you want. You can install them side by side to check it out. You don't really need to use kodi for anything other than a dlna play to target, so you can fire up mb web client and choose kodi as the target then start your videos

 

My nexus player is probably going to one last member of my family for mb server access. They are external only access, so this app is perfect for that.

 

Ebr, kudos on the use of android TVs recommended items :D

 

For remote family members right now I'm using Fire TV Stick's and they are working very well.  I'm using the Nexus Player in my bedroom right now.  The View app seems to work better compared to InstaTV Pro.  So with the ethernet adapter I think it will end up being my go to player in my bedroom, works well and the picture on that 55" looks really good.

 

I thought about Kodi, but at this point I am trying to keep it just to MB and MB clients if at all possible. 

 

My only wishes for this app are:

 

1) To actually get Cover Art inside the individual libraries, instead of the current view

2) To be able to easily see content to Resume <I like to set it to Library View>

 

Does MXPlayer by any chance have the ability to log playback status locally, so the android client could scrape the log and update the MB Server with playback status?

 

 

Thanks!

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

For remote family members right now I'm using Fire TV Stick's...

 

Hello,

 

How/where did you get the apk? I tried to get Kodi working on a couple of my sticks, but it constantly times out connecting to the server. I would love to get the android app working.

 

Thanks,

Simon

Posted

 

Thanks, that worked great.

 

Any chance we can get icons similar in size to the Kodi ones on this page? I've been able to get Llama to launch MB from the home screen, and I was hoping to get appropriate icons.

 

Regards,

Simon

attaboydave
Posted

I looked for the license of the player at https://github.com/MediaBrowser/MediaBrowser.Android but couldn't find one.  That would determine if my next suggestion is even feasible:

 

Why not add more codecs to the player itself, using pieces from mplayer or VLC or Kodi or any one of the other projects that allow their modules and components to be reused?  This would allow direct streaming for a greater number of cases - SD files work great over a cheap net connection, for instance, and also allow passthrough audio (AC3 / DTS) and HD for the home LAN players.  A bit rate could be calculated for the current video, and if it's over the estimated bandwidth capability or if a licensed codec or ability is not present, then and only then start a transcode.

 

I know I can use Kodi as the Swiss Army knife I'm looking for, but I would like to tell my friends to pick up the Android client and start watching, without having them install Kodi, set up a repository, download the plug-in, etc.

 

Apologies if this has been covered or answered before, or if this suggestion goes outside the scope of the client's desired features.  In any case, thanks for being a part of this great project.

  • Like 1
Posted

Embedding vlc is something we're interested in, just have not gotten around to it yet.

MSattler
Posted

You can use vlc or mx player now and it works splendid. The only issues being you cannot have resume ability.

  • 2 weeks later...
ctrlaltdefeat
Posted

App updated today, hoped it'd be syncing. unfortunately it wasn't :(

 

Any status update on this?

Posted

yes, we're working very hard on getting sync into this app, but today's update does bring some good things.

 

- support for user views

- support for cloud synced content

- moved logging to /emby folder. the background sync service creates it's own logging files. currently the sync service handles camera upload. will handle media sync as well.

- a lot of work on playback and general stability

 

we'll get a blog post up about it shortly.

ctrlaltdefeat
Posted

Sounds cool. Not sure what those user views are but I'm sure the blog post will clarrify that :)

misterkev
Posted

On my server along with the usual movies, TV, music etc I have two custom folders for my son's cartoons and wrestling. Since the latest update these categories no longer appear under Library - I have to click into the Folders view to access anything in these two folders. Is this intentional? If so then it's a shame as I much preferred having them show under Library, which is set as default tab. I know it's just one extra click and hardly worth moaning about but it does make the app less user friendly for this user at least

bluemonkey07
Posted

I believe you can now choose how it is displayed by editting your user view settings in the web client (click on your user icon in the top right of the web page to access your user settings)

misterkev
Posted

Thanks for your help. Been busy moving house and haven't kept up with things as much as I usually do

Posted

Play with external player is ko with this version. Its a very bad news for me.test on samsung note 3 and huawei mate 7.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...