McChen 7 Posted July 18, 2016 Posted July 18, 2016 Emby for Android TV seems to have a problem displaying anamorphic videos in the right aspect ratio on the Shield TV. Everything is squished vertically and more letterboxed than it should be. It is only this way on the Shield, it plays correctly on my Nexus Player. Perhaps something to do with the recent Shield 3.2 OTA, I don't believe this happened on the previous version of the Shield OS, but I can't be 100% sure as I haven't used the app on this device recently. I assume it is using the internal player on the device? I couldn't find any indicator in the Emby player on whether it is using the internal player or VLC. I remember that used to be displayed and you could configure which player was used. It looks like somewhere along the way VLC was disabled and everything is now using the internal player? Using Emby for Android TV 1.2.24g Emby Server 3.0.5986.0 (Windows)
McChen 7 Posted July 18, 2016 Author Posted July 18, 2016 Interestingly, when I chromecast videos from Emby on my Android phone to the Shield, the videos play correctly with the right aspect ratio.
ebr 16169 Posted July 18, 2016 Posted July 18, 2016 On the OSD during playback, is there a button that looks like this:
McChen 7 Posted July 18, 2016 Author Posted July 18, 2016 no, no button like that shows up. During playback I have 5 buttons on the OSD laong the bottom: skip back, skip forward, info, chapter selection, audio delay
ebr 16169 Posted July 18, 2016 Posted July 18, 2016 Okay, that means it is VLC that is actually displaying it incorrectly. I haven't ever seen that happen. What is the media info for this item?
McChen 7 Posted July 18, 2016 Author Posted July 18, 2016 it happens with pretty much all the mp4's that I have, all ripped from DVDs. Using handbrake as the encoder, which defaults to using anamorphic. Let me know if you need any other info.
ebr 16169 Posted July 18, 2016 Posted July 18, 2016 Yes, please copy and paste or take a screen shot of the media info part from the web client. Thanks.
McChen 7 Posted July 18, 2016 Author Posted July 18, 2016 Here you go. This one should display in 16:9, but shows up letterboxed on the shield
ebr 16169 Posted July 19, 2016 Posted July 19, 2016 That doesn't claim to be anamorphic... Exactly what do you mean by letter-boxed? Is it distorted in shape or does it just have a border around the whole thing?
McChen 7 Posted July 19, 2016 Author Posted July 19, 2016 it has black bars on the top and bottom of the video when played on my 16:9 TV, when instead it should fill the whole screen. I also tried a 4:3 video and it displays as too narrow (horizontally). 2.35:1 movies are also off, they are like the 16:9 video, too compressed vertically. I haven't found any video that looks right, every one that i've tried has been off.
Spaceboy 2573 Posted July 19, 2016 Posted July 19, 2016 Ebr, these are exactly the same issues I see with live tv and vlc
ebr 16169 Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 Can you provide me with a sample of one of these videos? Obviously, something about them is confusing VLC. You said they were ripped anamorphic but the above video does not realize it is so. That could be related.
McChen 7 Posted July 21, 2016 Author Posted July 21, 2016 i will get you a test file later today or tomorrow
McChen 7 Posted September 22, 2016 Author Posted September 22, 2016 Hi ebr....picking this issue backup, sorry for the delay in getting a test file ready. I'll PM you the link to the file, still having this issue with the latest stable release of the Android TV client when it direct plays. If I transcode, it plays fine. Chromecasting plays fine (transcoding or direct). Other Emby clients (windows, web and regular Android) play the file fine. Let me know what you find. Thanks!
ebr 16169 Posted September 23, 2016 Posted September 23, 2016 Your sample plays properly for me. Is it possible that it is your TV that is actually squeezing it...?
McChen 7 Posted September 23, 2016 Author Posted September 23, 2016 No, it is definitely not the TV, I have it set to native resolution. Which Android TV device did you try it on? I forgot that this only happens on the Shield TV, on my Nexus Player it plays correctly. It should be using VLC to play the file right?
ebr 16169 Posted September 23, 2016 Posted September 23, 2016 Okay, I tested on my NP. I'll try the Shield...
ebr 16169 Posted September 23, 2016 Posted September 23, 2016 Okay, on the Shield I get small bars top and bottom as if the aspect is slightly wider than 16:9. Some shows are actually produced this way (House of Cards comes to mind). Whether this one is supposed to be or not, I can't be sure. If I play your sample directly from the ink in the browser, when it shows not full-screen it does look to me like it is a slightly wider aspect than straight 16:9. However, if I maximize the player it zooms to fill the screen. Now, on the Shield, I played this item internal with us using VLC and then with several external players. VLC and Archos, when used as an external, displayed it exactly the same way we do when using VLC internally MX Player and the internal Shield video player expanded it to be full screen So, the bottom line here is whatever is making this decision appears to be inside the player/codec and I'm not sure what we can do about it. I'm also not positive which display is strictly accurate...
McChen 7 Posted September 23, 2016 Author Posted September 23, 2016 On my shield the file plays pretty distorted, the black bars and the top and bottom aren't that small. The file is supposed to be 16:9 or at least very close to it. I probably wouldn't notice if it is only slightly off. But on my Shield it looks pretty wacky. Let me take a pic of it so you can see what it looks like on mine. I remember some of the earlier versions of Emby let you select internal or VLC for the player....is everything VLC now with no option? Any reason for that?
McChen 7 Posted September 23, 2016 Author Posted September 23, 2016 this is how is displays on mine....fairly distorted, very noticeable. It is like this with every mp4 file I have, it never plays with the right aspect ratio. All of these are encoded with Handbrake, pretty standard settings. Surprised lots of others haven't run into this.
ebr 16169 Posted September 23, 2016 Posted September 23, 2016 4k TV? That looks pretty similar to my level of distortion. VLC and Archos both squeeze the picture. Why, I don't know but it is something in these players/codecs.
McChen 7 Posted September 23, 2016 Author Posted September 23, 2016 No, not 4k, 1080p only. Looks like I may have to take this up with the VLC people, thanks for looking into it. Any chance you guys would bring back the option to pick the media player like with the earlier versions of Emby that had that?
ebr 16169 Posted September 23, 2016 Posted September 23, 2016 Perhaps but we are really trying to simplify things and VLC is the better choice in most cases.
McChen 7 Posted September 23, 2016 Author Posted September 23, 2016 I see....let me see if the VLC people can look into this and hopefully fix it upstream there. I'll report back if there is a newer VLC that has this fix.
Luke 42077 Posted December 7, 2016 Posted December 7, 2016 Hi @@McChen The latest beta version of the Emby app offers improved playback, refresh rate switching, and all the HD Audio pass-through you need. Check out the beta thread for more details: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/42239-android-tv-beta-13x/ We think you'll enjoy the next update to the stable channel. Thanks !
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