Request new player in android/amazon app

[CBers 7450]

My point was the emby app does not decide which External players you can choose from

 

Correct

[Heuer 76]

Further to my earlier post, I was also able to play Live TV via an External Player..

Yes, I can play Live TV and Recordings via external player now from within the Live TV tab. Thanks ebr!

[Spaceboy 2573]

i'm not sure what to feel about this, i am quite conflicted.

 

on the one hand i am glad that we finally have a emby app that i might be able to use on my tv. finally, after supporting mediabrowser for getting on for 10 years i might be able to use it in anger!!

 

but on the other. 2 years. 2 years we've been complaining about this and its fixed with a tiny bit of effort.

 

i can only assume from this that the emby devs really enjoy all the aggravation and complaints that have come their way over the last 2 years over android tv.   which is mental. but then perhaps if we focused on fixing the problems rather than locating "hilarious" but ultimately incorrect you tube clips in some attempt to embarrass(?) users we wouldn't be in this position. all the time responding to those threads could have been spent better elsewhere.

 

oh well...

[Heuer 76]

Yes, I can play Live TV and Recordings via external player now from within the Live TV tab. Thanks ebr!

My mistake. Live TV programs play using the external player, recordings still default to internal player.

[CBers 7450]

My mistake. Live TV programs play using the external player, recordings still default to internal player.

 

Do you have both the External Player settings on ??

 

I never tried a recording as I didn't have any, but they should (!!) work in the same way as any other video.

[Heuer 76]

Oddly they don't but ebr has managed to reproduce the issue and is looking at a fix. In my case any recordings accessed by going to the Live TV tab they default to the internal player. I then set up a library pointing at the NextPVR recordings folder and they do play from there with the external player.

 

Having played with Archos and network paths I am not sure there is any benefit compared to MXplayer. Archos seems to load video's slower when using SMB.

 

One other thing I notice is if you click on the 'Play All' screen in TV Series it defaults to the internal player. If you drill down to individual episodes and play you get the external player.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Heuer

[sh0rty 714]

So this is what it looks like when app freezes: https://1drv.ms/v/s!Ai4ct6wPYF8Eh_9qUQ9s1BtRikF6Kw

 

For the gods sake I cannot find the logs for the ATV app on my device, neither on the ext. SD nor the int. SD or /data 

 

 

Direct path is working very well with Archos here, nice!

[ebr 16169]

So this is what it looks like when app freezes: https://1drv.ms/v/s!Ai4ct6wPYF8Eh_9qUQ9s1BtRikF6Kw

 

For the gods sake I cannot find the logs for the ATV app on my device, neither on the ext. SD nor the int. SD or /data 

 

 

Direct path is working very well with Archos here, nice!

 

That is an app crash of some sort.  I cannot reproduce on either of my Google devices.  I'll have to test on the Fire and see if I can.

[ebr 16169]

Oddly they don't but ebr has managed to reproduce the issue and is looking at a fix. In my case any recordings accessed by going to the Live TV tab they default to the internal player. I then set up a library pointing at the NextPVR recordings folder and they do play from there with the external player.

 

I fixed it already so, if you are still having issues, I need you to give me exact steps of what you are doing (screenshots would be great).

[ebr 16169]

One other thing I notice is if you click on the 'Play All' screen in TV Series it defaults to the internal player. If you drill down to individual episodes and play you get the external player.

 

This will be fixed in the next beta

[ebr 16169]

i'm not sure what to feel about this, i am quite conflicted.

 

on the one hand i am glad that we finally have a emby app that i might be able to use on my tv. finally, after supporting mediabrowser for getting on for 10 years i might be able to use it in anger!!

 

but on the other. 2 years. 2 years we've been complaining about this and its fixed with a tiny bit of effort.

 

i can only assume from this that the emby devs really enjoy all the aggravation and complaints that have come their way over the last 2 years over android tv.   which is mental. but then perhaps if we focused on fixing the problems rather than locating "hilarious" but ultimately incorrect you tube clips in some attempt to embarrass(?) users we wouldn't be in this position. all the time responding to those threads could have been spent better elsewhere.

 

oh well...

 

I would not call this a "fix" of any sort.  More like a huge band-aid for a small set of situations.  There is plenty of functionality that is lost when using this method of playback and I expect that to cause a bit of angst for some users.  Also, the default playback works very well for 90%+ of cases so this functionality will only be used by a small subset of folks.  That's fine but that is one reason why it isn't something that was at the top of the priorities until now (BTW the app hasn't existed for 2 years).

 

Finally, it wasn't a "tiny bit of effort" and it isn't finished yet .

[Spaceboy 2573]

I would not call this a "fix" of any sort.  More like a huge band-aid for a small set of situations.  There is plenty of functionality that is lost when using this method of playback and I expect that to cause a bit of angst for some users.  Also, the default playback works very well for 90%+ of cases so this functionality will only be used by a small subset of folks.  That's fine but that is one reason why it isn't something that was at the top of the priorities until now (BTW the app hasn't existed for 2 years).

 

Finally, it wasn't a "tiny bit of effort" and it isn't finished yet .

call it what you like. it didn't work before, it works now. and what you have implemented is what we have been asking for the whole time. the 90% stat is of course completely guessed at because you have no data to back it up. the absence of complaints does not signify satisfaction.

 

there is functionality that is lost but i don't think anyone is going to complain about not having a little icon of the series against only being able to watch tv with a 2 second audio delay or tv not starting at all. as has been stated elsewhere playback is king.

 

i'm sure it was more effort than i suggested, the point was its still far far far far far less time than you have spent working with me and others debugging some of this and responding to the hundred of posts about the problems that people have had with the android and vlc players. i think you and i have had two separate goes at it, each lasting over a month. this may come as a surprise to you but i dont particularly enjoy having to moan at people on the internet   but i equally don't like condescending behaviour.

 

its been impotable actually to date. but hopefully now it is actually wet and i will be able to drink it

[Heuer 76]

I fixed it already so, if you are still having issues, I need you to give me exact steps of what you are doing (screenshots would be great).

I have external player enabled for video and Live TV: So screen by screen:

 

Scroll down to recent recordings:

 

Click on selected recording:

 

 

Click play and I have the internal player rather than MXplayer:

 

If I go directly to the Recorded TV libray (previously mapped in the server) I get this:

 

 

 

 

Now plays with MXplayer:

 

Let me know if you need more info.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Heuer

[RanmaCanada 494]

Strangely enough, the Archos Media Player looks good, as it seems to read the metadata as a stand-alone app.

Archos doesn't support DTS   and it doesn't use internal sub styling!!!  At least the version I have doesn't.  Am I wrong?

 

Mxplayer and SPMC thus far are the best external players I have come across.

Edited August 24, 2016 by RanmaCanada

[CBers 7450]

Archos doesn't support DTS At least the version I have doesn't. Am I wrong?

 

Mxplayer and SPMC thus far are the best external players I have come across.

Not sure, but I can try.

 

Did you install the FREE codecs pack on the Google Play Store?

[sh0rty 714]

Archos doesn't support DTS   and it doesn't use internal sub styling!!!  At least the version I have doesn't.  Am I wrong?

 

Mxplayer and SPMC thus far are the best external players I have come across.

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.m4rk3t.libcopy2&hl=de Open one time, done.

[Heuer 76]

Yes, you have to open the downloaded codec app once and wait for the 'codecs installed' message. If you don't they will not install. DTS does work on Archos with the codec pack.

[CBers 7450]

Not sure, but I can try.

 

Did you install the FREE codecs pack on the Google Play Store?

@@RanmaCanada - just installed the Archos Media Player and the FREE codecs pack on my 2nd Shield TV and it does playback DTS.

 

Try it.

[CBers 7450]

@@ebr - will it ever be possible to pass the resume point to an external player?

 

Just tried resuming a video and it started at the beginning and of course, I lost the resume point on return to EATV.

 

Thanks.

[ebr 16169]

@@ebr - will it ever be possible to pass the resume point to an external player?

 

Only if someone can discover what parameter each one of them is expecting or if it will accept such a parameter at all.  I am not going to take the time to research that for all these different players but if one of you guys discovers a way to pass it for any given player, I will try to accommodate it.

 

That will only provide for resuming something that was partially played with some other true Emby player though.  Because we have no way of knowing the progress of any item you play with the external.

[CBers 7450]

Only if someone can discover what parameter each one of them is expecting or if it will accept such a parameter at all. I am not going to take the time to research that for all these different players but if one of you guys discovers a way to pass it for any given player, I will try to accommodate it.

 

That will only provide for resuming something that was partially played with some other true Emby player though. Because we have no way of knowing the progress of any item you play with the external.

I guess each player will be different!

 

Shame MPC-HC isn't available on Android, as you've already done that for MBC.

[MSattler 390]

Only if someone can discover what parameter each one of them is expecting or if it will accept such a parameter at all.  I am not going to take the time to research that for all these different players but if one of you guys discovers a way to pass it for any given player, I will try to accommodate it.

 

That will only provide for resuming something that was partially played with some other true Emby player though.  Because we have no way of knowing the progress of any item you play with the external.

 

While it would not be perfect, why not just start a counter say 10 seconds after playback is requested.  Keep that counter running, and it should provide an approximate timing, with the understanding that pausing it, ffw or rwd would screw that up.  Would still be something better than what we have now.....  

 

Just a thought.

[ebr 16169]

While it would not be perfect, why not just start a counter say 10 seconds after playback is requested. Keep that counter running, and it should provide an approximate timing, with the understanding that pausing it, ffw or rwd would screw that up. Would still be something better than what we have now.....

 

Just a thought.

IMO that would be incorrect in so many situations that it would cause too much confusion. Plus, we still don't have any way of telling the player to resume so isn't useful yet even if accurate.

 

Many of these external players track their own resume points (MX does). It is just that Emby will have no knowledge of it so it won't appear in places like "Continue Watching".

[Luke 42077]

That's not a bad idea, although it wouldn't account for pausing. But not bad. What about what the mobile app does? When you close the player you get a screen that asks you where you stopped, with the option of completed, or in-progress with draggable slider to indicate where.

[ebr 16169]

That's not a bad idea, although it wouldn't account for pausing. But not bad. What about what the mobile app does? When you close the player you get a screen that asks you where you stopped, with the option of completed, or in-progress with draggable slider to indicate where.

The app already does that although it tries to do it fairly intelligently. The dialog only comes up if you were in the player for less than 90% of the item's duration (if over that, then it just marks it watched).

 

There is no option for a slider because its pretty hard to drag something with a TV remote . But any method of choosing this would be inherently inaccurate which would then cause more confusion.

 

One of the reasons I've resisted external players until now is all of these shortcomings which end up making the feature be half-baked and then causing frustration for people who aren't power users (most people).

 

But here it is now and, for those power users, I think it is mainly functional.