Android TV App 4K UI

[altairr 16]

Hello,

Since the Android TV app is undergoing it's OSD unification, I wanted to throw a request for the UI to be adapted to 4K screens. I know that Android TV has a limitation on the UI for 1080p, but I tried Kodi recently as well as Plex (as well as other Android TV apps such as Molotov) and they have a way to adopt and not have the blurry UI on 4K screens.

I really like the Emby app, the simplicity and the speed over Kodi are great, but looking at posters and text it's blurry and regretful to look at on a 4K screen. Here is a topic illustrating the problem, I could provide further pics from both Kodi and Plex for comparison. Thanks for taking the time, I really hope there is a way to make the Android app even better  

 

[ebr 16172]

I'm not sure there is a lot we can do here.  We can upgrade the quality we retrieve backdrops at but, as you can clearly see in the example in that thread, not only is the image lower resolution but so is the text.  This is related to the entire UI of the Android system.

[DUBT 1]

If you are using a NVidia Shield you can follow this to enable a 4K interface:

https://medium.com/@naren/nvidia-shield-tv-4k-ui-2930f6a254b8

I have done this on mine and emby looks great now, though it does have a few small quirks like the icon issue.

[altairr 16]

Here are some screenshots from my shield from Emby, Kodi and Plex for comparison. I personally don't find the text blurry, it doesn't bother me. What's bothering me is the crisp and clear images on both Kodi (the GUI resolution limit is set for 1080p) and Plex compared to Emby. Perhaps the solution is what you proposed, upgrade the quality of the images for Android TV app).

Emby

Kodi

Plex

[altairr 16]

6 minutes ago, DUBT said:

If you are using a NVidia Shield you can follow this to enable a 4K interface:

https://medium.com/@naren/nvidia-shield-tv-4k-ui-2930f6a254b8

I have done this on mine and emby looks great now, though it does have a few small quirks like the icon issue.

Thanks, I've already tried that workaround but as you said, there are some quirks for different apps.

[ebr 16172]

I don't believe Kodi is running under the Android rendering engine but I'm not 100% sure there.  The other guy's posters are a bit larger than ours.  Can you see a difference in their text rendering as well?

[altairr 16]

Besides from slightly different font and color, I can't really see any other differences (perhaps my eyes are failing me).

I managed to get a similar size for the posters by selecting the movie in Emby (cropped from a 1920x1080 screenshot: left image 244x367, right image  241x363).

[ebr 16172]

I definitely see what you are talking about.  I'm just not sure what part of the entire chain of image processing is causing it.  I'll try a few things...

[Carlo 4561]

aspect ratio change during resize?

[ebr 16172]

I think it is the image format...

[altairr 16]

Really surprised to see the changelog this morning for the latest beta, thank you very much for the reactivity! I can definitely see a slight improvement - The rise of the Skywalker is more readable for example (left: beta 18, right beta 20). Would it be possible to increase further the image quality? The improvement is visible for some posters but not that sharp and clear yet and the thumbs are still quite blurry. Thanks again for the effort, I was so hesitant to bring the question for the past few weeks...

Edited July 23, 2020 by altairr

[ebr 16172]

The image format we are using (for payload size and performance) is introducing some softening to the image.  Is this really noticeable at 10' away...?

[altairr 16]

For me it is quite noticeable. I was using Emby for LG before switching to Android and the 'softening' of posters and thumbnails was one of the first things that I noticed. I tried Kodi with EmbyCon in order to make up for that but I find that the Android app performs better. I wouldn't trade performance for art quality but I really hope that we can find a sweet spot to accommodate both.

[Hyp3rD 10]

I’m happy to know that it’s not my eyes the problems, I had found this issue too but I was thinking that I was crazy...

[Deathsquirrel 745]

8 hours ago, ebr said:

The image format we are using (for payload size and performance) is introducing some softening to the image.  Is this really noticeable at 10' away...?

It doesn't really bother me but yes, it's definitely noticeable.  I'm about 12 feet from a 65" screen as a reference.  I don't see it as much in the bedroom but that's about 20 feet from a 55" screen.