[mythtv-users] MythTV Android Frontend is now available in the Google Play Market

[Daniel Frey]

On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 12:43 PM, Ronald Frazier <ron at ronfrazier.net> wrote:

> On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 7:35 AM, Daniel Frey <dmfrey at gmail.com> wrote:
> > All,
> >
> > The MythTV Android Frontend is now available in the Google Play Market:
> >
> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mythtv&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsIm9yZy5teXRodHYiXQ
> ..
> >
> > Dan
>
>
> Ah, now it's there. Just got a new tablet on friday, so I had to read
> through all the threads here yesterday trying to figure out where to
> get the apk from. If I'd just waited another day I'd have saved myself
> some time :-)
>
> So anyway, I installed your Sep 22 (I think) apk from git yesterday
> and got it working. My first problem was that I compile myth myself
> and didn't have the right config flags enabled. You might want to
> document that somewhere so people don't have to figure it own by
> looking through this forum. It might be a good idea to have a webpage
> with that and other useful video and then have a menu item in the app
> to take you to that page.
>
> Once I got that working, streaming works fine, but there's 2 issues.
>
> The first is that when starting playback, it takes a long time...about
> 20-30 seconds. I assume this is solely dependent on the backend's
> transcoding speed, right? My backend is a Core 2 Duo E4500 system
> (which is on the lower end of Core 2 line, performance wise), and the
> transcoding takes about 170% CPU utilization (so almost all of both
> cores). Is that any indication that the backend can barely keep up
> (ie, does the transcoder only transcode as needed), or will the
> transcoder just use all available CPU to continue transcoding the
> whole recording as fast as it can (and then streaming playback will
> continue from the transcoded temporary file)? Can anyone with a faster
> backend (like maybe a newer ivy bridge Core i5 or i7) say how fast
> playback begins? I had been thinking of upgrading my backend for some
> time, so this would be another item on the list of excuses to do so.
>
> The second issue was that there is no seeking available. I've seen in
> some other threads that seeking via HLS in a live stream is possible
> but it depends on the client. Do you know of any android clients that
> work fine for this? I've tried dice player and mx player with no luck.
> I can't find the BS Player Lite you recommended, and BS Player Free
> doesn't seem to work. I wanted to try VLC beta, but it's not
> compatible with the Asus Transformer Infinity, apparently. Without
> seeking, this isn't really usable for me personally, as I've got to
> sit through the 2-minute pre-roll I have on all recording, plus
> commercials. And then any time playback aborts randomly, or even if I
> switch out to another app or back, I've got to start playback all over
> again from the beginning.
>
>
> Otherwise, the app is decent. For the guide you need better sorting of
> channels (right now it seems semi-sorted with a touch of
> randomness...my guess is you are sorting by the channel id rather than
> channel number). Having callsigns or channel names (and being able to
> sort on them) would also be useful. The recording list could badly use
> some filtering, as right now I see a few hundred livetv shows mixed in
> with my recordings.
>
>
>
> --
> Ron Frazier
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

Ronald,

Please see my responses following each of your questions below.

Dan


============
The first is that when starting playback, it takes a long time...about
20-30 seconds. I assume this is solely dependent on the backend's
transcoding speed, right? My backend is a Core 2 Duo E4500 system
(which is on the lower end of Core 2 line, performance wise), and the
transcoding takes about 170% CPU utilization (so almost all of both
cores). Is that any indication that the backend can barely keep up
(ie, does the transcoder only transcode as needed), or will the
transcoder just use all available CPU to continue transcoding the
whole recording as fast as it can (and then streaming playback will
continue from the transcoded temporary file)? Can anyone with a faster
backend (like maybe a newer ivy bridge Core i5 or i7) say how fast
playback begins? I had been thinking of upgrading my backend for some
time, so this would be another item on the list of excuses to do so.

DF: Once a HLS transcode is kicked off on the backend, we can't immediately
start the stream.  We are waiting until at least 2 segments have been
completed before we can start playing the stream.

I am not familiar with the internal workings of how the HLS transcode is
kicked off or the type of threading used to utilize the available CPUs on
the system.
============

The second issue was that there is no seeking available. I've seen in
some other threads that seeking via HLS in a live stream is possible
but it depends on the client. Do you know of any android clients that
work fine for this? I've tried dice player and mx player with no luck.
I can't find the BS Player Lite you recommended, and BS Player Free
doesn't seem to work. I wanted to try VLC beta, but it's not
compatible with the Asus Transformer Infinity, apparently. Without
seeking, this isn't really usable for me personally, as I've got to
sit through the 2-minute pre-roll I have on all recording, plus
commercials. And then any time playback aborts randomly, or even if I
switch out to another app or back, I've got to start playback all over
again from the beginning.

DF: For right now, I think you will only be able to seek if you kick off
the live stream and then pause it for a bit.  This is because we kick off
the live steam transcode on demand.  It is not queued up or stored except
for the life span of watching the video.  So when the video ends, and you
navigate back, another command is sent to the backend which terminates the
live stream transcode and deletes all the temporary files created.

I have been thinking about the possibility of "Watch It Later" type feature
where you instruct a video to be transcoded on the backend, then it keeps
the transcoded video on the server until such time as you watch it and then
later instruct the app to kill the stream.  I have to work through the
scenario a bit for feasibility  but I am thinking it is possible.  It will
take some testing to determine if we can do this they way I think it can be
done.  Then, theoretically, you would be able seek within the stream.

============
Otherwise, the app is decent. For the guide you need better sorting of
channels (right now it seems semi-sorted with a touch of
randomness...my guess is you are sorting by the channel id rather than
channel number). Having callsigns or channel names (and being able to
sort on them) would also be useful. The recording list could badly use
some filtering, as right now I see a few hundred livetv shows mixed in
with my recordings.

DF: Is there something different about your channel numbers? Are they OTA
channels with special characters in them?  The current sorting is using the
channel number.

I am planning on adding Callsigns and possibly channel icons.  However,
from what I have seen from my channel icons, they aren't all that clean and
sometimes non-existent.  I will see what I can do, however.

-- 
My Google Profile <http://www.google.com/profiles/dmfrey>
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