MythTV on Android

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Warning.png Warning: Some of this information is out of date. See Android for more up to date instructions.


MythTV runs on Android but an official apk is not distributed, here is how to build an android package for yourself.

It uses Linux as the build platform, and opengl as the display layer.

Background & Caveats

Currently it is not very well tested

What works?

Only the frontend works.

However:

  • It works the same way it does on Linux.
  • The same themes (or new ones) or any downloadable ones work.
  • Live TV works with program guide to change channels.
  • Playback gesture key mapping is reconfigurable with phpmyadmin.
    • Guide gesture mapping is (currently) Fixed and Click does not work.
  • Only OpenGL Mode for rendering and playback.
    • You cant return from setup screens in OpenGL mode, but it works in Qt rendering mode.

What doesn't work?

  • No backend (currently)
  • Builds are device specific.
  • playback is a bit hiccuppy.
  • not all screens have even rudimentary gesture support.

Unofficial Android Pre-Builds

Some master only builds exist on http://www.digivation.com.au/debian with various dates.

Gesture Support

Limited gesture support has been added to various widgets so that button lists, playback and program guide are navigable.

Setting up the Options

  1. Select country/language
  2. Add DB details.
    • Note: Un check ping server otherwise it wont work. There is no ping
  3. In Setup (you can only go back with Qt painter painter but video doesnt work with Qt theme Painter)
    • select Theme first
    • set key bindings for your back key and menu key
    • Menu to Global.Menu
    • Back to TV Playback.Back
    • Finally in Appearance set painter to OpenGL
      • After this, setup wont work properly, but playing video will
      • if you want to do intensive setup work, switch back to Qt painter temporarily

Playback Gestures

The playback gestures are reconfigurable in the DB settings. There is a unique map for LiveTV and for recording playback.

LiveTV Map

  • Settings Name : LiveTVScreenPressKeyMap
    • Default: "P,Up,Z,S,Left,Return,Return,Right,A,Down,Q,F"

These are mapped onto a 4x3 grid as follows:

P Up Z S
Left Return Return Right
A Down Q F

To change channels, access the guide (S), find the channel you want and then swipe RightThenLeft or use the menu key.

Recorded Playback Map

  • Settings Name : PlaybackScreenPressKeyMap
    • Default: "P,Up,Z,],Left,Return,Return,Right,A,Down,Q,["

These are mapped onto a 4x3 grid as follows:

P Up Z ]
Left Return Return Right
A Down Q [

Button List Gestures

Gesture Action
Left Left
Right Right
Up PgUp
Down PgDn
UpLeft Up
UpRight Up
DownLeft Dn
DownRight Dn
  • Press button once to focus, then again to click

Program Guide Gestures

Gesture Action
Left Left
Right Right
Up Up
Down Dn
UpThenLeft PageLeft or PgUp
DownThenRight PageRight or PgDn
UpThenRight PgUp
LeftThenUp PgUp or PageLeft
RightThenDown PgDn or PageRight
LeftThenDown Day Left
RightThenUp Day Right
RightThenLeft to change channel on highlighted channel

Also use the menu and back buttons to access those functions.

Themes

Existing themes work fine and the click sensitivity make it quite usable.

Currently there do not exist any special themes for touch screen usage.

Build Procedure

Warning.png
This build procedure is out of date. Please use the procedure described in the android/Readme.md file in the MythTV, packaging repository until this wiki is updated.

To build MythTV for android, use the following steps.

There is currently no automated way to get all dependencies and build an apk in one step

1. Clone the repos from the android fork

mkdir workdir
cd workdir
git clone https://github.com/MythTV/packaging.git
cd packaging/android
git clone https://github.com/MythTV/mythtv.git

2. Get Android sdk, ndk and Qt using the online installer

  • I used Qt 5.4.1 (http://www.qt.io/qt5-4/)
  • You need the sdk version you are compiling to. I used 17 for 4.2.2 as minimum compatability level. File will be something like qt-opensource-linux-x64-1.6.0-8-online.run (https://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html#Other)
  • install in ~/android as the build scripts assume its there
  • also get android-ndk-r10d-linux-x86_64.bin and install it in ~/android too. (https://developer.android.com/ndk/downloads/index.html)
  • also get android-cmake-master.zip and install that too in ~/android
    git clone https://github.com/taka-no-me/android-cmake
  • if you want to build a release apk, you need to create a key.
  • modify and copy android-utilities/* to ~/android
    cp android-utilities/setenv.sh ~/android
    cp android-utilities/maketoolchain.sh ~/android
  • For setenv.sh, you will need to edit JAVA_HOME, JDK_PATH, KEYSTORE, KEYALIAS, KEYSTOREPASSWORD, and QTBASE to match your configuration
  • For maketoolchain.sh you will need to edit SDKVERSION and SDKVERSION to match your configuration
  • create a toolchain for the correct version. see maketoolchain.sh for this. sdk 17 is the default
  cd ~/android
  ./maketoolchain.sh
  cd ~/workdir/packages/android

You should have a dir structure like this after you are done:

  ~/android
       Qt
       android-cmake
       android-ndk -> android-ndk-r10d
       android-ndk-r10d
       android-sdk-linux
       android-studio
       yourname-release.keystore
       yourname.keystore
       maketoolchain.sh
       setenv.sh

3. Build all the libraries (make sure to have ruby installed on your system as building qt5extras requires it)

./makelibs all

or

./makelibs taglib
./makelibs freetype
./makelibs openssl
./makelibs iconv
./makelibs mariadb
./makelibs lame
./makelibs exiv2
./makelibs qt5extras

4. Build it (debug by default)

./mythbuild.sh

mythfrontend.apk should now exist in the current directory