[mythtv-users] leanfront on my phone (pixel 4a)

[Peter Bennett]

On 10/20/22 23:35, Gary Buhrmaster wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 20, 2022 at 11:58 PM James Abernathy <jfabernathy at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> It is interesting that SiliconDust HD app plays MPEG2 fine on my phone
> A couple of data points there.
>
> * While most SoCs that support H.264/H.265 also support
>    MPEG2, not all vendors license MPEG2 (Apple is a notorious
>    example where they refused to enable hardware MPEG2
>    decode when the VPU was known to include it).
>
> * Even when the vendor licenses the MPEG2 codec, not all
>    choose to include it in their particular version of mediacodec.
>
> * Not all vendors include updates from the SoC manufacturer
>    for identified bugs (so bugs last forever).
>
> * SiliconDust has an entire Android team (not just one Peter),
>    and QA is absolutely resource intensive.
>
> * SiliconDust will fall back from hardware to a software
>    implementation if mediacodec indicates a particular
>    codec is not available, or certain errors are encountered.
>
>    SiliconDust also has a (paid) license from MPEG-LA
>    (and others as needed) to enable those software fallbacks
>    (and I doubt Peter has the funds to license those codecs).
>
> * SiliconDust also a list of specific devices which are
>    shown to have broken implementations (even when
>    android indicates the decode is available), and fall back
>    to software (or are blocked entirely from installing
>    the app at all).  This is based on their experience, and
>    because whenever a new device is introduced, they
>    bought one to test/verify (I doubt Peter has that kind of
>    funding).
>
>    So, if you are asking Peter to support *your* device,
>    I would recommend you talk with him and ask if
>    sending him one of those devices is a viable option
>    (i.e. when you buy one, buy two, and send one to
>    Peter).

No thanks, I already have a phone that does not support MPEG-2, and an 
older phone that supports it.

Leanfront uses Exoplayer. Exoplayer only supports hardware decode for 
video. It does allow software decode using ffmpeg for audio only.

Anybody who is willing and able can submit a pull request to Exoplayer 
for adding software decode using ffmpeg. I do not have any plans to do that.

Leanfront also works on Android tablets, and the tablets I have tested 
do support mpeg-2.

Peter