[mythtv-users] Experimental Android TV "leanback" MythTV frontend

David Engel david at istwok.net
Mon Aug 26 02:40:57 UTC 2019


On Sun, Aug 25, 2019 at 11:09:23AM -0400, Peter Bennett wrote:
> 
> 
> On 8/24/19 12:57 PM, David Engel wrote:
> > On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 11:14:34AM -0400, Peter Bennett wrote:
> > > On 8/21/19 3:17 PM, Peter Bennett wrote:
> > > > I am developing a pure android application for Android TV devices called
> > > > android-MythTV-Leanfront.
> > > > 
> > > > It uses the android TV leanback user interface as used by other apps
> > > > such as youtube, prime video, etc. to play MythTV recordings.
> > > > 
> > > > It supports 4K resolution video at 50 fps and voice search, which are
> > > > not working on mythfrontend for android. Also it supports surround
> > > > sound.
> > > > 
> > > > It does not yet support many of the important features of Mythfrontend,
> > > > and some features it may never support.
> > > > 
> > > > See https://github.com/bennettpeter/android-MythTV-Leanfront for more
> > > > details
> > > > 
> > > > Peter
> > > 
> > > To answer David's question on IRC - Some reasons for attempting this:
> > > 
> > > - I saw an opportunity to use the android exoplayer library and the sample
> > > program to easily build a new frontend.
> > Does that mean you don't intend to handle the mpeg2 corruption problem
> > on the Shield that many users have on some channels?
> Probably not - I should test it with my channel that has these problems and
> see what happens.
> > 
> > Does the exoplayer framework allow for fask skips and real
> > fast-forward/rewind?  Those are two features that set mythfrontend
> > apart from every other player I've seen.
> The forward skips seem to be very quick, the backward steps not so fast. I
> don't know how well it would come up to your requirements. I may be able to
> tweak that

I am pretty demanding/spoiled about that, aren't I? :) Anyway, forward
skips seemed reasonable but I didn't test multiple in succession.  How
do you invoke a forward skip programatically?  I suspect the
underlying code simply scans forward until it finds a suitable
keyframe.  Reverse skips didn't work as well, with one even causing a
plyback lockup.

> - currently I have two methods of downloading the video data -
> http or myth protocol. I am using http, since I am trying to get away from
> the myth protocol, but the myth protocol may turn out better for back skips.

I didn't realize we supported http.  How are skips and seeks
requested.  Just curious.

> There is a setting in the exoplayer framework for playback speed. It may
> work for time-stretch users. I don't know about FF or REW. I am doubtful.
> > > - Support Voice search, 4K playback, use only service api and avoid version
> > > dependence.
> > Nice.  I've wondered how that and homepage channels feature could
> > eventually be implemented in mythfrontend.  There have been and still
> > are way too many other things to do before that.
> In the android studio emulator, it displays a list or "recommended videos"
> chosen (at random it seems) from the recording list, but that does not seem
> to work in shield or fire tv. I will look into that and find out what
> settings are needed to support those. I would like it to show recently
> viewed but not completed shows on the home screen. Voice search from within
> the app is working on shield but not on fire tv. Also search from outside
> the app should be possible.

If you figure it out, the recommended videos would be a good use of
the "Watch List" functionality.  I don't know, though, if that
information is available through the API.  It might generated by the
frontend, playbackbox code.

> > > - Avoid Existing android frontend problems - it is compiled with
> > > IGNORE_SCHEMA_VER_MISMATCH, IGNORE_PROTO_VER_MISMATCH", it will not support
> > > 4K or ipv6, we have to build with out of date ndk.
> > I've advocated converting mythfrontend to use only API calls from some
> > time.  There isn't anything preventing anyone from doing that.
> > 
> > > - frontend should not require a 4k device to play 1080 recordings.
> > Does it?  If so, I wasn't aware of that.
> On the fire tv non-4k mythfrontend playback is excessively jerky with about
> half of the frames being dropped.

Hmm, I thought my first-gen firetv and a cheap s912 box were adequate
(but just that).  The former doesn't deinterlace, though.  If you're
interested, pester me and I'll dig them back out of the storage
closet.

David
-- 
David Engel
david at istwok.net


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