nDroid over Ethernet

[bgowland]

OK, thanks for that. Perhaps the ETHERNET type was added in a later Android version to the ones I'm used to - I'll re-check the developer docs but it isn't one I've come across.

Either way, that proves it is bound to the USB device which is useful to know.

Cheers,
Brian

[cooper43]

Brian, any updates -- just wondering if this is something that you may suuport in the future?

thanks
Steve

[cooper43]

Brian,

Sorry I missed your PM. I just downloaded android 4.0.3 and things seem to work better. I can watch live video over Ethernet using MX player but the audio is off and paused intermittantly -- video looks good. For recorded video,, it doesn't seem to play.

Steve

[bgowland]

I can watch live video over Ethernet using MX player but the audio is off and paused intermittantly -- video looks good.

Live TV is pretty much out of my hands I'm afraid as I obviously can't control which video player app a user has on their Android device and, at the NextPVR end, it is simply connecting to the built-in npvr web server requesting /live?channel=X. SUb did add a new option in npvr 2.3.x (I believe) which allows specifying a resolution and bitrate. I did play with this option but can't remember why I chose not to use it for nDroid. I'll try it again.

For recorded video,, it doesn't seem to play.

Again, at the Android end, you're at the mercy of whatever video player app you use. I did write the 'streamer' code in this case though. You could try playing a recording and then zip and attach the nDroid service logs - specifically the nDroidServiceStreamer.log file to see if it is a problem with my code.

EDIT:

I can watch live video over Ethernet using MX player...

Actually, having just reviewed a few things, I'm a bit confused here.

I'd forgotten how far we'd got with exploring the Ethernet option and just re-checked the nDroid code and can't see any point where I've attempted to enable Ethernet support. Can you explain what you're doing to attempt to watch live/recorded media?

Cheers,
Brian

[cooper43]

Can you explain what you're doing to attempt to watch live/recorded media?

Sure,

When I was running Android 4.0.2, it wouldn't even let me into the nDroid application on my tablet unless I had WiFi enabled. The new version of Android OS 4.0.3 has full support for Ethernet. With this version of OS, I now turn off my WiFi and enable Ethernet and click nDroid. It takes me to the TV Guide. I select a program that is currently on and click watch and the video plays with the slight problems with audio mentioned above. I will play with the decoders on the MX player and try MOBO player to see if I can get it fully working. It didn't work at all with the stock video player that comes on Android. This is full uncompressed OTA HD content.

Then I select menu and click Recordings and select an existing recording. When I click on "Watch", nothing happens. The little circle showing it is working doesn't even come up. I'm not sure this is a problem with the player, I don't think the application is queuing the show. When I click Videos, it doesn't seem to work.

Hope this helps.

Must be good code -- you are supporting Ethernet without even trying ;-)

Steve

[bgowland]

Hi Steve,

Must be good code -- you are supporting Ethernet without even trying ;-)

lol yeah - I've been known to write code that can do things even I don't know about.

Actually, I have an angle on it. Originally I only intended to allow Live TV, viewing Recordings and viewing from the Videos section using wi-fi. Not exactly bugs in my code rather subtle omissions - the code to watch Live TV doesn't even check for a valid connection, it just assumes wi-fi and attempts to use the IP address for that. As your ethernet adapter is on the same subnet as the wi-fi, the servers IP address is valid for both hence why Live TV connects.

When attempting to watch a Recording, it does actually check for valid wifi connection and fails silently if there isn't one - that's why you see nothing happening. It should create a pop-up but I didn't enable that in the latest version.

Videos, similar to Live TV, just assumes the wifi is there and in theory should work. If it's failig, I'd need to see the nDroid service logs.

Hopefully I just need to iron out these few anomalies and Ethernet should work although, as I said, successful playback will be dictated by things like HD vs SD content, bitrates etc and also the Android device and media player app.

Cheers,
Brian