ServiiGo (Android 3G/4G/Wifi Playback App)

[Xmantium]

On that note, I probably won't be able to offer any support until next weekend either, although might be albe to check in once or twice.

Have a good time away from this awful British weather.

Thanks for everything Will and considering my ideas.

[will]

Have a good time away from this awful British weather.

Thanks for everything Will and considering my ideas.

I had a BBQ today, so not too bad! Its supposed to rain tomorrow, then be nice the rest of the week, I'll be inside the site most of the time though, so won't really matter.

Can you try turning on S/W decoding for audio (click on the audio track symbol next to the H/W icon in the top right, or through Settings->Decoder.

What OS is your server running, and what upload bandwidth do you have?

I turned on S/W decoding for audio, but it doesn't support DTS, so it says to try a custom codec. It's odd that Original won't play it, but Medium does.

I'm running Win7 64 bit, and the Speedtest I just ran says 34 down, 11 up.

[will]

I turned on S/W decoding for audio, but it doesn't support DTS, so it says to try a custom codec. It's odd that Original won't play it, but Medium does.

I'm running Win7 64 bit, and the Speedtest I just ran says 34 down, 11 up.

Just tried it and yes it looks like MX Player have dropped DTS support, apears to be because of licensing as you can find ways to add it back on their forum.

Easiest thing for now is to try BSPlayer, otherwise @Xmantium might have some recomendations on video players.

Medium/Low transcode the video (and audio) to a lower resolution and bitrate, for Original the video is delivered natively as this then lets third party players seek. This will be less of a problem in the next version which will have a built in player than can seek transcoded files, so I may start transcoding dts audio.

Find C:\Program Files\Serviio\config\application-profiles.xml and replace the ServiiGo one with this

  Code:

   <Profile id="serviigo" name="ServiiGo" extendsProfileId="1" alwaysEnableTranscoding="true" selectable="false">
<Transcoding>
<!-- We don't do any video transcoding under Original quality.
Videos have to be played in an external player, but because they are delivered natively,
byte based seeking is enabled -->
<!-- Transcode non .mp3 audio for the Media Player -->
<Audio targetContainer="mp3">
<Matches container="mp4" />
<Matches container="asf" />
<Matches container="lpcm" />
<Matches container="flac" />
<Matches container="ogg" />
<Matches container="flv" />
<Matches container="adts" />
</Audio>
</Transcoding>
<OnlineTranscoding>
<Video targetContainer="mpegts">
<Matches container="flv" vCodec="h264" />
<Matches container="mp4" />
<Matches container="applehttp" vCodec="h264" />
</Video>
<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="384" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" maxVBitrate="4000">
<Matches container="flv" />
<Matches container="asf" /> <!-- to support mms:// streams -->
<Matches container="rtp" />
<Matches container="rtsp" />
<Matches container="applehttp" />
</Video>
<!-- Transcode non .mp3 audio for the Media Player -->
<Audio targetContainer="mp3">
<Matches container="mp4" />
<Matches container="asf" />
<Matches container="lpcm" />
<Matches container="flac" />
<Matches container="ogg" />
<Matches container="flv" />
<Matches container="rtp" />
<Matches container="rtsp" />
<Matches container="adts" />
</Audio>
</OnlineTranscoding>
<AlternativeQualities>
<!-- Transcode videos to reduce bandwidth requirements.
Very few devices can play these back in the internal player, it currently only works on the Nexus 7.
All other devices must play them back in an external player, but that means no seeking. -->
<Quality type="MEDIUM">
<Transcoding>
<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" targetACodec="mp3" forceStereo="true" maxVBitrate="2500" maxHeight="480">
<Matches container="*" />
</Video>
</Transcoding>
</Quality>
<Quality type="LOW">
<Transcoding>
<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" targetACodec="mp3" forceStereo="true" aBitrate="128" maxVBitrate="1000" maxHeight="240">
<Matches container="*" />
</Video>
</Transcoding>
</Quality>
</AlternativeQualities>
<Subtitles>
<SoftSubs mime-type="text/srt" />
<HardSubs supported="false" />
</Subtitles>
</Profile>


Then restart the serviio service (or PC).

Specicially you can set the maxVBitrate, which used to be 1000 and 500, and is now 2500 and 1000. You connection technically supports up to ~11000, but you probably won't get that sort of speed over 3G, if you have 4G then you could increase it a bit more.

If you still have problems with DTS I can show you how to transcode DTS audio, but then seekeing won't work under Original until the next version of the app/server is out.

[Xmantium]

I use BSPlayer as my default player, never had any issues. Very stable and best part it has pop-up player so you can multitask while watching.
Mobo Player was my previous player

Is there anyway for Serviigo to display the programme name and episode title rather than the filename in the folders view?

In Titles view it sometimes shows the filename and sometimes the above - I can't quite work out why it differs between the two and is not uniform throughout.

EDIT:

I've just enabled Series view in ServiiDroid - which is now showing what I hoped...however I would like it in Folders view if possible too, as I split my TV series into Adult/Kids folders - which become combined in the Series view.

Ideally there would there be a way to limit access to certain folders depending on device using ServiiGo..or the option to enable a PIN code view on certain folders/series?

[will]

Hi,

Is there anyway for Serviigo to display the programme name and episode title rather than the filename in the folders view?

In Titles view it sometimes shows the filename and sometimes the above - I can't quite work out why it differs between the two and is not uniform throughout.

I've held off displaying the episode name in the folders view (as does Serviio), as it lets folders be the place to look when Serviio gets the metadata lookup wrong/you have duplicates etc... While I could add an option to the donate version (as that has the online metadata lookup) to resolve the movie name/episode details, I could only apply it when you are viewing the details, not when looking at them in the list, as it requires between 1-2 web requests to look that data up online per entry, that would be too slow and could violate the number of requests/second if you scroll down quickly. I could work around it by properly pre-fetching missing data in a rate controlled way, with it slowly resolving names, which in itself would be a bit confusing, but even then at the moment I have a lot of other things on the todo list for 3.0, so I don't think it quite justifies the effort required to implement. The solution is to use the Series view, as thats what it is designed for.

For seeing filenames in the title view, do they have any other metadata about them, e.g. description? That sounds like Serviio has not identified them correctly.

I've just enabled Series view in ServiiDroid - which is now showing what I hoped...however I would like it in Folders view if possible too, as I split my TV series into Adult/Kids folders - which become combined in the Series view.

Ideally there would there be a way to limit access to certain folders depending on device using ServiiGo..or the option to enable a PIN code view on certain folders/series?

This is definately something I would like, it would be a natural extention to the access group functionality, but it has to be done server side (ie added to Serviio). The two options would be allow multiple username/password entries, or using the clientId which ServiiGo now sends (and MediaBrowser would send) and listing each device with a way to configure it. This definately won't be in Serviio 1.3 as its now just about ready for RC status, I'll talk to zip about it.

[will]

I've just uploaded Beta 2 of ServiiGo 3 to Google Play. To get it, join this google group and follow the simple instructions https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgr ... ta-testers

Please test out everything, specifically video playback in the internal player including with online content. For the new settings for controlling the video player. If you can use the Standard profile and playback videos in the internal player under Medium/Low quality (using Force Internal) then please go to Android Settings->About->Phone Info/Info and tell me the reported model number e.g. "Nexus 7" or "HTC One S" so that I can add it to the list of compatiable devices.

Does anyone have a device running Android 4.0 (ICS)?

Any comments on the wording for profile and video player options would be helpful, as I want to get them translated soon.

  Code:

==== 3.0 Beta 2 ====
*Improved search
**Added alternative actions to results e.g. view album/season/series/folder
**Removed extra step/click required to view the details/play an item
**Show the context of results, e.g. which album, or series a file is from
**Adjustment to layouts
**Improved error handling
*Improved internal video player
**Re-worked settings that control which video player (internal/external) is used
**Added support for live streams
**Clicking on the video will toggle on-screen controls
**The player will exit once playback completes
*Experimental support for scrobbling tracks via Simple Last.fm Scrobbler (Dontate only)
*Show Movies/Series as grids of posters
*Do not show a placeholder image when loading thumbnails into grid views
*Added support for new naming convention of episodes in the Video->Titles view
*Minor optimisations and bug fixes


[Xmantium]

Initial testing with internal video player, im getting some weird bugs at the bottom of the video when you use the OSD

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ezz65o16xj97 ... .36.35.png

[will]

Initial testing with internal video player, im getting some weird bugs at the bottom of the video when you use the OSD

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ezz65o16xj97 ... .36.35.png

That is, well weired! If its Original quality, whats the video codec, if its medium, which profile? Did it do this in the previous beta, as nothing around that should have changed.

[Xmantium]

I always play original quality, less stress on server side and i can skip forward
This is x263 720p mkv file

Tried same file on medium, internal - black screen but audio plays and stops, tried other videos, same issues
Internal video player playback well on original settings - as you can see from the screenshot, the picture is very crisp

On medium - works fine with BS Player, plays straightaway with hardly any buffer

[will]

I always play original quality, less stress on server side and i can skip forward
This is x263 720p mkv file

Tried same file on medium, internal - black screen but audio plays and stops, tried other videos, same issues
Internal video player playback well on original settings - as you can see from the screenshot, the picture is very crisp

On medium - works fine with BS Player, plays straightaway with hardly any buffer

The whole point of this release is being able to skip forward under Medium/Low ! If the internal player can play a video, it can skip forward on it, so whatt I need testing is what it plays under Medium/Low (original is a bonus but things like DTS audio will never work).

Which profile did you use when using Medium? Previously you said it worked on both Standard and the new HLS one, are you now saying it doesn't work, or did you only use Original? As original does not touch the video (for local content, it does for online), the profile makes no difference, so the testing at this stage needs to be done using Medium/Low first.

[Xmantium]

Got round to doing few test,

On standard - Medium/Low settings
With internal player, its very difficult playing files, come with black screen. Very few files play, mostly SD files
Tried the same files on BSPlayer and it works fine with sound but it doesnt let me skip foward

On HLS - Medium/Low settings
Internal video player works much better, i can skip!
BSplayer works too, but cant skip, maybe a bug with bsplayer playing transcoded files

[dotted]

Hi.

When I watch any mkv on "Original" quality, video is streamed with all audios and subtitles it has.

When it's compressed to "Medium" or "Low" quality, there is no subs and only one audio is there.

Also, no video forward is possible on these 2 settings.

Is it normal? I've tried with Dice player and MX video.

This appears to still be the case as of latest beta version and Serviio 1.2.1 using BSPlayer, this is with all subtitle options enabled in the console along with burn-in always enabled.

As mentioned in the thread HardSubs are disabled for ServiiGo, it would be nice if we could get that back as there doesn't seem to be a player than can handle subtitles in Advanced SubStation Alpha format, at least both MX Player and BSPlayer handle them rather poorly.

[will]

Got round to doing few test,

On standard - Medium/Low settings
With internal player, its very difficult playing files, come with black screen. Very few files play, mostly SD files
Tried the same files on BSPlayer and it works fine with sound but it doesnt let me skip foward

On HLS - Medium/Low settings
Internal video player works much better, i can skip!
BSplayer works too, but cant skip, maybe a bug with bsplayer playing transcoded files

Thanks, those results are much more what I expected, which device was that on? Can you do the same as a double check on your Wife's?

Support for mpeg2 (which standard uses), is pretty shocking, so it will be limited to just the Nexus 7 unless the user uses one of the options to force it (I'll add more devices if I get positive reports).

Non of the external players will be able to skip Medium/Low quality videos, its a custom url param that tells Serviio to start at a particular point, hense the need for the internal player.

[will]

Hi.

When I watch any mkv on "Original" quality, video is streamed with all audios and subtitles it has.

When it's compressed to "Medium" or "Low" quality, there is no subs and only one audio is there.

Also, no video forward is possible on these 2 settings.

Is it normal? I've tried with Dice player and MX video.

This appears to still be the case as of latest beta version and Serviio 1.2.1 using BSPlayer, this is with all subtitle options enabled in the console along with burn-in always enabled.

As mentioned in the thread HardSubs are disabled for ServiiGo, it would be nice if we could get that back as there doesn't seem to be a player than can handle subtitles in Advanced SubStation Alpha format, at least both MX Player and BSPlayer handle them rather poorly.

Hi,

You and Matixo are the only two people who have expressed any interest in using subtitles, and he wrote one post in the thread and then didn't reply, so as I haven't had any input on it, I haven't made any changes. HardSubs were never enabled for ServiiGo, as Video playback with Serviio 1.2[.1] is handled using external players, and in my limited tests, MX Player did quite well at displaying subtitles. Furthermore, HardSubs require transcoding, which breaks seeking in external players, so I wanted to keep it off where possible. All subtitles are supposed to be converted to srt format by ffmpeg, making the input format irrelivant, can you give some details of what is wrong with ASS subtitles so that I can look into it?

If you use the lastest beta of ServiiGo with Serviio 1.2.1, nothing will change in the video playback department, as it requires the server side changes in 1.3. If you are interested it would be great if you could pm zip and ask for beta access to Serviio. I would be very interested in how HardSubs work with the new HLS profile in Serviio 1.3 as until I write my own subtitle renderer, I will probably have to switch to using burnded in subtitles to get them into the new internal player. The only problem is I don't want to turn it on under Original quality, as that will then force transcoding which breaks seeking in external players. However, I don't think its possible to turn it on just for Low/Medium, but then I also want to avoid inconsistant experiences. Eitherway, I don't have time to do all the tests needed at the moment, so any help would be great.

[spudy12]

Have tested the ServiGo beta app on a Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT I9300) running android 4.1.2

Tested 2 different .mkv movies encoded at 720p. Streamed over Wifi (Will test 3G later and update this post)

Both files played back perfectly with built in video player on Original, Medium and Low quality profiles.
Seeking worked well too except that after seeking, audio would play straight away, video would take about 5 seconds to catchup - not a major problem.

I imagine seeking when playing at different qualities relies somewhat on the server side hardware?


Will test out on a tablet as-well later today after I put standard jelly bean on my kindle fire hd and let you know how that performs.

[will]

Have tested the ServiGo beta app on a Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT I9300) running android 4.1.2

Tested 2 different .mkv movies encoded at 720p. Streamed over Wifi (Will test 3G later and update this post)

Both files played back perfectly with built in video player on Original, Medium and Low quality profiles.
Seeking worked well too except that after seeking, audio would play straight away, video would take about 5 seconds to catchup - not a major problem.

I imagine seeking when playing at different qualities relies somewhat on the server side hardware?


Will test out on a tablet as-well later today after I put standard jelly bean on my kindle fire hd and let you know how that performs.

Thanks! I assume that was with the HLS profile? Did you change the video player setting, or did you leave it on Auto?

What audio was it, aac ac3? I'm impressed the the internal player worked including audio under Original.

Re: delay before video, yes I've noticed that, it can be anything from 1 second to 10 seconds, because thats the size of the video chunks that the system uses. There may be a chance to do something about it in the future, maybe by telling ffmpeg to insert more key frames, but not for 1.3. For now I don't think its too bad, its a certainly better than before when you couldn't seek.

Medium/Low transcode the video. When you seek, it actually starts a new transcoding job (and stops the old one) and tells ffmpeg to start from the specified number of seconds into it, this means you can seek to say 80 minutes into a 100 min film without having to wait for the first 80 minutes to be transcoded, but then it does mean that seeking by a small amount is not very efficient, as it has to start the process again.

If you use any online sources (same for you @Xmantium), I would be intersted to see how seeking works for them. I've tried a few and they have worked most of the time, as ffmpeg was able to seek to the correct position in the stream, but for some it timed out, so I'm still debating whether or not to enable seeking for online sources.

[spudy12]

Have tested the ServiGo beta app on a Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT I9300) running android 4.1.2

Tested 2 different .mkv movies encoded at 720p. Streamed over Wifi (Will test 3G later and update this post)

Both files played back perfectly with built in video player on Original, Medium and Low quality profiles.
Seeking worked well too except that after seeking, audio would play straight away, video would take about 5 seconds to catchup - not a major problem.

I imagine seeking when playing at different qualities relies somewhat on the server side hardware?


Will test out on a tablet as-well later today after I put standard jelly bean on my kindle fire hd and let you know how that performs.

Thanks! I assume that was with the HLS profile? Did you change the video player setting, or did you leave it on Auto?

What audio was it, aac ac3? I'm impressed the the internal player worked including audio under Original.

Re: delay before video, yes I've noticed that, it can be anything from 1 second to 10 seconds, because thats the size of the video chunks that the system uses. There may be a chance to do something about it in the future, maybe by telling ffmpeg to insert more key frames, but not for 1.3. For now I don't think its too bad, its a certainly better than before when you couldn't seek.

Medium/Low transcode the video. When you seek, it actually starts a new transcoding job (and stops the old one) and tells ffmpeg to start from the specified number of seconds into it, this means you can seek to say 80 minutes into a 100 min film without having to wait for the first 80 minutes to be transcoded, but then it does mean that seeking by a small amount is not very efficient, as it has to start the process again.

If you use any online sources (same for you @Xmantium), I would be intersted to see how seeking works for them. I've tried a few and they have worked most of the time, as ffmpeg was able to seek to the correct position in the stream, but for some it timed out, so I'm still debating whether or not to enable seeking for online sources.

Hi, apologies I made a mistake in my last post, what I thought was the internal player actually turned out to be the external player which is the default one built in to my phone.
Have tried using force internal and had mixed results, will post back with a more detailed review a bit later!

The audio in the 2 mkv files i tried was AAC in one and DTS in the other.

Yes agreed, the seeking video delay isn't an issue at all for me, just thought I would point it out.


Another problem I found was when stopping a film / closing the app, ffmpeg still continued to transcode the entire file on the server, not sure if its designed to do that or not but thought I would point it out. Probably more server side problem though?

Yes I'll give a few online sources a try and get back to you

[Xmantium]

All my testing on my Galaxy S4, wife is away with her HTC One, thanks to ServiiGo she managed to watch premier season of Dexter 100 miles away from home!!