Serviio

Posted: **Tue Mar 18, 2014 8:17 am**

Hi all,

I have an android box tv which came with a remote control. I have setup Serviio and ServiiGo and all works well. Is there a way to map the online content to the numbers on the remote control? I've googled this topic but either don't provide the right question or can't find anything.
Thanks in advance.

Posted: **Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:41 am**

it is player specific, serviio is server

Sent from my LG-E440 using Tapatalk 2

Posted: **Tue Mar 18, 2014 1:31 pm**

So it's just presenting the information to the TV? Plugins such as ServiiGo appear to have some GUI but it's not IR friendly. Anyway, if there is no such option, then there isn't

Posted: **Tue Mar 18, 2014 1:36 pm**

Do the basic keys i.e navigation left right, play and pause etc work? If so it should be possible to make some of the buttons do something. Could you give some more details though about what you want the buttons to do?

Posted: **Tue Mar 18, 2014 8:49 pm**

Well I have an Android TV box and want to use it as a STB. I have a desktop pc that will do all the hardwork and pass the data to the android app. Then I can use the ir remote that came with the tv box to browse through channels. Kind of like in xbmc.
I guess that serviio can do it, it just lacks that android apk that can visualize everything in a shiny way

Posted: **Tue Mar 18, 2014 8:53 pm**

unicastbg wrote:Well I have an Android TV box and want to use it as a STB. I have a desktop pc that will do all the hardwork and pass the data to the android app. Then I can use the ir remote that came with the tv box to browse through channels. Kind of like in xbmc.
I guess that serviio can do it, it just lacks that android apk that can visualize everything in a shiny way

You didn't really answer my question. Are the core buttons on the IR remote able to control ServiiGo (and other Android apps) running on your Android TV Box, as ServiiGo should response to media keys (play pause etc..), navigation (left, right, up, down), as well as a few others depending on the screen you are on. If so I can add additional key mappings, but you need to tell me what you want the different buttons to do.

Re shiny way, any pointers on how to make ServiiGo more shiny

Posted: **Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:07 pm**

I'll write tomorrow with ideas and answers to your questions

It's too late where I am and I probably won't think of anything good.

Posted: **Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:12 am**

Hi will,

I have tested yesterday the remote control with the android box and it works with everything I came across. What I didn't had the time to test was the serviigo app. I will do that today and provide the outcome here.
About the GUI of the app, it's probably just me, but I never really got it looking like this -http://dd6xle2n4vut.cloudfront.net/com.serviigo_5.png. In more details - I don't seem to be able to put a background image, transparency and things like that (live wallpaper will look very well, if you have a powerfull android device). Another thing is when I start an online source, the only way to switch it to something else is to get back and choose the next (online) source. There is no way to go through the sources while the current one plays. Kind of like having a list on the left, for example, with the current sources you have. When you go to Movies, the list will give you ... let's say 5 movies around the one that plays. It can be displayed alphabetically. And the movie you watch will be in the midle, the 3rd one, so that you will see 2 movies behind and 2 ahead of the current playback. That makes more sense for online sources cause most likely you won't like to browse around while watching an interesting movie.
The way the GUI looks on my phone is good from performance point of view cause it has light graphics.
Anyway now is a good time to say big thanks for this app, I am not a programmer, never became one, nevertheless we had some Assembler, C++ and more coding lessions.

Posted: **Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:34 pm**

unicastbg wrote:About the GUI of the app, it's probably just me, but I never really got it looking like this -http://dd6xle2n4vut.cloudfront.net/com.serviigo_5.png. In more details - I don't seem to be able to put a background image, transparency and things like that (live wallpaper will look very well, if you have a powerfull android device).

This only works for recognised movies and tv shows (and only in the donate version) as the app is able to fetch additional metadata from the internet. For online sources, there is very little information available, and its not in a consitant enough way for the app to be able to pull any meaninful images etc... I have a feature request that would at least let plugins return descriptions of videos https://bitbucket.org/xnejp03/serviio/i ... es-provide but I'm not sure what the best solution would be towards getting automatic background images, suggestions would be welcome.

Another thing is when I start an online source, the only way to switch it to something else is to get back and choose the next (online) source.

That one is on my todo list (it applies to all videos), but it will only work when using the built in video player https://bitbucket.org/willlunniss/servi ... -the-video

There is no way to go through the sources while the current one plays. Kind of like having a list on the left, for example, with the current sources you have. When you go to Movies, the list will give you ... let's say 5 movies around the one that plays. It can be displayed alphabetically. And the movie you watch will be in the midle, the 3rd one, so that you will see 2 movies behind and 2 ahead of the current playback. That makes more sense for online sources cause most likely you won't like to browse around while watching an interesting movie.
The way the GUI looks on my phone is good from performance point of view cause it has light graphics.
Anyway now is a good time to say big thanks for this app, I am not a programmer, never became one, nevertheless we had some Assembler, C++ and more coding lessions.

I've been thinking about something like that, tbh the whole TV experience needs quite a bit of work as the app was not designed with them in mind (although I have slowly added a number of TV optimisations). Once 4.0 is done (and all the new bugs are fixed), then i'll try to put some time asside to work on the TV experience. Another thing I really want to add is to let you control ServiiGo running on a TV device from your phone/tablet, in the way that you will be able to control a chromecast, this will partly mitigate the problems with the current TV experience as you will be able to browse content on your phone while controlling playback on your TV.

Posted: **Thu Mar 20, 2014 9:05 am**

About the automatic background images, it's cool to see an image from the movie you are reviewing, but I imagine it's heavy in terms of performance.
Probably a background that can be changed from the Album or another source on the phone/tablet is a better option? If a live wallparer is too heavy, then probably a list of pictures that are scheduled to change in a specific time? With a transition effect of some kind.

About the chromecast like functionality, I really don't know. I never used that device and don't know how it works. I did noticed an app for Samsung TVs that was something like the ServiiGo, providing the content using a beautiful GUI. I don't remember what the app name was, if needed, I'll look it up in my TV.
So, the app is based on the server-client model and needs a PC that provides the content to the TV app. It's of course device specific, but one of the pros would be using the remote control that came with the TV.
I can't imagine how much hard work that would need, not to mention approving the app in the market. But on the other hand, you can put a price on it and I'm sure there will be quite a lot of people byuing it, as I am not aware of much alternative apps out there

Posted: **Thu Mar 20, 2014 8:49 pm**

unicastbg wrote:About the automatic background images, it's cool to see an image from the movie you are reviewing, but I imagine it's heavy in terms of performance.
Probably a background that can be changed from the Album or another source on the phone/tablet is a better option? If a live wallparer is too heavy, then probably a list of pictures that are scheduled to change in a specific time? With a transition effect of some kind.

Not really, I've put a lot of effort into making image download, cache and loading work as efficiently as possible. The first time there will be a few seconds delay (but it happens in the background so doesn't slow down the UI), but after that its cached on the device and just as fast as if it was coming from the users photos.

About the chromecast like functionality, I really don't know. I never used that device and don't know how it works. I did noticed an app for Samsung TVs that was something like the ServiiGo, providing the content using a beautiful GUI. I don't remember what the app name was, if needed, I'll look it up in my TV.
So, the app is based on the server-client model and needs a PC that provides the content to the TV app. It's of course device specific, but one of the pros would be using the remote control that came with the TV.
I can't imagine how much hard work that would need, not to mention approving the app in the market. But on the other hand, you can put a price on it and I'm sure there will be quite a lot of people byuing it, as I am not aware of much alternative apps out there

The idea of Chromecast is to turn your phone/tablet (if you have one), into the remote control, so you can pick the content you want to watch and then sends a command to the Chromecast which then requests the content from the server.

A native app for each type of smart TV would be nice for users, but it is a huge amount of work (and expense), so its not something I'm planning on doing.

I am however very interested in improving how ServiiGo works when running on Google TV, Android TV Sticks and other devices connected to a TV that are controlled via a remote control so please to try out the different keys on your remote and tell me which ones don't work as expected.

Posted: **Mon Mar 24, 2014 8:28 am**

I did a test with ServiiGo under my Android box with it's own remote control. I can confirm that the remote works and I can go anywhere using the arrows. However if I am looking at the Movies folder and have all the movies listed (not in details, but thumbnails only) there is really no way to tell which movie I am on. There is no visible selection.

Posted: **Mon Mar 24, 2014 8:41 am**

unicastbg wrote:I did a test with ServiiGo under my Android box with it's own remote control. I can confirm that the remote works and I can go anywhere using the arrows. However if I am looking at the Movies folder and have all the movies listed (not in details, but thumbnails only) there is really no way to tell which movie I am on. There is no visible selection.

Please can you post a screenshot and device info, ServiiGo switches to a special TV mode when there isn't a touchscreen present which changes the spacing and layouts so that you can see what is highlighted. I guess you're device must either have a something that can effectively be a touchscreen input, or pretend to be one. Could you also install https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... screeninfo and email the results to the support address (via menu - share) or post a screenshot here.

Posted: **Mon Mar 24, 2014 8:50 am**

Will do, but probably will reply tomorrow morning, cause the TV box is not with me now. I would guess that indeed the box does not report as touchless, as there is no difference in the layout on both my phone and the TV box. In addition the Android box has a key on its remote that shows a mouse icon that you can move using the up, down, left, right keys and click on the screen. If you press it once, it enables the mouse, pressing it again disables it.

Posted: **Thu Apr 03, 2014 9:11 am**

I was a bit away in the past few days. I'm getting married soon so there are lots of things to think about and arrange

I was playing with ServiiGo yesterday and found that if I go to Movies, Folders I am able to go to any movie listed I want. It will be highlighted so the selection is very clear. But if I sort them as all the avaialble movies on one screen, I don;t see the selection. I'll do some screenshots among the information requested in the previous post and will come back as soon as I can

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