Topic: MO 4Media - remote control and player with Android TV & Android Auto support (Read 198557 times)

Kreator · « **Reply #600 on:** May 10, 2020, 11:15:43 pm »

Some pretty strange behavior in AA:
1) The app in AA has its own "memory". It does not remember what was last played in the app on the phone, but instead somehow remembers what was last played in the app through AA.
2) The "back" button (left arrow) appears to bring you to the "last screen", like in a web browser, instead of bringing you to the next higher level in the hierarchy audio-artist-album-song. Without that, how to get back from the song to the main menu?
3) The "skip forward" button does not go to the next song, but brings you back to the list of songs. What is happening for me here is that there are 30+ tracks in the album, and AA only shows me the first 4-5 and then suggests to search by voice. Well, I do not remember all the track names, so I am trying to play one of the first 4 and then "skip forward" my way to the later tracks. Seems like it should work, but it does not.
I confess not reading all of the preceding 12 pages, sorry if these issues were already discussed.
I did buy a subscription and would gladly pay a one-time purchase price, too. No other remote works with Android Auto. Unfortunately, with all of the above the Mo4media does not quite work either :-( Hope it can be fixed...

cncb · « **Reply #601 on:** May 11, 2020, 08:02:54 am »

1) This is by design - separate Playing Nows for AA and the standard app/device.
2) AA is responsible for navigation but back takes me back up the hierarchy properly. What screen other than browse screens are in the navigation history for you? There are essentially 3 screens: Playing Now, Current Queue, and Browse
3) The "search by voice" is automatically shown by AA when you are driving - it's supposed to be a safety thing. So, if you are not moving you should see the whole list. I am not sure why skip forward is behaving this way for you, but "Play" on a track just plays that track. So, you want to select "Play" in the previous menu instead of "Files" to play all the tracks, and then skip forward from there.

Kreator · « **Reply #602 on:** June 16, 2020, 09:36:04 am »

Did not do much driving lately, working from home due to lockdown, so only got to test the AA functionality in the past week.
Thanks for explaining what the skip forward button does. Indeed it moves to the next track in the playlist. If the playlist only has one track, nowhere to skip to.
The "back" button I still cannot quite figure out. What it does seem to depend on the history. Important part is, if the AA restarts in "playing now" screen, which it does often, then pressing the "back" button goes all the way back to the "Library" level. So to get to the list of tracks on the same album to choose a different song, I need to click all the way through Audio -> Artist -> Album. Quite distracting while driving.
A wish list for the AA, if I may, as a paying customer, roughly in the order of priority:
1) Add "skip forward 30 sec" and "skip back 10 sec" buttons to "playing now", pretty please. Podcasts or audiobooks are really hard without this.
2) Is it possible to make the app remember not just the track, but time position in the track, when stopped? Other apps I tried for podcasts all have both #1 and #2.
3) Add a button to clear the playlist on the playlist screen. One day I had 244 tracks in my playlist and could not delete any.
4) If there is only one track in the playlist, make the "skip forward" button move to the next track on the album.
5) Add "up" button that goes back to "list of tracks" -> "list of albums" -> "list of artists" -> "Library" or whatever custom view I have programmed for the remote. Or alternatively make the current "back" button to always behave this way.
Thanks in advance! Great app, I am enjoying it a lot. Both AA compatibility and ability to download for local playback are priceless!

cncb · « **Reply #603 on:** June 17, 2020, 08:46:52 am »

1&2) I will look into adding these.
3) If you Play either a track or group of tracks it will clear out the playback queue before playing it. The only way to accumulate tracks in the queue is if you specifically Add them instead of Playing them.
4) A track can be added to the queue from anywhere in the Library, not just from an album view, so there is not a convenient/easy way to keep track of this. Your best bet would be to select Play on the album level menu instead of the individual track so that all the album tracks are added to the playback queue. Then, press the Queue button in Playing Now and select the track you are interested in starting with.
5) Sorry, AA controls navigation and I cannot customize this.

cncb · « **Reply #604 on:** July 03, 2020, 02:20:57 pm »

v1.8.4 is available which adds in Android Auto jump/forward back buttons on the playback screen and resume from the last session. Unfortunately, resume is not working consistently for me on my head unit (seems to fail on a "cold boot") so I will try to improve that in the future.

cncb · « **Reply #605 on:** July 17, 2020, 12:55:07 pm »

v1.8.5 is now available which hopefully fixes the Android Auto resume unreliability.

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #606 on:** July 21, 2020, 09:12:30 am »

I have a question... well, two of them, that I've been meaning to ask for awhile not but kept forgetting or putting it off, but I was thinking about it again this morning.

A year ago, I got a new phone (Coolpad Legacy, which is a cheap Chinese phone but for the price it has decent features since I really don't use a phone much, I went the cheaper route) and I've noticed an issue in multiple remotes, including MO 4Media. All my 16-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC files playback fine, but if I try to play 24-bit/48 kHz and higher quality FLAC files, the remote (set to this device) can't play back the files correctly. It tries to play the tracks, but it begins to just skip around the track while it's playing. This also occurs in Gizmo and the original JRemote as well. I'm going to guess this is an issue with the media player the remotes are using for playing, and I'm going to guess ExoPlayer? My first question is, any ideas why this is happening? Am I correct to assume this is an issue with the media player the remotes are using?

I mean, I know it's an issue in the media player the remotes are using because JRemote2 which is using ExoPlayer 2 doesn't have this issue at all, and I can play back hi-res without issues.

My second question is, is there anything I can do about it to fix it? I'm going to guess probably not without transcoding (which then breaks gapless playback which equals no-go from the get go) or just using JRemote2 to playback the hi-res files? I don't suppose it'd be easy to enable ExoPlayer 2 somehow? I'll guess one more time it's probably not easy at all.

cncb · « **Reply #607 on:** July 22, 2020, 07:21:23 am »

Quote from: Awesome Donkey on July 21, 2020, 09:12:30 am

All my 16-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC files playback fine, but if I try to play 24-bit/48 kHz and higher quality FLAC files, the remote (set to this device) can't play back the files correctly.

It seems to be a function of the player and device. My Moto G6 does not work but my Pixel 3a works fine. Sorry, it would not be easy and I don't plan on changing the player at this time (it currently uses the built-in Android player for audio).

SirTom2015 · « **Reply #608 on:** August 02, 2020, 06:32:27 am »

Quote from: Awesome Donkey on July 21, 2020, 09:12:30 am

A year ago, I got a new phone (Coolpad Legacy, which is a cheap Chinese phone but for the price it has decent features since I really don't use a phone much, I went the cheaper route) and I've noticed an issue in multiple remotes, including MO 4Media. All my 16-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC files playback fine, but if I try to play 24-bit/48 kHz and higher quality FLAC files, the remote (set to this device) can't play back the files correctly.

I hope I don't get into trouble for this but my advice to you is to stop buying cheap Chinese phones and instead get yourself a used quality phone from one of the major manufacturers. I go to swappa.com to shop as they guaranteed to never sell a non working or stolen phone. You can get many phones that are one, two, or three models behind in great shape. I got a LG V30 for 125 bucks. It has no problems with MO4Media and it costs as much as your cheap Chinese made phone.
Cheap Chinese phones have a problem with their manufacturing as a lot of them use sub standard software or drivers because they never bother with quality assurance or control. So you may run into issues with apps on their phones that you wouldn't with a more robust and quality built phone. All these manufacturers care about is making a phone to get into the hands of the masses, they have no care for quality of build. Better off getting a used flagship phone from one of the major manufacturers, even if it is 3 years old.

If you want to try something before trying the upgrade thing, then I would try to reset the phone you have to factory specs and install Mo4Media first. See if the problem still exists then. As much as a cheap phone can give problems, some apps installed from the play store can also interfere. I found this out with more than one app (certain news apps, and game apps interfere for me with playback of audio files using MO4Media). If your problem still persists after this, then you know for sure it's the phone and the sub standard drivers they use to produce your audio.

Hope I was helpful. I do not work here, but I have used JRiver since version 20 and have figured out a few things with the remotes concerning how they access libraries and play them back.

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #609 on:** August 02, 2020, 06:59:02 am »

Quote from: SirTom2015 on August 02, 2020, 06:32:27 am

I hope I don't get into trouble for this but my advice to you is to stop buying cheap Chinese phones and instead get yourself a used quality phone from one of the major manufacturers.

No thanks, I'd never buy something like a phone used and I'm perfectly content with using new, cheap phones as I never really have any issues with them. Also like I said, it works in JRemote2, so I'll keep using it for the "hi-res" files in my music library and use MO 4Media for the 16-bit/44.1 kHz files. It's a bit cumbersome switching between two apps like that, but it's a workaround.

oie · « **Reply #610 on:** August 21, 2020, 11:16:18 am »

Hi cncb
Thanks for your work.
I've been trying for a while to control my server (jriver) from the Amazom stick (fire TV 4k stick I believe its the real name ) for video. I have not managed with jremote or JRemote 2. It has worked fairly well with Gizmo so I thought to give it a go to your app. Everything seems to work very well when controlling JRiver from my mobile.
I have uploaded the app to the fire stick using Apps2fire. Again it seems to work very well except that it does not recognise my subscription and it asks me to pay again. This is "bad" enough 😀😀😀 but when I try to pay again (I hope not 😊) the button doesn't respond.
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance
Oscsr

cncb · « **Reply #611 on:** August 21, 2020, 12:08:06 pm »

Quote from: oie on August 21, 2020, 11:16:18 am

Again it seems to work very well except that it does not recognise my subscription and it asks me to pay again.

Amazon has its own app store (separate from Google's) and I don't plan to set up an Amazon developer account anytime soon. Sorry.

oie · « **Reply #612 on:** August 21, 2020, 01:52:36 pm »

Hi cncb,
Thanks for your answer.
I am not a technical guy at all so please forgive my ignorance but would be somehow possible for the app i install in the stich to "remember " the purchasing details of the app in my mobile?.
Sorry again and many thanks
Oscar

cncb · « **Reply #613 on:** August 21, 2020, 02:04:53 pm »

Quote from: oie on August 21, 2020, 01:52:36 pm

I am not a technical guy at all so please forgive my ignorance but would be somehow possible for the app i install in the stich to "remember " the purchasing details of the app in my mobile?.

Unfortunately, no. It requires the Google Play Store and Google Services to see your purchase and I don't think there is any way to install those on your Fire Stick.

oie · « **Reply #614 on:** August 21, 2020, 02:32:11 pm »

Many thanks cncb.
Regards,
Oscar

oie · « **Reply #615 on:** August 24, 2020, 05:32:24 am »

Hi,
Would be possible to add on the Audio/Streaming section the other Radio Paradise channels (Mellow etc)?.
Many thanks,
Oscar

cncb · « **Reply #616 on:** August 24, 2020, 01:22:56 pm »

Quote from: oie on August 24, 2020, 05:32:24 am

Would be possible to add on the Audio/Streaming section the other Radio Paradise channels (Mellow etc)?.

I'll check into this. Thanks.

Ekpen · « **Reply #617 on:** September 02, 2020, 06:21:00 pm »

Hello:
I have of recent used the built in media player, and it does work well.
Thank you for an app well constructed.
My question now is if the built in media player can be updated to trigger a dolby vision contained within an mkv file.?
Again, THANK YOU.
George.

cncb · « **Reply #618 on:** September 03, 2020, 06:46:40 am »

Quote from: Ekpen on September 02, 2020, 06:21:00 pm

My question now is if the built in media player can be updated to trigger a dolby vision contained within an mkv file.?

Sorry, not at this time.

TheShoe · « **Reply #619 on:** September 22, 2020, 06:35:21 am »

a bit off topic but google play charged me another annual subscription for MO 4Media but the app on my shield tv refuses to acknowledge the renewal was paid for, even after reinstalling. only plays video for 30 seconds.

how can i fix this?

cncb · « **Reply #620 on:** September 22, 2020, 07:13:40 am »

I just replied to your email.

cncb · « **Reply #621 on:** September 29, 2020, 10:45:22 am »

v1.9.0 is available. It now uses HLS VOD streaming for converted video so that seeking and resume is now possible on mobile, casting, and TV. MC27 is required for this.

oie · « **Reply #622 on:** October 21, 2020, 05:57:45 am »

Many thanks for the last update, specially for the inclusion of the other Radio Paradise channels.
Regards,
Oscar

jmone · « **Reply #623 on:** November 16, 2020, 11:49:59 pm »

Quote from: cncb on September 29, 2020, 10:45:22 am

v1.9.0 is available. It now uses HLS VOD streaming for converted video so that seeking and resume is now possible on mobile, casting, and TV. MC27 is required for this.

Hi Craig, I dusted off the 2017 Shield to do some more testing along side the Chromecast with Google TV. It seems that when using the video conversion option all the results are 30fps instead of using the Auto FPS profile? If it is by design having 30fps, would it be possible to have a "Auto FPS" option as my library is a mix (mostly of 23.976 and 50fps) content that ends up a juddery mess when encoded at 30fps.

Also, have you heard anymore from Hendrik on the "Just Remux" option? Would really solve a bunch of issues (like BD Rips) and keeps the quality "original" instead of the lossy on the fly transcoding.

Thanks
Nathan

cncb · « **Reply #624 on:** November 20, 2020, 01:53:28 pm »

Quote from: jmone on November 16, 2020, 11:49:59 pm

It seems that when using the video conversion option all the results are 30fps instead of using the Auto FPS profile? If it is by design having 30fps, would it be possible to have a "Auto FPS" option as my library is a mix (mostly of 23.976 and 50fps) content that ends up a juddery mess when encoded at 30fps.

Also, have you heard anymore from Hendrik on the "Just Remux" option? Would really solve a bunch of issues (like BD Rips) and keeps the quality "original" instead of the lossy on the fly transcoding.

Hi Nathan,

Sorry, I am not aware of any new video conversion profiles available or a straight remux option. Unless things have changed, you can only specify a general "quality" (MO uses "very high") and not specify FPS or anything like that.

jmone · « **Reply #625 on:** November 20, 2020, 02:20:38 pm »

Hi Craig, this post from Hendrik is a bit old so I'm not sure if Conversion=43 (very high in Auto FPS) now also works with HLS.... but it does with TS and the MKV option may also be interesting.
Thanks
Nathan

Quote from: Hendrik on October 30, 2018, 01:21:57 pm

We have a long list of video conversion profiles. For Chromecast, we use HLS to wrap TS streams.

Profiles relevant for streaming (ie. the same ones you get through Android Low/Medium/High/VeryHigh, plus AutoFPS variants)

Quality=Low
35 - H264-TS 240p, AAC, 30 FPS, 0.5mbit
40 - H264-TS 240p, AAC, Auto FPS, 0.5mbit

Quality=Medium
36 - H264-TS 480p, AAC, 30 FPS, 1.5mbit
41 - H264-TS 480p, AAC, Auto FPS, 1.5mbit

Quality=High
37 - H264-TS 720p, AAC, 30 FPS, 5mbit
42 - H264-TS 720p, AAC, Auto FPS, 5mbit

Quality=Very High
38 - H264-TS 1080p, AAC, 30 FPS, 10mbit
43 - H264-TS 1080p, AAC, Auto FPS, 10mbit

If you want to use HLS for Chromecast, the only way to currently access that is through a command like this:
Conversion=Android&Quality=Medium&HLS=1

Otherwise you can also access things through Conversion=43, but not in HLS.

There is also MKV streaming profiles, 60-63 for Low to Very High, but that mode is not tested well since I'm not sure which devices use it. It can be selected in DLNA though.

I'm working on some better interfaces to the streaming profiles, so you can get a list of defined profiles for a certain use-case, better opt into certain features like HLS, and also offer multi-channel audio. But how exactly thats going to work we'll see in the future.

jmone · « **Reply #626 on:** November 20, 2020, 02:30:04 pm »

FYI - I've sent Hendrik a PM asking if he could update us on the profiles and any thoughts going forward.

vma · « **Reply #627 on:** December 04, 2020, 02:58:25 am »

I like MO 4Media a lot. It is nice that it is possible to see lyrics when I open a tag. What annoys me is, that I have to open a tag for each song. Is there any idea how to see new lyrics when there is next song?

cncb · « **Reply #628 on:** December 04, 2020, 08:06:54 am »

Quote from: jmone on November 20, 2020, 02:30:04 pm

FYI - I've sent Hendrik a PM asking if he could update us on the profiles and any thoughts going forward.

Did you hear anything?

cncb · « **Reply #629 on:** December 04, 2020, 08:10:34 am »

Quote from: vma on December 04, 2020, 02:58:25 am

I like MO 4Media a lot. It is nice that it is possible to see lyrics when I open a tag. What annoys me is, that I have to open a tag for each song. Is there any idea how to see new lyrics when there is next song?

Not currently, but I could add a specific screen that just displays lyrics and is updated when the song changes. Or, I could try to display it over the cover art in the Playing Now screen. Any preference?

vma · « **Reply #630 on:** December 06, 2020, 02:59:58 pm »

Quote from: cncb on December 04, 2020, 08:10:34 am

Not currently, but I could add a specific screen that just displays lyrics and is updated when the song changes. Or, I could try to display it over the cover art in the Playing Now screen. Any preference?

Thank you. I think that a specific screen is better.

cncb · « **Reply #631 on:** December 12, 2020, 06:29:54 pm »

v1.9.1 is available:

- Add Lyrics display screen (launch it from More menu in playback controls)
- Display basic file info next to rating stars in Playing Now
- [ATV] Support playback of multiple videos (queue) in Playing Now

DJLegba · « **Reply #632 on:** December 12, 2020, 10:02:03 pm »

Craig, thanks for continuing to develop this great app. I never download lyrics in MC, so the lyrics tag is always empty. Is this why I don't see anything about lyrics in the more menu?

vma · « **Reply #633 on:** December 13, 2020, 01:17:00 am »

Craig, thank you very much for the upgrade. The Lyric display screen and displaying basic file info are great.

vma · « **Reply #634 on:** December 13, 2020, 01:26:51 am »

Quote from: DJLegba on December 12, 2020, 10:02:03 pm

Craig, thanks for continuing to develop this great app. I never download lyrics in MC, so the lyrics tag is always empty. Is this why I don't see anything about lyrics in the more menu?

You can try to fill a Lyrics tag with text - any text, or try to find lyrics by enabling it on the main screen JRiver player. You should see the lyrics then.

cncb · « **Reply #635 on:** December 13, 2020, 07:04:38 am »

That's right. If the Lyrics tag is empty, the menu won't display the "Show Lyrics" option.

Noman · « **Reply #636 on:** December 25, 2020, 10:42:00 am »

Tried it on my Chromecast with Google TV. Looks great and works with pictures and audio in mp3 and flac (not ape) formats. Not working well with video from my jriver media server. I use VLC and it plays everything. MO4 tells me "no audio" and " no video" on most video files.? Have to get it to work before buying. What am I missing?

cncb · « **Reply #637 on:** December 25, 2020, 10:56:35 am »

That would suggest that the device cannot natively handle the audio codec (e.g. DTS audio). You would need to have the MC server transcode the video. Go to the settings screen in the MO 4Media Android TV app and add the file type for these videos to be transcoded.

Mr. Odd · « **Reply #638 on:** December 25, 2020, 11:18:13 am »

Thanks for a great piece of software!

Can MO 4Media play local files stores on the phone's SD card?

Can a playlist move between renderers? E.g. I'm playing an album in the car, where the output is through the local device, and I get home and want to switch it to one of my wifi speakers, continuing where I left off.

cncb · « **Reply #639 on:** December 25, 2020, 11:38:07 am »

Quote from: Mr. Odd on December 25, 2020, 11:18:13 am

Can MO 4Media play local files stores on the phone's SD card?

Only if they are downloaded from the MC server within the MO 4Media app. It can't play files on the SD card from an external source.

Quote from: Mr. Odd on December 25, 2020, 11:18:13 am

Can a playlist move between renderers? E.g. I'm playing an album in the car, where the output is through the local device, and I get home and want to switch it to one of my wifi speakers, continuing where I left off.

Unfortunately, no. The device is separate from normal MC zones so you would have to use bluetooth at home to continue where you left off with the device.

Noman · « **Reply #640 on:** December 25, 2020, 11:58:58 am »

Quote from: cncb on December 25, 2020, 10:56:35 am

That would suggest that the device cannot natively handle the audio codec (e.g. DTS audio). You would need to have the MC server transcode the video. Go to the settings screen in the MO 4Media Android TV app and add the file type for these videos to be transcoded.

Running jriver on an azulle mini pc and this option takes forever.. Jremote2 plays every video on my phone instantly? Does it work in a different way?. Have to stick to VLC on the chrome with google tv until this is resolved. MO4 has a much better user interfacecthan VLC.

cncb · « **Reply #641 on:** December 25, 2020, 01:00:50 pm »

Quote from: Noman on December 25, 2020, 11:58:58 am

Running jriver on an azulle mini pc and this option takes forever.. Jremote2 plays every video on my phone instantly? Does it work in a different way?. Have to stick to VLC on the chrome with google tv until this is resolved. MO4 has a much better user interfacecthan VLC.

JRemote's player probably can software decode DTS, etc. so transcoding is unnecessary. Does your mini pc have a "modern" CPU such that you could use hardware-accelerated video transcoding in the MC server? That probably would speed it up. Otherwise, you can also use VLC as an external video player in MO. This requires you to purchase the app, but you could try it for a few days and if it is not to your liking, contact me for a refund.

deone · « **Reply #642 on:** December 25, 2020, 01:52:47 pm »

I'm using MO 4Media v1.9.1 on Android 11 with MC 27 running on a Mac.
When doing searches I frequently see duplicate results. E.g., when I search for "Drive all night" I get two hits for "Drive all night" and when I click on either of them the results are exactly the same.
Why am I getting the duplicate results and how do I prevent that?

cncb · « **Reply #643 on:** December 26, 2020, 07:07:49 am »

The duplicates are probably because you have 2 different songs with the same name. I can look into filtering out duplicate results in the future but there is currently no way to prevent it.

deone · « **Reply #644 on:** December 26, 2020, 01:10:43 pm »

I do have multiple versions of many songs but I expect to see those versions when I click on a name in this view. Instead, I get multiple instances in this view (e.g., Drive all night or Prove it all night in the screenshot) and then when I click on one of them I see different versions of the songs.

cncb · « **Reply #645 on:** December 27, 2020, 07:07:38 am »

Yes, only one should be shown in the results display. I will work on that for a future release. Thanks.

deone · « **Reply #646 on:** January 03, 2021, 01:08:59 pm »

I've been trying to download a playlist (Android 11 phone) and the playlist has 12 songs yet it downloads only 3 and then stops. It does not give any error indicating an issue: so just a silent failure.

cncb · « **Reply #647 on:** January 03, 2021, 03:30:41 pm »

deone · « **Reply #648 on:** January 03, 2021, 07:20:33 pm »

Thanks for the instructions. I did as you suggested and it had no effect. The download of the playlist again downloaded just three of the songs and stopped.

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #649 on:** January 04, 2021, 03:55:48 am »

What version of Media Center are you using? If you're not using MC27 you might try that and see if it works.

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Author Topic: MO 4Media - remote control and player with Android TV & Android Auto support (Read 198557 times)