Mailing List Archive

On 2020-07-07 16:13, Adam Skinner wrote:

> Hi List,
>
> I've got a fairly good myth setup in multiple rooms with some intel NUCs. All working pretty well.
>
> I want to add a brand new TV for a kids bedroom and am looking at recent smart TVs for sale in the UK. Theres android , tizen , webOS and whole host of other smart OS's. Minefield for the uneducated.
>
> The kid wants youtube and some other net apps - but access to MythTVs recordings / videos would be welcome. UPNP I guess is the (bad) default option. UPNP is bad as it doesn't sort well , takes a long time , doesn't seek and is prone to crashing.
> The Wife wants ITV Hub - but that doesn't seem to work on most things and if it does I wouldn't trust ITV to not remove it in a few months.
>
> If anyone has any experience of Smart TVs working with MythTV - please could you post a reply?

Our Sony became dumb a while ago, BBC IPlayer was the first to go then
gradually others. I would go for a monitor and soundbar with an nvidia
shield. You can always replace the shield with the latest gadget when it
goes stale.

Cheers,

Tim.

On 7/7/20 11:13 AM, Adam Skinner wrote:
> Hi List,
>
> I've got a fairly good myth setup in multiple rooms with some intel
> NUCs. All working pretty well.
>
> I want to add a brand new TV for a kids bedroom and am looking at
> recent smart TVs for sale in the UK. Theres android , tizen , webOS
> and whole host of other smart OS's.  Minefield for the uneducated.
>
>
> The kid wants youtube and some other net apps - but access to MythTVs
> recordings / videos would be welcome. UPNP I guess is the (bad)
> default option. UPNP is bad as it doesn't sort well , takes a long
> time  , doesn't seek and is prone to crashing.
>
> The Wife wants ITV Hub - but that doesn't seem to work on most things
> and if it does I wouldn't trust ITV to not remove it in a few months.
>
> If anyone has any experience of Smart TVs working with MythTV  -
> please could you post a reply?
>
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> _______________________________________________

Android TV should be able to run mythfrontend android version
(https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Android) and leanfront
(https://github.com/bennettpeter/android-MythTV-Leanfront/blob/master/README.md).
I don't have experience with this on a smart tv.

Another option is an android TV device. The amazon fire stick 4K is an
android device and it will run both of these perfectly at a reasonable
price and with no bulky equipment. I have been using leanfront on
android fire 4K for many months now with few problems. (disclosure - I
am the author of leanfront and I worked on mythfrontend).

If your smart TV does not deliver as expected, you can pick up an amazon
fire stick 4K, which is sometimes on sale for $35, normally $50.

Peter

On 07/07/2020 16:20, TimP wrote:
> On 2020-07-07 16:13, Adam Skinner wrote:
>
>> Hi List,
>> I've got a fairly good myth setup in multiple rooms with some intel
>> NUCs. All working pretty well.
>> I want to add a brand new TV for a kids bedroom and am looking at
>> recent smart TVs for sale in the UK. Theres android , tizen , webOS
>> and whole host of other smart OS's.  Minefield for the uneducated.
>> The kid wants youtube and some other net apps - but access to MythTVs
>> recordings / videos would be welcome. UPNP I guess is the (bad)
>> default option. UPNP is bad as it doesn't sort well , takes a long
>> time  , doesn't seek and is prone to crashing.
>> The Wife wants ITV Hub - but that doesn't seem to work on most things
>> and if it does I wouldn't trust ITV to not remove it in a few months.
>> If anyone has any experience of Smart TVs working with MythTV  -
>> please could you post a reply?
>
> Our Sony became dumb a while ago, BBC IPlayer was the first to go then
> gradually others. I would go for a monitor and soundbar with an nvidia
> shield. You can always replace the shield with the latest gadget when it
> goes stale.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tim.

A dumb tv and an Amazon FireTVstick 4k might be worth a look, although
the remote has few buttons. Lots of apps. Has mythfrontend and
'leanfront', also for mythtv, which can give excellent playback but
struggles with the formats of much UK tv. I suspect it isn't what you
want, but as an Amazon marketing tool it's cheap and support might last
longer than some other options.

John P

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On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 10:21 AM TimP <mythtv@corky.co> wrote:

> On 2020-07-07 16:13, Adam Skinner wrote:
>
> Hi List,
>
> I've got a fairly good myth setup in multiple rooms with some intel NUCs.
> All working pretty well.
>
> I want to add a brand new TV for a kids bedroom and am looking at recent
> smart TVs for sale in the UK. Theres android , tizen , webOS and whole host
> of other smart OS's. Minefield for the uneducated.
>
>
> The kid wants youtube and some other net apps - but access to MythTVs
> recordings / videos would be welcome. UPNP I guess is the (bad) default
> option. UPNP is bad as it doesn't sort well , takes a long time , doesn't
> seek and is prone to crashing.
> The Wife wants ITV Hub - but that doesn't seem to work on most things and
> if it does I wouldn't trust ITV to not remove it in a few months.
>
> If anyone has any experience of Smart TVs working with MythTV - please
> could you post a reply?
>
> Our Sony became dumb a while ago, BBC IPlayer was the first to go then
> gradually others. I would go for a monitor and soundbar with an nvidia
> shield. You can always replace the shield with the latest gadget when it
> goes stale.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tim.
>
And I have also yet to ever use a smartTV where the response of the OS was
acceptable. They seem to put them minimum in them to amke the menus barely
work.

I see that this exchange was off-list. Reposting. Again!

My comments below relate to the firestick with mythtv. As I said
earlier, it also offers lots of apps to connect to other services.
Enjoy/Beware.

On 07/07/2020 17:02, Paul Gardiner wrote:
> On 07/07/2020 16:54, John Pilkington wrote:
>> On 07/07/2020 16:20, TimP wrote:
>>> On 2020-07-07 16:13, Adam Skinner wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi List,
>>>> I've got a fairly good myth setup in multiple rooms with some intel
>>>> NUCs. All working pretty well.
>>>> I want to add a brand new TV for a kids bedroom and am looking at
>>>> recent smart TVs for sale in the UK. Theres android , tizen , webOS
>>>> and whole host of other smart OS's.  Minefield for the uneducated.
>>>> The kid wants youtube and some other net apps - but access to
>>>> MythTVs recordings / videos would be welcome. UPNP I guess is the
>>>> (bad) default option. UPNP is bad as it doesn't sort well , takes a
>>>> long time  , doesn't seek and is prone to crashing.
>>>> The Wife wants ITV Hub - but that doesn't seem to work on most
>>>> things and if it does I wouldn't trust ITV to not remove it in a few
>>>> months.
>>>> If anyone has any experience of Smart TVs working with MythTV  -
>>>> please could you post a reply?
>>>
>>> Our Sony became dumb a while ago, BBC IPlayer was the first to go
>>> then gradually others. I would go for a monitor and soundbar with an
>>> nvidia shield. You can always replace the shield with the latest
>>> gadget when it goes stale.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Tim.
>>
>> A dumb tv and an Amazon FireTVstick 4k might be worth a look, although
>> the remote has few buttons.  Lots of apps. Has mythfrontend and
>> 'leanfront', also for mythtv, which can give excellent playback but
>> struggles with the formats of much UK tv.   I suspect it isn't what
>> you want, but as an Amazon marketing tool it's cheap and support might
>> last longer than some other options.
>
> Off topic I realise, but seemed a good chance to ask: do you know what
> is the situation with frame-rate matching on the latest FireTV Stick 4K?
> I have an old Fire TV box and I'm wondering whether that aspect has
> improved. I have to perform strange contortions with the remote to get
> 24fps from a hidden menu.
>
> Paul.
> .
When I switch ny tv to the FireTVstick 4k's hdmi input, it says it's
1080p 60 Hz. I'm using 'leanfront'. I have the device Settings/Display
and Sound/Display/Match Original Frame Rate ON with Video Resolution at
Auto. Playback of pure 1080p content looks good to me, but most DVB-T2
content can switch between p and i 'at random' and may freeze. mpeg2
often pauses at around 1 s intervals, which might be a frame rate
problem. The menu info says that 'supported apps' will use the native
content frame rate.

At present I can't use the stick's standard mythfrontend because Peter's
current build is for 31-fixes and Master has has schema updates;
previously playback didn't fail but tended to judder during panning
shots. I don't know if that's a frame-rate thing. It's much the same
with linux nVidia nvdec playback. DLNA is smoother, and leanfront with
appropriate content.

Definite maybe.

John P



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On 7/7/20 2:49 PM, John Pilkington wrote:
> Off topic I realise, but seemed a good chance to ask: do you know what
> is the situation with frame-rate matching on the latest FireTV Stick
> 4K? I have an old Fire TV box and I'm wondering whether that aspect
> has improved. I have to perform strange contortions with the remote to
> get 24fps from a hidden menu.
>
> Paul.


The latest leanfront supports frame rate matching on fire stick 4k and
Shield, if you have an up to date backend.

Peter


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On 08/07/2020 08:50, Paul Gardiner wrote:
> On 07/07/2020 19:47, John Pilkington wrote:
>> I see that this exchange was off-list.  Reposting.
>>
>> My comments below relate to the firestick with mythtv.  As I said
>> earlier, it also offers lots of apps to connect to other services.
>> Enjoy/Beware.
>>
>> On 07/07/2020 17:02, Paul Gardiner wrote:
>>> Off topic I realise, but seemed a good chance to ask: do you know
>>> what is the situation with frame-rate matching on the latest FireTV
>>> Stick 4K? I have an old Fire TV box and I'm wondering whether that
>>> aspect has improved. I have to perform strange contortions with the
>>> remote to get 24fps from a hidden menu.
>>>
>>> Paul.
>>> .
>> When I switch ny tv to the FireTVstick 4k's hdmi input, it says it's
>> 1080p 60 Hz.  I'm using 'leanfront'.  I have the device
>> Settings/Display and Sound/Display/Match Original Frame Rate ON with
>> Video Resolution at Auto.  Playback of pure 1080p content looks good
>> to me, but most DVB-T2 content can switch between p and i 'at random'
>> and may freeze.  mpeg2 often pauses at around 1 s intervals, which
>> might be a frame rate problem.  The menu info says that 'supported
>> apps' will use the native content frame rate.
>>
>> At present I can't use the stick's standard mythfrontend because
>> Peter's current build is for 31-fixes and Master has had schema
>> updates;

A version for the new schema is now available.

previously playback didn't fail but tended to judder during
>> panning shots.  I don't know if that's a frame-rate thing.  It's much
>> the same with linux nVidia nvdec playback.   DLNA is smoother, and
>> leanfront with appropriate content.
>>
>> Definite maybe.
>
> That's encouraging. How about Amazon Video, Netflix and iPlayer? Do they
> seem to control the frame-rate correctly now? And is there a quick way
> now to select a specific frame-rate?
>
> P.

My impression is that the 'official' apps usually play well, but I
haven't done exhaustive tests. I don't know if I'm insensitive to
frame-rate mismatches, and I don't know of any way to change frame rates
as you suggest.

I've just returned to a recording of one of last year's BBC Proms that
always defeated leanfront. It has multichannel sound, and I assumed
that was why it failed and others didn't. But then I found Peter's
suggestion to 'mkvmerge' it, and playback of that in leanfront is fine;
playback of its 'live' segments via DLNA, from either the myth server or
my NAS 'Twonky' server has green flashing overlays. mediainfo says
it's 29.514 FPS, which seems unlikely. ffmpeg says 25.

My feeling is that, given 'smart tv' capabilities, what is technically
possible may not decide what actually gets watched in a family
environment. YMMV.

John
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