[Q] Android as a desktop operating system - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting
I was thinking of the coolness factor of just having one device, a phone, to which you could connect an external display and have an extended desktop. I am not finding any reference to this on Android (only the MS Surface). From what I have been reading, and remember/understand (may be confused), Jelly Bean brought the ability for windowing apps. However, the apps have to be coded for the capability, unless you root your phone and installed an app that provided windowing for all apps. Also, I have not heard of the possibility of having an extended desktop in Android.
I would like to ask WHY? Why not have windowing and the ability for an extended desktop, on an external display? A bluetooth keyboard and mouse just follows. Does google have to play nice with the manufacturers that stand to loose from people only needing one device? Is there a reason I'm not thinking of? Most phones are fast enough for this these days.
At the turn of the century, I was running GPS software Deluo Routis on a Sony Vaio 505 Pentium 200Mhz laptop running Win98. The 2-D graphics were smooth even while playing mp3's through the car speakers. The mapping software showed the map clearly, and effectively gave me navigation. People have lost sight of how much you can do if you give up the bloat and bling.
Also, I am pretty confused with the merging of Android and Chrome. I never liked Java to begin with; my experience with it is in MS Windows, and it runs slow as molasses. I believe my phone would run much faster if they had not chosen Java. I understand this to be because you have an operating system running on top of another operating system. It just makes more sense to me to have less layers and run apps natively, for better performance. I thought maybe they chose Java for its level of security. Is the screening process for Google Play not foolproof enough?
I like the philosophy of Google better than Microsoft**, so if one of them is going to win, I hope it's Google. I'm hoping Google won't end up with a convoluted Android/Chrome operating system because Lawyers forced them to (the idea I get based on the latest news). I don't understand: do they want to keep their OS architecture simple, but are being forced to make the OS complex for different reasons?
**Apple doesn't even want to compete. They have never wanted to dominate, just make huge profits. Unless they break up the marriage of hardware and software, they won't win. Then again, if Samsung keeps dominating, there may not be much hardware diversity?
Oh, and my main question was: "Why not have windowing and the ability for an extended desktop?". Wouldn't that be a big deciding factor for anyone that wanted to simplify and just have one device?
Anybody? Tell me I'm crazy at least. There has to be a strategic reason, that Google does not introduce full windowing and extended desktop support.
Its coming eventually. though you could do it right now. Motorola tried something like this with their atrix lapdocks.
Sent from my Samsung i437p using Tapatalk and CM 10.2
E_Phather said:
Its coming eventually. though you could do it right now. Motorola tried something like this with their atrix lapdocks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you do it right now with any android device having a video port?
Well lets look at how we could achieve this with todays technology.
Input:
Bluetooth Mouse & keyboard.
Output:
Wireless display with support for older displays using something like Chromecast.
Graphical User Interface:
A secondary Launcher/Application (Which could potentially see companies like MS & Canonical developing their own UI's and Charging for them if required).
Home & Office use with one device:
Home would be the default UI, but when your device has used NFC to log into the office it would automatically enable your Office profile/UI for a certain length of time (requiring you to log back in after a set time or manual log out via another NFC tap).
This would be very useful as it would enable you to take your "desktop" environment anywhere with you and connect to any HDTV with Wireless display/Chromecast support.
Applications:
So if like me you are finding your phone to become ever more a better solution to your digital needs and you only require your desktop for apps which work better with larger displays (Videos & certain games) you will find this very useful.
Games:
Now games could become ever more better as they could be controlled using standardised control inputs (game controllers could use standardised input methods allowing you to select any compatible controller to best suit your needs) or even a driving game could allow you to see the game on a HDTV yet be controlled with the accelerometer for steering and the right of the devices touch display would be the accelerator and the left of the display would be the brakes for example.
More Business Solutions:
If you could wirelessly connect to the office display then show a powerpoint style presentation that would be great because the very device which stores the file would also be your controller to move to the next/pevious slides.
Media:
Music could possibly be stored in the cloud so when your on the move you can listen to your music as many of us do now, but when connected to a large display it could utilise the large display and speakers to show a music video too!.
Photos could be viewed on the large screen and the next one to be displayed could be select on the device (allowing the use to avoid showing anyone pictures which they don't want other to see - ie: pitcures of you and your friends whilst your parents/grandparents are in the room...).
The TV Guide:
The TV Guide would become a very interactive thing which allows you to see what is available on other TV channels without other people in the room being limited to viewing the content they are trying to watch in a small box in the corner of the display...
These are just some ideas of what is possible, but I know that you could do so much more with this and with 64-bit technology coming to many mobile devices soon that will make it so much easier for devices to process all of this data at once without any serious lag!.
I would love to see a group of developers on XDA team up on an open desktop (secondary) launcher to run alongside the users primary (phone) launcher. if there was a project like this with an open framework to develop apps for I'd be happy to start developing apps for that or separate UI's to run alongside my current (Phone/Android) apps UI's.
Edit:
Also remember that this could be utilised in other ways too eg:: connecting your device to your car and your device could deliver your navigation & music to your vehicles display whilst getting important traffic/weather news using your devices network connection!.
Isn't this exactly what the Ubuntu phone intends to do or have I got the wrong idea?
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Yes, but with Android already having a large ecosystem it would make a lot of sense to build upon that.
Chromecast is not "open" to third party apps. http://www.minyanville.com/sectors/...eeds-to-Tread-Lightly-With/8/28/2013/id/51502
Do they have a displayport version of Chromecast? *cough*
quote from: http://www.tested.com/tech/set-top-boxes/457036-testing-google-chromecast/
"Chromecast is also not a particularly good desktop mirroring option, either. It actually can't do full desktop mirroring, and instead works solely with the Chrome browser. In beta right now is Chrome tab streaming, which sends to Chromecast everything that can be rendered in a single Chrome tab, including web pages, flash embeds, and even full-screen MKV video files if you have VLC installed. I like that Chrome tab streaming works independently of what's showing on your laptop or desktop's screen--like with YouTube and Netflix, you can multi-task and switch to other tabs or windows while one tab is being streamed. The only thing that matters is the window size and screen resolution. Chromecast will automatically scale the aspect ratio of your window to fill up your TV screen, adding black bars on the sides to avoid stretching. A full-screen resolution of 1440x900 looked good on a large 1080p TV, but streaming from a 2560x1600 monitor at full-screen made the text unreadable on my 70" TV."
Wow... I thought only displayport was capable of 2560x1600 (edit: hdmi v1.3 brought this). Even if I hook it up to my 2560x1600 monitor, it won't really display anything but entertainment. Chromecast doesn't seem to be a way to have a monitor, to use your Android phone as a PC replacement.
AllCast !!!
http://www.geek.com/android/chromecast-reject-becomes-allcast-public-beta-now-available-1578674/
However, I still need to add some kind of wifi enabled device to my 30" lcd monitor (like with chromecast). Really, I don't mind a cable connection from my phone to my monitor, if that was an option. If Google continues to be closed like this, then I would go for Ubuntu phone.
Displayport:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyDP#SlimPort
Any phones have this besides the Google Nexus 4? Actually, I'm not getting a new phone until I know what the hell will happen with Android / Chrome OS
Quote from: http://www.tested.com/tech/android/457205-mhl-vs-slimport/
"SlimPort's support for the DisplayPort standard--specifically Mobility DisplayPort--means it can output video at the same 4K resolution as MHL, though not via HDMI (yet, anyway). And here SlimPort hasn't really made good on its potential, yet; though it's based on the flexible DisplayPort standard, the only SlimPort adapters currently available are for VGA and HDMI connectors. The upshot is that you won't be plugging a Nexus 7 into a 1440p DisplayPort computer monitor anytime soon." http://www.slimportconnect.com/
Chromecast May Get Screen Mirroring With Android 4.4.1
Evidence in Android 4.4.1 indicates that screen mirroring is coming to Chromecast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/chromecast-google-screen-mirroring-kitkat-android,25345.html
It could start with mirroring a primary display, but gradually result in mirroring something that a GPU has rendered for a secondary display.
A dock from Samsung Galaxy phones. Has USB ports, HDMI, and audio.
http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones-accessories/EDD-S20JWEGSTA
mraeryceos said:
A dock from Samsung Galaxy phones. Has USB ports, HDMI, and audio.
http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones-accessories/EDD-S20JWEGSTA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that myself with my previous Galaxy S4 (i9500), It was a great dock and when I connected my wireless KB & Mouse USB dongle & connected the HDMI to my PC monitor it was a good experience when doing things like playing GTA3 on the bigger screen (it was better than the windows version in some ways).
But the device just needed a separate home screen UI to be output to the PC screen to look perfect and to work better with the KB & Mouse input type.
It shouldn't be too difficult to make a UI that simply changes the size of some buttons to a smaller size, enabling more widgets to fit on the home screen and if they could simply force the apps to run in either windowed or full screen that would enable better multi-tasking, then the browsers would just need a small update to detect if the device is running in Desktop Mode if so, then simply zoom out of the page a little to emulate the desktop browser experience.
Just a few ideas... If Google's Android team are reading this, I would recommend that you get that dock to experiment with for future Android builds.
Especially now that OS' like Ubuntu Phone are looking at going down this road of the one device fits all computational needs.
Rather than creating a new thread I thought that it would appropriate to bring this topic back up after the recent announcements that several OEM's have made, that they will be releasing desktops with Android as their Primary/Secondary OS.
I hope that this pushes Google into creating a dedicated desktop UI in the future.
Related
[Q] How can we solve the remote desktop right click problem?
So I got my dock today and I've begun sampling remote desktop solutions including several RDP clients, VNC clients and Splashtop HD. So far Splashtop seems to be the clear winner in terms of video performance, which is important to me as I'd like to at least be able to do simple things in games with high video demands (check the auction house in MMOs for example). The problem is that when I plug in a USB mouse or use the touchpad with Splashtop HD, there is no right click support- right click seems to be bound at some level to back in Android. I have not pulled the trigger yet on Remote RDP (paid) because I already own splashtop, so any comparison between the video on the two would be great, also. So, questions: How might it be possible to change the way android sees a right click from the mouse? If it were possible to make android see a right click as a random rarely used character like ` (tilde), there are ways to tell your desktop to interpret such a key as a right click (mousefighter comes to mind). If the above proves impossible or unwieldy, is anything comparable in terms of video to splashtop?
I agree splashtop is pretty incredible from a video standpoint. You might try gotomypc? I believe they have an android app. I didn't know about this right click issue, I've been using splashtop but I don't have my dock yet. I'm sure there is a workaround... TF201 | XDA Premium
i use pocketcloud. The free version only allows one config but i just reconfig when i need to. It has a nice mechism for different mouse and keyboard functions but i have not tried an actual mouse with it. Not sure how good video and stuff is since i just use it to admin servers. It does pass windows sounds though.
Plz post in the Q & A forum..
Pocketcloud Free does support right click from an external mouse Sadly, de paid pro doesn't I hope they will upgrade soon.
I don't know if this would theoretically help, but in ICS there's a setting to change the touchpad right-click to long press rather than back. Doesn't seem to work for me though...
[Q] Ok, I have been wondering why I have a desktop when I have my Prime. Thoughts?
I use my desktop somewhat. Play games once in awhile...But mainly use my Prime...It plays games that I like. I stream Netflix for movies, tv shows etc...Why do I even need a desktop anymore. Would I miss it if it were gone? Not sure. Have any of you ran into this dilemma?
Well i play games on mine plus i have 3tb of storage that i use to stream movies to two TVs in the house. That and i had a desktop before the prime and resell value sucks so not worth the hassle to sell it for a low amount. And i still use ms office on the desktop.
i actually don't have a desktop...or pc anymore. Completely abandoned them for the Prime. Why? Well first it was because I wanted to see if Android was self sufficient yet - could I do the same things I do on the Prime that I do on my PC...and the answer was an overwhelming YES. There are lots of wishes though - I wish I had USB 3.0 more than ever. I wish there were at least 2 USB ports on my prime - but the hub seems to temporarily work. Most importantly, however, I wish there was an automatic editing program like Kingsoft or QuickOffice Pro that offered an in-program printing solution. This is probably my #1 complaint. I use PrinterShare (paid key) for Docs and PDFs (do a lot of printing of those) - and for my photos, I use Canon EPP which works well when I print pictures. However, neither of these programs offer the customization of printing within Windows - such as auto center for pdfs or High Quality color printing within Canon EPP. Now I know either Acer or Toshiba is coming out with a tablet with built in printing - to any printer!! that's news to me, I only hope it can work effectively, as I still cannot print collate documents all the time. But why do you have a desktop? Probably because in time you will still need it - or you haven't forced yourself to use Android consistently. Flash is working well for me, one way or another, in either Opera Mobile Browser or ICS Browser +. I haven't used Dolphin in a while but most flash applications and java intensive work well within Opera and Browser+. I also tend to use OnLive for streaming windows desktop - If i REALLY need something. I know in terms of games with GaiKai system coming it is going to be very different in the future - and one day when I have a fast enough internet connection sure I'll play Skyrim streaming. My big wish was that the Padfone came over to the US before the SGS III - but it hasn't and it won't. I truly wanted to be the all-in-one. I'm tired of checking my android phone when it beeps if it's a text message or email - and then to check my prime for the same thing. I do wish I could have bought the padfone - I think it's a fantastic idea and I dont even care that it's that thick - I just hope they did enough hardware enhancements that the hinge isn't too bad and they added enough counter weights to the keyboard dock. I definitely thought the pricing, for what it offered, wasn't bad at all. Sorry to go off a little topic but - with your desktop you can do one thing very well...... Be productive!!!
More About How Miracast Works on Android
http://ausdroid.net/2012/11/17/lg-australia-nexus-4-optimus-g-and-miracast/ Yes, the article isn't about N10 per se, but it has relevant info about Miracast that would translate to N10--whenever Goog can deliver on its claim of Miracast being a 4.2 feature rather than a phone-specific feature. Salient points from the piece: "Both the Nexus 4 and Optimus G feature Miracast. On the Nexus 4, it’s supported through Android 4.2’s Secondary Displays...On the Optimus G, it’s part of the standard OS and can be enabled with a tap on a dedicated toggle in the notification shade’s Quick Settings area. "Josh’s demonstration included browsing a photo gallery in full-screen mode on the TV, playback of HD video (an MKV file, no less), web browsing, and a game of Angry Birds. The phone can send output to the Miracast display from an application – for example, a video – and continue to use the phone normally. Josh demoed this by playing a video on the TV while playing Angry Birds on the phone. "Another quirk is that Miracast uses your Wifi antenna, so you can’t maintain a connection to your home network while transmitting and will instead be relying on mobile data. This is a definite drawback compared to competing systems like AirPlay, but it’s something that could be added or changed as Miracast evolves. "Notably, the demo was performed on the Optimus G. There seem to be issues with the implementation on the Nexus 4 which should be sorted out with a software update. This seems OK, as no-one has Miracast-capable hardware at the moment." One of the things I wondered about Miracast was how it can maintain two wifi connections with a single radio. If the above is true, then it can't, so you can't do something like streaming Netflix from online, through your device, to the TV. This would put a massive damper on Miracast's appeal if you can't access the net (via wifi) while using Mira... Hmm, may be that's why Mira isn't available on N10. It only has wifi. Also interesting that Mira implementations are different on OptiG and N4.
ummm... Well I can't wait for android to actually allow wifi streaming apps like 'MirrorOp Sender' apps (plenty more on the market) get root access to the 'screen image'. That is the only issue I am having, I have successfully used the Nexus 7 as my PC monitor with 'MirrorOp Receiver' as well as actually controlling the PC (windows 7) from the nexus with the same app, however as soon as I try to connect my Nexus 7 to the Qumi projector it informs me that root access is required, and to be quite honest I am not at all interested on rooting the nexus, I believe Google should include these things on the OS as they announced they would on JellyBean 4.2... a bit disappointing it still isn't out!
[APP][2014.12.08] TVHZ
This app allows you to switch the hertz of your display. This is a tool for advanced users, please read this entire description. Hopefully this app will be obsolete sooner rather than later. If you have a compatible TV or monitor, you may want to view specific content on a different hz. Apps can actually switch the hz used by your device. This feature is new to Android, and thus very few apps support it yet, which is the main reason an app like this one can come in handy. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, even if developers added this functionality to their apps (devs: check preferredRefreshRate in WindowManager.LayoutParams), it may not work right or at all. There are several issues with Google's current implementation, as it exists on the Nexus Player, firmware LRX21V: - The available modes appear to only be detected on Android TV boot. This means your TV or receiver needs to be turned on and switched to the correct input before booting the Android TV device, or not all the modes your TV supports will be recognized. - Switching hz may break audio. This app provides an option to fix that, but that does require your device to be rooted. Note that this may be both Android TV device as well TV dependent - your setup may not display this issue. - Switching hz may randomly reboot the device - The Android API lies. It'll happily report the current refresh rate to be X hz while it is actually Y hz, which may cause timing issues for video apps that actually take refresh rate into account. - There is no hz override in display settings So, until these things are fixed Google-side - and it would actually start to make sense for developers to include the functionality in their apps - at least you can play around with this. Note that 'forcing' a certain hz might be wording it too strong. Android is still free to ignore the setting, and if an app really wanted to, it could override it as well. Disclaimer: works for me, provided as-is, this app has no support, the situation describe above may change at any time Why? I was looking at committing this feature into xbmc/kodi, so I built a quick proof-of-concept app first, as I has not used the API before. During testing I quickly noted that the API doesn't work reliably enough yet to be part of that project. Download Google Play (this link is pending Play cache update and Play team approval)
Gonna be a bit off-topic here, sorry about that. I don't have a Nexus Player, but changing the external display's refresh rate was one of the features I wanted for a long time, it was the last missing thing to have a nice, smooth movie playback experience in an app like xbmc/kodi. How device-dependent is this app? Can I use it on a N5 for instance? (or a Chromecast?) It has power to pretty much play any video file, it has an 1080p display and can send 1080p through hdmi, so a ~24 hz refresh rate for movies is all that's missing. It's nice to see Android itself supporting this (even if it currently broken as you say). What about the external display's modes or the external display's resolution, can they also be changed? The other problem for a good movie experience is with devices not having an exact 1080p display (like the N7 2013). Since the external display is always mirrored (and not extended), the device's 1920*1200 image will be shrunk to the TV's 1920*1080 screen leaving black bars on the sides which really sucks. I've seen some root-required hacks for the N7 2013 to force a standard 1080p resolution, but that's not a real solution... It would be nice to have these sorted out, because until that, even a Raspberry Pi provides a way superior movie-experience than pretty much any Android-powered stuff...
Will this work on the ADT-1?
What about 120Hz TVs? I dont see 120Hz in the selection is that because of some limitation?
scorpeeon said: Gonna be a bit off-topic here, sorry about that. I don't have a Nexus Player, but changing the external display's refresh rate was one of the features I wanted for a long time, it was the last missing thing to have a nice, smooth movie playback experience in an app like xbmc/kodi. How device-dependent is this app? Can I use it on a N5 for instance? (or a Chromecast?) It has power to pretty much play any video file, it has an 1080p display and can send 1080p through hdmi, so a ~24 hz refresh rate for movies is all that's missing. It's nice to see Android itself supporting this (even if it currently broken as you say). What about the external display's modes or the external display's resolution, can they also be changed? The other problem for a good movie experience is with devices not having an exact 1080p display (like the N7 2013). Since the external display is always mirrored (and not extended), the device's 1920*1200 image will be shrunk to the TV's 1920*1080 screen leaving black bars on the sides which really sucks. I've seen some root-required hacks for the N7 2013 to force a standard 1080p resolution, but that's not a real solution... It would be nice to have these sorted out, because until that, even a Raspberry Pi provides a way superior movie-experience than pretty much any Android-powered stuff... Click to expand... Click to collapse First, this app is written only with the main display in mind. As such, it won't work for external displays as it seems you are after. It won't work on an N5 or N7 either as this incarnation of the app only has a TV interface. It won't run on a Chromecast, because that doesn't actually run Android apps. Also, I'm pretty sure the main screens of the N5 and N7 only support 60hz. That being said, and I have never tried this myself (I really should get a mini-HDMI cable to I can play with this stuff), so take this with a big grain of salt, but from what I've seen and read, the scaling and mirroring you mention is app-based. The Android API does provide mechanisms to display content in the full resolution of the external display (since API 17), but the app requires (potentially a lot of) extra code to do this. The mirroring (and thus auto-scaling) is merely the default thing Android does when an app does not override that behavior. Quickly checking the API docs, it also appears to be possible to adjust the hz of the secondary display in the same way (since API 21). However, again, the currently active app is the one who must control this. TVHZ uses a trick to get around the restriction of having to be the currently active app. It does not appear this trick can be used the same way to control the hz of an external screen, through the regular API. This does not necessarily mean it isn't possible (without root), it just means more investigation would be required to know for sure. xamadeix said: Will this work on the ADT-1? Click to expand... Click to collapse I have not tried.
the_mentor said: What about 120Hz TVs? I dont see 120Hz in the selection is that because of some limitation? Click to expand... Click to collapse No. 120hz is display panel refresh rate, not an input refresh rate. Don't worry about it With stuff like this the rule is pretty much, if you don't know why you would change it and what you would change it to, you're probably best off with the default (unless someone specifically tells you otherwise).
Chainfire said: First, this app is written only with the main display in mind. As such, it won't work for external displays as it seems you are after. It won't work on an N5 or N7 either as this incarnation of the app only has a TV interface. It won't run on a Chromecast, because that doesn't actually run Android apps. Also, I'm pretty sure the main screens of the N5 and N7 only support 60hz. That being said, and I have never tried this myself (I really should get a mini-HDMI cable to I can play with this stuff), so take this with a big grain of salt, but from what I've seen and read, the scaling and mirroring you mention is app-based. The Android API does provide mechanisms to display content in the full resolution of the external display (since API 17), but the app requires (potentially a lot of) extra code to do this. The mirroring (and thus auto-scaling) is merely the default thing Android does when an app does not override that behavior. Quickly checking the API docs, it also appears to be possible to adjust the hz of the secondary display in the same way (since API 21). However, again, the currently active app is the one who must control this. TVHZ uses a trick to get around the restriction of having to be the currently active app. It does not appear this trick can be used the same way to control the hz of an external screen, through the regular API. This does not necessarily mean it isn't possible (without root), it just means more investigation would be required to know for sure. I have not tried. Click to expand... Click to collapse This is amazing.. Will it work on a ouya do you think?
Chainfire said: This app allows you to switch the hertz of your display. This is a tool for advanced users, please read this entire description. Hopefully this app will be obsolete sooner rather than later. If you have a compatible TV or monitor, you may want to view specific content on a different hz. Apps can actually switch the hz used by your device. This feature is new to Android, and thus very few apps support it yet, which is the main reason an app like this one can come in handy. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, even if developers added this functionality to their apps (devs: check preferredRefreshRate in WindowManager.LayoutParams), it may not work right or at all. There are several issues with Google's current implementation, as it exists on the Nexus Player, firmware LRX21V: - The available modes appear to only be detected on Android TV boot. This means your TV or receiver needs to be turned on and switched to the correct input before booting the Android TV device, or not all the modes your TV supports will be recognized. - Switching hz may break audio. This app provides an option to fix that, but that does require your device to be rooted. Note that this may be both Android TV device as well TV dependent - your setup may not display this issue. - Switching hz may randomly reboot the device - The Android API lies. It'll happily report the current refresh rate to be X hz while it is actually Y hz, which may cause timing issues for video apps that actually take refresh rate into account. - There is no hz override in display settings So, until these things are fixed Google-side - and it would actually start to make sense for developers to include the functionality in their apps - at least you can play around with this. Note that 'forcing' a certain hz might be wording it too strong. Android is still free to ignore the setting, and if an app really wanted to, it could override it as well. Disclaimer: works for me, provided as-is, this app has no support, the situation describe above may change at any time Why? I was looking at committing this feature into xbmc/kodi, so I built a quick proof-of-concept app first, as I has not used the API before. During testing I quickly noted that the API doesn't work reliably enough yet to be part of that project. Download Google Play (this link is pending Play cache update and Play team approval) Click to expand... Click to collapse Good job man, thanks for developing for the nexus player
Absolutely awesome! Hopefully this will work for the Amazon Fire TV in the future too!
Chainfire said: I was looking at committing this feature into xbmc/kodi, so I built a quick proof-of-concept app first, as I has not used the API before. During testing I quickly noted that the API doesn't work reliably enough yet to be part of that project. Click to expand... Click to collapse FYI, I've also dabbled with refresh rate switching with Kodi, very WIP code (i.e. full of commented trial-and-error code ) is at https://github.com/anssih/xbmc/commits/android/refreshrate_wip (2 commits). I also noticed the audio breaking (haven't investigated further yet), but I didn't see any reboots occurring. If I remember correctly, this did not work on ADT-1 last I tested.
dsfdfsdfs said: FYI, I've also dabbled with refresh rate switching with Kodi, very WIP code (i.e. full of commented trial-and-error code ) is at https://github.com/anssih/xbmc/commits/android/refreshrate_wip (2 commits). I also noticed the audio breaking (haven't investigated further yet), but I didn't see any reboots occurring. If I remember correctly, this did not work on ADT-1 last I tested. Click to expand... Click to collapse The audio breakage occurs in device-specific code, so it may not happen on different devices. On the other hand, it may have been an oversight in the Android framework itself that many TVs will disconnect the audio channel as well when switching hz's - in essence completely severing the connection and building it up again. Fixing the audio can be done by manually killing /system/bin/mediaserver (it is automatically restarted after a few seconds), or calling "stop media && start media". As a side effect this may actually crash apps using audio (or video) at that time, so actually doing this at the start of a video is not really an option - even if it didn't require root and wasn't device-specific. The reboot is rare, but I've switched hz's a couple of hundred times now, and it does happen. Glad to see someone else is looking at this though, if you put it in Kodi (when it actually works) that means I won't have to
Chainfire said: The audio breakage occurs in device-specific code, so it may not happen on different devices. On the other hand, it may have been an oversight in the Android framework itself that many TVs will disconnect the audio channel as well when switching hz's - in essence completely severing the connection and building it up again. Click to expand... Click to collapse Sorry, by "not working on ADT-1" I meant that the refresh rate switching wasn't working there. Anyway, the HDMI audio stuff is one-way communication (except for EDID, which can't be "disconnected" in that sense), so there is no "disconnecting the audio channel" from the TV side. Chainfire said: Fixing the audio can be done by manually killing /system/bin/mediaserver (it is automatically restarted after a few seconds), or calling "stop media && start media". As a side effect this may actually crash apps using audio (or video) at that time, so actually doing this at the start of a video is not really an option - even if it didn't require root and wasn't device-specific. The reboot is rare, but I've switched hz's a couple of hundred times now, and it does happen. Glad to see someone else is looking at this though, if you put it in Kodi (when it actually works) that means I won't have to Click to expand... Click to collapse Argh, and I was thinking the opposite here But yeah, I'll work on it as long as time permits. Have you reported the audio/reboot issues to Google yet?
dsfdfsdfs said: Sorry, by "not working on ADT-1" I meant that the refresh rate switching wasn't working there. Click to expand... Click to collapse I wasn't implying it might work on any specific device, just that at least the log spam from the audio issue come from a fugu-specific driver, a different driver may behave differently, or not if it's really a framework issue. Anyway, we're knee-deep in speculation here, it matters not. Anyway, the HDMI audio stuff is one-way communication (except for EDID, which can't be "disconnected" in that sense), so there is no "disconnecting the audio channel" from the TV side. Click to expand... Click to collapse I'll admit I know nothing about these things, but if the TV cuts all power to the port, wouldn't the device 'sense' that and possibly interpret that as a disconnect? Argh, and I was thinking the opposite here But yeah, I'll work on it as long as time permits. Click to expand... Click to collapse Maybe my test videos weren't great, but I didn't think things looked noticably better at 24hz than they did at 60hz. Though admittedly that may be related to the renderer not actually knowing the display is at 24hz. It was more of an experiment for me than that I truly need it - I have some other issues to figure out with my NP that have higher priority. Have you reported the audio/reboot issues to Google yet? Click to expand... Click to collapse Nope, because I have not had the time (or will) to produce a decent error report yet.
Chainfire said: I'll admit I know nothing about these things, but if the TV cuts all power to the port, wouldn't the device 'sense' that and possibly interpret that as a disconnect? Click to expand... Click to collapse Yeah, though I'd be somewhat surprised if that happens - if the source device sees a disconnect/reconnect, it may consider the to be a "new device" and do all sorts of enumeration... but anyway, as you said, pointless to speculate really Chainfire said: Maybe my test videos weren't great, but I didn't think things looked noticably better at 24hz than they did at 60hz. Though admittedly that may be related to the renderer not actually knowing the display is at 24hz. It was more of an experiment for me than that I truly need it - I have some other issues to figure out with my NP that have higher priority. Click to expand... Click to collapse Yeah, I too have a hard time seeing the 24/60Hz difference with most videos - not immediately sure if renderer thinking it was 60Hz could cause visible issues, though. With 25/50p European TV footage the 50/60Hz difference is more pronounced. Chainfire said: Nope, because I have not had the time (or will) to produce a decent error report yet. Click to expand... Click to collapse OK. I'll probably make one after I've had the time to gather some more data/info.
Update? Can anyone update me on the current status of frame rate switching for android tv, specifically within Kodi? I'm hoping by the time the Shield console comes out I will be able to playback movies at 24hz.
anyone? I've searched around and haven't been able to find if this has been officially implemented in any apps.
Chainfire said: This app allows you to switch the hertz of your display. Click to expand... Click to collapse Will your tool conflict with modes that are built in to integrated Android TVs, such as the forthcoming Sonys?
please get 24hz working on the Shield Tv
This is now finally implemented in Kodi (version 15.0 Beta 2, on Google Play, formerly XBMC). It works in at least Nexus Player and Shield TV, but should work in any Android system that supports refresh rate switching. You need to enable automatic refresh rate switching in the Kodi video settings. I wrote the support back in December, but the problems mentioned in this thread prevented putting it in officially until now. Those issues seem to have been resolved in the Android versions released since then.
Works, somehow The app does it job, although it seems to reset to 60Hz at reboot (even with the option set to keep at reboot). Now, I agree, Google should set the output Hz to match the video stream at hand. Yes, it will be a short blackout, but so what!?. Thanks for the app. I'm running it on the latest 6.0 available today.
How does Superscreen work?
Hi guys... I am new to this forum and therefore couldn't post to the developer forum, even though I am one. There is this Kickstarter campaing "Superscreen" which promises to give you a low-cost, tablet-like device, which streams your phones display to the 10" "Superscreen". They make several interesting claims on their FAQ section: - the devices uses no mirroring... they seem to use their own streamingprotocol from within an app, you have to install on your phone (no Chromecast or something like that involved). - the stream displayed on the tablet part is not bound to the phones resolution! So they claim that a 4k video on a 1080p phone will be displayed as 2k on the tablet (which is 2k) (and I understand that they do not use upscaling) - you can actually use your phone to do different things than the tablet is doing (so it isn't just streaming)... they call it "dual screen" or something like that - less interesting, just FYI: The seem to establish a wifi-direct connection between phone and superscreen Now I am wondering how is that possible and which APIs the Superscreen app is using (they claim it all works on Android 4)? - I can't find anything in the Android API to grab the whole screen content and to stream it (except for chromecast maybe, which these guys don't use) - How can the "Superscreen App" convince another video player app and the Android system to render at a different resolution then the phone's? - How can they render apps offscreen to enable this dual screen thing? I would love to hear your ideas, as I have no clue how they do it without any rooting and on Android 4... EDIT: I watched some youtube videos about the product and (while it still may be a prototype) 1) regular apps definetely seem to be upscaled (opposed to what the Kickstarter claims specifically for videos) and 2) there is considerable lag it seems, not suprisingly...