I’m having a weird issue with OTA2GO + VLC on my Android, not sure which is the culprit.
I have 5.1 enabled by default, but when I use my Android Samsung S8, and use OTA2GO to play a recorded show through VLC, it cuts out every 5 minutes. Sometimes it just stops playing and kicks me out of the VLC player, other times it just pauses.
It seems to alternate.
5 minutes in - kicks me back to OTA2GO from the VLC player
10 minutes in - screen freezes (I can FFW or RWD a few seconds and it starts playing again)
15 minutes in - kicks me back to OTA2GO from the VLC player
20 minutes in - screen freezes (I can FFW or RWD a few seconds and it starts playing again)
etc.
Are you using the same email address as you registered it with? When I first tried it on my Fire HD Tablet, it was not the registered version. After I installed Google on the HD Tablet, it was the registered version and works.
Does not say demo, I’ve had the paid version for a while, I don’t think this is related to the paid version being activated.
I think this behavior on my phone started around the time commercial skip was introduced (not saying they’re related, just a timeframe), I just haven’t used my phone to watch Tablo much between then and now.
Hi, @Max - It sounds a little like a consistency issue in the network flow of the stream to your phone. When ota2go uses an external player, it just launches it and provides the URL of the video on your Tablo – the app is “out of the loop” from that point, so it’s really just VLC playing a video that’s on your LAN.
Do you get the same behaviour with MX Player? Or if you use the internal ota2go player (which of course you won’t be able to hear!).
I assume it’s fine to your TV via Roku or whatever you use?
It’s fine on the TV with Roku. I haven’t tested it with the internal player, will do that tonight.
It’s repeatable though, if I restart the stream and go to 4:55 seconds, within 5 seconds the stream drops out. It’s also repeatable in the sense that it happens across the board on EVERY recording at the same timestamp (that was an aha moment last night, hence me posting today).
I would assume if it’s a consistency issue with my network it wouldn’t be repeatable across various recordings (at the same time stamp mark), nor would I be able to restream the same recording starting 5-10 seconds before dropout, and have it drop out again (unless it’s cached? which I doubt?)
Wow, so those time intervals are precisely 5 mins, 10 mins, etc? The underlying recordings that Tablo makes are a long series of short segments (typically 1 second each, or 3 before comskip), so its strange that Tablo and VLC choke after 300 of those. [EDIT: I’m wrong - the actual video segment is 5 minutes long. The index in to it is made of short bits] Indeed, I’d try with MX Player and/or the internal player. I actually don’t know whether the native/official apps get their stream in a different way than the third-party API that they publish for apps like mine, but it would be consistent with other aspects.
Did I understand correctly that it used to play smoothly for you, pre com-skip?
And I don’t say this to be silly: If still doesn’t work, reboot, reboot, reboot everything.
I’d say they happen between 4:58 and 5:02, then again between 9:58 and 10:02, etc. on every show. Very very very close to the 5 minute mark, but I can’t say it happens at EXACTLY 5:00
And yes, it used to play smoothly for me. I can’t pin point the exact time frame, but it was pre-com skip (again, I’m not saying com skip caused this issue. It’s just a timeframe of sometime before that it worked, and after that I started having this weird issue)
And being in the software world, I’ve rebooted, lol, and checked that I’m on the latest app versions.
I’ll try the internal player and maybe MX tonight. I’m not tied to VLC (well besides the 5.1 support that the internal player doesn’t offer), if MX works, I’ll use that.
Wow - thanks for the update, and colour me confused Does the app put the little “5.1” tag next to the particular recording you’re watching? If not, it’s probably stereo. Though if it does give you the 5.1 tag AND the internal player plays it, then your phone has native surround support! On my phone if I play a 5.1 tagged recording, it shows my app’s message “ac3 surround not supported - use external player” or something like that. This is a result of the internal player failing to find a suitable audio codec. In your case it appears to have found one! Does the native tablo phone app play the same recordings?
That still doesn’t explain the issues you saw with VLC though BUT glad you are watching (and listening)!
Has the tag, just tried playing with the Tablo app, no sound (though I don’t think they use the internal player). Took a screenshot, not sure if it’s the internal player or not
This is officially a miracle. That’s ota2go’s internal player (which is based on Google’s ExoPlayer2).
I’m very proud of my kind-of-lame ad-skip icon, so I recognize the player. The fact that you hear sound means that your phone has a codec that is returned when the app says “hey, Android, give me a codec that understands ac3 encoding”. My phone returns “none found”.
Your phone has somehow been blessed by the Gods of Surround! lol!!
But still I don’t know why VLC is having a problem – let me know if the internal player also acts crazy in 5-min increments.
Let’s see if the video uploads: (again, repeatable for any recorded video, this is just a demo for 2 of them. It hits every 5 minutes, though not every 5 minutes is a full back-to-ota2go app shutdown): https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/1572919006265Ch9SLTG
Does the app put the little “5.1” tag next to the particular recording you’re watching? If not, it’s probably stereo. Though if it does give you the 5.1 tag AND the internal player plays it, then your phone has native surround support! On my phone if I play a 5.1 tagged recording, it shows my app’s message “ac3 surround not supported - use external player” or something like that. This is a result of the internal player failing to find a suitable audio codec. In your case it appears to have found one! Does the native tablo phone app play the same recordings?
BUT glad you are watching (and listening)!
