New Feature for Android App

Most of the time I find myself watching the recorded shows from my Tablo on my Android tablet thru the app in the Google Playstore. And I like to watch old shows, like Dr Who and Leave It To Beaver. An old eclectic mix, mostly in SD and often in “letterbox” with black stripes all around the picture… both vetical and horizontal.

It would be nice if I could zoom the picture to fit the screen better. On my old iPad, this was usually a possibility (prior to my owning a Tablo). You could single tap the middle of the video screen and get the zoom effect. It would be a nice touch for the Tablo app in Android (or even for the TV type apps).

Don’t the tablo apps just use the video player that comes with the device.

And if so the devices HLS video player would have to support that capability.

Well, I don’t think that is the case. The Tablo video player is sure not the same as used by other apps, like YouTube or Netflix. I have not seen any app that uses the Tablo video app style or features, plus the Tablo app has a funny scan line at the top of some channels - which doesn’t happen with other TV oriented apps. It used to happen on my TV, but on my TV I can adjust the over-scan. When I broached this subject in the Android forum, they all said… “It is up to the app developer”. While improving the Android app, Tablo should look at the way video is presented in the YouTube app… it is pretty slick, especially the way it zooms and you can rotate into “Portrait” (it shows the video at the top of the panel, instead of in the middle, when not zoomed).

Could tablo be using:

https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/media/exoplayer

or

https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-tv/media-players.html#androidmediaplayer

or

Yes. They could be using any or all of those. These are relatively low level media player libraries of the type that a typical C++ programmer would use. As such I am sure that they each have a multitude of options. Personally I have used such a library for the playback of mp3 files… and believe me, even the simplest things can be quite complicated and option rich.

This is slightly lame, but a workaround for what you’re seeking: if u use my app ota2GO (free version is fine for this), you can set the settings to use an external player and pick VLC which has resize options. Hmm… Or maybe ota2go’s internal player will just work? I didn’t implement resizing, but worth checking!

Downside: when using an external player, my app won’t know about watched progress, so you’ll have to watch right through to the end when Wally catches Beaver in a lie and they both learn a difficult lesson, while June and Ward smile knowingly at each other :slight_smile: Or just remember where u were! Lol!

Hey! That is great!!! I just downloaded the demo version and it works great. Still have the over-scan problem, but I expect I will have to live with that until we find a player that can adjust the over-scan area (like my TV can). I also like the fact that your program can use my external flash drive. My internal storage is nearly crammed full. I will be registering the program… thanks for the tip.

Great! Oh, did VLC not have a way to combat the overscan? There’s a button in the ota2go settings to get VLC if you don’t have already, and you can watch direct from tablo trough it. On mine there’s a little “…” while playing that brings up a menu with “resize” on it. Tho maybe the resize settings aren’t sufficient for overscan cases!

MX Player is another player that I think has a more detailed zoom option (and ads last time I looked). (Edit: just tried, and works very well. U can pinch to zoom)

Best of luck!

I already had VLC, and I did not find any way to adjust over-scan. The “resize” works great though!! After going into “best fit”, the top scan line is still there, but moved near the top of the panel, so less noticeable. I have not looked at MX Player in a long time, it might be better. I used to use it on my old Android TV box (man that was awhile ago – since then I have been though the Fire TV and finally settled on Roku). My wife uses the Roku’s and I use my tablet… sometimes I watch the Roku too, but my eyesight is poor and the tablet is much easier for me to view.

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