[who.is.matt]

Okay guys, I've fixed the preferences issue. If you have more than one version of XBMC installed, you can click the checkbox in order to automatically launch the selected version when you launch this app. I'll wait a couple of days to give you guys a chance to test it and work out any bugs, but assuming no one finds any major problems I'll submit the app to the App Store this weekend.

What do you think of making it something that just shows side loaded apps ( user selectable) on the home screen? Then it won't be xbmc specific and perhaps improve the odds of getting approved.

Granted I don't have much experience in Android development, but based on the research I've done to develop this app, I don't know how you'd go about doing that in a way that would be any more convenient than going to the Settings->Applications menu. You could provide a menu to select from all installed applications fairly easily, but that would still involve opening the app from the Apps menu then selecting the app you want from the menu, which is essentially no different from using the Settings>Applications menu. There's also no way, to my knowledge, of differentiating between sideloaded apps and apps installed from the App Store.

This app could be easily made generic to any app, but only one app, since this app basically just launches the specified and then closes. I might do that eventually and release it as a separate app, but I'd want to add a means to customize the icon and displayed app name, since otherwise you wouldn't know what "Generic App Launcher" actually launches.

[alpha.s]

Has anyone had issues with playback on others apps after exiting XBMC. Almost every time I use XBMC and then hit the home key and try netflix or plex I can't stream anything. I have to restart just to make it work. This is my 2nd unit that is doing this. Really frustrating but I have yet to see anyone else with the same issue.

I have had similar issues not with AFTV but a NUC and I think I resolved it by setting "Keep audio device alive" in audio setting to "Off".

[thefrog]

Has anyone had issues with playback on others apps after exiting XBMC. Almost every time I use XBMC and then hit the home key and try netflix or plex I can't stream anything. I have to restart just to make it work. This is my 2nd unit that is doing this. Really frustrating but I have yet to see anyone else with the same issue.

Which Version and build of XBMC are you running? I saw low instance occurrences of this on early builds, but nothing that power cycling the FTV wouldn't fix.

Also, do you have enough free space on the ATVs flash?

[edit]

After a bit of thought, I used to only have this problem after XBMC quit unexpectedly. Are you stopping your source before hitting the home key? I will not be able to attempt to duplicate this for the next several days. I have not seen it even once while using Gotham Beta 4 or Gotham RC1

[cstark27]

Thank-you for the speedy reply

I will have another go after I get home from work and report back, but I'm pretty sure I had it correct. It may just have been a late night problem on my part of course.

At present I'm using Plex for the kids shows as it is easier for them to launch, which is the only reason I'm not touching it at the moment. I have tried AllCast and ReduxTV chosen mainly because I liked the icons for XBMC.

Out of curiosity, do you have any of the other events in use or just number 4?

Cheers

I have been using all 4 since I've put them in the Wiki. By design of the Llama events, yes, XBMC will just infinitely open back up. However I noticed the other day that when XBMC quits with the timer, the FireTV screensaver started up and seemed to take precedence. After a while of that, the FTV goes to sleep. Seems to be working well for the last few days. I have the timer set to 2 hours now because I'm pretty sure XBMC will exit if you're watching Netflix/Hulu/something else. Set the timer to 5 mins and watch what happens. Oh, set your screensaver time to 5 minutes in FireTV Settings>System.


Since we do not have root, the kill application event may not work reliably.


@jhatfield
The only time I had issues was when a video wasn't stopped. There's a keymap file on the wiki that makes the back button Stop the video.

[nero12]

A stupid question:

I dont have a fire tv myself so cant test this.

Most people seems to be using the Gotham rather than the SPMC stable version.

Can someone confirm SPMC is indeed the stable version as per the first page.

Other than general new features on Gotham, is there any performance benefit with Gotham? like any special audio output or picture stability or more stable app in general ? i see some have random shutdown on SPMC version.

and last question: What will happen if we do NOT disable mediacodec in gotham ?

[Resnoid]

Thank-you for the speedy reply

I will have another go after I get home from work and report back, but I'm pretty sure I had it correct. It may just have been a late night problem on my part of course.

At present I'm using Plex for the kids shows as it is easier for them to launch, which is the only reason I'm not touching it at the moment. I have tried AllCast and ReduxTV chosen mainly because I liked the icons for XBMC.

Out of curiosity, do you have any of the other events in use or just number 4?

Cheers

I have been using all 4 since I've put them in the Wiki. By design of the Llama events, yes, XBMC will just infinitely open back up. However I noticed the other day that when XBMC quits with the timer, the FireTV screensaver started up and seemed to take precedence. After a while of that, the FTV goes to sleep. Seems to be working well for the last few days. I have the timer set to 2 hours now because I'm pretty sure XBMC will exit if you're watching Netflix/Hulu/something else. Set the timer to 5 mins and watch what happens. Oh, set your screensaver time to 5 minutes in FireTV Settings>System.


Since we do not have root, the kill application event may not work reliably.


@jhatfield
The only time I had issues was when a video wasn't stopped. There's a keymap file on the wiki that makes the back button Stop the video.

I have had another go and still have the re opening problem on closing XBMC. The sacrificial app doesn't seem to be killed by Llama (and I have tried a few now) so I guess I'll wait patiently for root or the launcher option. No big deal, I'll leave plex for the wife and kids and use xbmc myself.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

[ixian]

I've noticed Plex, at least, doesn't close all the time, which leads to some weirdness occasionally. The trick here seems to be to find a sacrificial app that is easily closed without having to be rooted.

And while I don't doubt AFTV root will be figured out by someone I also expect it to be a situation on par or worse than it is with iOS and newer phones - a constant battle, and a pain in the ass to keep up with. Amazon may allow sideloading to keep the tinkerers happy (and make it a lot easier to develop/test new apps for the platform, which is the real point) but they have a very vested interest in blocking any and all attempts at rooting it. So I don't think Llama is a long term solution, at least not for launching (it's still a great way just to have XBMC auto-start if that's what you want).

I really do hope Amazon accepts the companion app because that, obviously, would solve the problem.

[underworld123]

Okay guys, I've fixed the preferences issue. If you have more than one version of XBMC installed, you can click the checkbox in order to automatically launch the selected version when you launch this app. I'll wait a couple of days to give you guys a chance to test it and work out any bugs, but assuming no one finds any major problems I'll submit the app to the App Store this weekend.

What do you think of making it something that just shows side loaded apps ( user selectable) on the home screen? Then it won't be xbmc specific and perhaps improve the odds of getting approved.

Granted I don't have much experience in Android development, but based on the research I've done to develop this app, I don't know how you'd go about doing that in a way that would be any more convenient than going to the Settings->Applications menu. You could provide a menu to select from all installed applications fairly easily, but that would still involve opening the app from the Apps menu then selecting the app you want from the menu, which is essentially no different from using the Settings>Applications menu. There's also no way, to my knowledge, of differentiating between sideloaded apps and apps installed from the App Store.

This app could be easily made generic to any app, but only one app, since this app basically just launches the specified and then closes. I might do that eventually and release it as a separate app, but I'd want to add a means to customize the icon and displayed app name, since otherwise you wouldn't know what "Generic App Launcher" actually launches.

It may be a good idea to make it generic and not XBMC specific (basically allowing user to select a sideloaded app). Then you can position the app as a tool to help developers working on FTV and Amazon may be more sympathetic. If the app is just a shortcut to ONE app, I am not sure how Amazon will receive it.

I've noticed Plex, at least, doesn't close all the time, which leads to some weirdness occasionally. The trick here seems to be to find a sacrificial app that is easily closed without having to be rooted.

Have you tried MBC on Demand, it is working well for me.

[jtr2006]

Okay guys, I've fixed the preferences issue. If you have more than one version of XBMC installed, you can click the checkbox in order to automatically launch the selected version when you launch this app. I'll wait a couple of days to give you guys a chance to test it and work out any bugs, but assuming no one finds any major problems I'll submit the app to the App Store this weekend.

What do you think of making it something that just shows side loaded apps ( user selectable) on the home screen? Then it won't be xbmc specific and perhaps improve the odds of getting approved.

Granted I don't have much experience in Android development, but based on the research I've done to develop this app, I don't know how you'd go about doing that in a way that would be any more convenient than going to the Settings->Applications menu. You could provide a menu to select from all installed applications fairly easily, but that would still involve opening the app from the Apps menu then selecting the app you want from the menu, which is essentially no different from using the Settings>Applications menu. There's also no way, to my knowledge, of differentiating between sideloaded apps and apps installed from the App Store.

This app could be easily made generic to any app, but only one app, since this app basically just launches the specified and then closes. I might do that eventually and release it as a separate app, but I'd want to add a means to customize the icon and displayed app name, since otherwise you wouldn't know what "Generic App Launcher" actually launches.

I'd like to report that the app works very well for me. I would love to see if it can make it into the app store in its current form but have a suspicion that it may need to be more generic as you suggest. I actually think it would increase the number of people who would use the app if they could specify which side loaded application it launched.

In any event, great work. Thank you. Let's hope it gets accepted by the app store!

[nrk666]

I've noticed this too, it doesn't happen on every video played but I've yet to find the common denominator.

Symptom:

Play a video (regular h264/aac) and time never increments past 00:00. SkipForward and SkipBack don't work and usually reset you back to 00:00. The same exact video file will play on SBMC on FireTV as well as OpenElec Gotham Beta on my ASRock ION without issue, so it seems limited to the Android Nightlies.

I'm not able to duplicate this issue in Gotham Beta 4. Which nightly build are you using?

I was using the most recent, 20140419 from the nightly. I've found that power cycling the FireTV also has a positive effect on this problem as videos that were misbehaving with this issue would work fine following a power cycle. I'm going to wait to see if it happens again and I'll report back with a debug log if it does.

I've been able to reproduce this problem of 00:00 time clocking on videos. I've found that the issue doesn't present itself right away, but requires the unit to be on for a decent amount of time. I've had to leave my FireTV on for at least a couple of days for the issue to resurface, and power cycling the FireTV seems to solve the problem. Unfortunately, I wasn't running a debug log this last time it happened, but now that I know how to reproduce it, I'll get one.

[Apothis]

I've been able to reproduce this problem of 00:00 time clocking on videos. I've found that the issue doesn't present itself right away, but requires the unit to be on for a decent amount of time. I've had to leave my FireTV on for at least a couple of days for the issue to resurface, and power cycling the FireTV seems to solve the problem. Unfortunately, I wasn't running a debug log this last time it happened, but now that I know how to reproduce it, I'll get one.

Havent seen anything like this, and my firetv hasnt been powercycled in over a week. Even when installing new nightlies. Been running the build from the 30th without even exiting it for 2 days, no problems. Maybe something specific in the videos you're seeing it on?

[PK21]

Has anyone been able to get the xbmc remote for iOS working with fire tv/xbmc gotham?

[underworld123]

Has anyone been able to get the xbmc remote for iOS working with fire tv/xbmc gotham?

The XBMC remote app works perfectly with XBMC on FTV. Just make sure that you enable the same in Settings.

[thefrog]

Has anyone been able to get the xbmc remote for iOS working with fire tv/xbmc gotham?

Gotham RC1 works fine with iOS XBMC Remote.

[PK21]

I've been successful on getting it to work with my windows and openelec versions of frodo but I just can't get it to connect with my fire tv gotham setup.

---

I'm not using the latest rc1, I will give that a try. Thanks!