Kindle Fire/Android as dedicated viewers (stability?)

[Nathan]

Has anyone had any success using a Kindle Fire tablet with the Blue Iris app from the Amazon App store? It works well, until the app crashes after a while. Doing the same test on an iPad works just fine all day.

Has anyone had luck with Android tablets using the builds in the Google Play store for the this type of test?

I'm hoping to find some stable platform for an inexpensive viewer that is full featured (ie: volume squelch).

 

[actran]

@Nathan As an alternative, have you considered launching browser on Fire tablet and pointing it to UI3?

Blue Iris UI3 beta test is now open!

I use UI3 on my side as a viewer on an iPad mini.

BTW, how old is your Fire tablet? Do you have an 8 or 10"? And what's the CPU specs? I'm thinking of adding a Fire or Samsung tablet as a viewer for 2nd location. Fire tablet 10" seems reasonably priced but I wonder if CPU is strong enough for UI3.

@Philip Gonzales got a Samsung tablet for viewing: Android Tablet wall mount "install"

 

[Nathan]

Hey Actran,

I have, it is much more stable with the browser. However, I want audio and I don't believe UI2 or UI3 supports squelch. I am running an older UI3 build but it is complaining that the CPU can't keep up with the H264 stream. I do get audio, but no picture. I need to mess with the streaming profiles.

I am testing with the HD8.

 

[bp2008]

What do you mean audio squelch? Two-way audio? Nope, that isn't supported and probably won't be any time soon because that would require much closer collaboration with Ken than he seems willing to do.

 

[actran]

Hey Actran,

I have, it is much more stable with the browser. However, I want audio and I don't believe UI2 or UI3 supports squelch. I am running an older UI3 build but it is complaining that the CPU can't keep up with the H264 stream. I do get audio, but no picture. I need to mess with the streaming profiles.

I am testing with the HD8.

You may need to set "Streaming Quality" to "Jpeg Best Quality" if you're getting the above warning.

Does UI3 audio work for you on a regular PC?

 

[Nathan]

What do you mean audio squelch? Two-way audio? Nope, that isn't supported and probably won't be any time soon because that would require much closer collaboration with Ken than he seems willing to do.

This: Squelch - Wikipedia
ie: high water mark for audio cut-off.

It is available in the native BI app by long pressing the headphone/listen button.

 

[Nathan]

You may need to set "Streaming Quality" to "Jpeg Best Quality" if you're getting the above warning.

Does UI3 audio work for you on a regular PC?

Yep, this works fine for the picture but then I lose audio. Is audio supposed to work with UI3 for non-H264? On UI2 it worked, but very delayed so it wasn't usable. Everything works fine using ui3/H264 from a desktop browser.

 

[Nathan]

I did just update my ui3 beta and dropped one of my streaming profiles significantly in quality. I can see the quality drop from the desktop browser but both Silk Browser and Chrome don't render the video, but they do stream the audio.

 

[actran]

Yep, this works fine for the picture but then I lose audio. Is audio supposed to work with UI3 for non-H264? On UI2 it worked, but very delayed so it wasn't usable. Everything works fine using ui3/H264 from a desktop browser.

Yeah, you're right. I don't see audio icon in jpeg streaming modes.

Related, it's best that you are running a very recent/latest BI version to get maximum benefit from UI3. They go hand-in-hand.

 

[Nathan]

Yeah, you're right. I don't see audio icon in jpeg streaming modes.

Related, it's best that you are running a very recent/latest BI version to get maximum benefit from UI3. They go hand-in-hand.

Yep, I stay current. So current that I get to rollback every few months when a bug is introduced.

 

[Nathan]

For what its worth, this H264 test works correctly in both Silk and Chrome on the kindle fire: MP4 H.264 Video Test

Perhaps there is some client side code in UI3 that isn't working correctly for my setup. Can anyone else confirm my behavior? I'd take a stable viewer without squelch over one that crashes every hour for now

 

[actran]

For what its worth, this H264 test works correctly in both Silk and Chrome on the kindle fire: MP4 H.264 Video Test

Perhaps there is some client side code in UI3 that isn't working correctly for my setup. Can anyone else confirm my behavior? I'd take a stable viewer without squelch over one that crashes every hour for now

@bp2008 is probably the man you need, but it's the holidays.

 

[Nathan]

No rush, just wanted to see if anyone else had success or if it was just me.

I’ll attempt to do some debugging and report back any findings.

Happy holidays.

 

[looney2ns]

TinyCamPro works fine on my two older Fires.

 

[giomania]

TinyCamPro works fine on my two older Fires.

Gotta love Amazon and their free apps

Also using TinyCam Monitor Pro on a Fire HD10 and FireTV stick, but it does use up my internet data running all the time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[fenderman]

Gotta love Amazon and their free apps

Also using TinyCam Monitor Pro on a Fire HD10 and FireTV stick, but it does use up my internet data running all the time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If it's running on your local network it's not using any internet data...

 

[giomania]

Ok; my error. When I saw it was using almost 30% of the throughput on my EdgeRouter, I mistakenly assumed that it was making a trip through the cloud.

I was adding a firewall rule for the recently added Annke 161DR, and just decided to look at the traffic analysis section. Obviously, I did not look too closely!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Nathan]

@looney2ns @giomania
Thanks for the TinyCamPro pointers. I am testing it now and it seems to be stable so far. It also has some nice features like squelch as well. I'll see if it can stay running for a few days on an HD8.

 

[adamsguitar]

Count me as another vote for TinyCam Pro. I tried running the BI app on my HD8 and it kept losing the connection (video would just freeze until I left full screen and made another selection), and the instability of some of my cameras meant that the app from my manufacturer (Amcrest) would only play for a few minutes before it died too. TinyCam seems to be running perfectly well connected directly to my cameras, and I have it running on two dedicated Fires right now (a 7" and an 8"). The availability of a relatively inexpensive wall-mount makes this a good solution for me (though I'd prefer not to have ANY wires visible, at least the single power cable is not terribly obtrusive). These things stay on 24x7 and have been rock solid so far.

 

[Nathan]

TinyCam Pro has been excellent on both of my fires and rock solid. It has a lot of nice features that even Blue Iris lacks. Blue Iris on the fire just isn't stable compared to the iOS version.