Nvidia Shield + TinyCam Pro

[nayr]

Just wanted to report this setup is working very well, the Nvidia ShieldTV (2nd Gen Pro) I just installed to replace my previous AndroidTV box is capable of playing back multiple streams w/full hardware H264 hardware acceleration for every stream..

No Dropped Frames w/Main Streams, Performs much better than the NexusPlayer or MiBox ever could playing video streams.. unfortunately I'm not able to get H265 videos working yet, I know the hardware has support.. might just be a TinyCam Pro issue.

Android7 supports Picture-in-Picture w/TinyCam Pro also; but unfortunately I cant keep the PiP window open when Plex/Live Channels open so im not quite sure what the point is.. cant watch local News with a camera window open waiting for food delivery services.. Mebe future version will make this more useful.

 

[wantafastz28]

Slightly off topic... how do you like plex? I wanna pull the trigger, but the reviews are stopping me.

 

[nayr]

Ive been using it almost from the beginning, at least 7-8 years now.. I like it alot, Started off running it on a Core2Duo Hackintosh.. been running it on AndroidTV for the last couple years since the Nexus Player was released.

Has a very high WAF Score in my house, we cut the TV cord long time ago.. We canceled the DirectTV very shortly after I bought the house.

PlexServer is running off my 24TB FreeNAS w/a Hex Core Phenom.. my Mom and Sister's households use it alot over the internet w/out issue..

My son has no idea what commercials are; when he goes to a friends/family house and a commercial comes on he thinks the Television is broken and something is wrong.. We own my movie collection but I ripped em all to the NAS so the kids dont have to handle the disks, that right there has saved most of the optical disks from being abused.

 

[wantafastz28]

Fuq, alright, buying it.

The problem is building up the collection, I have 4tb of stuff... but that isn't a whole lot.

 

[Jack B Nimble]

Nice to see you got that Shield set up definitely the best there is out there right now I suggest you look at the "ARES build" for it very nice.

 

[jasauders]

The Shield has made me more and more curious. There are reasons I may always still grasp onto my trusty HTPC in the living room even for future upgrades, though if we add any more TVs throughout the house (only have one), the Shield may very well get the bid for those locations.

Nothing beats having a centralized file server. I love nothing more than to see things automatically link up to the file shares and pull videos across, populate music playlists, thumbnails of photo albums automatically appear, etc. It takes time and money (someone has to pay for the hardware, set it up, and run the cat6), but to say it's worth it is an understatement.

Glad to see Tiny Cam works as intended as well. Tiny Cam has been running on my "nightstand viewer" for about a year now. I have a Nexus 10 tablet that I bought and have yet to understand why (can't say I have any desire to use a tablet, let alone find an actual purpose for), though it's served the job well to just sit propped up on the night stand streaming Tiny Cam. It's nice to tap the power button at night and within a second or two see the streams update with what's going on. Incredibly handy if you're using indoor cameras as child monitors. Our two youngins are upstairs, so it makes me feel more in control/in "the know" as a parent. Tiny Cam has been a fundamental component in tying this together.

Come to think of it, if the tablet ever kicks the bucket, I may be more inclined to wall mount an LCD monitor and Nvidia Shield it up there as my viewing device. Heck yeah. Can't believe I didn't think of that possibility before.

 

[alexvas]

unfortunately I'm not able to get H265 videos working yet, I know the hardware has support.. might just be a TinyCam Pro issue.

Android7 supports Picture-in-Picture w/TinyCam Pro also; but unfortunately I cant keep the PiP window open when Plex/Live Channels open so im not quite sure what the point is.. cant watch local News with a camera window open waiting for food delivery services.. Mebe future version will make this more useful.

I'm the developer behind tinyCam Monitor app. Thanks for all positive feedback.

1. H265 stream should work. I've tested it on many Android device and I guess Nvidia Shield should have H265 hardware decoder. Have you tried to change decoder in App Settings - Video Settings to SW/HW/HW+ one?

2. What do you mean you cannot keep PiP window opened? Can you share a short video about the problem?

 

[nayr]

I get Video Failed on my h265 streams if using Software, Hardware or Hardware+ decoders.. might be something specific to my Dahua cameras? If I switch to my substreams (low bandwidth profile) everything loads fine since my substreams are all H264, when I switch to high bandwidth mode anything thats H265 Main Stream just fails.

If I put a camera in PiP mode, its stays floating in the upper right corner until another video source is brought in.. listening to radio right now with PiP working, but if I open Plex/Netflix/Live Channels (HDHomeRun)/Amazon the PiP window vanishes the moment another video starts.. I think its more a limitation of AndroidTV right now and not so much TinyCamPro.

Ive got the 2nd Substream on my new starlight cameras giving H264, but with your app I cannot select it in any way.. Looks like I'm going to have to add a custom camera and specify the full RTSP URI for the 2nd sub-stream (running @ 1080p H264), going to need to pair up a keyboard for that.

 

[wantafastz28]

I'm the developer behind tinyCam Monitor app. Thanks for all positive feedback.

1. H265 stream should work. I've tested it on many Android device and I guess Nvidia Shield should have H265 hardware decoder. Have you tried to change decoder in App Settings - Video Settings to SW/HW/HW+ one?

2. What do you mean you cannot keep PiP window opened? Can you share a short video about the problem?

I appreciate you addressing my review about my ptz camera on Google play. ... hopefully it gets addressed. Let me know if you need access to the camera.

 

[alexvas]

@nayr,
I think this is a bug in the app with H265 decoder if none of them works. It works with Hikvision H265 cameras, but it might have bugs with some other vendors. If you can provide me a temporary access to your Dahua camera, I will try to fix that.

As far I as I remember I was able to view Youtube on my Nexus Player while having PiP window in the corner. Maybe this is some weird Nvidia bug or maybe PiP windows do not work when it running on top of DRM content.

Switching on 'Low-bandwidth profile' in app drawer will force to use camera sub-stream. Also for some cameras settings channel 2 in Camera Settings - Advanced will switch to sub-stream as well.

I appreciate you addressing my review about my ptz camera on Google play. ... hopefully it gets addressed. Let me know if you need access to the camera.

What review are you talking about? Could you remind me? There are almost 20,000 of them on Google Play.

 

[wantafastz28]

@nayr,
I think this is a bug in the app with H265 decoder if none of them works. It works with Hikvision H265 cameras, but it might have bugs with some other vendors. If you can provide me a temporary access to your Dahua camera, I will try to fix that.

As far I as I remember I was able to view Youtube on my Nexus Player while having PiP window in the corner. Maybe this is some weird Nvidia bug or maybe PiP windows do not work when it running on top of DRM content.

Switching on 'Low-bandwidth profile' in app drawer will force to use camera sub-stream. Also for some cameras settings channel 2 in Camera Settings - Advanced will switch to sub-stream as well.



What review are you talking about? Could you remind me? There are almost 20,000 of them on Google Play.

I had a complaint that before the past 2 updates my PTZ functions worked on my dahua 30x, you emailed me fairly quickly asking for info to resolve it and asked me to update again..still not fixed, but figured you are still addressing it.

 

[alexvas]

Can you send me again email? Looks like I missed it.

 

[Jack B Nimble]

I did not know it had a pip will have to try on my fire tv. It would be nice as a pop up when you watching TV when motion or line crossing occured. if you ever further want to add a nice feature.

 

[nayr]

yes some external HTTP API command to open PiP window would be totally fucking dope.. if its technically possible.

Its a new feature that requires Android7; not many AndroidTV devices have got it yet.. My Nexus Player and ShieldTV do and I think they the only ones so far.. iirc Amazon boxes run FireOS not AndroidTV so no clue if they have it or not. *edit* according to this its Android5 under the hood, fat fucking chance: Fire OS - Wikipedia

Amazon Android boxes are the biggest heaps of shit out there; and given Amazon refuses to sell any android boxes on there store w/out Amazon Video player; then refuse to give that software too any device that competes with FireShit.. The ONLY reason I got an amazon player on the ShieldTV is because Amazon has nothing near this level of hardware.. Amazon yanked the Chromecast and Nexus Player off there market and refuse to let the MiBox be sold either.. if you try to sideload the Amazon video app it wont work cause its been coded only to work on Sony TV's and Nvidia Shield.

When it comes to Linux/Android, Play nice or Fuck off; Amazon choose Fuck off..

 

[nayr]

I should add this shield TV kicks the shit out of every other AndroidTV device Ive encountered; espically if you have surround sound.. and I havent even loaded up any games yet.

w/my Pioneer AVR it supports: PCM 16bit, DD, DD+, DTS, DTS HD, Dolby TrueHD in every app perfectly, Ive tried all of them and no issue what so ever.. It also has a setting that forces surround sound output, so it applies a ProLogic esque processing on Stereo sources for fake surround sound.. it does a very good job with both TV/Music, putting most of it on the Center channel with a lil background noise coming out the rear speakers.. Before I would have to switch between ProLogic and Auto-Surround settings on my AVR depending on the sources and then remember to switch back.. no more of that crap, everything is in surround sound or fake surround sound by default now.

The remote is also much better, the Nexus makes loud clicking noises, the MiBox has a worthless power and volume buttons and both were shaped so uniformly it was hard to tell if ur holding it upside down or not.. the Shield Remote is cold metal, quiet, and very easy to tell which direction your holding it.

Just about every thing Ive had to bitch about AndroidTV has been resolved by Nvidia.. quite the device.

 

[Jack B Nimble]

You always good for a laugh Nayr, I suggested that Shield a ways back because it is the bee's knee's. I still run Kodi with Ares build and I have never used my Fire shit TV to have anything to do with Amazon as it is only a vehicle. I enjoy everything untethered and not a what I am told I should enjoy on TV sort of speak.

 

[nayr]

When I tried to by one last summer nobody had any in stock; then rumors were abound a new model was in the works so I held off.. The Gen2 ShieldTV was just released cpl weeks ago (Jan 30th IIRC), got it from Microcenter yesterday.

for the last 6 months or so getting a ShieldTV was only possible if your willing to pay the price gougers who scooped up the last stocks to profit on ebay.

 

[Jack B Nimble]

I did not know there was a Gen2 and yes I do remeber the first Gen were like $450 which screamed gouge and yet sold out everywhere.

**Just looked on goo foo and wow is it ever small slightly bigger than a phone and $199.00 decent price for sure.

 

[nayr]

thats not 100%, My Gen2 Pro remote has a Headphone port on it, as does the controller.. I think the 16GB Gen2 Remote has no headphone port

Also the new remotes use Bluetooth instead of Wifi, so this remote should be usable on any AndroidTV box.

 

[Jack B Nimble]

I wonder what the streaming off my pc gameing unit would be like ...hmmm. I would go for that 500 GB unit.