When will the androidTV playback rewrite be finished

[williamthrilliam]

There's a bunch of playback issues that haven't been fixed, and comments on some of the issues seem to indicate that the playback rewrite should fix these issues. 

https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-and...ssues/1753
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-and...ssues/3166
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-and...ssues/3423
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-and...ssues/3380
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-and...issues/153 - says it's fixed but it's not

I see Niel looks like the only person making progress on this; anyway I can help it go faster? I can't code, but I can donate or help test.

[crobibero]

https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/faq/#w...-available

[xaque]

There's a bunch of playback issues that haven't been fixed, and comments on some of the issues seem to indicate that the playback rewrite should fix these issues. 

https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-and...ssues/1753
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-and...ssues/3166
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-and...ssues/3423
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-and...ssues/3380
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-and...issues/153 - says it's fixed but it's not

I see Niel looks like the only person making progress on this; anyway I can help it go faster? I can't code, but I can donate or help test.

The best option imo is to roll back to 16.z release of the tv client.

I wish 17.z would have been pushed back until the rewrite was more fleshed out.

The removal of libvlc and a slew of other things really borked a lot of currently working setups, and the only solution for a lot of people was to force transcoding on media that once played perfectly fine.

I'm not sure if I'm liking the new release philosophy of jellyfin where these releases are happening more on a timeline rather than when features are actually tested and working, a lot of 10.9.x felt rushed and needed a quick patch release shortly after. I know the android client isn't necessarily part of this release structure but it seemed to me that 17.z was put out there to "keep up" with the server releases.

On a side note, anyone holding their breath to have libvlc re-implemented should accept that is never going to happen. The CVE in the current stable release of vlc isn't patched, and while there are patched releases that could be implemented they are not officially marked by the vlc team as stable. And if I'm correct in what I've read, the vlc android team isn't going to update or make a stable release available as the way Google and Amazon require dev keys for releasing new apps doesn't coincide with their belifes/policies.

So this all leads us to wait for the rewrite to be done, and God bless the man doing it cause it's a lot of work, but also a shame as it's just him doing all the work so it's probably going to take more than a minute. What would he super swell is if jellyfin actually supported some sort of bounty system that users could support to get features they want expedited, but that also doesn't seem likely to happen. There exists third party systems like gitpay.me but im sure that would raise some eyebrows in the jellyfin team and I could see PR from a contributor the team knows is being payed for their work being "stalled" or something like that.

Currently I'm keeping an eye on a project that is in beta (to github sponsors) that would replace my jellyfin setup. The dev is unhappy with the current state of the major 3 media servers, and the progress so far looks very promising. The android tv/google/apple tv clients are nearing completion, so perhaps I won't be waiting for the playback rewrite and perhaps will use this alternative.

[niels]

The releases for the Android TV app and server are entirely separate, both projects are worked on my different people too (Android TV is just me). I do NOT rush releases, and you can see that by looking at the beta cycles that often take about a month with multiple versions full of bugfixes.
While I am working on the rewritten playback code, I also have to maintain all other parts of the app and review pull requests. This takes a lot of time. There are some people contributing fixes to the codec support in the old playback code which I extremely appreciate, but they often come with new bugs that sometimes makes playback even worse. Unfortunately that happens because we're not a company with hundreds of devices to run tests on.
Anyone can donate to the Jellyfin project (won't go to people) or to individuals like me (https://github.com/sponsors/nielsvanvelzen/) if they want. But we don't guarantee anything by donating. That's the nature of the project.

[williamthrilliam]

The releases for the Android TV app and server are entirely separate, both projects are worked on my different people too (Android TV is just me). I do NOT rush releases, and you can see that by looking at the beta cycles that often take about a month with multiple versions full of bugfixes.
While I am working on the rewritten playback code, I also have to maintain all other parts of the app and review pull requests. This takes a lot of time. There are some people contributing fixes to the codec support in the old playback code which I extremely appreciate, but they often come with new bugs that sometimes makes playback even worse. Unfortunately that happens because we're not a company with hundreds of devices to run tests on.
Anyone can donate to the Jellyfin project (won't go to people) or to individuals like me (https://github.com/sponsors/nielsvanvelzen/) if they want. But we don't guarantee anything by donating. That's the nature of the project.

I'm very, very appreciative of your time and dedication @niels. I didn't mean to spin up a blame thread, I'm only looking to help and understand. Also, donation sent.

[thornbill]

Currently I'm keeping an eye on a project that is in beta (to github sponsors) that would replace my jellyfin setup. The dev is unhappy with the current state of the major 3 media servers, and the progress so far looks very promising. The android tv/google/apple tv clients are nearing completion, so perhaps I won't be waiting for the playback rewrite and perhaps will use this alternative.

Which project are you referring to out of curiosity?

[foux]

Currently I'm keeping an eye on a project that is in beta (to github sponsors) that would replace my jellyfin setup. The dev is unhappy with the current state of the major 3 media servers, and the progress so far looks very promising. The android tv/google/apple tv clients are nearing completion, so perhaps I won't be waiting for the playback rewrite and perhaps will use this alternative.

And what would this promising project be? If it's secret perhaps you shouldn't have mentioned it here.
On my end I see no reason to switch from jellyfin. I agree that the official clients have rough edges, but as niels mentioned that's to be expected with limited resources. And the advantage of jellyfin is that if the official clients doesn't agree with you, just pick another, there's a lot out there (Infuse, Findroid, Kodi plugin, Swiftfin, and so on and so on)!
And I must say that a project (for the moment) restricted to Github Sponsors doesn't looks very promising regarding openness

[xaque]

Currently I'm keeping an eye on a project that is in beta (to github sponsors) that would replace my jellyfin setup. The dev is unhappy with the current state of the major 3 media servers, and the progress so far looks very promising. The android tv/google/apple tv clients are nearing completion, so perhaps I won't be waiting for the playback rewrite and perhaps will use this alternative.

Which project are you referring to out of curiosity?

It called Kernal

https://github.com/sponsors/Fyb3roptik

From the developer of the m3u proxy Threadfin

He claims it will be open to all once it's out of beta but currently only sponsors have access.

Threadfin discord is open and has some information on Kernal. Could always ask there for more info or for an invite to the Kernal discord.