Kodi /UMS video control (easy positioning) on a TV Android box

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glidekangoo
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2017 6:47 am

Kodi /UMS video control (easy positioning) on a TV Android box

Post by glidekangoo »

Hello.

I just bought a TV box M9C Pro 4K that replaces a previous one very similar MXQ Pro 4K box.

I encounter a concern for adjustments with the new, the M9C Pro.

I use KODI on the 2 boxes to play video files on a hard disk. The movies are on the hard disk of my computer. The TV boxes are connected to this hard disk via Universal Media Server (UpnP device).

When playing a video, there is a difference in the playback control.

On the MXQ Pro box, I could easily reach the place of the video I want, go at the beginning, at the end, in the middle, without worry.

On the other hand, I can not do the same with the BOX M9C Pro. With the same software and the same video file. The video control bar only covers a few seconds and not the full length of the video.

Yesterday I have installed the last version 6.7.4 of UMS on my computer. And it works !! So I thought the issue came from UMS.

But unfortunately today, the same issue is back : I can't move in any video using Kodi on my TV box. I do not understand why !!

Anyone could help me please?

Thank you in advance.
Nadahar
Posts: 1990
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:57 pm

Re: Kodi /UMS video control (easy positioning) on a TV Android box

Post by Nadahar »

This depends on whether the media file is transcoded or not for that particular renderer. Files that don't need transcoding don't have any problems with skipping/seeking/jumping to where you want to.

When UMS has to transcode the file it's a different matter. The file being played on the renderer doesn't actually exist, but is created in real time. Because of this, there is no way to know the total size of the file. Some renderers use time codes for skipping/jumping and other use bytes. There's a couple of challenges with this:
  1. If the renderer use bytes internally and the total size (aka the "length" of the file) is unknown (as it is when transcoding), there is no way to calculate the relative position and you won't get a "time bar".
  2. If UMS can't parse the length of the file or there are other "complications" UMS might not know the total time either. In that case this won't even work for renderers that use time codes.
You should normally be able to "fast forward" even if there is no time bar though, but the fast forwarding might not be that "fast" as UMS has to start and stop the transcoding constantly at different points in the file.

The best solution is to avoid transcoding when possible. There are configuration files for each renderer (Kodi for example) that tells UMS what needs to be transcoded and not. Some renderers doesn't have a renderer configuration file in UMS, in which case most things will be transcoded even if the renderer supports the format. I'm a bit surprised that you have problems with Kodi though, as I know that Kodi has a renderer configuration file and that it can play almost anything.

If you search around this forum a bit you can find lots of information about making or tweaking renderer configurations, and often somebody else has already made and posted one that works for your renderer. On very new models, somebody has to be the first though.
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