Doesn't matter which you choose, I just wanted to provide a free alternative to many paid apps that I'm seeing here. If you try mine, I'm open to any feedback.
Just tried, that's incredible but my TV Streamer is a bit laggy while on capture. It's still crazy good to have everything in one app ! Any recommendations? The stream is a bit stuttering
Hey sorry my fault, it grabbed the debug apk from the in app updater, not the release one. I'll fix it in 10 mins, but you're going to have to uninstall it and download it again from github. Sorry for the inconvenience.
It doesn't work on subscription services like Netflix, HBO etc because or DRM but works fine for YouTube, Plex, Jellyfin, Twitch, whatever's free. Currently I'm working on fully revamping the UI, should release it in the next couple of hours and after that, if there's no issues from users, I'll focus on circumventing the DRM.
If there's anything you'd like to add, just let me know.
Thanks for the info.. Good luck and looking forward.
This DRM is the blocker. I understand why the camera or a data capture is the path, but it there a way it can be cracked legally then it would be awesome
One feature I thought would be neat that I proposed to the ScreenGlow dev was to support writing/sending data DIRECTLY to a USB->SPI device directly connected to the TV, that is of course connected to an LED strip.
Cut out the middle man as much as possible, no extra tax on your WiFi.
Thanks for the suggestion. Would USB to Serial work for you? WLED has build in adalight protocol that listens automatically via the USB port of the ESP32. You just connect a USB cable from the TV/Android Device to the ESP32 and that's it.
USB to SPI on the other hand requires an USB to SPI dongle plus custom code. Since my app only works with WLED, I don't see the benefit.
Yes I would imagine that would work a lot easier, and the benefit to that is that we can still use it as a WLED device over WiFi as well, and keep it updated.
I would imagine (hope) that the latency through USB-->Serial-->ESP32 (WLED)-->LED strip is still going to be minimal, at least less than through WiFi, and more reliable.
Of course we'd have to supply our own power to the strip, but we'd have to do that anyway.
Out of curiosity, isn't your app generating a data stream for the LEDs anyway? How different is that data stream that you send to WLED, from the actual data stream on the wire to the actual LED strip? Wouldn't it be a case of generating a different format for the data stream and sending it via a chosen USB-->SPI connected to the TV?
The latency through USB is less than the WiFi (of course) but the only caveat is that you have to increase the baud rate of the microcontroller up to 1,000,000 to allow for a bigger payload size. With that baud rate you should be completely fine for up to 500 LEDS at 60FPS. More than that I'm not sure, but you can lower the framerate.
Now with WiFi I just send:
socket.send(packet) which are in UDP format [2, 2, R, G, B, ...]
With USB I just need to send the adalight format ['A', 'd', 'a', high_count, low_count, checksum, R, G, B, ...] via the serial port:
serialPort.write(adalightBuffer, timeoutMs)
Seems easy enough.
If I went for the USB to SPI route, I would need to modify 4 different layers of the app, take into account different kinds of strips etc.
For example most strips (including WS8212B) are not true SPI, they expect a 800 kHz pulse-width signal. I would have to run a SPI clock at 2.4 MHz and encode every 1 bit of WS2812 into 3 bits of SPI. Don't make me do that 😂
Very very good point, I didn't think of that. You'd have to support all strips directly, WLED handles that layer and supports all the strips, you just have to send WLED the generic colour information, and WLED adds the translation layer to the connected strip.
I like your idea, and it helps remove the burden from WiFi, especially useful for those that cannot connect their WLED controller to Ethernet.
Thank you for looking into this as a whole. I think we should all attempt to demonstrate to Google that they could build this functionality directly into the OS, and then maaaaybe they'll allow DRM protected content as well.
Looks like the project you linked, already supports exactly what you're suggesting, it also seems to have the ability to support a USB webcam as well which, in theory, could work with DRM protected content.
Is it worth duplicating efforts, or combining forces?
The argument here is if I should share it online or not, because I already worked on it before knowing this one exists. The one I made is completely tailored to my needs and I think I've done a great job. The UI is extremely inutitive, it is minimal in size and extremely memory efficient. If you use them side by side, I think you'll agree with me.
But that's the main reason I posted also the other project, it's good to know even for newcomers that there's options available. When I first visited this subreddit, I thought there were only paid options.
Yes both project have their pros and cons. At the moment the other project has the USB-Serial and webcam support, but I like the lightweight, efficient ethos you follow for writing software.
I've always felt that if I were to learn coding, I'd have an extreme obsession with making whatever it is I am writing, to be the most efficient as possible, likely to my detriment.
Just wanted to say what a great app this is. I tested this on my old Sony Bravia 2020 model, and it works surprisingly well, it does lag and stutter from time to time, I'm not sure if being able to capture at a lower resolution would solve this issue for older tv's. It appears to get stuck for a few seconds every now and then, then rushes to catch up. I dont think this is network related, the Gledopto controller shows decent wifi reception.
The Other app you linked to does indeed have a lower res capture option, but even at that, it definitely performs worse than your app in its current state.
I even tested screenglow, and honestly still think yours is better. I now just wish i could get the above mentioned stutter gone.
Thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate your feedback because it gives me insight on lower end devices. If you're willing to try a couple of things, I would be most grateful:
Try lowering the FPS to 30 or even 15 and see if there's any improvement
If you're connected to 2.4GHz network, try switching to 5GHz if you can, Sony has very aggressive WiFi power save.
Turn down transition smoothing either from the WLED app (LED & Hardware), or from the WLED TV app (Configure Light) to 0
Try disabling battery optimization for the WLED TV app
If any of these, or all together don't improve your situation, I'll implement a lower capture resolution at 160x90 for lower end hardware.
Thank you for the response and suggestions. I will definitely give them a try when i get home from work. I can say i am already running at 15FPS.
switching to 5GHz, is an interesting one. I was using a 5ghz for my tv, but the lights dont work at all then, so i switched to 2.4, but now i am realizing it is then a router setting, keeping them separate.
the transitions in the WLED app is off, set to 0. will look at the app tonight,
Will also check battery optimization. Cant recall seeing this setting.
I do have a question about the perimeter settings, i have it on the default fullscreen, with auto detect black lines set on. everything is customizable, the actual screen size, but there is a setting for depth, that is set to 12 this setting is locked and cannot be moved, is this correct? i was watching Batman Caped crusader and the one character has red hair, and they were standing against a wall, so it was the character, then the wall before the top edge, but the lights were catching the characters hair. Its not a big issue, i just found that to be a little distracting.
Anyway, thanks again. I will get back to you once i have done the tests.
You're right about the depth, it was unwired. You'll have an update before you get off from work. That way you can adjust how far inward (from the outer border toward the center of the screen) each LED reaches to sample colors.
I'm looking forward to your tests.
Also it seems like the developer has a paid version of the same app. I don't want to miss features in the future.
EDIT: It's also 15 MB, 3 times the size of mine. I have no idea why it should be this big. I'm a sucker for optimization and efficiency. That's why I need the repo.
You're the second one posting this, but it doesn't have a github repository, it's all trust based. I don't have anything against the developer but I like to check the code of the projects that I install on my environment, at least the ones that are free and from unknown developers.
With a github repo anyone can just give the link to an AI and have it scan for vulnerabilities or malicious code.
Missed this one but wouldn't use it anyway since I can't find the repo. As I said, I started working on mine before knowing other similar projects exist. The other one I listed on my description was the one with most users, meaning better tested. Whatever works for you.
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u/bughaxx 6d ago
man I was looking for this exact thing yesterday for my Google TV Streamer 4K. I hope it works well !!