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C4 driver for nVidia Shield


videostorm

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Thanks for all this great information @alanchow, @videostorm, and @Christopher Spitler!! You both are clearly very talented programmers, and also amazing contributors to this community!! 

Per some earlier communication with Alanchow, I understand it may not work if I were to run one of these Shield/IRUSB drivers alongside the Kodi Full driver. Alanchow mentioned trying to use a virtual switcher. I’m not sure what this is (note, I am just an end user trying to get as much info as possible to communicate my needs to a remote programmer). 

My end goals, in order of importance:

  1. Have a button on my SR-260 remote and in the iPad app that will launch the Nvidia Shield home screen.
  2. Have mini drivers/buttons so my wife and kids can easily launch the Nvidia Shield’s Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon apps.
  3. Continue using Alanchow’s Kodi Full driver (already purchased and setup on my EA-1 system) PLUS #1 & #2 above.

With that said, I have two follow- questions. 

1. Should I use the Alanchow or Video Storm driver? Or, are they both equally likely to work (or not work) for my situation?

2. Can anyone elaborate more on what a virtual switcher is, and how it would be setup in my situation?

Thanks!!

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I have a similar question to above.  Have the Kodi full driver and now the nvidia shield irusb driver.

 

Seems to work fine together in all scenarios except..... i have kodi in background because i opened youtube.  I then choose movies on c4 and choose to play a movie via kodi.  Kodi force quits with an error because i tried to play a movie while it is in th ebackground.  

 

Basically before the start of playing a movie chosen in the kodi full driver... we need a way to tell the nvidia shield mini driver to start kodi again(brings it to foregronud) then send the start movie command.

 

how would we achieve that?

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10 hours ago, Ilushka85 said:

I have a similar question to above.  Have the Kodi full driver and now the nvidia shield irusb driver.

 

Seems to work fine together in all scenarios except..... i have kodi in background because i opened youtube.  I then choose movies on c4 and choose to play a movie via kodi.  Kodi force quits with an error because i tried to play a movie while it is in th ebackground.  

 

Basically before the start of playing a movie chosen in the kodi full driver... we need a way to tell the nvidia shield mini driver to start kodi again(brings it to foregronud) then send the start movie command.

 

how would we achieve that?

We have methods on our driver to bring Kodi to the foreground (buttons, programming commands, etc).  However, given that Kodi is already running in the background this shouldn't be necessary.  Perhaps there is an issue/bug with the version of Kodi you are running?  Probably best to contact Alan via his support channel.

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1 hour ago, ryanm said:

Is there a way to use the mouse cursor with the sr260? I have a vpn app (which I sideloaded)  that has a tap to connect in the middle. but can't get it without the shield remote or controller.

To my knowledge, there isn't a way to use mouse movements in C4.  If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know :unsure:

IRUSB itself could support mouse cursor control......

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3 hours ago, videostorm said:

We have methods on our driver to bring Kodi to the foreground (buttons, programming commands, etc).  However, given that Kodi is already running in the background this shouldn't be necessary.  Perhaps there is an issue/bug with the version of Kodi you are running?  Probably best to contact Alan via his support channel.

Its the only / most recent version of kodi on android 17.6    To me it seems that issuing an extra command to bring to foreground should do it.  Also presently Alan's driver by default does not wake nvidia shield from sleep.  It seems that you have to push select / enter once to wake it.

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I just purchased 2 Nvidia Shields for my home (1 for Theater, 1 for rack to run in rest of house) to replace my 2 XBMC boxes (Pi2 model).

1) I'm wondering if using Alan's driver and the IRUSB (or just one of them) will address my issue I've had all along with the XBMC with the delay in increasing the speed of FForward, Rewind, and Play/Pause?  As it was, using C4 to control my XBMC for FForward, it would take maybe 5 seconds to incrementally increase the FForward speed (ie 2x to 4x to 8x etc) or even hit Play to start playback while in FForward.  Now with the Shield install yesterday, it appears the same issue persists.  If I use the Shield remote or my USB mouse, the change in FForward or Play/Pause, etc is instantaneous.  I'm looking for the fix for this primarily. I thought the issue was with my XBMC being a slightly older model.

2) From what I gather, using Alan's driver with the IRUSB, I can use my C4 remote to control the Kodi application for navigation but also for the main Shield screen navigation (which is identical to my newer Sony TV navigation screen based on the Android platform obviously).  Right now, I can only control the Kodi application using the C4 remote.  If I exit from Kodi, I lose C4 control of the Shield main menu.

 

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1 minute ago, drmark12pa said:

I just purchased 2 Nvidia Shields for my home (1 for Theater, 1 for rack to run in rest of house) to replace my 2 XBMC boxes (Pi2 model).

1) I'm wondering if using Alan's driver and the IRUSB (or just one of them) will address my issue I've had all along with the XBMC with the delay in increasing the speed of FForward, Rewind, and Play/Pause?  As it was, using C4 to control my XBMC for FForward, it would take maybe 5 seconds to incrementally increase the FForward speed (ie 2x to 4x to 8x etc) or even hit Play to start playback while in FForward.  Now with the Shield install yesterday, it appears the same issue persists.  If I use the Shield remote or my USB mouse, the change in FForward or Play/Pause, etc is instantaneous.  I'm looking for the fix for this primarily. I thought the issue was with my XBMC being a slightly older model.

2) From what I gather, using Alan's driver with the IRUSB, I can use my C4 remote to control the Kodi application for navigation but also for the main Shield screen navigation (which is identical to my newer Sony TV navigation screen based on the Android platform obviously).  Right now, I can only control the Kodi application using the C4 remote.  If I exit from Kodi, I lose C4 control of the Shield main menu.

 

If you add irusb device you will be able to control nvidia shield when you exit from kodi via c4 remote.  

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30 minutes ago, drmark12pa said:

I assume you need 2 IRUSB's if you have 2 Shield boxes, 1 IRUSB for each box?

Correct.  

With regards to the FF/REV being slow to respond:  IRUSB commands are the same as a USB keyboard/mouse (from the perspective of the shield box).  So if it is fast using the USB mouse, it would be the same using the IRUSB device & driver.

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Hi @Ilushka85. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one trying to use this setup.

Are you using the Alanchow or VideoStorm driver alongside your Kodi driver?

Did you try the virtual switchers suggestion that @alanchow gave me here? I have not yet - I'm waiting on my programmer. If you do try it, or otherwise figure out how to make it work, can you report back?

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11 minutes ago, elee532 said:

Hi @Ilushka85. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one trying to use this setup.

Are you using the Alanchow or VideoStorm driver alongside your Kodi driver?

Did you try the virtual switchers suggestion that @alanchow gave me here? I have not yet - I'm waiting on my programmer. If you do try it, or otherwise figure out how to make it work, can you report back?

I am using alans nvidia driver along with the kodi full driver with the virtual switcher.... it generally works but:

 

1.  play a movie while kodi in background - kodi crashes -need to program to bring kodi to front first (launch app command would do that)

2.  Neither driver will automatically wake the nvidia shield from sleep... need to send "enter/select" via the nvidia driver first

 

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3 hours ago, Ilushka85 said:

I am using alans nvidia driver along with the kodi full driver with the virtual switcher.... it generally works but:

 

1.  play a movie while kodi in background - kodi crashes -need to program to bring kodi to front first (launch app command would do that)

2.  Neither driver will automatically wake the nvidia shield from sleep... need to send "enter/select" via the nvidia driver first

 

Thanks! Any thoughts as to whether Video Storm's driver would work better? Or, at least equally as well as Alanchow's driver? I'd prefer it since (1) it's no additional cost and (2) it sounds like the Video Storm driver can map the "guide" button to return home and the ability to map the color buttons to specific apps. Both seem like nice added conveniences, though neither is an absolute necessity to me. I just need be able to use the Kodi Full driver and also have an easy way to get to the Nvidia Shield home page and launch some key Nvidia Shield apps like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.

Thanks!

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20 minutes ago, elee532 said:

Thanks! Any thoughts as to whether Video Storm's driver would work better? Or, at least equally as well as Alanchow's driver? I'd prefer it since (1) it's no additional cost and (2) it sounds like the Video Storm driver can map the "guide" button to return home and the ability to map the color buttons to specific apps. Both seem like nice added conveniences, though neither is an absolute necessity to me. I just need be able to use the Kodi Full driver and also have an easy way to get to the Nvidia Shield home page and launch some key Nvidia Shield apps like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.

Thanks!

My guess is both would work equally well.

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i've actually moved back to the VS driver from chowmain driver due to being able to set "go to home on power off" within the driver itself. without this, my receiver wasn't seeing any new video (b/c i almost exclusively use plex) and requiring me to press buttons a few times to create enough video movement in order to "wake up" the receiver's video processor. 

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On 2/18/2018 at 10:51 AM, Christopher Spitler said:

one additional thing with the shield: make sure you turn off HDMI CEC and set "go to sleep" to "never" otherwise it will have issues

Yup. Turned off the sleep feature within one day of buying it as mine had problems waking. I've got it turned back now because it works properly after the last couple updates. Not sure if it will introduce any other problems though once I get the IRUSB in and can start playing with IP control.

Edited by icefloe01
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i still have issues with my shields on both drivers actually. when the system is off, if i do watch > plex (let's say) no video shows up. i need to press "cancel" a few times in order for it to come up. what i am going to try next is adding an app to disable the screensaver on the shield and see if that helps

 

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actually just did this, i enabled a few options to keep things "cleaner":

- enable developer options (go to settings > about > and tap the build number like 30 times, will show prompts)

- go to developer options (up a level) and enable "stay awake"

- in developer options, i also asked it to tear down apps after exit instead of keeping them active in background to prevent any potential conflicts. 

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1 hour ago, Christopher Spitler said:

actually just did this, i enabled a few options to keep things "cleaner":

- enable developer options (go to settings > about > and tap the build number like 30 times, will show prompts)

- go to developer options (up a level) and enable "stay awake"

- in developer options, i also asked it to tear down apps after exit instead of keeping them active in background to prevent any potential conflicts. 

I wouldn't recommend the tear down apps after exit.  That could have strange consequences since it that type of behavior is contrary to the standard Android app life cycle.

I do understand disabling CEC, since the Shield will otherwise send ON whenever it wakes and OFF when it sleeps.  If you TV is already controlled by another method or has other sources this isn't a good thing.

Disabling sleep (if CEC is off) shouldn't be needed in general.  Most key commands (nav commands) via IRUSB will wake the shield.  C4 doesn't really know when the shield sleeps though, which is why when you select the device/apps you still need to press a key to wake it up.  We could add something to the app to detect if the device is asleep and wake it without the extra key command if people find it necessary?

If you run into any other issue please let us know so we can get it fixed.  Thanks!

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