New Android TV Box and Lightbox

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Denon

20 posts

Geek

#198745 21-Jul-2016 10:07

So I purchased an MX3 G which has glowing reviews and does some pretty fancy stuff like play a movie with DD 5.1

It has 2G Ram and 16G Rom. But will it play Lighthouse? NO!

Excitedly I down loaded the Lighthouse App and was rewarded with a flash looking screen. I selected the next Suits episode and bugger me it refuses to play the video???

I looked up and down all over the internet and discovered it was something to being "rooted". Now for my generation this is such an unfortunate term referring to devices which don't work or some kind of carnal activity. An interesting adjective to apply to the situation.

I read about "sideloading" an .apk APP and learned to use ES File Manager (had used similar PC based programs) . I sideloaded the Lighthouse APP from my phone onto the MX3 G. Did in work NO! BUT I could send it from the MX3 G to the Chromecast like I did on the phone. That actually worked????? But I did NOT want to Chromecast the picture!!!!!

Humour aside I wonder if there is a solution for "Rooted" Android TV boxes out there. Can you "Unroot" them? I tried "Hide my Root" but this is a very bad APP which hid my SU Binary code and then would not retrieve it after it failed to hide it from the Lighthouse APP.

Someone said they have Lightbox working on a MXG box. Really? I question that? A bit unbelieving!

Has Lightbox said anything recently?

Anyone got it going on a Android box?

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270 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1596029 21-Jul-2016 10:16

Hi @Denon, thanks for posting & reaching out.

A few things to note that may help -

First & foremost, what I believe you're experiencing here is a known playback issue on newer Android devices that use a certain type of player built into the Android software, called 'Widevine Classic'. We are working on a new version of the app to fix this player issue; it's coming soon
Chromecasting will/should work as it uses a different player
Your Internet searching around 'Rooted' devices is correct: anything that's rooted will very likely not play back content, as the DRM used to encode/encrypt the content will fail

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other issues. :)

Denon

20 posts

Geek

#1596076 21-Jul-2016 10:53

I have just loaded chrome onto my MX3 G Android TV box it allows me to log on and play trailers but refers me to the APP for playing videos.

The error I get on the player is this:

"something went wrong trying to play this content. Please contact customer support"

Apparently the MX3 G plays H.265 HEVC encoded video files.

If it was possible to "unroot" the device would it play my Lightbox? Currently we have it on 4 devices around the house.

Junta

270 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1596081 21-Jul-2016 10:59

Hey @Denon

As I say, your playback issues aren't relating to your device being rooted: it's due to the player built into your Android TV box. These should be resolved in the next app release - coming soon...

On a side note, you can't easily unroot a device.

chillr

32 posts

Geek

#1596096 21-Jul-2016 11:38

Hi Lightboxgeorge, will the upcoming new android app properly support leanback? i.e. can be navigated/controlled via just the remote on my Nvidia Shield (without me having to resort to a keyboard to access certain menus etc)

Junta

270 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1596657 22-Jul-2016 08:53

chillr:

Hi Lightboxgeorge, will the upcoming new android app properly support leanback? i.e. can be navigated/controlled via just the remote on my Nvidia Shield (without me having to resort to a keyboard to access certain menus etc)

Hi @chillr

We don't officially support this kind of remote as yet. However, always interested in this kind of stuff...will do some reading :)

stevenz

2802 posts

Uber Geek

#1597428 23-Jul-2016 19:42

I sideload v1.2.2 onto my ShieldTV and the inputs work ok other than no way to enter text as it doesn't bring up an onscreen keyboard when selecting the input boxes, so needed a keyboard for that, the right-stick input works as a mouse pointer ok.

The actual interface now seems to support controller input of sorts, which is an advancement, although up/down scrolls the screen up/down rather than any actual selection requiring the right-stick-as-mouse for selection, however whereas the previous version I tried (the long lived one from September 2015) seemed to recognise the resolution, 1.2.2 doesn't and displays in portrait which makes it fairly ugly. Playback is in proper landscape mode however and visual quality is excellent.

Audio is also only in stereo rather than the surround I get from the PS4 client.

@KnightNZ

radomatic

93 posts

Master Geek

#1598421 25-Jul-2016 18:27

GeorgefromLightbox:

Hi @chillr

We don't officially support this kind of remote as yet. However, always interested in this kind of stuff...will do some reading :)

I've heard you guys are working on your own Android box/set top box for Lightbox... presumably that will support this....

Maybe talk to the guy a few desks over from you and see what they say...

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

silverlake

142 posts

Master Geek

#1641486 27-Sep-2016 21:44

I've just got a new Android TV Box and I've installed Lightbox, but I can't get past the login screen. I already have a Lightbox account and 2 devices attached. The login screen asks for my Email and password which I have entered, but then I get a message saying; "missing required 'name' parameter". I know from my other devices that when I sign in to a new device I am prompted to give the device a name, but I'm getting this message before I have been given an opportunity to enter a name.

Can anyone help?

Junta

270 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1641488 27-Sep-2016 21:47

Hey - unfortunately we don't have an Android TV app. The mobile app is not compatible with the box you have :(

It's something we're looking into but no plans to release one yet.

silverlake

142 posts

Master Geek

#1641873 28-Sep-2016 14:57

GeorgefromLightbox: Hey - unfortunately we don't have an Android TV app. The mobile app is not compatible with the box you have :(

It's something we're looking into but no plans to release one yet.

Netflix works

Junta

270 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1641876 28-Sep-2016 15:03

silverlake:

GeorgefromLightbox: Hey - unfortunately we don't have an Android TV app. The mobile app is not compatible with the box you have :(

It's something we're looking into but no plans to release one yet.

Netflix works

Android TV boxes & OS will only grow in popularity, so it's definitely something we're looking into.

And yes, Netflix works because they have a very large amount of money to spend on their app development to make sure it does ;)

EDIT: On that note, though, if you want to pm me your Lightbox login email, I can probably track down any errors you're experiencing. We can then trace where the issues lies, and this paves the way for us making a compatible app...

silverlake

142 posts

Master Geek

#1646258 5-Oct-2016 22:25

GeorgefromLightbox:

silverlake:

GeorgefromLightbox: Hey - unfortunately we don't have an Android TV app. The mobile app is not compatible with the box you have :(

It's something we're looking into but no plans to release one yet.

Netflix works

Android TV boxes & OS will only grow in popularity, so it's definitely something we're looking into.

And yes, Netflix works because they have a very large amount of money to spend on their app development to make sure it does ;)

EDIT: On that note, though, if you want to pm me your Lightbox login email, I can probably track down any errors you're experiencing. We can then trace where the issues lies, and this paves the way for us making a compatible app...

I've tried another Android TV box running Android 6.0 (previous one used 5.1), and there is no issue signing in using Lightbox v2.0.2. However, I am getting repeated Server errors throwing me out of programs.

Junta

270 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1646264 5-Oct-2016 22:35

I believe this is because - technically speaking- these types of Android TV boxes are rooted devices. Rooted/jail broken devices fail the DRM check ... hence the server error.

Again though if you pm me your login I might be able to confirm that.

Bazil

79 posts

Master Geek

#1650840 14-Oct-2016 09:15

For the record my phone (HTC) is rooted yet plays Lightbox fine.

After doing a lot of digging and trying various devices/ROMs, it appears the server error issue with android devices is related to the absence of Widevine DRM from the device. It seems most of these no brand/Chinese etc devices do not ship with this enabled, and its not something you can add: it has to be built into the ROM.

The presence of Widevine is easily checked with a app like DRM Info.

Suggestion to Lightbox - make your error messages more informative, or include a warning that the required DRM is not present.

Junta

270 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1650844 14-Oct-2016 09:28

So, I think the original issue (that 3rd party/imported Android TV boxes are rooted and therefore the DRM doesn't work) still stands, as the reason is broadly the same: those ROMs don't support the right DRM format.

That said, the fact your rooted HTC One still plays content must be perhaps because it has suitable DRM support - and I'd guess this is perhaps through Widevine Modular which, for ref, is what our Android app player SDK supports (via CastLabs) uses.

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