screensaver for a 4k display

[Eran Rosines]

Hi,

I was wondering if it is possible to enable the display of pictures at a 4k resolution when using the app on Android TV. I purchased the app and screensaver feature so I could display my own pictures in the background via screensaver on my 65" 4k TV (Hisense H9G with Android TV), but the pictures honestly look pretty awful. I learned that the android TV interface operates at 1080p, but is there a way for the app to utilize the 4k capability TV to display pictures at a their full resolution? I assume there are difficulties related to memory considering the increased size of the photos, but in the end the JPG files are only ~4MB each. Is it possible to add this as an option in the settings?

Otherwise, the app functions without issues on the Android TV displaying pictures from my Owncloud drive.

Thanks!

Eran

[Martin Vysny]

Hi,

unfortunately those images take much more RAM. The problem is as
follows: in order to display those JPG files, they need to be decoded to
individual pixels, each of those taking up 4 bytes of memory. So if you
have a 4K resolution, that means a whopping 16 megabytes of RAM. I need
to fetch at least 2 of those in memory at the same time (the next image
to be shown needs to be loaded and prepared upfront), which means 32MB
of RAM.

Androids running on the TVs themselves are usually pretty much trimmed
down memory-wise, but I'm still surprised that Android on a TV can only
output 1080p - a bit of a facepalm there. But if it is the case, then
there is probably no other way for Android app to "go around" and stream
stuff in 4K... Are other android apps on your TV able to stream stuff in
4K? E.g. VLC or Netflix?

Alternatively, what you could try is to buy a powerful Android TV
standalone device (e.g. Nvidia Shield or a TV box from Xiaomi or
similar) which do support 4K resolution, and connect them to your TV via
a cable. In such a setup, PhotoCloud should work correctly in 4K.

Best regards,
Martin

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[Martin Vysny]

Hi,
yeah this sounds crazy and intriguing to me too. According to
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4147653 only a specialized apps
can output 4K like video players, or e.g. a Sony photo app running on a
Sony TV, using some kind of Sony proprietary hack to output in 4K.

What's worse, according to this:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/shield-tv/9/244309/any-4k-photo-viewer/
it's not easy to configure Shield to output 4K natively. Could it be
some kind of Android limitation? However, perhaps with a proper HDMI
cable, the Shield could be configured to run in 2160P? If yes, then
PhotoCloud should also run in 2160P and show photos in 4K resolution.

Perhaps you could try to borrow Shield (or some other external Android
device) and try it out?

Best regards,
Martin

On 23.6.2021 23.29, E.R. wrote:
> Thanks for the reply!
> You are correct in that the individual android tv apps display 4k video.
> It is just the interface that runs at 1080p. I do not know how it works
> where the apps display video at 4k while the interface is at 1080p, but
> from my research it seems many (if not all) of the TVs with built-in
> androidTV run at 1080p to make the interface smoother.  I saw that
> standalone android devices do not have this issue, but it is odd to have
> to buy a separate android device for a TV with built-in android...
> Thank you again for looking into this.
> Eran

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