yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Shield Android TV Android Development] xaudiblex:
mjbxx, I am in the US as well and I have to respectfully disagree that this is "HD." I would like to add that the quality is fine for my needs. However, Amazon put an artificial limitation on the "official" android app. The larger the screen, the more noticeable this limitation will be.

If you look at the screenshots that I took from my Shield TV (1st Screenshot=Amazon Prime App & 2nd Screenshot=Chrome Browser) attached below, you can see that the picture quality is not as sharp (see the text & stop sign) & motion scenes tend to be more pixelated.

Will, that would be an intriguing idea. The only thing I don't like about using the chrome browser is the lack of media keys support (i.e.-play, pause, rewind, & fast forward).

Right now, I have a Logitech Harmony remote and I am able to use the play, fast forward, and rewind button without having to pull out a mouse. Do you think it would be possible to get the media key feature to work in the embedded browser? :D
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
I could try to listen for the key events, as long as they're standard, and then pass them into the WebView. It wouldn't be trivial, but neither is the autoplay (I'm still considering working on that).
[Shield Android TV Android Development] xaudiblex:
Will, I figured out most of the media key mapping that Amazon uses:

1) Spacebar - plays and pauses

2) Left Arrow - rewinds 10 seconds

3) Right Arrow - fast forwards 10 seconds

The media keys on the Harmony Keyboard mimic the ones built into physical keyboards.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] jsimone:
Hi will,

I appreciate your work and would be very interested in if you could get things working with a WebView. I have the same configuration and same problems with a Nexus Player that others in this thread have mentioned. Instant Video lets me log in but crashes whenver starting a video, either launched from your app or from within the Amazon app itself. I get the same behavior with both the v2 and v3.0 Amazon apps.

I have been trying to get Amazon VOD working on my Nexus Player for maybe a year, and before I tried your launcher I had an old v2.0-style app on my device which I thought might have screwed it up. My experience seemed similar to that of "bobbarney" earlier in the thread. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling different APKs multiple times with no change. Ultimately I performed a factory reset and let your launcher install the v3.0 APK automatically, with no change. At this point I was pretty disheartened about finding a resolution. I see that "bobbarney" indicated that another round of install/uninstall v2.0 -> v3.0 worked for him which I haven't tried. I may try that, however I do imagine that your webview idea would greatly improve the stability for people like me who have had this issue.

Thanks!
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
The WebView is working, but not perfect. I need to make a few other high-level changes to the app (make the download optional, maybe some settings early on). Would also be nice to have a few testers before I do a full push. Maybe I'll add a section at the bottom of the post for beta builds or figure out another distribution method.

Anyone interested in beta testing new changes like this? :D :D :D
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
I've got DPAD center/space mapped to play/pause, and DPAD left to rewind, DPAD right to fast forward. I don't see key codes for left arrow or right arrow if they're different than those. It'll be a matter of testing, I can always add more :)
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
I'm experimenting with a WebView based player, it might be able to stream full HD when I get it working. Not sure if it'll do 4k ;)
[Shield Android TV Android Development] jsimone:
Yes! I would be thrilled to test it. Will impatiently await further news ;)
[Shield Android TV Android Development] easy_mac:
Incredible man, appreciate you working on this! I've got both a nexus player and a shield if you need help with testing :)
[Shield Android TV Android Development] xaudiblex:
I am always up for beta testing!
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
[MENTION=943728]xaudiblex[/MENTION], [MENTION=6354131]easy_mac[/MENTION], [MENTION=6144132]jsimone[/MENTION] and anyone else who wants to test the new beta.

If you look back at the OP, you'll see I've added a beta section, download and install the APK named beta_com.willblaschko.android.primelauncher.apk (or click this link). For the moment, the only real change is related to adding a WebView Player option throughout the app. Having the Amazon Instant Video APK installed is no longer a requirement if your device WebView supports the correct DRM schema (tested on fully updated nVidia Shield as working).

Please give me feedback on any issues you find (crashes, things not working), or where you feel the user experience is a little rough and how you think it can be improved. I appreciate it, everyone!

Known issues in Beta version 1.3.1:

The login from the WebView Player will require a mouse and keyboard, I added a Settings option to load the login directly to avoid this, hopefully.

The WebView Player will occasionally crash during playback, not sure why, hopefully it gets caught by Crashlytics.

Recommendations (on the AndroidTV home) don't correctly launch the WebView Player
[Shield Android TV Android Development] xaudiblex:
Will, you are simply awesome! Testing it right now and the quality is definitely better. It looks like we are getting 1080p resolution now. I notice that after I stop playing a video & exit the app, the app sometimes crashes. Other than that it works great!

Possible requests:

1) Move the settings all the way to the bottom of the screen (in theory, we wouldn't have to access it all the time)

2) Somehow make the caption setting remember itself so we don't have to re-enable it each time with a mouse?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
That's probably the same crash I was seeing. Does it happen every time?

1) That's possible, I'll look into this for the next release. Would this be both rows of settings?

2) Is this the caption setting on the WebView Player? I wonder if I could use Up/Down to enable/disable captions programmatically--I'll have to look at what HTML5 <video> supports. I think that might be outside my control though, in the WebView, although if I have it bound to up/down, I could automatically set when I play the video based on saved preferences.

Edit:

And yes, I think we might actually be getting 1080p as well. Can someone with a 4k TV try some 4k content?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] xaudiblex:
As to #1, there was something I forgot about. For the original version, the location is good there because of the Watch List & Library quick links. As for the WebView version, would it be possible to have links to the Watch List & Library that are remote friendly? If it is possible, then the current location is actually a good location as well.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] jsimone:
Awesome! I will try this when I get home
[Shield Android TV Android Development] MaluNoPeleke:
The new webview version seems to work but doesn't load anything else than amazon.com which means I cannot test it with my German amazon.de Prime account.

Could you please add region specific URLs?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
Oh crap! Yes! Now this is why we beta test ;).
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
Just added beta 1.3.2 that supports the region settings, download the new beta apk and let me know if you run into any issues :).
[Shield Android TV Android Development] MaluNoPeleke:
Thanks, will try it out later today.

Do you know a virtual mouse app which gives you the possibility to use your smartphone as a touchpad instead of a real hardware mouse?

Different approach: is it possible to identify the Play button on a movie page by a specific <div> and to automatically select it? It is not very convenient to use a physical mouse from the couch.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
The video should autoplay (after a short loading pause), if it doesn't let me know. The real issue is the first sign in, which isn't well positioned for anything but a mouse and keyboard.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] Wiidesire:
I have to say I'm impressed how well the beta works.

I'm using my One for All Universal Remote for my Shield (no controller, sold it). First login in was a bit of a pain, but now everything works. With 1.3.2 you introduced the ability to change country settings. However when you press WebView Login in the settings, it will always go to Amazon.com.

So I had to click on a movie and then manually login to Amazon.de.

It autostarts the stream just fine. Pressing "Ok" on the remote starts/stop the video. Pressing the rewind/fast forward button also works (skips/forwards about 30?s).

The only "issue" I currently have is that on the top left there is a little symbol, I don't know what it stands for.

An addition I'd like to see is a category for your own watchlist of your Amazon account. Always searching for a title with the remote is a pain (no voice search).

On sites like Amazon.de it's actually possible for several titles to select the language beforehand. I don't think this will be easy to implement, thought I'd mention it. Current behaviour for Amazon.de is starting with the german audio track. As I watch everything in English, this is kind of a dealbreaker for me personally.

The HTML5 Video player is limited to 1080p and Stereo Sound. Surround Sound, UHD and HDR/Dolby Vision is not possible.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] sei4eto:
Hi! Thanks for your work.

I've try the latest beta on Sony tv android. Webplayer works, but I don't have an HD. Amazon video app starts to install but it fails. I use UK prime account from Bulgaria (unotelly dns).Why I can't install amazon video app on Sony Bravia android tv?

Thanks!
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
I should be able to get to a few of these things this weekend :).
[Shield Android TV Android Development] xaudiblex:
I would like to mention that this does work with Amazon Underground when paired with the older instant video app linked in the original post.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
Thanks for checking on this! In theory, most (all?) shop versions should work because I think they just handle authentication.

Unless someone beats me to it, my goal when I get back is to check which is the most recent version that works and then see if I can figure out how to make the current or Sony TV work as well :).
[Shield Android TV Android Development] Santeno:
Thanks Will. The app worked fine on my Nexus Player, but Kept giving me the parsing error on my ADT-1. I noticed that when I viewed the apk on es on my Nexus Player you could see your icon for it, but on the ADT-1 all you see is the generic Android Icon for the file. I mentioned this to a dev friend who looked at the app and said to let you know that it is missing the lib files for the version of Android 5.0.1 that the ADT-1 runs. Apparently without those files it will continue to give the parsing error. Does that help at all?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] gottahavit:
Thanks, I think that adjusts bitrate but not upper resolution. Playing same program 1080p on my TV is night and day better. Thanks for trying though.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] xaudiblex:
That would make sense. The only version that hasn't been working for me is the newest 3.0 series of the instant video APK. I have only tested up to 3.0.63.239301 versions of the app. The app loads fine but I can't play any videos through the original app with a keyboard and mouse. It loads a blank screens, crashes, and kicks me back to the app. Ironically, the last version I had any success with was the one linked in the original post.

Tonight, I'll let you know which version of Amazon Underground I have installed. If there is an upgrade, I will take one for the team and find out if it works or not.

---------- Post added at 10:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:49 PM ----------

Okay. Ran some test & here are the results:

Amazon Underground

6.1.4.200 (Latest): Working

Amazon Instant Video

3.0.63.245601 (Latest): NOT working

3.0.57.32901: NOT working

3.0.57.30110: NOT working

2.0.45.1210: Working
[Shield Android TV Android Development] DaveTheRave:
I can confirm, I did the same testing as xaudiblex, any version of the store (including Underground) works fine but all 3.0.X versions of Amazon Instant Video are not working with the app or standalone. It will simply try to load the title then exit.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] siddardhab:
Thank you very much.

I followed the instructions and got prime video working on Nvidia Shield for Amazon US. Great work.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] readonly24:
Hi,

first, thanks for your work and support.

I just installed everything and I was able to log into a german Prime account and play a video once. After that, I can select a video, but I only get the wait circle for a second or two, than I'm back in the movie selection.

Edit: APK Mirror is offline so I got the Amazon app from here
[Shield Android TV Android Development] nobo2k:
Hi,

thank you very much for the great application and the work in including uk/germany as well.

I was just able to test it again and it is still not working for me. When I use the applications from the linked post, I can launch your application (prime launcher) and select a movie - it switches over to the amazon application. The loading circle appears and then it just crashes on me.

How can I help to debug and fix it (if possible) ?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
Try clearing the data for both Amazon apps, for the moment it looks like that's helping.

If you can pull the whole log from when you launch the video until it returns to the launcher, that might be useful as well to debug. I have some ideas about how to make the app work with newer versions of the VoD but can't test yet.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] letsgoflyers81:
This works on my Nexus Player, except it crashes when I try to search. I can scroll through the listed movies and shows, but selecting the search icon crashes the app immediately.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] readonly24:
If I do so, I can watch exactly one movie, after that I only get the wait circle and get back to the movie selection. No error msg or so.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] nobo2k:
Clearing the data works - before I just cleared the cache.

Now I am with the same issue as most others:

I can play one movie (in SD quality) ... afterwards I experience the issue as before - the video application is initialized and then exits with "unfortunately this application has stopped" issue

This also happens when I change the settings from SD to BEST before launching a movie (directly after I cleared the data part)

I was trying to get a log with adb logcat but I couldn`t save it locally - any hints/tipps/links how to properly get the log of the shield so I can provide it to you?

Again thanks for the effort - please keep up this great work. Highly appreciate it
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
I'll add Crashlytics so I can track these crashes :). Do you have a log by chance?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
I usually use android studio and copy/paste from the device monitor, but I know there are other tools out there as well.

See if this works for you: https://sites.google.com/site/androidhowto/how-to-1/save-logcat-to-a-text-file
[Shield Android TV Android Development] letsgoflyers81:
How wouldwould I do that? I haven't rooted or side loaded many apps on it.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] underworld1234:
I enabled subtitles on my Fire Tablet (and I see subtitles there), but I still don't see subtitles using this app. What am I missing?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] xaudiblex:
You have to enable subtitles on the Shield TV (or Android TV Device itself) because it is a device specific setting. Its kind of hard to describe without screenshots but I'll do my best to guide you through it. You can enable captions by:

1) Starting up the official Amazon Instant Video app

2) Play any movie or show

3) Press the context menu button on a keyboard (or key combination ctrl + esc)

4) Click on CC

5) Enable it (and adjust settings if you desire)
[Shield Android TV Android Development] G8351427:
Thought I should point out to anyone that might be having problems. If you have tried getting this to work in the past and may have already sideloaded some Amazon apps, remove them and use the ones in the OP.

I seem to recall that Amazon had to republish a few of their apps when they got pulled from the Play Store and so now it seems they have more than on version floating around out there. I pulled the ones I got from Amazon directly and installed the ones that were distributed through the Play store.

It is now working for me on a Shield TV.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
What error do you get when you try to install it? Can you see the logcat and grab the full stack from there?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] sei4eto:
It fails without error message. On a choose player screen, when you choose amazon video app as default player it starts preparing, the downloading app. Then install app screen appears. Amazon video app starts to install. And without any warnings choose player screen appears again. I've tried to install amazon underground app. When I choose video from this app it says -install amazon video and opens amazon video downloading page, but download button is missing.

For logcat-how can I see it?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] Wiidesire:
Could you be a little bit more specific, please? :)

I tested 1.3.2 some more and experienced 2 crashes so far. Hope this is fixable.

If you manage to get the audio track switching into the app, I'll donate to you :good: Otherwise I can't really use it as a daily driver.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] xaudiblex:
First thing first, do NOT install the amazon underground app & install the instant video from the underground app. If you did, uninstall both. Check to see if you have permissions set to allow downloading. That was what caused mine not to install the first time around. You can see if the permissions are proper by going into:

1) settings

2) Apps

3) Prime Video Launcher

4) Permissions

5) Make sure Storage is enabled (slider should be to the right I think?)

6) Clear Data

7) Restart the app & try again
[Shield Android TV Android Development] sei4eto:
It didn't work. :( The launcher already has permission to write and read usb storage. (In app settling I don't have switch to enable or disable permissions).
[Shield Android TV Android Development] xaudiblex:
Which device and Android OS version are you on?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] scharrrfi:
Hi,

today I tried the new beta app.

When I try to using the webplayer on my Philips ((TP Vision) Android TV, the video start but it is not visible. It is stuttering a lot an plays too slow. Whats here the problem? I do not know which browser the TV uses for watching.

Playing with the Amazon Video App itself works fine but it only scales SD quality.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] Zxurian:
awesome work on getting Amazon VOD on to the Shield. I'm currently using the beta with the installed Instant Video option. Works well, except for the fact that I can't seem to set the quality of video to Best. If I select it, it just changes back to good.

I saw a past reference to the same issue, but then work started on the WebView player, which doesn't have the same remote options. Is there any planned work on fixing this issue?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] xaudiblex:
The only way to get video settings to stick in the Amazon App is to use a mouse to select it. For whatever reason, the remote doesn't select the setting.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
I didn't get to the changes this past weekend, it's still on my radar, however :)
[Shield Android TV Android Development] Lolento:
can i install to test out the beta and keep the other non-beta setup?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
The only difference between the beta and the not-beta is the beta adds a WebView player a few other UI elements. You should be fine upgrading, it shouldn't change the behavior of using the installed video player.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] xaudiblex:
Will, would it be possible to consolidate both settings row into one row?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] Orbiting234:
Holy ****, where did this come from!?!?!? http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/amazon...ideo-android-tv-3-11-44-android-apk-download/

Just fired it up on my Shield TV and it works perfect!
[Shield Android TV Android Development] pmgnet:
Yeppers, that's appears to be the real deal. Full amazon video menu, browsing, and it's identical to the app on my sony tv. Will, thanks for carrying us to here!
[Shield Android TV Android Development] will.blaschko:
Haha glad to have forced their hand! Hopefully they don't break this one too :)
[Shield Android TV Android Development] pmgnet:
agreed!
[Shield Android TV Android Development] Mosquito79:
Doesn't work for me. Seems to be an extract from Sony TV, because this App wants to pair with a Sony Device. And login is not possible for a german Amazon account like mine. So, this app seems not an official from Amazon released Version for Android TV

Gesendet von meinem E6653 mit Tapatalk
[Shield Android TV Android Development] hardwarechaos:
Hi there

it is the official one (com.amazon.aiv.US), but we have to wait for the EU Version (com.amazon.aiv.EU) for .de.

Hope it shows up on my SonyTV soon...

THX

Chaos
[Shield Android TV Android Development] Kovs:
now we need to just keep it on the DL so Amazon doesnt figure it out/catch on and break compatibility!

---------- Post added at 07:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:48 AM ----------

doesnt work on the nexus player FYI
[Shield Android TV Android Development] nomadman:
sideload com.amazon.aiv.us_3.11.44 works perfectly on SATV latest ROM in US region. However no wireless mouse/keyboard support. Media appears to be full HD so happy about that...
[Shield Android TV Android Development] winston6969:
Doesn't work for me in the UK, anyone else?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] mezdev:
Confirmed, its a for US only so it will not accept UK login it may have been mentioned above that its a Sony tv version.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] s--c:
Damn was hoping it worked in the UK.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] mrruin:
Need someone with a sony TV from the EU to extract the updated app...
[Shield Android TV Android Development] CharleySimmons:
sony version

anyone else having problems with the sony version in the US? Tried on Android 7 (beta) and it didn't work, but would at least login. I downgraded to 6, tried again - and the app instantly crashes.

FYI - I'm using two NP's now - 1 is on 7, the other is on 6.
[Shield Android TV Android Development] Kovs:
Doesn't work for Nexus Players
[Shield Android TV Android Development] CharleySimmons:
Well that stinks.

Oh well, thanks for confirming!
[Shield Android TV Android Development] paratox:
anyone have seen a working eu (de) version anywhere out there?
[Shield Android TV Android Development] hardwarechaos:
Hi there

Update of my TV got released yesterday and I just pulled this from my TV and did a quick test on my shield.

Could login and it said that my sony got successfully connected. :D

EDIT: Grab the APK at APKmirror

Same MD5 as mine and they verified the signature.

THX

Chaos
[Shield Android TV Android Development] robz1k:
Working for me in the UK many thanks for the file much appreciated :)