Contribution: Addition to "Compare Media Servers" wiki documentation page

[nickl-]

The wiki pages are not editable, hereby a contribution for your perusal:

Additional content for the Compare Media Servers wiki page, Clients comparison table. Adding the VIDAA TV OS (most Hisense TVs not running AndroidTV, and others) availability of a native app support per platform.

Clients	Jellyfin	Kodi	Plex	Emby	Channels DVR
VIDAA OS	No	No	Yes	No	No

Currently it only looks like Plex has signed the partnership agreement, not exactly sure what that entails aside from a requirement to sign an NDA (which is probably also the reason why this information is not forthcoming) or if there are costs involved.

There is another "debug" method for manually adding browser based apps, I am planning on testing Jellyfin and will update this issue with my findings.

[nickl-]

Used these debug install app instructions to add the jellyfin browser app to Hisense TV running VIDAA OS. The OK button doesn't work so you cannot select anything.

Running the app in the browser works but the player doesn't not support many codecs causing excessive transcoding.

Need to find a better solution.

[Protektor-Desura]

I've never heard of VIDAA OS. Is it a subset of Android or something? What TVs use it? I've never seen a TV in the USA use it.

[nickl-]

Definitely not Android, but it is Linux base because they are forced to at least give the impression that they copy left, there is nothing in this repository that we didn't already have, nor is there any trace of "vidaa". opensource-hisense/SmartTV-SeriesVidaaU5

I have not attempted to get root access yet, but there is a thread on XDA where they speculate that it is running Opera TV which is now Vewd.

It seems very similar, not sure if that is just a framework but I have managed to get the OK button to work, based on their limited documentation. There are still issues with lists I need to sort out but at least the app is useful.

The tv does not support HEVC, even with the built in player, so jellyfin has to transcode that content. From what I can tell it has no problem receiving 4K H264/5 in the browser. Jellyfin does not transcode HDR or Dolby Vision, which is something else I am looking for.

Emby is completely disabled, cannot play more than a minute, which has no sound, without paying for a subscription. Plex does have a native app, as apposed to having to run as a browser app. Still can't say whether it beats Jelly though. Not being choked to pay and having access to the source carries quite some weight.

To be continued...