[ Large 4K-HDR Video File Coming Across Jerky and Low Resolution ]

[rdhir001]

Dear Chris,

You have made a great contribution to the User Community! - My family and I greatly enjoy seeing our Google Photo / Video Albums via. PhotoView App / Channel on our 75'' Samsung Q90 4K-HDR Smart TV.

*** My Issue

PhotoView App / Channel unable to maintain the 4K-HDR property of large video files from Google Photos - shorter videos work great and they are awesome 4K-HDR.

Such Large Videos play very well on my iPhone.

I have a large video file: 11 minutes / 2.1 GB in my Google Photos. It comes across on PhotoView as somewhat blurry / low resolution with good sound - changing download options from 4K to lower resolution(s) does not help.

Any insights, comments or feedback for this big fan of yours?

Thanks, and regards.

... In Partnership and Service,

rdhir001

[rdhir001]

Chris - I eagerly await your response.

Regards.

~ rdhir001

PS - do you have a Zelle or a Venmo account for me to send you an appreciation cash donation?

[rdhir001]

Follow Up: while the old 2 long videos are playing very well, another long video added last night / 12 minutes is jerky / low resolution.

Maybe, it takes time to process long videos - playing them on Google Photos is working great.

Very puzzling - I will play the last long video in 2-3 days, and report if the issue goes away.

Regards.

rdhir001

[rdhir001]

Dear Chris,

I trust you are receiving my messages, and that you may be busy or/and traveling.

The 4K / UHD / Dolby Vision videos are again grainy for the last videos taken on Halloween - videos before that went from grainy to awesome quality.

Airplay from Google Photos works great, and so it is on my computer / smart phone.

I am very puzzled here - please shed some light on this matter.

T . H . A . N . K . S!

... In Partnership and Service,

rdhir001

[rdhir001]

To continue my learnings ...

PhotoView: both short and long videos initially appear blurry-very low resolution.

The problem above gets resolved in 2-4 days. While this still puzzles me, I am glad that eventually I can enjoy my Video / UHD recordings.

... In Partnership and Service,

rdhir001

[chtaylo2]

@rdhir001 - Thanks for your update. When a video is initially uploaded Google does some unknown, backend processing on their side. The problem is, when Google Photos moved their API from Picasa to Google Photos API (https://picasa.google.com/), they removed all documented ability to stream a movie. Yes, everything.

The only way your videos are able to stream today is a by using an undocumented workaround we were able to find. By adding a additional parameter to the URL, the video streams vs downloads.

See: https://github.com/chtaylo2/Roku-GooglePhotos/blob/master/components/Slideshow/Browse/Browse.brs#L199-L208

Unfortunately, I have no idea how long this will continue to work, but it's been a couple years, so i'm hopeful it's here to stay.

Donations are always appreciated. Please see: https://www.photoviewapp.com/donations/

Thanks, Chris

[rdhir001]

Dear Chris,

Thanks for your response.

You wrote 'By adding a additional parameter to the URL, the video streams vs downloads.'

What is the URL? - I want to use PhotoView APP on my Samsung HDR / UHD and do not understand the URL and the code that shows up in the 2 links you sent me.

As I said before, the videos work great through PhotoView after a few days of being uploaded to Google Photos.

T . H . A . N . K . S!

... In Partnership and Service,

rdhir001

[rdhir001]

Dear Chris,

Lastly, am I understanding that PhotoView downloads a video to its server to then stream to my Roku / Samsung?

Why not add the URL or code in your App that you narrated before?

I am not an expert like you in this arena.

Please enlighten me.

Regards.

... In Partnership and Service,

rdhir001

[rdhir001]

@chtaylo2 - please see my recent response(s) to your kind response.

I am learning!

Regards.

... In Partnership and Service,

rdhir001

[rdhir001]

@chtaylo2,

FYI - after uploading a large video file to Google Photos, and waiting for a couple of days, the UHD video is playing very well on PhotoView.

Wow - I learned! No clue why the delay helps - well, life is good!

Thanks, and regards!

... In Partnership and Service,

rdhir001

[chtaylo2]

Lastly, am I understanding that PhotoView downloads a video to its server to then stream to my Roku / Samsung? No. Videos are streamed, not downloaded to the device.

Why not add the URL or code in your App that you narrated before? The URL is generated by the Google API at time of call. It has a finite life span. What i was pointing out is the additional parameters the app adds to cause the video to STREAM vs download.

[rdhir001]

@chtaylo2 - thanks for all your insightful help.

I am good with PhotoView handling UHD videos - as I said, UHD videos stream OK after a day or two of being uploaded to Google Photos irrespective of their file size.

Regards.

... In Partnership and Service,

rdhir001