SqueezePlayer and Logitech Revue / Google TV: a complicated story
I’m often asked, if I can make SqueezePlayer work on GoogleTV / the Logitech Revue.
Unfortunately this is a very complicated story and I’d like to share some details (and a possible solution in the end).
The mysterious “NDK” SqueezePlayer uses an Android feature called “NDK” (native development kit). It essentially enables me to write ultra fast code – which is needed for the FLAC decoder. SqueezePlayer wouldn’t run on devices like the HTC Wildfire (just 500Mhz CPU) or Sony XPeria Mini if I didn’t use this technology.
Google TV and the “NDK”: GoogleTV unfortunately does not (officially) support the NDK. (see here: https://developers.google.com/tv/android/docs/gtv_android_features#NDK).
In the past (with their very first firmware version) this was a little bit understandable: Google TV runs on Intel processors while every smartphone/tablet is based on the ARM technology. The NDK (being ‘native’) is very picky about the platform it runs on and for a very long time the NDK did not run at all on Intel processors.
But it does for a while already – and personally I’m really clueless why Google just failed to include it for their own GTV.
SqueezePlayer and Intel: SqueezePlayer does run on (other) Intel based Android devices (for instance the Intel based O2 Joggler can run on Android: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O2_Joggler). Which shows that there isn’t actually a problem on the Intel platform – it’s just that GTV does not support it.
So as a conclusion: right now there is absolutely no chance for me to make SqueezePlayer compatible with the stock Revue.
So what can we do know?
Well there are some options:
#1: waiting. *sigh*. I have no clue if this is a good strategy 🙁 … Logitech dropped the Revue line altogether meantime.
And it looks like all GTV successors that are still in the game now abandon the Intel platform and use ARM again.
Which in my opinion makes it unlikely they will care for Revue anymore.
Anyway: call their support – make them hear you!
#2: hacking. The Revue can be “rooted” (i.e. you get full access to the operating system). And: some people brought the NDK even to GTV! *yeah*
Instructions can be found here: http://gtvhacker.com/index.php/GTv-OS_(AndroidTV)#NDK_Support
As I don’t have a GoogleTV I cannot try it myself – but would be happy to know if any one of you could make it work.
So far I don’t know anyone who tried it at all – but I’d love to hear from your experiences!