Sky+ App Photos

[PHILSU]

I have raised this issue elsewhere but am posting again as new topic to try to get user feedback.

The Sky+ App which, since ca Oct last year, permits photos to be viewed on a TV is potentially great but suffers from a major drawback ( at least in my tests ) - the order of photos, which is very weird.
I think most people would wish to display their photos in some meaningful order, usually best done via Filename.
To test what was going on, I created a set of 21 photos with filenames 01.jpg 02.jpg 03.jpg up to 21.jpg
To make assessment easy, each photo was just a blank sheet with the filename in the middle.
Using the SKY+ App on my Hudl2 ( Android: OS Kitkat ) the photos are displayed in the following order
21.jpg 19.jpg 17.jpg etc down to 01.jpg then 02.jpg 04.jpg etc up to 20.jpg
I think this is something to do with the Android Media Database Grid View facility.
I am trying to get this rectified through SKY.
I know that there is a Select Option to pick each photo individually and thereby impose some order on the sequence but for an album with many photos this solution is just too time consuming.
It would be very useful to know if this behaviour is common with all Android-based tablets, which I suspect it is, and also if is the same on Different OS devices, e.g. Apple iPad.

Could I appeal for feedback from users with other devices/OSs so I can feed back to SKY the extent of the problem.

Phil

[Scubbie]

Whilst the feature is great for those who don't have a suitable Smart TV, but do have a Sky+ HD STB, the feature is somewhat limited.

Sure I used it for testing purposes, but it does have some issues in how the images are managed. It is also limited to just photos.

There are some better apps available if you have a Smart TV. Examples include Skifta (sadly no longer available to download) & Allcast.

[mcphailan.]

sometimes the camera icon inexplicably disappears on my wife's moto G Second Gen (running pure android kitkat)....found we had to take a picture and go back into app for it to-reappear ! A bit "under-tested" methinks. Though lovely when it works. And yes we see the same strange ordering of photos....the wife exclaimed shed lost pictures until i hunted with fine tooth-comb.

[PHILSU]

At least the Sky ordering is consistent and I now have a workaround for this.
My sets of photos of holidays, family etc are all transferred from my PC. I have 1000s.

I have written a small BAT file (really as an academic excercise) which prefixes the correctly ordered photos on my PC with another "Sky" number, before transferring them to my tablet, so that when displayed using the Sky+ App the display order is then correct. However this means having sets of photos ordered specially for this App.

Still hoping for a feedback from an iPad user, although I guess that with their own TV systems they may not be interested in this means of casting their photos.

Phil

[seawright]

Just wonderred if the app is necessary for photo viewing.

Try this url:

http://192.168.150.9:49159/photo-viewing/start?uri=http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/attachments/sky-sky-tv/5644d1424669333-sky-app-photos-41924344.jpg

substituting your Sky+ HD boxes ip address for 192.168.150.9 and check if above image appears on your TV screen.

[lettice]

Just wonderred if the app is necessary for photo viewing.

Try this url:

http://192.168.150.9:49159/photo-viewing/start?uri=http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/attachments/sky-sky-tv/5644d1424669333-sky-app-photos-41924344.jpg

substituting your Sky+ HD boxes ip address for 192.168.150.9 and check if above image appears on your TV screen.

Yes, seen that trick before, but only seems to work if I remember with certain images.

[PHILSU]

Just wonderred if the app is necessary for photo viewing.

Try this url:

http://192.168.150.9:49159/photo-viewing/start?uri=http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/attachments/sky-sky-tv/5644d1424669333-sky-app-photos-41924344.jpg

substituting your Sky+ HD boxes ip address for 192.168.150.9 and check if above image appears on your TV screen.

Interesting but more explanation would be appreciated for the less savvy

Substitute Where ?. A setting in my Sky Box, Computer ?

I tried putting this in the URL of my PC and nothing seemed to happen.

Are you suggesting that using this trick I could easily somehow display photos from my Tablet directly on my TV connected to my Sky box ?
I obviously need to use some App on my Tablet to access and swipe through the photos. Would this permit me then to direct the output to my TV, as well as my Tablet screen.

[seawright]

The Sky box I was testing this with had an IP address of 192.168.150.9 so I used this in the url in my previous post. You can check your boxes IP address on your Sky boxes network settings page (services 0 5). Just copy and paste the code into your web browsers address bar then edit for the correct ip address. A blank web page will be displayed but provided the TV screen is showing a programme without any info banners generated by the box the image should be displayed.

I tried using a clickable link but it didn't work.

Sky doesn't disclose how its app works which makes it difficult for anyone to use the Sky+ HD boxes photo viewing facility in any way not directly controlled by Sky. My post is only an idea not a direct substitute for the Sky+ app but I know there are others reading this post who are more knowledgeable than me that could use their IT skills to build on the code snippet to display photos via the Sky box in a user friendly way.

[lettice]

Suppose you could point to an image file on a locally shared drive or server on your tablet or pc to supply up the image/s and create a bat file to send them to the box every n seconds.

Although its fun, there are so many better apps and ways to share images on a TV.
Probably cheapest is via a chromecast if you do not have a smart tv or any other smart device.

You could always email the sky apps team at apps@bskyb.com
They are always up for feedback and respond well to questions and enhancements.

[seawright]

Think OP has already done that though not sure if that email address was used.

I have also contacted Sky directly but no response.