Database Users

Streaming video from vlc to G1?

I am trying to restream some online windows formatted video streams to my G1 using VLC.
I have tried to get this working myself, with the help of google.
But I just can't get it working.
This should work... in theory:
cvlc -vvv "<url>" --sout '#transcode{soverlay,ab=42,samplerate=44100,channels=1,acodec=mp4a,vcodec=h264,width=328,height=288,fps=15,vb=200,venc=x264{vbv-bufsize=500,partitions=all,level=12,no-cabac,subme=7,threads=4,ref=2,mixed-refs=1,bframes=0,min-keyint=1,keyint=50,trellis=2,direct=auto,qcomp=0.0,qpmax=51}}:gather:rtp{mp4a-latm,sdp=rtsp://0.0.0.0:8000/news.sdp}'
I have alswo tried streaming over http: std{access=http,mux=ts,dst=0.0.0.0:8000}'
Whenever I try, Meridian just says "sorry, this video cannot be played."
This is the output from logcat:
I/ActivityManager( 97): Starting activity: Intent { data=rtsp://xx.xx.xx.xx:8000 flags=0x10000000 comp={org.iii.ro.meridian/org.iii.ro.meridian.VideoPlayActivity} }
I/ActivityManager( 97): Stopping service: org.iii.ro.meridian/.MusicPlaybackService
I/HTCIMEService( 260): [finishInput]:
W/ActivityManager( 97): Unable to start service Intent { action=com.htc.android.mail.eassvc.EASAppSvc }: not found
E/HTCIMEService( 260): ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Fail to bind EAS AppSvc!
W/ActivityManager( 97): Unbind failed: could not find connection for [email protected]
V/VideoView( 6200): reset duration to -1 in openVideo
I/ActivityManager( 97): Displayed activity org.iii.ro.meridian/.VideoPlayActivity: 891 ms
E/PlayerDriver( 37): Command PLAYER_INIT completed with an error or info PVMFFailure
E/MediaPlayer( 6200): error (1, -1)
E/MediaPlayer( 6200): Error (1,-1)
D/VideoView( 6200): Error: 1,-1
E/MediaPlayer( 6200): stop called in state 0
E/MediaPlayer( 6200): error (-38, 0)
W/MediaPlayer( 6200): mediaplayer went away with unhandled events
W/InputManagerService( 97): Window already focused, ignoring focus gain of: [email protected]
D/dalvikvm( 97): GC freed 31607 objects / 1294288 bytes in 475ms

honestly i just use ORB. It streams and converts the video(files, music, pictures, etc) on the fly to your phone. It is about as easy as it gets.

ggolemg said:
honestly i just use ORB. It streams and converts the video(files, music, pictures, etc) on the fly to your phone. It is about as easy as it gets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
orb is pretty terrible in that it is restricted to windonkey on the server side. VLC is open source and probably the #1 media server/player for *nix, though also works for the donkey.
@DarkFoxDK: have you been able to transcode a static file for playback using VLC? I haven't tried with VLC yet (just mencoder). That is definitely a first step, to make sure that the encoding you are using is proper for the device. When you have that working, then try with the streaming. Is meridian even capable of receiving streaming video? I suppose that the best approach would be to develop a VLC-port for android.

ggolemg said:
honestly i just use ORB. It streams and converts the video(files, music, pictures, etc) on the fly to your phone. It is about as easy as it gets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows is just not an option... besides, I don't want to rely on a 3rd party service.
lbcoder said:
@DarkFoxDK: have you been able to transcode a static file for playback using VLC? I haven't tried with VLC yet (just mencoder). That is definitely a first step, to make sure that the encoding you are using is proper for the device. When you have that working, then try with the streaming. Is meridian even capable of receiving streaming video? I suppose that the best approach would be to develop a VLC-port for android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't actually tried that yet, I'll do that as soon as I have the time.
Meridian is using the video view-thing in android like all the other apps, so yes. (Also, there's an "Open URL" option, with rtsp:// in it as default).
Yes, the mobile equivalent of VLC is CorePlayer and they're working on it: http://forum.corecodec.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1327. I'ts pay-for but it'll play pretty much anything you throw at it (within limits).

Yes, it does indeed play with no problems, when I save it to a file.
Using std{access=file,dst=/home/martin/test.mp4}
I really have no clue where to go from here.

I had a similar adventure trying to get VLC streaming working a few months back. I pretty much got to the same spot you are. I then found that what Android supports is RTSP, not RTP streams (or at least that is how I interpreted it). From how I understood it RTSP is basically just a control channel for delivering RTP and other streams. Luckily VLC has VLM which is supposed to do RTSP stream management. You get to it in vlc->tools->VLM Configuration. I played around with that for a few hours, but never got it actually streaming. I got discouraged when I found someone reporting that RTSP was broken in the current 1.0 android build, but I never went back and tried again with cupcake. This is all from memory so might not be totally accurate. If you do figure it out, please post! If I get to hacking on it again I will do the same.

I almost got this working...
I set up Darwin Streaming Server and the sample files work (except for the h264 ones..).
But I just can't get VLC working...
According to this thread it seems to be a problem/bug with VLC: http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=58616

did any of u guys try that feature in gmote ?? it has an otion of playback into phone..i tried with a mp3 file but it took me ages to buffer a 3mb file tho...

Dare{D}evil said:
did any of u guys try that feature in gmote ?? it has an otion of playback into phone..i tried with a mp3 file but it took me ages to buffer a 3mb file tho...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't work outside your own LAN, so it doesn't really work for that purpose..

GMote will stream over 3G, just follow the steps in its FAQ to forward ports and you're all set.

innerspace said:
GMote will stream over 3G, just follow the steps in its FAQ to forward ports and you're all set.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, But can it take a live video stream and transcode it to a digestible format for the G1?
Anyways, I got restreaming working with these settings
Code:
vlc rtsp://streamer-01.dr.nordija.dk/dr1lowmp4 -I dummy --sout "#transcode{vcodec=h264,venc=x264{no-cabac,level=12,vbv-maxrate=384,vbv-bufsize=1000,keyint=75,ref=3,bframes=0},width=320,height=180,acodec=mp4a,ab=64,vb=384}:rtp{dst=0.0.0.0,port=1234,sdp=file:///usr/local/movies/t.sdp,mp4a-latm}"

DarkFoxDK said:
Anyways, I got restreaming working with these settings
Code:
vlc rtsp://streamer-01.dr.nordija.dk/dr1lowmp4 -I dummy --sout "#transcode{vcodec=h264,venc=x264{no-cabac,level=12,vbv-maxrate=384,vbv-bufsize=1000,keyint=75,ref=3,bframes=0},width=320,height=180,acodec=mp4a,ab=64,vb=384}:rtp{dst=0.0.0.0,port=1234,sdp=file:///usr/local/movies/t.sdp,mp4a-latm}"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you please give more specifics on this? I am desperately trying to get the output from my Linksys WVC54GCA visible on my HTC Hero and I think this may be the key. The cam already outputs RTSP stream which I can view in VLC but Android players won't open it.
I assume that I could just substitute my source video for the one you're using, but then how would I view this on my device? Is there a specific URL I would use? (Note: my device, camera, and VLC are all on the same LAN)
Thanks for your help, I've been pulling my hair out over this, I'm pretty handy with a Linux shell but am not very knowledgeable about this streaming stuff.

OK, I figured out the last bit. I just need to replace the sdp= part with an rtsp:// URL, and then that's the URL I send to Meridian Player or Doga Player on my Android device. So the full vlc command is:
Code:
vlc -v http://<CAMERA_IP>/img/video.asf -I dummy --sout "#transcode{vcodec=h264,venc=x264{no-cabac,level=12,vbv-maxrate=384,vbv-bufsize=1000,keyint=75,ref=3,bframes=0},width=320,height=180,acodec=none,ab=64,vb=384}:rtp{dst=,port=1234,sdp=rtsp://<COMPUTER_IP>:1234/stream.sdp,mp4a-latm}"
So then in Android I open the rtsp://<COMPUTER_IP>:1234/stream.sdp URL, which I assume is not the real data stream but rather is just info on how to open the video and audio streams.
It still doesn't look great but at least it's working, I'll mess around with the rest of the settings to try to get it to look decent (I'm guessing the closer I can get it to the original stream the better it will look).
Thanks for posting this, once I get it all working the way I want I'll post the final solution I came up with...

Happy streamer
I've been streaming media files and live satellite feeds with VLC to all my mobile devices for several years.
I just want to share my settings with you guys so you could try out what i've been happy with for many years.
I'm using VLC 0.8.6i and have all the settings in a m3u file. For media files replace the <media> with what you would like to stream.
The settings gives good quality stream and work great for streaming on a 3G and HSDPA network.
Code:
#EXTM3U
#EXTVLCOPT:sout=#transcode{vcodec=div3,vb=650,width=400,height=240,acodec=mp3,ab=96,channels=2,fps=25.0,samplerate=44100}:duplicate{dst=std{access=http,mux=asf,dst=:88}} :sout-all
<media>
This m3u file can be used for streaming all types of media just replace <media> with what ever you like to stream.
Happy streaming.

bulldog64 said:
Code:
#EXTM3U
#EXTVLCOPT:sout=#transcode{vcodec=div3,vb=650,width=400,height=240,acodec=mp3,ab=96,channels=2,fps=25.0,samplerate=44100}:duplicate{dst=std{access=http,mux=asf,dst=:88}} :sout-all
<media>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hy bulldog64!
thx for that input - but i do not quite get it - do you http-serve the m3u file to the android-device via apache or do you just launch it on the server? when i execute your m3u-file it plays my video, but vlc outputs:"cant find file.."<your code>". how is it supposed to be set up? whats the url to call on the android-broswer (<ip>:88/<??which file>) ? thanks a lot! i have been trying to stream localy (from localhost to localhost) for some hours, but vlc´s syntax is too much for me, and after all i dont know the basics of streaming..

tinyDVR app works
tobiasly said:
OK, I figured out the last bit. I just need to replace the sdp= part with an rtsp:// URL, and then that's the URL I send to Meridian Player or Doga Player on my Android device. So the full vlc command is:
Thanks for posting this, once I get it all working the way I want I'll post the final solution I came up with...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was hoping for a update here for a while. Looked all over for a solution... And just tonight found one!
TinyDVR (free via market)!
All other apps failed miserably. (At least with the WVC54GCA linksys cams) Even that 'IP cam viewer - lite' app failed. (i wasnt willing to shell out 10 bucks for the pro.)
Anyway! Yay

i found this to work locally:
Code:
vlc <path-to-video-file> :sout=#transcode {vcodec=h264,vb=256,width=320,height=280,scale=1,acodec=mpga,ab=64,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=std{access=http,mux=asf,dst=:8085}} :sout-all
but now, which (free) client on android can open streams ?? got a galaxy and the browser wont launch the player.

You can use Dogaplayer to get the stream.
Do you have the option with the M3U file of Bulldog64 working?
I have the same problem:
VLC plays the file, but doesn't stream anything if I start the M3U on my server.
For me it would be great to get it working!
I have made a M3U file with a playlist of all my DVB-T TV card channels.
So when it's possible to get the stream code working in the M3U file , I can watch and zap TV on my mobile.

hy
no dogaplayer wont access 3g on my galaxy s - "cant play video"- i got no network activity, so i assume it has trouble getting out to the network. so far i have found "vlc stream&convert" an app that can remote control vlc, browse directories and start streming and play the stream. on my galaxy s it starts streaming (network activity, vlc log file shows start) bit it doesnt show any video or audio.

Try TCP port 554 for streaming and open your dynamic UDP ports (I think all > 41000)in your router. This works for me. I use Vodafone as a provider and they only allow rtsp video streams over TCP port 554. Music (mp3) streams is also possible over http.
Have you any results with M3U playfiles?
I use VLC Stream & Convert too, but if I select the M3U playlist file and start VLC web interface on my PC server, I see in Stream & Convert all information about the actual playlist file, but I receive no video and sound signal. Other video files (such as MPG, MP4) works OK, so it is not a settings problem. I don't have a credit card, so I don't know if you have to have the Pro version for this. Can anyone tell me?
This is also the reason I want the M3U file to contain streaming & convert settings, so I can view the stream with Dogaplayer, so without the use the app. Stream & Convert.

Stream video from PC --> android

since i sold my iphone to buy a desire there has only been one thing that i have missed having. and that is being able to stream video content from my pc over my home wifi network onto my phone. i did this with an app called air video on the iphone. it converted all video while streaming it so i could play my divx videos from pc onto my phone anywhere in range of my wifi network without having to convert them first.
is there anything that lets me do this for android?

Gmote 2.0 will do this for you
Be warned need to have the right player for the file extension.
i.e. cant play .avi files as android doesnt have a good player etc..

I do this using stock apps on my phone, and a simple webserver on the other end.
I've done this with relative ease...
Any modern webserver with directory browsing enabled (IIS7/Apache)
Ability to modify/add content types within the webserver
Local cache of h264 or 3gp media (i.e. streamable)
Browse to movie using any browser on your Desire and stream over WiFi
** Addition **
IIS7 (possible with Apache as well)
ICYBOX IB-NAS4220B (Any SMB/NFS/CIFS NAS Box will work)
Directory browsing enabled
Symbolic Link (Virtual Directory) to NAS box share over LAN
Browse to movie using any browser on your Desire and stream over WiFi
If you need a hand attempting this, chuck me a PM...
p.s. If you're running a windoze box, then you have IIS already.

use TVersity on your computer..and then you can just point your phone to the given IP address..save it as a bookmark in your phones browser... or shortcut

Phil750123 said:
Gmote 2.0 will do this for you
Be warned need to have the right player for the file extension.
i.e. cant play .avi files as android doesnt have a good player etc..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rockplayer will play AVI

use androstream or vlc stream and convert

Well the best and easiest way i figured out, was making the movie folder accessible to the Network and connect to the folder through the Cifsmanager. As player I use pLayer, which is really the best player for Android.

You could always try VLC-Shares.
It does have a fair amount of setup though.
http://code.google.com/p/vlc-shares/

This might be dead already, but try Vplayer.

As affmalg, CifsPlayer, then browse your network files as if they were on your phone = so simple

Use Opera Unite with Stream Media add-on ... works on Windows and Linux and streams everything as flash ... work really good on my HTC Desire

http://www.plexapp.com/
I liked the look of this and downloaded the PC side of it to realise that all I wanted do was access my photos in a nice graphical interface. Upon setting up this is for movies only...
Unless someone can confirm otherwise, the android app side of it costs approx £2.99

thank you very much. i know im in the wrong place (same goal, gtab 10.1) but gmote worked beautifully. even loaded up the built in subtitles when i played with moboplayer.

TheRavenGod said:
Use Opera Unite with Stream Media add-on ... works on Windows and Linux and streams everything as flash ... work really good on my HTC Desire
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds interesting. I'm going to test it soon.
Thanks for the hint..

http://www.appbrain.com/app/littleplayer/fr.mydedibox.littleplayerpro
works like a charm, it's awesome and simple.

Not sure if this has been recommended. I saw a gadget called Wireless Media Stick that can help you with this.
Go here hsti.com/stick/
The won recently in Electronics Expo and is now running a limited time $20 discount promo on their product. Check them out.

Hello,
Install a samba server on your pc.
On the mobile use cifs and local player like "arcmedia" or my favorite "moboplayer"
Simple and faster. I use it often
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA Premium App

I'm using VLC (H.264+MP4)+port forwarding+VPlayer for streaming analoge TV channels. Works fine

Gmote 2.0 and the arcMedia player works very well for me. It's a painless install and set up procedure too.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

This might be of interest to some of you. I use DLNA to stream to my phone from my PC and NAS and also to show photos and video from my phone on my TV!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1169349
I was hoping to update the guide a bit last weekend but didn't get the chance.

ps3 media server possible transcoding?

can someone try to work on ps3 media server settings ,on the fly trans coding maybe is better option then changing whole library of movies.It work for xbox maybe its gonna work on transformer
# ps3mediaserver renderer profile for Android
# Refer to PS3.conf for help
RendererName=Android
RendererIcon=android.png
UserAgentSearch=Android
Video=true
Audio=true
Image=true
SeekByTime=false
TranscodeVideo=MPEGAC3
TranscodeAudio=MP3
DefaultVBVBufSize=true
MuxH264ToMpegTS=true
MuxDTSToMpeg=true
WrapDTSIntoPCM=false
MuxLPCMToMpeg=true
MaxVideoBitrateMbps=0
MaxVideoWidth=0
MaxVideoHeight=0
TranscodeExtensions=
StreamExtensions=hdmov,hdm,flac,fla,dts,ogg,asf,asx,m2v,mkv

it wont work. the only thing you can transcode too is mpeg2 which the transformer cant do over upnp. mp4 cant be live streamed over upnp only over rtsp or rtmp, if you really want live transcoding look at vlc media player and vlc s+c for android. it takes a lot of tweaking but does work.

can you provide some more information about the transcode capabilities such as the lackof mpeg streaming

SangreSlayer said:
can you provide some more information about the transcode capabilities such as the lackof mpeg streaming
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had no problems streaming mpeg2 even to the native player with Mediatomb. In fact, you can directly play mpeg2 files from an internet site (internet archive) if you have enough bandwidth. Even the matroska format will stream, although without sound and at an unpredictable framerate. Still, I think that problem is on the encoding side.

So what your saying is you can transcode with PS3 media server?
IE: if you were to take a video gotten from a generic source, lets say via bittorrent you can stream that with the PS3 media server?
Any video I try does not work. it only works if I transcode it with handbrake first.
any tips would be greatly appreciated.

SangreSlayer said:
So what your saying is you can transcode with PS3 media server?
IE: if you were to take a video gotten from a generic source, lets say via bittorrent you can stream that with the PS3 media server?
Any video I try does not work. it only works if I transcode it with handbrake first.
any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I was you I would go and get a WD media player. They go for about 60-90 bucks. I used the PS3 for about a year and I gave up. Mkv is not support on ps3 media server. Videos that it cant play you're pc will need to transcode before sending it over to your display. I ended up getting a dedicated media player. There are tons to choose from. WD, boxee, popcorn hour and dune players. No issues streaming 20-30GB blu ray movies when I had the WD player. PS3 sucks for streaming IMHO.

Actually, mpeg2 can be streamed over upnp.
Try this:
Code:
# ps3mediaserver renderer profile for Android
# Refer to PS3.conf for help
RendererName=Android
RendererIcon=android.png
UserAgentSearch=Android
Video=true
Audio=true
Image=true
SeekByTime=false
TranscodeVideo=MPEGAC3
TranscodeAudio=MP3
DefaultVBVBufSize=true
MuxH264ToMpegTS=false
MuxDTSToMpeg=false
WrapDTSIntoPCM=false
MuxLPCMToMpeg=false
MaxVideoBitrateMbps=0
MaxVideoWidth=0
MaxVideoHeight=0
TranscodeExtensions=
StreamExtensions=

frosty5689 said:
Actually, mpeg2 can be streamed over upnp.
Try this:
Code:
# ps3mediaserver renderer profile for Android
# Refer to PS3.conf for help
RendererName=Android
RendererIcon=android.png
UserAgentSearch=Android
Video=true
Audio=true
Image=true
SeekByTime=false
TranscodeVideo=MPEGAC3
TranscodeAudio=MP3
DefaultVBVBufSize=true
MuxH264ToMpegTS=false
MuxDTSToMpeg=false
WrapDTSIntoPCM=false
MuxLPCMToMpeg=false
MaxVideoBitrateMbps=0
MaxVideoWidth=0
MaxVideoHeight=0
TranscodeExtensions=
StreamExtensions=
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Though it should be worth noting UPnPlay doesn't send a "streaming end" HTTP header to the UPNP server, so after you play one video PS3 media server doesn't know you stopped watching the video and will be stuck in the "streaming mode", causing any other video not to load until you restart PS3 Media Server. This problem only persists iwth PMS, Serviio works fine if you set the transcoding profile. I wish PMS worked as it is the only Server with full softsub support.
Edit: Opps accidentally pressed "Quote" instead of edit...

Just wanted to make sure i am trying with the same player as you.
I am using the "my Net" and selecting the ps3 media server from there.
With the new settings, when I go to play it it just hangs with "please Wait" previously it would just immediately end with "fail to load"

SangreSlayer said:
Just wanted to make sure i am trying with the same player as you.
I am using the "my Net" and selecting the ps3 media server from there.
With the new settings, when I go to play it it just hangs with "please Wait" previously it would just immediately end with "fail to load"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you edit Android.conf with my profile and then restarted the server? Also, use Upnplay combined with MoboPlayer.

I did edit the file with your settings and restart the server. Will download Upbplay (already have mobo installed).
Update in a few minutes

That does seem to work. I am able to play non HD videos.
I was able to play different video's back to back without restarting, I tested with three different videos, watch 1 min of each.
I tested out a topgear episode that is 720p. My PC says its being trans-coded, but moboplayer just says "loading". After 1.5 minutes i cancelled out by going "home"
I then restarted the PS3 media server and reloaded upnplay and tried the video again. my PC still says transcoding and serving but mobo is stuck on loading.
Under Transcoding settings, i don't have Avisynth/FFmpeg or Avisynth/Mencoder available as they are marked red if that means anything
Any suggestions?
Thanks for being so helpful. I really appreciate it.

I know this post is asking about ps3 media server, and I have tried to use it also, but what I have found is a media server called PLEX, there is a mac/windows/even Linux server version, then you get the client on the app store for $5. I can not believe how well this app allows me to stream VOB/MKV/MPG,etc, and it allows me to do this all the way up to HIGH PROFILE 1080p MKV, oh and it also allows me to do this on a remote wifi connection or even on 3g, it really is amazing what these guys have pulled together. The other HUGE plus is it is a branch off of XBMC, so you have the same similar interface with all scraping, etc automatically, it can also do music and supports plugins. Anyways I would suggest you try it, server is free to download, and the app is so worth the measly $5, just suggest you get the server all setup and working before you buy the app. but even if you don;t like it the plex team will refund your money if you are not happy so there is really no remorse checking it out. Hope this helps, I am off to watch a 1080p high profile mkv on my transformer >

I think OP is trying to get PMS working so he can watch media on his PS3 too without running 2 servers. As to why HD vids don't play, maybe it didn't detect the need to transcode it, I need to look into this again after exam's over (maybe that'll explain why my videos didn't play properly when I tested), feel free to use the PS3.conf and try different things. It doesn't matter if you have ffdshow/avisynth, it uses bundled mencoder to re-encode. All that matters i that your PC can play the video fine in DirectShow players like Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic, Zoom Player.

I tried the above .conf file settings and still when running an HD video
it won't limit the video size
is there a way to transcode down into say
800x480
I tried this
MaxVideoWidth=800
MaxVideoHeight=480

RobH79: Thanks for the information. So far I am most of the the way to my end goal. The last hold out being the 720p video's.
I believe the OP (like myself) do not want to run 2x renders, one for the PS3, one for the tablet.
Frosty:
The video does play fine on my PC using VLC but not with Windows media player ( I anticipate this is why all my below troubleshooting did nothing based upon your last response.)
I have done some more testing and tried a few different settings in the config, such as
MaxVideoWidth=800
MaxVideoHeight=600
and MaxVideoBitrateMbps=3
so far nothing has worked.
The video does play fine on my PC using VLC. I still see PS3 Media Server using the transcoding buffer, and Mencoder is using varying amounts of CPU and the java memory size is increasing as time goes on (I assume filling up the buffer)
**Update Since I started typing**
I went to: http://matroska.org/technical/guides/playback/windows/index.html and found out that i needed the CCCP pack, i usually dont install it on my system from a bad experience many years ago.
However I installed it and now it plays fine in windows media player.
I loaded up PS3 Media server and tried streaming again from my tablet...
And no luck, same issue as before. I went through all the other variations of the tweaks above and also no luck.
Any other suggestions?

I also tried to get myNet working, but i found this.
myNet uses AwoX as UserAgent name. So copy Android.conf and rename the file and change from:
UserAgentSearch=Android
to
UserAgentSearch=AwoX
But all upnp clients that you can download in the market use Android.conf. I know so far that only AVIs/WMV are working. However no MKVs.

ok... just my 2 cents
I have a tonido plug running ubuntun 9.04 and mediatomb as a server, no transcoding eneabled.
I installed UPnPlay from market as a upnp renderer (audio only, but support to stream video with external palyer)
I got DicePlayer (paid app) and am able to stream mkv, avi, mov, mp4 containers, even some movies that have srt or sub subtitles, however if I connect my tablet to a TV via HDMI I only get the video and not the subs... MyNet app gives a lot of trouble working with m3u playlists and can only render a file at a time, meaning if you want to play continous audio/viedo you need to go one by one manually.
So far I'm happy with this setup, planning on upgragind my local WLAN to "N" standard byt so far 54gb are good, not exellent
On the down side, I haven't got the time to tweak mediatomb to present in a convinient way video files, it throws everything regardless of the folder structure you have on the server hard disk
Edit, if you know how to hard encode and stream subtitles info is appreciated, also if you know to send subs via HDMI to tv I'll be grateful

[TIP] Streaming video solutions for your home network

I have a gigantic media server, over 10TB, mostly video (my music collection, while huge, just doesn't take much space comparatively).
While there are a variety of approaches/solutions to distributing this media around the home via a network, I've found that the easiest means for me is to simply mount server share(s) on playback devices when possible, rather than using solutions like TVersity and ORB.
Windows shares (a.k.a. CIFS) are simple to set up, provide full-resolution / quality playback of the material, and for whatever reasons (there are many), is more broadly compatible as a means of streaming. I've run into too many files that AllShare balks at, yet will play just fine when the file is streamed directly.
So what's the point of this thread?
Two-fold. 1) stimulate discussion on technology and methods used for streaming video on a LAN to get the best results, and 2) share my own solutions.
Here's what I've found:
CifsManager is Da Bomb. It does a great job of adding a system-wide Windows Share mounting and access capability to an Android device. Once a share is mounted on your phone, it looks just like any other mounted filesystem to any app, so files can be access on the shares as if they were local.
x264 encoded video plays very nicely on the stock video player. It's obvious that it has been optimized to take maximum advantage of hardware acceleration. I use the stock player to play HD content from a share over my network, which almost always means something in a mkv or mp4 container.
HOWEVER: The stock player can't play AAC encoded audio. This is a problem for mp4 -- these days, many people encoding for mp4 use AAC, so I find I have to demux, transcode audio (usually to mp3), and then remux. This is a PITA, but I haven't found any other solution... None of the third-party alternatives I've tried (most of them) can play x264 HD content and keep up. None.
To make things worse, for some reason hardware acceleration doesn't seem to have been implement for the Divx/Xvid (h263) default codec, so xvid video (usually SD format in avi containers) plays haltingly, and locks up frequently when streaming over CIFS. Oddly, copying a file over to local storage makes this problem go away with the stock player. My theory is that the network processing load combined with the CPU effort necessary to decode h263 without hardware assist just overwhelms the processor. Regardless, the stock player is not an acceptable solution here.
After trying many different players, the one that works best for "avi" files (almost always xvid encoded) is arcMedia (market, free). Close to flawless playback of this type of media streamed via CIFS. Unfortunately, arcMedia is completely useless for h264 (mkv, mp4 containers).
Streaming the direct source media, rather than going through a streaming server that will transcode, gives you the best possible quality and experience. While the above may sound complicated and involved, it really isn't -- in fact, it's the simplest:
Share your media library files in the usual way using the "Sharing and Security..." context-menu item on your windows media server.
Install CifsManager from the market.
Install arcMedia player from the market.
Mount your media shares on your phone with CifsManager.
Using your favorite File Manager, browse your media shares the same way you would your local SD card filesystem. To play an HD media file encoded with h264, click on it and play it in the stock player the same way you would if it was on your SD card.
For h263 encoded media (divx/xvid, virtually always avi container), run arcMedia and use its built-in file browser to navigate to the media file, then play it.
There are many, many advantages of convenience and ease-of-use in this approach over streaming with servers like TVersity, ORB, etc. On a LAN, where bandwidth isn't an issue, this approach works really well!

By the stock Video Player, did you mean on Android? Or Windows?
If Android:
Vital Player
If Windows:
Media Player Classic.

always looking for good info, and this is good stuff. Going to try it out when i get home and see if i have better luck than i've been having getting xvid and mkv's to stream from my network shares...

If you use GB rom, try diceplayer.
diceplayer can play 720p MKV+DTS with full HW acceleration.

I wish we had a thread like this for over the net streaming. If I'm at home I just use upnplay with rockplayer from my mediatomb box which is set to transcode anything ps3 can't play natively.. Haven't had any problems yet.
Cd's or tapes?

I use this:
http://www.serverelements.com/?target=NASLite-M2_x64
I have a dual core tower with 2 250 gig drives but want to add 5 1 tb drives with 8 gig of ram. This OS runs off a 8 gig jump drive with NO issues. I use UPNP to my Xbox and laptops. I haven't tried on my phone yet but I don't see why this wouldn't work.

schnowdapowda said:
I wish we had a thread like this for over the net streaming. If I'm at home I just use upnplay with rockplayer from my mediatomb box which is set to transcode anything ps3 can't play natively.. Haven't had any problems yet.
Cd's or tapes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check or something called Plex its great, I used orb for years and was never happy with playback...Plex is amazing and the android app is awesome.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

see, my whole thing is I don't want to run some extra server software just to have this work. I've got a networked media box (Patriot Box Office) and it plays everything over my network flawlessly from my NFS and SMB shares, and I want to be able to do the same thing from my Epic and Tab (mostly Tab with the bigger screen.) Working on some dev stuff with my Tab so it's not fully setup, but once i've got it back to normal I'm going to test Cifsmanager and see if it's the missing link to the issues I've had with getting mkv's to stream.

pvtjoker42 said:
see, my whole thing is I don't want to run some extra server software just to have this work. I've got a networked media box (Patriot Box Office) and it plays everything over my network flawlessly from my NFS and SMB shares, and I want to be able to do the same thing from my Epic and Tab (mostly Tab with the bigger screen.) Working on some dev stuff with my Tab so it's not fully setup, but once i've got it back to normal I'm going to test Cifsmanager and see if it's the missing link to the issues I've had with getting mkv's to stream.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cifs works with samba. Don't know if you knew that or not.
Cd's or tapes?

pvtjoker42 said:
see, my whole thing is I don't want to run some extra server software just to have this work. I've got a networked media box (Patriot Box Office) and it plays everything over my network flawlessly from my NFS and SMB shares, and I want to be able to do the same thing from my Epic and Tab (mostly Tab with the bigger screen.) Working on some dev stuff with my Tab so it's not fully setup, but once i've got it back to normal I'm going to test Cifsmanager and see if it's the missing link to the issues I've had with getting mkv's to stream.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
schnowdapowda said:
Cifs works with samba. Don't know if you knew that or not.
Cd's or tapes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, and with ordinary Windows shares.
CifsManager is one of the best pieces of software I've put on my Epic. And I have A LOT of stuff...

Shinydude100 said:
By the stock Video Player, did you mean on Android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android, Samsung player that comes with the Epic.
For windows, I swear by CorePlayer. I'd buy it all over again full price if they'd add Android to their platforms (with HW acceleration, of course).

formula84 said:
Check or something called Plex its great, I used orb for years and was never happy with playback...Plex is amazing and the android app is awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to find it and try it out right after I finish posting this.
I've been using Orb for years, and it has always had its issues. With Android, it became a major PITA because they only transcode to WM9 as of 6 months or so ago -- and WM codec support on Android is scant.

Great thread. Love this type of info. I've been messing with streamin off and on to my epic and this just pretty much sums up what I've been trying to do. Gonna go try that now...
Thanks!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Do I need to be rooted to mount my shares with cifs?
Also, can you recommend a tutorial or software for ripping my dvd collection to my storage server?
As a side note I am pretty happy with twonky for music dlna solution.
Thanks
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

Does anyone know how to play mediacenter tv recordings in my htpc on epic?
Tried orb but didn't like the quality.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

PlayOn is amaaaazing. But it's 70 bucks to get it forever. You can stream out of your network over 3g/wifi to your Android and it look great! Even does subtitles. For my PC or PS3 I love PS3 Media Server. It's pretty much perfect and streams HD over WIFI G even.

sethlo said:
Do I need to be rooted to mount my shares with cifs?
Also, can you recommend a tutorial or software for ripping my dvd collection to my storage server?
As a side note I am pretty happy with twonky for music dlna solution.
Thanks
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, Cifsmanager requires root AND a cifs compatible kernel

I run Windows Home Server .v1 and have tried multiple combinations of players/clients without a whole lot of success.. until recently. Movies are in .mp4 and .mkv format. I use UPnPlay for access and MoboPlayer for streaming playback; the combination works great! I have tested on a rooted Nook, rooted Hauwei Ideos S7, Evo Shift (Not rooted.. Darn 2.3.3!), and my rooted Epic.

Streaming 1080p videos from PC to Android device

Hello,
I've tried to search but didn't find an answer.
I'm looking for a way to stream 1080p videos from my PC to android device (Nexus 10 in my case), both on the same wifi lan using N-type router.
I have set a user and password on the PC windows 7, and I can connect to it with my tablet (ES/solid explorer) through the wifi, and stream videos. The problem is this connection type is not fast enough for streaming 1080p videos, so the videos on my tablet lag, shutter, etc.
Any ideas how to solve it? Can I setup a different type of connection/protocol, which will be fast enough for streaming 1080p vidoes?
Any help is appreciated!

Try Plex media server. The android app is $4 (I think) and the PC software is free. The beauty of it is that you can connect to your server from anywhere. I've watched episodes of modern family from the comfort of the bathroom at work without any issues. For high quality video you're going to need to be on Wi-Fi, but you can get great quality video through plex.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4

Thank you.
Meanwhile I have found another solution:
- Installing XMBC on my pc and enabling uPNP on it.
- Installing MediaHouse app on my tablet.
uPNP is much faster than the normal Windows SMB, so I can now stream high quality videos without any issue over my wifi.
The only problem is uPNP doesn't support streaming srt subtitles file along with the mkv movie. So I have to copy the srt it locally to the Tablet or embed it to the MKV.

My favorite streaming tool is Emit. www.emitapp.com
They have an Android client, iOS client, and web streamer, and it's a decent-quality transcoder. Totally free.
I have no problems transcribing on an i5-750 that is also a Hyper-V host for 3 VMs, and is running torrents 24/7. It's a dedicated box with a gig connection though, so I have tons of throughput. No problems streaming over LTE on my S4 or over my home connection (50MB comcast)

phishfi said:
Try Plex media server. The android app is $4 (I think) and the PC software is free. The beauty of it is that you can connect to your server from anywhere. I've watched episodes of modern family from the comfort of the bathroom at work without any issues. For high quality video you're going to need to be on Wi-Fi, but you can get great quality video through plex.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for this man..

TTT. Figured I'd rez this rather than starting a redundant thread.
I gave Plex a shot; I downloaded the Windows App, installed, opened it, but once I tried to navigate to the "Channel Directory" I got this prompt:
Plex Media Server
Waiting on Response...
It never connected to the PMS. I tried some Googles to figure out the problem, but couldn't find anything relevant. So screw Plex.
For now, what I've done is create a Homegroup, and I use ES File Explorer to navigate the Homegroup in the LAN tab. However, there are two things I don't like about this:
The speed is limited. I guess this is an SMB problem. Separately, as a test, I've connected an i5 laptop to this homegroup, and it won't play a 16GB mkv I have of The Avengers over the Homegroup. It's handled any video files I've thrown at it under 5GB, but past that, it appears that the data bandwidth becomes an issue because the video stutters. This couldn't be a shortcoming of the laptop because it could play the files from its native hard drive without issue. Thus, the problem must be the rate of data transferred wireless over the router. So I'm attracted to the uPNP servers.
On Android, it only works for yet smaller files. I'm only able to watch videos that MX Player can handle using SW decoding. This has limited me to low bitrate 480p video. My goal is to be able to watch all my videos and movies on my Xoom or my Droid X. Unfortunately, the Tegra 2 and the ARM V8 processors in these devices aren't very powerful, and the mkv's/mp4's I have aren't specifically encoded for their chipsets. Also, most of my movies are 1080p, and the Xoom is only 1280x800, and the Droid X is 854x480, so there is the additional workload of downscaling. One solution is that I can convert any video I have using a program called "DVD Catalyst", but the conversion rate is ~125% on a minute-per-minute basis, so this is very time consuming. I'd rather that I was able to use my PC's CPU/GPU to decode the video in real time as I watch the video, and stream this over the Homegroup to my phone/tablet. In other words, in principle, I want to use the PC's hardware to do the heavy lifting while the Android device displays the product of that work.
What's the best way to do this? The OP mentioned he uses XMBC and MediaHouse. Is this optimal, or is there a better method for my goal?

Of course SMB is slow, I wrote it on the first post - this was my main problem. It's ok for 720p but not for 1080p.
You can use XMBC and MediaHouse - it will work but will not stream the .srt subtitles. There are other free uPnP options I've found that work with external subtitles, if you're interested.
Anyway, if you have resolution scaling issues that your android device cannot handle on the fly, I suggest you to re-encode the video offline on your PC.

Animor said:
Of course SMB is slow, I wrote it on the first post - this was my main problem. It's ok for 720p but not for 1080p.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose I didn't make it clear, but it's because of what you wrote that I was presuming that SMB was my issue. Still, I can play most 1080p content over the WLAN to the laptop; just not the 1080p content with a really high bitrate.
You can use XMBC and MediaHouse - it will work but will not stream the .srt subtitles. There are other free uPnP options I've found that work with external subtitles, if you're interested.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you found desktop server software and an Android app that you prefer to these? Please elaborate if you have.
Anyway, if you have resolution scaling issues that your android device cannot handle on the fly, I suggest you to re-encode the video offline on your PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In part #2 of my post I described why I already use this as an option, but I would prefer not having to do this. This gets to the heart of what I'm trying to learn. Is it possible to play the desktop files on the tablet/phone without offline conversion? I can conceptualize two theoretical ways, but I have no idea- assuming they are even possible- if there is software that would enable me to do this:
(1) Streaming conversion.
Without creating a new, converted file from the source 1080p video, I'm wondering if there is a program that will convert the desktop 1080p video in real time while streaming that over the network to the Android device. Perhaps it wasn't clear, but my PC is powerful enough that most video converts in the DVD Catalyst software at a minimum 1.25x rate (meaning that 5 minutes of video will convert in about 4 minutes). Thus, a real-time conversion stream seems possible since it would take less time to convert a movie than it would take to watch it. This kills the waiting period and also storage issues. Using offline conversion, I have to decide what I want to watch, convert it, then play the converted file (which takes up additional space on my hard drive). If I could convert-in-stream, then I could simply pick whatever video I wanted to watch, and play it without having to wait for it to convert, and I wouldn't have to worry about extra space being used.
(2) Display mirroring.
The PC plays the video as it would on itself in VLC, and somehow mirrors this image (like with NFC) over the network. No conversion; only downscaling, and this shouldn't be a problem because my PC can easily downscale 1080p to 720p on VLC without stutter. Ergo, in this scenario, the Android device becomes basically a computer monitor that is receiving the data stream over a network rather than from an HDMI/DVI/VGA cable. This seems like the simpler option. Anyone know if it's possible?

Hi,
As for your question, I have found a way to stream external srt subtitles along with the movie, using free uPnP.
Apparently, only some uPnP media servers and clients support it. In addition, only some movie players can extract this information when streamed through uPnP. I've found several such uPnP media servers, but most of them require payment after a trial period. However, I've managed to find one that doesn't
So, in order to stream videos with external srt, you need the following:
1. Serviio on you PC.
2. BubbleUPnP on your android device.
3. MX player on your android device.
4. The srt file should have the same name of the movie file, and they have to reside both at the same directory in your PC.
If you want to check your system under heavy or moderate bit rate, you can use this:
http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/
"birds" is quite heavy. If you get it to work, you won't have any problem with 1080p movies.
Perhaps the term "1080p" movies is not accurate. What really matter is the bitrate. Naturally, 1080p movies requite higher bitrate. So even if you manage to play small-size 1080p movies through smb, I guess that as you wrote yourself, it's because of the lower bitrate.
If you want to make sure where is your bottleneck, copy the movie to your android device and run it locally. you can use "birds" or any other movie you want. If the movie stutter when run locally, then your bottleneck is your android hw. However, don't use SW decoder, use hw decoder. On MX player I use HW+, and on BS player I use the "experimental hw decoding" feature. On my Nexus 10, this is the only way I can handle high bitrate movies.
Regarding what you asked about: I'm sorry, but I am not familiar with a proper way to mirror a high quality video from the PC to the android device. You can try screen sharing/mirror softwares like VNC or TeamViewer, but I don't think they will work with adequate fps for displaying a video.

You're the man, Animor. This is exactly what I needed, and although Servio doesn't "mirror", it does do #1. The word I was searching for there was "transcoding", and their software does just that because I am able to stream all of these 1080p videos flawlessly on my tablet using the Servio + BubbleUPnP (which has a gorgeous UI, btw), and I know for a fact that MX Player-- even with ARMv7 codec support and running H/W+-- couldn't play these files without stutter even when I'd copied them to its local SD. So it's definitely using my PC's processing power.
This is just so amazingly *****ing. I feel like Doc Oc in Spider-Man 2:
"The power of my PC...in the palm of my hand."

I'm glad I could help you
Please note that transcoding on Serviio doesn't run on Generic DLNA profile. So if you are using the generic profile, that's not the explanation for your device able to play the vidoes.

Animor said:
I'm glad I could help you
Please note that transcoding on Serviio doesn't run on Generic DLNA profile. So if you are using the generic profile, that's not the explanation for your device able to play the vidoes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed. I spoke too soon forgetting that my "Android Optimized" folder with the movies I'd converted specifically for the Tegra 2 chipset was a subfolder of my greater folder. I tested four movies, and by sheer serendipity, they were all from that subfolder. So I tested the unconverted movies, and, yeah, same problem. MX can't play them using HW/HW+; it's forced to use SW decoding for playback, and it's just too much for the Tegra 2 to handle.
How do I enable a profile that will allow the transcoding that I'm after?

You can choose a profile on one of the tabs on serviio settings. I think it was library.
However I'm not sure you'll find a suitable profile for your device.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4

I have used many applications for streaming. 1080p is dream.I even bought a new wifi router for stream. Now i have 1Gbit lan an 300Mbit wifi speed at home.The best result was obtained using Bsplayer and EsExplorer on android and standart network folder in Win7(Ubuntu - better) .
Max play 720p in hw decoding mode.

I suggest to those facing various issues to try out the app ''Emit''. For me, on the same wireless network, it functions well, playing external subtitles just fine.

OK so I've been going down this road on an Android tablet & this seems to work well.
1) BubbleUPNP - connects to my Samsung's AllShare server for my TV on mypc wired into the network.
2) KMPlayer - backwards compatible & it just works with all my files when selecting in bubbleUPNP.
The other way to approach this is IMO using FX File Explorer Pro (local p2p site for unlocked apk) & this enables network support? Again, the media player was what really gave me issues, KWPlayer worked best for me.

Animor said:
Hi,
As for your question, I have found a way to stream external srt subtitles along with the movie, using free uPnP.
Apparently, only some uPnP media servers and clients support it. In addition, only some movie players can extract this information when streamed through uPnP. I've found several such uPnP media servers, but most of them require payment after a trial period. However, I've managed to find one that doesn't
So, in order to stream videos with external srt, you need the following:
1. Serviio on you PC.
2. BubbleUPnP on your android device.
3. MX player on your android device.
4. The srt file should have the same name of the movie file, and they have to reside both at the same directory in your PC.
If you want to check your system under heavy or moderate bit rate, you can use this:
http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/
"birds" is quite heavy. If you get it to work, you won't have any problem with 1080p movies.
Perhaps the term "1080p" movies is not accurate. What really matter is the bitrate. Naturally, 1080p movies requite higher bitrate. So even if you manage to play small-size 1080p movies through smb, I guess that as you wrote yourself, it's because of the lower bitrate.
If you want to make sure where is your bottleneck, copy the movie to your android device and run it locally. you can use "birds" or any other movie you want. If the movie stutter when run locally, then your bottleneck is your android hw. However, don't use SW decoder, use hw decoder. On MX player I use HW+, and on BS player I use the "experimental hw decoding" feature. On my Nexus 10, this is the only way I can handle high bitrate movies.
Regarding what you asked about: I'm sorry, but I am not familiar with a proper way to mirror a high quality video from the PC to the android device. You can try screen sharing/mirror softwares like VNC or TeamViewer, but I don't think they will work with adequate fps for displaying a video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, works now for me!

MarkusOSx said:
thanks, works now for me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like folder music player.

I know I'm resurrecting a long dead thread but I figured everyone here is/was interested in about the same thing, so you may already have found a solution.
Basically it had already been asked earlier as one of two options, but was passed over for the other. Did anyone ever get mirroring the video to work? There's lot of mirror apps out there but I'm looking for a way that will let me play a video on my PC and mirror it directly as is on my phone, while still having full control over the video on my PC. This also let's me further control DTS tracks which gets decoded by my AV receiver instead of my phone, therefore audio isn't an issue, I just need video. Any ideas?