Database Users

Video streaming raw video over wifi?

I wonder if there is any client/server program which would stream transcoded video to a mobile-friendly bitrate playback WITHOUT modify the original videos stored on the PC server.

kevinlaikf said:
I wonder if there is any client/server program which would stream transcoded video to a mobile-friendly bitrate playback WITHOUT modify the original videos stored on the PC server.
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Click to collapse
www.orb.com
Free, Fast, Wonderful!!!

risidoro said:
www.orb.com
Free, Fast, Wonderful!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yes, best app out there!!

Slingbox
The slingbox software works fine on my T-Mobile MDA (Wizard) when its attached to my home wireless network. Haven't had a chance to try it from away yet. I get perfect sound and roughly 15fps video.
Slingbox is an NTSC-only creature thus far and really isn't a server - it just encodes and streams what its getting from your satellite or cable box along with the capability of remote controlling the unit.
www.slingmedia.com has more information - I don't work for them, just a happy customer.

VLC will transcode anything to anything... Almost. It's a little fiddlier to configure than say, Orb, but it's much more flexible (imo).

Video streaming over CIFS/SMB

Does anyone know how to improve the buffering of the native Video app for playing videos over a SAMBA mount? It plays find for a few seconds and starts freezing. Playing local video is fine and playing via RockPlayer is fine, but I'd much rather use the native player as it's got a good interface, built-in brightness control and doesn't sit there with a blank screen while it's "thinking".
Failing that, has anyone got any recommendations for a good alternative player? (That isn't VPlayer/Rockplayer). Having a look at mVideoPlayer, will see how that goes.
Edit: Nope, mVideoPlayer fails at network buffering too.

I've had no luck with this either but I'm beginning to think it's not entirely buffer related. For one I've noticed that CIFS consumes a lot of CPU power. Also I'm unable to get more than 2MB/s transfer speed (regardless of transfer method) with the SGT over wireless. (N-enabled router, direct line of sight, various distances tried, etc).

Bitrate shouldn't be an issue. The implementation of 802.11n that the SGT (and just about any mobile device) implements only supports up to 73Mbps (an improvement over 802.11g's 54Mbps, but still nothing too flash). That still gives us a theoretical peak of 9MB/sec though (actually only 4.5MB/sec as WiFi is half-duplex, plus lots of packet overhead etc) which should still be plenty.
Even only getting 2MB/sec should be plenty. Assuming the average video is encoded at 1500kbps with 192kbps audio (both pretty generous), then that's only (1500+192)/8 = 211.5KB/sec, so around a tenth of the max speed.
It's possible it could be a CPU thing I guess, I don't _think_ that the standard Video player has any form of hardware acceleration, that plus the overhead from processing the wifi data could be enough to cause it to choke. I'll try locking it at 1.4Ghz and see if that helps.
Check that the channel your wireless is on isn't crowded by other devices, that'll drop your speed. Lock your router at 802.11n rather than 11a/b/g/n mixed mode if you can, that'll help too.

Streaming video over CIFS is very inefficient as it carries such a large overhead. It's like trying to cut a steak with a spoon. It's not designed to do that so why would you bother when there are better ways?
Configuring jumbo frames may improve performance, but this would be like sharpening the edge of that spoon.
You should look at using DLNA or as sammy call it, AllShare. There are light weight server apps around you simply install on your PC of which the AllShare app can connect to. The best part about it is, it'll cut your steak like butter.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk

krispyjim said:
Streaming video over CIFS is very inefficient as it carries such a large overhead. It's like trying to cut a steak with a spoon. It's not designed to do that so why would you bother when there are better ways?
Configuring jumbo frames may improve performance, but this would be like sharpening the edge of that spoon.
You should look at using DLNA or as sammy call it, AllShare. There are light weight server apps around you simply install on your PC of which the AllShare app can connect to. The best part about it is, it'll cut your steak like butter.
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Click to collapse
Then you have the codec restrictions imposed by the DLNA app though. Given my circumstances it will probably be a better solution. I've got XBMC running on my media server but their DLNA support seems to be horribly broken, (the PS3 _mostly_ works with it, my TV and the SGT both see it but won't stream anything from it). It might be time to fire up TVersity once again. (Twonkymedia always used to be a broken pile of rubbish, maybe it's less so now).
Maybe it's time to ditch the mediaserver, get an AppleTV, stick XBMC onto that and stream the media from the UPnP server on my Tomato'd router.
I like the spoon analogy
Does the SGT support other remote filesystems that are less horrible? (NFS?)

krispyjim said:
You should look at using DLNA or as sammy call it, AllShare.
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Click to collapse
And in the unlikely case he'd get it to work, we are all ready to hear his tale. Samsung's implementation of DLNA is atrociously incompatible' i couldn't find any server that the useless app would like.
So i went with Plex. Bought the app, installed the server on the computer, set things up and now i have a pretty transcoder streaming to the tab. Be warned that it dosen't hardcode subtitles
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk

AlexTheStampede said:
And in the unlikely case he'd get it to work, we are all ready to hear his tale. Samsung's implementation of DLNA is atrociously incompatible' i couldn't find any server that the useless app would like.
So i went with Plex. Bought the app, installed the server on the computer, set things up and now i have a pretty transcoder streaming to the tab. Be warned that it dosen't hardcode subtitles
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Click to collapse
Is Plex reasonably capable now? I had a look at it a few months ago and it was completely useless, it did virtually nothing and refused to let me add any plugins to change the fact.

The AllShare app has it's limitations sure, but it does work. I have a lot of stuff in AVI format which works really well. If I need to play MKV's then I use UPnPlay and Rockplayer which seems to take almost anything I throw at it. For some reason with AVI though, the audio is out of sync with video hence why I still use AllShare.
On the server side, I have a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo which has a DNLA server built in.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk

knightnz said:
Is Plex reasonably capable now? I had a look at it a few months ago and it was completely useless, it did virtually nothing and refused to let me add any plugins to change the fact.
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Click to collapse
Depends. While i personally don't care about plugins, after a test apparently they work. Except for the audio ones. Considering i use it to watch videos, i'm perfectly fine, and everything would be cool even if i wanted to watch pictures (i could browse and open images inside Aperture).
AllShare on the other hand... If it sees a media server, it won't see the contents, so i really can't consider it as "working". Seems to be kinda decent as a server, but total fail as a client. PlugPlayer worked bad even on the iPhone, can't imagine what the Android version does.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk

AlexTheStampede said:
AllShare on the other hand... If it sees a media server, it won't see the contents, so i really can't consider it as "working". Seems to be kinda decent as a server, but total fail as a client.
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I'm not sure why your having such issues with it.Don't get me wrong here as I'm not an AllShare fanboi or dating the samsung cio's daughter or anything. The app could be so much better than it is. It does however, function as a player and yes, I can browse the content of the server using it. Sounds like theres something wrong with your setup.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk

Could you please tell me how you got cifs to work? I have been trying with no luck. I am on overcome rom with modaco r3 kernel.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

krispyjim said:
Sounds like theres something wrong with your setup.
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Click to collapse
Maybe. But 4 different servers (that work with the PS3) kinda point the finger towards the Samsung part of it...
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk

captain134 said:
Could you please tell me how you got cifs to work? I have been trying with no luck. I am on overcome rom with modaco r3 kernel.
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Click to collapse
The latest Overcome firmware+kernel supposedly has all the CIFS modules built-in so it should be the easiest option.
You can try either using CIFS Manager to mount the share, or "Gscript Lite" and make a script that does;
busybox mount -r -t cifs =o "username=USER,password=PASS",iocharset=utf8 //192.168.1.111/Share /sdcard/Mount
Replace USER and PASS with a useraccount with permissions on the system ("guest" and no password should work), replace the IP address, share and mount location with ones of your choosing.
The script will need to have superuser access. I've also got it manually calling
insmod /lib/modules/cifs.ko

I previously tried vplayer with my cifs share over wireless & it worked well with the buffer option enabled. However it doesn't support hardware decoding so it's ok for divx but not 720p etc. Cifs may not be ideal for this type of application but it still seems the best option to me if the player supports buffering. I've contacted the rockplayer dev & he seemed willing to implement it in a future update.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

download bsplayer etc (free) from market, and this is the only android player which streams from synology and other nasdrives or shares directly to the samsung galaxy tab 10.1 via wifi, no waiting, no conversion, no copying, just a network address from your device is needed. Pure Magic.
rgds

I can confirm that bsplayer works, at least for the few 720p mkv files I tried. Smooth streaming using cifs on my tab with the latest overcome rom.

Good app to stream downloaded videos from PC to Tab

I have heard abt PLEX but cant make it to work. Can anyone provide step by step instructions to get it to work.
Or some other app which may work better than Plex?

never tried plex, but I use subsonic which has not caused me any issues. The app is free but requires a donation to get the video streaming

BrianDigital said:
never tried plex, but I use subsonic which has not caused me any issues. The app is free but requires a donation to get the video streaming
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Thanks. Any free application?

PS3 Media Server works well for streaming media. Asumming you're sharing the correct format and resolution. It's free and very easy to setup.

Upn in the market along with rockplayer or moboplayer also in the market. Along with HDMI cable works great.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

techpal said:
I have heard abt PLEX but cant make it to work. Can anyone provide step by step instructions to get it to work.
Or some other app which may work better than Plex?
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I convert my videos with handbrake for my A500 and then access them via Tonido. There's an android client on the market. Works great, videos buffer for a bout 5 seconds over wifi then start playing.
http://www.tonido.com

My set-up. PS3 Media Server on the PC. UPnPlay and MoboPlayer on the tab. It works for me.

+1 on subsonic.
great thing about subsonic is you don't have to be on the same network to use it. i stream to my tab while i'm at work sharing the net from phone. i have to admit the quality isn't great. but it gets the job done.
for the DLNA setups i'm pretty sure you have to be on the same network.
I've never used plex since i'm a linux user.
has anyone tried orb yet? that might be another one to look into.

[Q] how do u stream movies wirelessly on a vista pc to your acer a500

hi,is it possible to stream movies wirelessly from a vista laptop onto the a500 through the home network? if yes,how do i set it up? cos i've tried everything

Well if you plan to use only on the home network their clear.fi app works. For remote access I have been using subsonic it does require a donation to allow video streaming
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

Do you know how to get other folders to show up from the clear.fi app? All I can see for video streaming from my PC, is a video/collections folder. I would like to be able to see my media folder that I have on my desktop.

I am using plex and it works very well.
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

lord_voldemort666 said:
Do you know how to get other folders to show up from the clear.fi app? All I can see for video streaming from my PC, is a video/collections folder. I would like to be able to see my media folder that I have on my desktop.
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Click to collapse
that is windows side setting.
but I have to say I cease use clear.fi because I was getting some unwanted folder.
I will try to set when I got time to set my windows...
I am going to install win7 64bits soon so...

crajoh said:
I am using plex and it works very well.
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
How in the heck did you get plex to work? Did you change the default player to something else? If so how?
I load a movie and it times out on every one. When I contacted the makers of plex they say that it is not working on the acer yet and offer a refund.

I use ps3 media server on the pc and upnplay which is free from the android market for the A500 , The ps3 media server trans-codes on the fly and I use mobo player from upn to play the content. easy as 123 setup and works perfectly and also means I can play any file type. 1080p is a bit jerky but 720p is as smooth as silk. Did I mention its all free

lord_voldemort666 said:
Do you know how to get other folders to show up from the clear.fi app? All I can see for video streaming from my PC, is a video/collections folder. I would like to be able to see my media folder that I have on my desktop.
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Click to collapse
my videos pooped right up mine are also in the video folder in my documents

I have PlayOn running on a desktop machine and the PlayOn app on my A500 and Thunderbolt. Works very well over wifi.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

I think that the Acer app only shows/shares the stuff you have in my documents. So you can't watch movies through it if you have them on another HD (like I do sadly).

I am able to see all of my share's on any of my drives. But my home network is wide open on this side of the router.
Might check your sharing settings on you pc, and your firewall if applicable.

i do recomend subsonic wholely just a one time donation unoocks video streaming. you select the folders to share music and movies and the app is free on android and one port needed to be opened to view from anywhere tablet phone or say work computer. also to with the ability to download the content to

I have tried:
Plex: Works but slow as hell and it didn't let me skip a part of the movie so I had to watch every movie from the start.
Subsonic: IMHO a Plex clone so I didn't bother with it and I couldn't test it to see if it streams movies any better.
Upnplay: Ugly and clunky interface but it does stream movies from any UPNP server without installing any additional software and it's free. It uses your default browser and it can skip in a movie so I'm using that. It's not pretty but it does work well.

bpivk said:
I have tried:
Plex: Works but slow as hell and it didn't let me skip a part of the movie so I had to watch every movie from the start.
Subsonic: IMHO a Plex clone so I didn't bother with it and I couldn't test it to see if it streams movies any better.
Upnplay: Ugly and clunky interface but it does stream movies from any UPNP server without installing any additional software and it's free. It uses your default browser and it can skip in a movie so I'm using that. It's not pretty but it does work well.
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Click to collapse
Well if u didn't try streaming with subsonic how do u have an opinion. Works great for me streams great except for blueray rips bit rate is a tab large most likely my mobile connection
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

BrianDigital said:
Well if u didn't try streaming with subsonic how do u have an opinion. Works great for me streams great except for blueray rips bit rate is a tab large most likely my mobile connection
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I won't donate just to test it but the web interface was worse than what Plex offers and I've tried Plex (was not impressed) so I've just skipped it.
As I've said. The best solution is the one that doesn't require any additional software on my PC. So even though Upnplay is ugly it gets the job done.
P.S.: I have my opinions you have yours so unless don't force your on me and I won't force mine on you. I've compiled a list that would be handy for me a few days ago when I was searching for the same thing and I hope that helps someone. Bickering over trivial stuff sure won't.

root your Iconia
setup nls_utf8 and cifs module
mount cifs share using mount manager
use moboplayer to play all the content
Never had a single problem!

bpivk said:
I won't donate just to test it but the web interface was worse than what Plex offers and I've tried Plex (was not impressed) so I've just skipped it.
As I've said. The best solution is the one that doesn't require any additional software on my PC. So even though Upnplay is ugly it gets the job done.
P.S.: I have my opinions you have yours so unless don't force your on me and I won't force mine on you. I've compiled a list that would be handy for me a few days ago when I was searching for the same thing and I hope that helps someone. Bickering over trivial stuff sure won't.
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Click to collapse
whoa buddy don't be so defensive, i was inquiring how you could make an opinion without trying it

bpivk said:
I won't donate just to test it but the web interface was worse than what Plex offers and I've tried Plex (was not impressed) so I've just skipped it.
As I've said. The best solution is the one that doesn't require any additional software on my PC. So even though Upnplay is ugly it gets the job done.
P.S.: I have my opinions you have yours so unless don't force your on me and I won't force mine on you. I've compiled a list that would be handy for me a few days ago when I was searching for the same thing and I hope that helps someone. Bickering over trivial stuff sure won't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Subsonic is free to try, the app is much more intuitive than the web interface when used on an Android device (the web interface of any program that also provides a native application will be much less intuitive on any platform). I'm not saying there is anything wrong with forming an opinion such as yours, but I will say Subsonic and Plex are two different products, trying one piece of one product and using that as a reason to dismiss another different (and competing) product is just being ignorant. If you want to be ignorant, run with it, but don't ask for peoples advice and opinions and simply dismiss them based on your own ignorance. Or, just don't ask for advice if you aren't willing to listen to it. Oh.. wait, that's right.. this isn't even your thread, troll.
Now, as for the OP, if this is simply to watch inside your own network, things like Subsonic, Plex, etc. are more than what you need. All you really need is what mrvanes outlined, or even just a file manager that supports network shares (like File Manager HD, File Expert, EStrongs, etc). Browse to your media and open it (a good file manager will not require to copy to local first) with the program of your choosing.

nasimdejai said:
hi,is it possible to stream movies wirelessly from a vista laptop onto the a500 through the home network? if yes,how do i set it up? cos i've tried everything
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Click to collapse
I've been using Buzz Player that reads all shared folders (SAMBA), its not without its problems, but it works for me.

i have tried them all upnp streams every format avi mp4 mkv audio codecs like ac3 stream beautifully..its free and i acess from any network ...

What do you use to stream content from PC to Nexus 7 ?

I want to stream movies and other stuff wirelessly from my pc to N7. I am thinking to get Plex for Android. Are there any other (preferably free ) options. like setting up a UPnP server or an ftp server on pc and then use some app that supports it.

If rooted - yes: install a kernel that includes cifs support and then use play app cifsmanager to mount network shares made available on your PC. Your shares will appear as part of the local filesystem tree (under /mnt/cifs by default) so any app can then access network content.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Sorry I dint mention it earlier..my N7 is not rooted..so any options for a non-rooted device ?
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using xda premium

I use Plex and AudioGalaxy

I use gmote and mxplayer, works flawlessly. I can stream high bitrate 1080p .mkvs with DTS audio smoothly.

sam3000 said:
If rooted - yes: install a kernel that includes cifs support and then use play app cifsmanager to mount network shares made available on your PC. Your shares will appear as part of the local filesystem tree (under /mnt/cifs by default) so any app can then access network content.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, that's pretty damn cool. Just because of that, I might pickup up a N7 today.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

You can try using Zumocast

Try es file explorer. Swipe the screen left when on your files and you can add you computer to your network.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

m3ta1head said:
I use gmote and mxplayer, works flawlessly. I can stream high bitrate 1080p .mkvs with DTS audio smoothly.
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Click to collapse
did you do anything special? any settings? everytime i try to stream a file my **** is laggy/wont play/stops...

dansan382 said:
did you do anything special? any settings? everytime i try to stream a file my **** is laggy/wont play/stops...
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Click to collapse
In MX Player Settings, check the S/W (network) option. It kind of worked for me. Please let me know if that works for you as well..Want to make sure that it was the thing that removed my lag..

dansan382 said:
did you do anything special? any settings? everytime i try to stream a file my **** is laggy/wont play/stops...
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Click to collapse
Nothing special that I can recall...how is your network bandwidth? Do you have a good router? Could be a contributing factor to laggyness.

m3ta1head said:
Nothing special that I can recall...how is your network bandwidth? Do you have a good router? Could be a contributing factor to laggyness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use BS Player. Tried and tested..Videos work just great..!! Btw, I roughly get around 25 Mbps..And I dont think the router would make any difference as long as you have a decent network bandwidth...Hope this helps..

munir3124 said:
Use BS Player. Tried and tested..Videos work just great..!! Btw, I roughly get around 25 Mbps..And I dont think the router would make any difference as long as you have a decent network bandwidth...Hope this helps..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check the VLC player pro!! The latest version is free and u can browse the PC and stream any file.. audio or video!! And the setup is just one click!

munir3124 said:
I want to stream movies and other stuff wirelessly from my pc to N7. I am thinking to get Plex for Android. Are there any other (preferably free ) options. like setting up a UPnP server or an ftp server on pc and then use some app that supports it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you want a nice "front end" to browse your library then BubbleUpnp is the go. Hook that up with the free Plex server on the pc and away you go.
Otherwise, if you just want to browse the network with a file manager, thats not hard either.

Streaming from Windows & Ubuntu
munir3124 said:
I want to stream movies and other stuff wirelessly from my pc to N7. I am thinking to get Plex for Android. Are there any other (preferably free ) options. like setting up a UPnP server or an ftp server on pc and then use some app that supports it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use "Emit" to stream downloaded movies from my Windows box. I was so pleased with the free version, I bought the adfree version for less tham £3.
I have to say that this is the only video streaming app I tried so the other recommendations here may be better but I was blown away when, while being driven up the M11 at 80mph, I tethered to my ageing HTC Desire and streamed a movie from my Win7 machine back at home. (Admittedly, I only ran the movie briefly as a test, so it may glitch after some time). Also a tethered demo to some mates in the pub last night worked flawlessly.
It goes without saying that wifi streaming also works perfectly.
Another slightly different streaming use: Additional to the above Windows machine, I have an Ubuntu machine running MythTV+Apache+Mythweb which I use as my PVR (Personal Video Recorder). I found that when using the Maxthon browser on the Nexus 7, I was able to browse to the Mythweb page generated by my MythTV box and click on the "Direct Download" option of one of my recorded programs. It then offered me the option of "Download" or "Play". (It's worth noting here that neither Chrome or Firefox offered this choice - they just began downloading the recording) If I select "Play" and then select the MX Player, the recorded program begins streaming perfectly.
Hope this helps

If you're rooted you can stream for free. I'm using ES File Explorer and Dice Player. Works great for me with little setup. Just load up the samba server inside ES with you're pc's ip address and start streaming. I tried a few others but this one works the best for me. No lag when watching movies or listening to music. :good:

I tried quite a few players including MX Player before settling on BS Player. For me it seems to be the best when streaming MKVs over WiFi.

I use UPnPlay here. Basically just plugging my devices into the allshare setup I'm using between my PC and TV.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

I use skifta and MX player pro, works great.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

munir3124 said:
In MX Player Settings, check the S/W (network) option. It kind of worked for me. Please let me know if that works for you as well..Want to make sure that it was the thing that removed my lag..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how exactly are you playing these files? I checked that box off but my videos dont even open with MXplayer. im using gmote, browse for the file and click it and it opens up in gmotes player. you do it differently?