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Just picked up my Vibrant today (Bell Canada version). So far, I am very happy.
However, one thing I thought I would be able to do with this phone (since it is DivX HD certified), would be to stream DivX over the network to it - either via Astro / SMB, or via the AllShare UPNP it comes with - without having to convert them.
Alas, neither of these seem to work. All I ever get is "video format not supported" or some-such from the built-in video player.
In anyone able to STREAM DivX avi or mkv files to this phone? I know my UPNP setup works because my BluRay player (also a Samsung, with "AllShare", BTW) can play it fine.
Based on my testing, Allshare's media playback definitely does not support all of the media formats/codecs that the primary video player supports. So while DivX and MKV videos work fine copied to your SD card, the current version of Allshare may not stream them wirelessly. I simply get an error message stating "Sorry, this video cannot be played"
This could be a matter of Allshare simply not using the same codecs, pending a possible update. ::crossing fingers:: Since both MKV and DivX are open standards, I don't imagine it would be a licensing / copyright restriction. I've personally found that while most XviD videos stream fine, a few will not. I haven't yet narrowed down the specifics.
I connected to my laptop with Windows Media Player, XBMC, and Samsung PC Share Manager thus far. Some of what I've read about various DLNA media servers suggest that real-time conversion may be an option in cases. These UPnP Media Adaptors transcode the files as it comes across. I have yet to look into that as a work-around but remain hopeful. [Update: It sounds like Nero Media Home may handle this well]
Ultimately, I foresee the Galaxy S (Transdroid) and DD-WRT (Transmission, uShare, external HDD) routers becoming the nexus of many home entertainment centers.
Yeah... the device I use for my UPNP server is a router... so real-time conversion is for sure not an option.
Given that the player can play these files, it seems silly that AllShare can't read them. AllShare *is using* the native player. So it is somehow messing with the files, or making the wrong guesses as to what it can play.
I might contact Saumsung support about this, maybe if people raise a stink about it it will be fixed in the Sept. update?
I have a Captivate, but I'm running into exactly the same problem.
I've used every "DLNA" supporting media server out there, transcoding or not, AllShare on my Galaxy S will not play it. It browses just fine, pictures work fine too, but video is a no-go.
What's really weird, is even after I get the "Sorry, this video cannot be played" error, if I go to properties->details, it shows me the correct duration, but a file size of "256.00GB". And I know the file in question plays beautifully when loaded onto my SD card, or the phone's internal memory. So what the heck is going on? Getting this to work on the Galaxy S would be an absolutely killer feature and I really hope more people get involved with this.
Shammyh said:
I have a Captivate, but I'm running into exactly the same problem.
I've used every "DLNA" supporting media server out there, transcoding or not, AllShare on my Galaxy S will not play it. It browses just fine, pictures work fine too, but video is a no-go.
What's really weird, is even after I get the "Sorry, this video cannot be played" error, if I go to properties->details, it shows me the correct duration, but a file size of "256.00GB". And I know the file in question plays beautifully when loaded onto my SD card, or the phone's internal memory. So what the heck is going on? Getting this to work on the Galaxy S would be an absolutely killer feature and I really hope more people get involved with this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already sent a question to Samsung support through their website about it... I suggest you do the same. If enough people ask about it maybe a fix will make it into the rom update... there is obviously something wrong with it.
Unfortunately most on this forum seem to be using AllShare to play media from the phone on the TV, not the other way around.
same problem but it wont play any thing, including MP3's. I have media tomb setup as a media server and I can browse it all day long but cant stream a single anything.....really annoying.
I have been able to stream mp4 videos from my NMT device (DragonTech ioBox, the A100-series of NMT hardware). That's it, though. No other formats will stream although I can browse for everything.
These are 720p mp4 files that I grabbed from YouTube.
i have the same problem too:/ dno wut to do!!!
MV10 said:
I have been able to stream mp4 videos from my NMT device (DragonTech ioBox, the A100-series of NMT hardware). That's it, though. No other formats will stream although I can browse for everything.
These are 720p mp4 files that I grabbed from YouTube.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So.... UPNP problems are usually due to the headers sent to the player. If we knew what headers were being sent to the phone that *worked*, we might be able to know how to fix it.
I don't suppose you know how to use Wireshark? You can use it to sniff your network and see the HTTP headers being sent from your DLNA server to the phone.
Not familiar with it, but I'm a developer In Real Life, I can figure it out. I'll have a look.
Samsung support == horrible
So this is the email i sent
AllShare Player, Supported Formats
I am wondering what media formats the AllShare DLNA client on the Galaxy S can play?
I have several Divx HD media files that play fine when copied directly to the phone, but when I try to play them using the AllShare DLNA client (streamed from a non-transcoding DLNA server), they do not play.
What are the formats supported by the AllShare client, and what mime types is it expecting for those formats?
Is there any planned update to allow the AllShare client to support the same formats the phone does from the filesystem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is how they respond.
Thank you for submitting your inquiry to Samsung.
Please try MP4 format.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basically, they totally ignored the question.
What's more, if i try to reply, the form is busted.
*Frustration*
the thing with allshare i think is that whatever youre playing it on, has to be compatible with the file type.
i have a samsung c6500 bluray player that i use for allshare through vibrant which plays basically all formats, and i have no issue streaming anything to it through the phone.
theking52 said:
the thing with allshare i think is that whatever youre playing it on, has to be compatible with the file type.
i have a samsung c6500 bluray player that i use for allshare through vibrant which plays basically all formats, and i have no issue streaming anything to it through the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This thread is about doing the exact opposite.
The SGS/Vibrant can play Divx HD, heck it even has the Divx HD certified logo on the box. But if you try to stream it to the phone with AllShare, it does not work. If you copy it to the phone with USB, it works fine. So, AllShare is busted.
I don't want to play movies from my phone to my TV, I can't even think when I would ever want to do that. But playing movies or TV from my media server on my phone while lying in bed, that is something I may want to do occasionally.
This is strange as I am not having ANY problems with streaming divx Avi files and even 720p M4V files through AllShare to my phone. I am however not able to stream my MKV files.
The only thing I see different is that I use Twonky for my UPNP server running from a Nettop PC I have setup as a server. They do have a trial for Twonky for those that want to see if it works for them. http://www.twonky.com/
The biggest disappointment for me is that AllShare FORCES wifi. I was hoping I could hack that feature out of AllShare through the Vibrant dumps available here, but I cant seem to find what Im looking for. In truth Im kind of new to editing code, so Im really just taking guess most of the time.
The reason I want this to work over 3g is that a simple VPN should allow me access to my UPNP server from where ever I am. At present I have this setup using Hamachi VPN on several PCs that belong to friends and family. This allows them access to my Twonky UPNP server that they can browse with XBMC. My Fios 30Mb up/ 30Mb down connection will even allow them to stream 720p video from me. I dont even notice the hit to my bandwidth sense UPNP is pretty light in terms of bandwidth.
Anybody want to take a stab at getting the wifi only portion of AllShare removed?
Same here. I have Twonky running on my unRAID server and I'm able to stream MP3s, JPGs, and DivX AVI files without a problem. However, as soon as I touch an MKV file I get an error. I really don't see why as I can play them back locally on my phone. Has anyone gotten anywhere with this?
mac1978 over on Android Forums has tried renaming MKV files with AVI extensions and he says that works. Absolutely ridiculous. Does this mean that AllShare has blacklisted MKVs, or is there some sore of glitch in the supported file format list? Either way, it's clear this is a software issue on Samsung's part. Any idea how we can get it fixed?
http://androidforums.com/samsung-ca...re-streaming-samsung-bs-my-final-impasse.html
The AllShare player itself isn't that intuitive. Considering Samsung is launching a PMP based on our phones seems ridiculous considering it's shortcomings. Maybe it will spark more development in this area.
EDIT: This post suggests the feature was working post 2.2. Does anyone have a Galaxy S still on 2.1 that can test this out for us?
http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/sho...es-via-ALLSHARE-since-upgrading-to-Froyou-2.2
EDIT 2: There seems to be another thread on this in the i9000 forum. No one has anything really there either.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=801423&page=2
brunes said:
Basically, they totally ignored the question.
*Frustration*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, well, at least you could get an email address. It appears the Canadian website doesn't even HAVE email support. All they give you is a phone number (1-800-726-7864) which as of right now, redirects you to the American support line who are unable to even talk to you. I was able to get the correct number from them (1-905-542-3837) and told them about the redirection issue. Hopefully they will resolve that.
Anyway, the girl I spoke to was just as unhelpful. She was friendly about it, but after looking it up she said the reason was because of "codecs?" and that AllShare can't do MKV. It can only stream MP3s and AVIs, or some other nonsense. Clearly the case is not codecs because as some have observed if you change an MKV extension to AVI it plays. It is using the correct codecs on the phone just fine. AllShare is just rejecting the MKV container for some reason.
Because this is phone support there's no way to really escalate things, so I was hoping someone could get a hold of a Canadian Samsung Mobile Support email address? If not maybe a helpful American can contact the US support team and find out what is going on.
Any way that anyone has working for video to stream from their nas? I want to lay in bed and watch my videos, but I cannot for the life of me get them to play. Tried ES file explorer, File Expert, vplayer, rockplayer uni, rockplayer lite, built in player. I can find the videos just fine, but it will not play them. Looks like file expert tries to open them in a web page, then crashes back to the folder on the nas.
Looking for the same answer as well lol
got to be something on the market place that works
You will need a rooted xoom. Install the cifs.ko module from here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=974343&highlight=cifs
Then use the program cifsmanager that can be found in the market to mount your shares. I tested it last night and was streaming .avi files from my NAS. HD video that played fine locally was having a little trouble streaming. I'll have to work on finding the optimal transcode settings.
Hope this helps
boom, I didn't know that cifs worked on the xoom.
I'll update in 10 min if it works
cifsmanager is a little tricky though, I was unable to launch it from the shortcut created in the launcher. I had to launch it from inside the market.
how did you set it up? I cannot get it to connect to the nas, it is saying it failed b/c "no such device"
That error means the cifs module isn't loaded. Click on menu then settings. I checked the Load cifs module and the Load via insmod boxes. Reboot (or kill the application with a task killer), start it back up and it should work.
still no dice. i have the ip of the nas in the share path, the mount point is /mnt/sdcard/Movies
all other fields blank. Am I missing something?
I dream to have AirVideo ported from iOS.
Wondering why no Android developer created something similar
You will be rich for creating such app for Android! Being the first!
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
why doesnt anybody use "orb" to stream their videos? am i missing something? it works fine for me. tried it last night on my xoom. i have live tv and all of my downloaded movies working for me
I think you're missing the share name. For instance, the first field should read something along the lines of 192.168.0.2/e (e being the share name). Mount point is fine (I think. I have mine mounted to /mnt/cifs/e)
orb is the best thing to use streaming video. and its also web based
not working still, now saying mount: invalid argument
//192.168.1.70/movies
/mnt/sdcard/movies
Do any of the media players on the Xoom support UPnP (DLNA)? If so, you might be able to use something like PS3 Media Server.
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/
The server shouldn't have // in front of the ip address.
my nas is already setup for dlna and itunes server, so anything that works with those would sync up to them. Sucks that apple has this working so well and we can't get it.
TheNibbler said:
The server shouldn't have // in front of the ip address.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it both ways, still invalid argument error.
After doing some reading, try putting in the computers login name and password. (if the computer doesn't have a login name/password, create a user (with a password) and give them access to the share) That should hopefully take care of that error. (I never encountered this error, but I had a username/password)
is the issue that i'm trying to access a NAS and not a pc? So you have it working to a shared folder on your pc...
jparker36 said:
Any way that anyone has working for video to stream from their nas? I want to lay in bed and watch my videos, but I cannot for the life of me get them to play. Tried ES file explorer, File Expert, vplayer, rockplayer uni, rockplayer lite, built in player. I can find the videos just fine, but it will not play them. Looks like file expert tries to open them in a web page, then crashes back to the folder on the nas.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a (free) MP4 Streaming Server app that runs a website on your (windows) computer. I also have a few sample-videos (look in the NOOKcolor section. I havent had a cvhance to make samples for the Xoom yet) on my website that are streamable, located on an apache webserver. Just visit the site on your Xoom, and tap the mp4 links.
For MP4 files to stream, the quicktime "fast start" atom needs to be enabled, and the location on the webserver of where they are located needs to have executable permissions.
Hi All,
I'm wondering if anyone has had any success streaming media to their A7. I currently have a NAS drive on my network and stream media to all my other devices (Archos 70, Archos 5 Android, EVO, etc.) but for some reason I cannot get the A7 to actually play anything from this network location.
I have been able to navigate to the files themselves, but playing them has not worked out so well. I've tried a variety of Apps and different file formats, but none seem to work. I can attempt to open files, and even get prompted to use various Apps, but nothing seems to work after that, it just fails. Anyone have any ideas or success with this effort please let me know as this is a biggie for me.
Sorry if this is a dup question, as I could not find anything about this for this device in particular.
And many thanks to Dexter, you've made this device surpass it's otherwise limited capabilities. Seems silly such a quality product is being left behind by the Stream, but this seems to be the model of all tablet makers these days. Pump them out as fast as possible regardless of full functionality and forget about them a month later!
The only way I've gotten streaming to work is by using PlayOn.
hi I can access all my movies on my hard drives and play on my a7 this way
download TVersity media server from tveristy.com. I just use the free version. It will change your home page when you install it so you will need to change it back. Install that on your pc and then add your movie files to the library.
On your a7 download a app called skifta from the market and install that. when you run this choose a media source choose TVeristy media server. Under player choose your a7.
then choose browse and play media you will see your library files you added in tversity and some other stuff. You will need a video player installed on your a7. I have act 1 video player and also rockplayer. It will let you choose which to use when you select movie.
select one and your movie should start. Your movies have to be in a compatable format.
it also will let you play music and view photos
I also have a wd live movie box on my tv. With this same setup I can redirect the movie to wdlive box by choosing it as player and the it will playback the movie on my tv.
Thanks for the advice (both of you). I was really hoping for a more direct approach though. I've used apps like Orb that require you to run a host computer, and my NAS drive (Buffalo Linkstation) has a web app built in, but both these methods have proven very slow and often frustrating when trying to access via mobile networks. It just seems odd to me that the A7 doesn't do this while most other Android hardware does. Granted I'm more familiar with Archos products and they specialize in media players. Will keep trying though, Thanks!
DANOinSD said:
Granted I'm more familiar with Archos products and they specialize in media players. Will keep trying though, Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the platform you refer to is different from Tegra2/Nvidia, and you can blame Nvidia for the stock codecs they support.. they partly added mkv's now in latest update.. but 1080p mkv's still stutter on a7 and other tegra2 devices..
LG with their Optimus 2X added their own custom player, and since its incorporated into the framework, its hard to make it run on other devices for now.. but nvidia is primary source for what we can use it for now..
archos is a different story and they havent got what tegra2 can offer for the future, so it might play alot of media's but not perfect for android at all.
Thanks for the info Dex!
Think I'm gonna get a XOOM (been drooling over some honey), then I can officially make my A7 a tinker toy!
by the way, the new 1.41 rom kicks ass, the motoblur keyboard is soo much better!
Just posting mainly to get this to the top of Google if anyone else ever does similar searches to me. The Galaxy Tab's AllShare app (so I assume this also holds for the Galaxy S, Vibrant, and all the other devices that are appearing in the "similar threads we found" prompt as I post this) expects MKVs to be supplied with a mimetype of mkv/x-msvideo. If not, whatever DNLA software you're using, you'll get the unsupported format error. I've just spent the day yesterday wading through every DNLA server known to man trying to get streamed MKVs working. The only combination I've found that works is Twonky plus editing its clients.db file to modify the mimetype of MKVs. Once done, streaming MKVs works a treat.
Hope this is useful to someone in the future (probably incoming people from Google!)
I've actually got .mkvs to stream via "VLC Direct", along with VLC open with a web interface. This works over 3g, but depends heavily on your upstream. You can use this program as a VLC remote for your PC too, as well as stream videos from your tab to your PC.
Loccy
you supposed right, I'm in the same situation with a Galaxy s..
I think this is one of the very few features i really miss right now, having Allshare (or similar) capable of streaming mkv's from a server to the phone
Later today i'll try stekum's solution, i will consider paying the pro version if it works just fine, even if it requires a server side software (that's why i still prefer "regular" pc's over nas).
I've also read about PlugPlayer app. I might give it a try, anyone already did?
I don't mind not having a fancy graphic interface, so i tried EsExplorer over LAN, but with no sucess.. anyone knows if there's a player/file browser wich could handle mkv over lan?
Cheers
I had xvid and mkv's streaming over wifi on my network via SMB shares before I wiped and installed my current rom. Now i've got xvid working, but no matter what combo i try mkv's will not stream.. Thinking about going back to stock to see if the same settings work again to stream mkv's. I'm using a combo of file expert + vplayer. rockplayer seems to try and play streaming mkv's.. but it fails at it (will play, but they are unwatchable)
The thing to remember is that the Tab stock ROM, or those based on stock (eg. Overcome) actually have support for hardware decoding of MKVs in the stock player. Anything that is seen as an MKV file is fine - I suspect the internal mimetype for MKVs is the same as AVIs, so that's why SMB works (although I was never able to get my wifi to push data fast enough to the tab to make that combo work). The internal player treats AVIs and MKVs on the local filesystem identically. SMB shares are mounted on the local filesystem, so when you open an MKV, the OS says "ooh, mkv/x-msvideo" and the player says "great, an AVI file, I can play that". Non stock ROMs don't have that MKV support - in fact most Android flavours don't, as I've found recently with a cheaply 10" tab I bought recently to take over the Galaxy as my video device.
When you get into DNLA it's the server that supplies the mimetype for the file. As most DNLA servers supply the "correct" mimetype for MKV AllShare doesn't know recognise the file type, and (incorrectly) reports that it can't play the file. So if you're using DNLA you MUST modify the mimetype the server sends for MKV.
The VLC solution is fine, but is transcoding, so what you're getting is not actually an MKV at all.
Twonky was the only DNLA server I managed to do this with without similarly resorting to transcoding.
Could you guide us please which section of the clients.db did you modify?
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk
a parse of your clients.db would be awesome, tried changing mimetype for Android and samsung TV (added a mkv line to Android and modded the other) No luck
I'm running twonky on my headless ubuntu server if that means anything
edit:
I changed the media reciever in the webinterface to Android and made the android settings in clients.db look like this:
NA:Android
HH:Android
DB:AUTO
WB:webbrowse-n95
TP:MP4,-relocate_moov
MT:mkv video/x-msvideo
after that i can play most of my mkv files, so i guess i got it working.
Ok, I've tried many solutions and combinations so far in my galaxy s .. nothing worked except for VLC DIRECT, as steckums suggested.
I haven't tried twonky yet though..from what loccy explained i can see it still needs an application running server side... i was hoping for something like allshare..but hey we can't have it all
Thanks Loccy and Psymon for the hint, i'll install twonky on the server and see if it works for me..
p.s. with such a little screen i couldn't notice a big loss of quality when VLC streamed, transcoding, my test movie. Maybe with tabs it is different
braz+ said:
Ok, I've tried many solutions and combinations so far in my galaxy s .. nothing worked except for VLC DIRECT, as steckums suggested.
I haven't tried twonky yet though..from what loccy explained i can see it still needs an application running server side... i was hoping for something like allshare..but hey we can't have it all
Thanks Loccy and Psymon for the hint, i'll install twonky on the server and see if it works for me..
p.s. with such a little screen i couldn't notice a big loss of quality when VLC streamed, transcoding, my test movie. Maybe with tabs it is different
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your in for treat if you can get it working. Simply play the same file one after the other in the respective format and you instantly appreciate that the higher the resolution the crisper and more vibrant the video quality and watchability (not real work I know) regardless off screen size. The only caveat being the original capture equipment used and post production ect.
My question for this in the know is this; my understanding (basic as it may well be) is that mkv can also handle more colours simultaneously and has the ability to display a much larger range overall. Firstly is this correct? Or reserved for vc1 or blueray and the upper echelon of displays? If correct by changing the mime does this, as would be logical, mean the extra bits are ignored as it believes its a simple avi. Also I find 720p HD avi is the happy middle for me and it can be as complicated to achieve good playback and battery life even using these. I think I may just do some research re the mime difference between regular and HD avi... thank you for the tips... most timely considering the impending awesomeness of BOCA v2.0 . Cheers guys..
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA Premium App
Loccy said:
The thing to remember is that the Tab stock ROM, or those based on stock (eg. Overcome) actually have support for hardware decoding of MKVs in the stock player. Anything that is seen as an MKV file is fine - I suspect the internal mimetype for MKVs is the same as AVIs, so that's why SMB works (although I was never able to get my wifi to push data fast enough to the tab to make that combo work). The internal player treats AVIs and MKVs on the local filesystem identically. SMB shares are mounted on the local filesystem, so when you open an MKV, the OS says "ooh, mkv/x-msvideo" and the player says "great, an AVI file, I can play that". Non stock ROMs don't have that MKV support - in fact most Android flavours don't, as I've found recently with a cheaply 10" tab I bought recently to take over the Galaxy as my video device.
When you get into DNLA it's the server that supplies the mimetype for the file. As most DNLA servers supply the "correct" mimetype for MKV AllShare doesn't know recognise the file type, and (incorrectly) reports that it can't play the file. So if you're using DNLA you MUST modify the mimetype the server sends for MKV.
The VLC solution is fine, but is transcoding, so what you're getting is not actually an MKV at all.
Twonky was the only DNLA server I managed to do this with without similarly resorting to transcoding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd still be inclined to suggest perhaps its a little more involved than a simple trick like that. To achieve real hardware acceleration you would need to split the streams to be piped to respective chips. 5.1 faux surround soumd and a distinct, noticeable difference in the mkv picture quality being played via CPU vs true gpu and sound card decoding with the rather large differences in battery drain and the sharpness and vivid colours the rest make me really think there is a little sophisticated trickery going on here than meets the eye.
A haalil media splitting like service would also need to know to hand then differently. I think it just plays xvid but like xdva or whatever its obliged to to split the streams for their respective processing chips/centres avoiding CPU usage as an extremely important requirement. Simply the CPU would be more involved in the distribution side in regular stuff than the files like x264 and vc1 which are the gpu/hardware accelerated/decoded files.
Could be wrong here honestly not an expert but that's how I have always broken it down when try to wrap my head around it all.
So sleepy.. prolly oodles of sleeping (heh or even spelling) mistakes but they will have wait to be dealt with at a later date. Any resources that you may know of I'd be interested in learning more too. :-D
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA Premium App
joshuaauger said:
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/issues/detail?id=486
Comment #4:
MimeTypesChanges=audio/wav=audio/L16|video/x-matroska=video/avi
Added that to my android.conf on ps3mediaserver. Works for mkv!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Grand will try that, just used mono or vlc for this though and had no issues but always nice to have alternative.
But I end up downloading the file as get great wifi in the house it serves me the best but will definitely try this out next weekend.
Was looking at upgrading the media server in here and transcocing is fine most of the time but.....
HELP!?!?!
Can you put this in stupid plain English??? I'm having the same problem but don't understand how or what to download/change/update... Tx
I know this is old, but as this is the first google result, a hint from the Playback creators, "Samsung TV users have reported mkv streaming working... If you just rename the file .avi instead of .mkv". It's a mime type issue, so just get around it by lying
I worked for me. File didn't play as .mkv, just renamed it. I bet the allshare app can be hacked to fix the mimetype issue, assuming it's in plaintext string, but why bother.
Same for flv videos.
Looking for a app for playing videos from my windows server. I watch a lot of foreign movies so need subtitles support. Something like the gtvplayer.
Any ideas?
There are a thousand different players on the market but I don't see any that support playing from a network share.
Take a look at this thread.. I do not know about the sub titles.. but there are several apps mentioned here that do exactly what you are asking for.. ITS Called dlna server.. i use the aVIA one but bubble has much more options.. of course you have to turn dlna on .on the windows box(windows media center) or download a dlna server app for windows machine..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1482868
good luck
BSPlayer.It's free and supports direct streaming without caching the whole file on your device. Buzz player also supports streaming samba shares but it's quite buggy to my experience and it's not free.
drkalo said:
BSPlayer.It's free and supports direct streaming without caching the whole file on your device. Buzz player also supports streaming samba shares but it's quite buggy to my experience and it's not free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is true es file explorer has a media player that will stream as well But can lag at times.. there are others that do the same im sure..
]thanks for the replies. I do not want to use a DNLA server so I'll try some of the other suggestions.
Almost any File Explorer should do the trick. I have used the following:
ES File Explorer
File Manager HD (Honeycomb)
ASTRO File Manager
You can navigate to your network share. When you go to open the file, you will be prompted which Media Player you would like to use. So, as long as you have a media player that supports your media, you should be good to go.
Ok this thread brings up a question i have. And maybe something the op should consider . DLNA apps such as bubble aVIA.. they allow you to select where to RENDER THE VIDEO . this can make the video much more smooth if you choose to render on the PC FILE SHARE SERVER.. not the tablet.
playing the video from a file manager .. just opens the video as a network share playing the video on the tablet with the tablets resources...
my Question is.. are the above situations true.. If so DLNA would be faster more smooth and use far less battery on the tablet.. I believe it to be true because playing a video out from tablet thru hdmi cable eats battery .Using dlna is less taxing on the tablet..
splashtop could also be a answer to the above.. as i have played media thru it.
PLEASE if im wrong explain. thank you all Sorry to invade your thread OP. BUT ITS kinda related
toddroid said:
Almost any File Explorer should do the trick. I have used the following:
ES File Explorer
File Manager HD (Honeycomb)
ASTRO File Manager
You can navigate to your network share. When you go to open the file, you will be prompted which Media Player you would like to use. So, as long as you have a media player that supports your media, you should be good to go.
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+1
I use File Manager HD with rocket player and access my network share directly with no DLNA.
I am not sure about subtitle support as I dont recall seeing them even though the .srt files are there.
---------- Post added at 08:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:15 AM ----------
erica_renee said:
Ok this thread brings up a question i have. And maybe something the op should consider . DLNA apps such as bubble aVIA.. they allow you to select where to RENDER THE VIDEO . this can make the video much more smooth if you choose to render on the PC FILE SHARE SERVER.. not the tablet.
playing the video from a file manager .. just opens the video as a network share playing the video on the tablet with the tablets resources...
my Question is.. are the above situations true.. If so DLNA would be faster more smooth and use far less battery on the tablet.. I believe it to be true because playing a video out from tablet thru hdmi cable eats battery .Using dlna is less taxing on the tablet..
splashtop could also be a answer to the above.. as i have played media thru it.
PLEASE if im wrong explain. thank you all Sorry to invade your thread OP. BUT ITS kinda related
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting point Erica, I am going to test that out. I have not jumped on the DLNA bandwagon yet just because all my files are on the same network but could see some benefits if I am coming in remotely.
ES File Explorer
MX Player
A500 - play without any stutter
Nook Color - required that I copy and paste the file onto local drive, wait 1 min then play without stutter.
Since this is an A500 site, the above method should work without issue...though subtitle is a hit or miss.
thanks all for the replies. I have been using bs player now.
As for battery usage through dlna rendering on the PC:
It converts the video on the PC to something the target device can play. There for unless it is rendering it into a format the target player can play with full hardware decoding you would not get any benefit from transcoding on the PC. Plus depending on the profile used it may render the video down to a lower quality.
Dlna can also do pass through in which case no transcoding is done at all.
Dlna is great if you do not want to worry about codec support on your target devices and battery usage will only be lower if the profile for hardware rendering is available on your DNLA server.
I hope all that makes sense to everyone.
Makes perfect sense..
Im not big in video playing on my tablet. I just know those options are there.. I Can understand a reduction of the Quality from the desktop pc resolution to that of the tablet.. We have a 28 inch monitor set very very high. As i do digital drawing with CS5. Using my WACOM INTUOS 4 PEN Tablet.. yes a plug here for them. The thing ROCKS. if you are into digital drawing.
Anyway I just do know that using dlna for me uses much less battery. Try starting your GPS'WEB BROWSER and say running a few other apps in the background of your tab.. Launch a video thru file manager network share.. YOU Will see your battery DRAIN VERY Quickly.. Do the same thing but dlna .. IT WILL Last much longer...
This could actaully be tested with a network traffic or data monitoring app. to see what is going on in the background under each situation...
THE SIMPLE ANSWER IS . There is no perfect solution... thanks for hearing me try to be Smart.. i am blonde remember .. Giggles BUY WACOM TABLET. HEHEHHE
Just a quick note - file managers, mx video player, rockplayer etc. need to cache the file locally and do not support streaming. BSPlayer and Buzz player would start playback immediately without downloading the video on your tab. DLNA is a nice options as well but I don't know if there are free ones available or at least such that support multiformat transcoding and external subtitles.
Apparently I am wrong:
http://www.serviio.org/features
drkalo said:
Just a quick note - file managers, mx video player, rockplayer etc. need to cache the file locally and do not support streaming. BSPlayer and Buzz player would start playback immediately without downloading the video on your tab. DLNA is a nice options as well but I don't know if there are free ones available or at least such that support multiformat transcoding and external subtitles.
Apparently I am wrong:
http://www.serviio.org/features
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not think this is correct. I have watched full length movies on my tab (>1Gb) using a combination of File Manager HD (Or ES File Explorer) and Rock Player and the playback starts immediately. I dont think it is being streamed, just opened and played directly as if it were a local file.
Thanks smishra, then it must be RockPlayer's feature. Haven't been using it for a long time because it didn't support Tegra2 HW acceleration at that time. Just tried MX Video Player and it works as well so streaming is obviously implemented. Sorry if I have misled someone. I don't think file managers play the movie, so it doesn't matter which one you use as long as your player supports streaming.
Another thread on this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1480697
I use MX Player, browse to the share using the HoneyComb file manager, then when I get to the share open the file and choose MX Player (Install from market first with MX Player codec for ARMv7). It even supports mkvs!
"Cifsmanage" allows you to mount a windows share as a local folder. Once you mount it you can use any video player to access the files. You must be rooted but it works good.
mr_malina said:
"Cifsmanage" allows you to mount a windows share as a local folder. Once you mount it you can use any video player to access the files. You must be rooted but it works good.
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Good point, I just noticed in my Rock player that it wants you to specify the location of the subtitle files. I normally keep these in the same folder as the videos so the only way that I can think of to access them would be to mount using CIFS and then play the video from there with subtitles.